Post by ava on Oct 26, 2011 11:06:31 GMT
Just in case anyone saw my post from this morning, I have deleted it as I was mistaken, as I will explain below.
So last night a branch connecting the bottom level to the middle fell down - in falling, it pushed the perspex a great deal forward, and either Pikachu or Dmitri (or both) went over to the large gap this created and evidently scratched at the perspex and chewed the MDF wall. They were able to do this by chewing at the corner of the now exposed edge. However, luckily they didn't get too far and seemed to have given up by the morning, and thank goodness neither tried to jump through the gap...
The branch is now back, the perspex in place, so everything's fine. I have a few questions now though.
Firstly, what should I do about the damage? I will take pictures later but for now - I would say it's about a centimetre in width and well, maybe 5 down. I think if I sand it down, while the surface will no longer be completely smooth they hopefully will not attempt to chew it again - and maybe I could get it level enough they couldn't.
On this same note, I have realised that the notch we originally created for the perspex (but notches turned out not to work; we left them anyway) on one side is actually not covered by the perspex as we thought, all the time. I think some sort of metal edge would be best to cover this, rather than sanding? It goes in a bit too deep for that, I think. So far Pikachu only chewed that yesterday when the perspex was pulled aside.
Secondly, how bad is MDF for them? Neither are acting particularly strange but I don't know how long it would take to affect them if it was going to.
And lastly, how does everyone secure their branches in wooden cages? This one is balaned at the moment, and it was absolutely fine at one point, but I have since moved it and can't seem to get it back in the exact same position - so it might just fall again now.
Thanks for any help.
So last night a branch connecting the bottom level to the middle fell down - in falling, it pushed the perspex a great deal forward, and either Pikachu or Dmitri (or both) went over to the large gap this created and evidently scratched at the perspex and chewed the MDF wall. They were able to do this by chewing at the corner of the now exposed edge. However, luckily they didn't get too far and seemed to have given up by the morning, and thank goodness neither tried to jump through the gap...
The branch is now back, the perspex in place, so everything's fine. I have a few questions now though.
Firstly, what should I do about the damage? I will take pictures later but for now - I would say it's about a centimetre in width and well, maybe 5 down. I think if I sand it down, while the surface will no longer be completely smooth they hopefully will not attempt to chew it again - and maybe I could get it level enough they couldn't.
On this same note, I have realised that the notch we originally created for the perspex (but notches turned out not to work; we left them anyway) on one side is actually not covered by the perspex as we thought, all the time. I think some sort of metal edge would be best to cover this, rather than sanding? It goes in a bit too deep for that, I think. So far Pikachu only chewed that yesterday when the perspex was pulled aside.
Secondly, how bad is MDF for them? Neither are acting particularly strange but I don't know how long it would take to affect them if it was going to.
And lastly, how does everyone secure their branches in wooden cages? This one is balaned at the moment, and it was absolutely fine at one point, but I have since moved it and can't seem to get it back in the exact same position - so it might just fall again now.
Thanks for any help.