Nausicaä's cage

[bopeuph]

This is Nausicaä's temporary cage until my girlfriend is able to build the permanent cage and when she is here visiting me in my small apartment that doesn't allow pets at all (hope I don't get caught):



It's a 10-gallon tank with a cheap wire birdcage stacked on top of it; there is a little space on the right that you can see, but I will be plugging that up tonight. She came home in the aquarium, and when this cage was put on top (fits perfectly in the plastic piece; no falling in, except for that free space on the right), her socializing multiplied! As soon as Jenn is able to build the cage, she will move in to her new home, along with some new friendsa (hopefully)!

Nick

[ra]

That should do for a single Degu for now. They do like to climb vertically so that should keep Nausicaa happy.

[bopeuph]

I think I have noticed a problem:

When we are around and Nausicaä is getting excited, she gets more courageous (we have no clue what she does when she's by herself, but when we come in/wake up, she seems much less active). She has started climbing to the top of the wicker nest, holding herself between the bars of the cage and the nest while chewing it. It's about a good 14 inches down to the next level. And she has been getting around by climbing on the bars on that empty space to the right, sometimes ending up on top of the water bottle. Is that too far for a degu to fall? I'm thinking about adding levels in shelf form and moving the wheel to the top next to the nest; she seems to want to try to stand on top of the wheel too much for my liking. We've had to catch her a few times.

Nick

[ra]

Is she falling or leaping Nick? Degus can and do leap pretty amazing distances. When Tanzania was a tiny baby she would climb up the bars of the cages clear to the top. Worried me silly but never got injured. They are pretty agile creatures. I have seen both of mine pushing a wooden block off of a shelf level too exhuberantly and end up throwing themselves off the shelf with the block!! Again scared me but no injury to either Degu.