I am planning Pip's Plaza adjustments for when he goes back. He is two years old, and although he's still very active he doesn't seem quite so good at climbing in and out of things with his back legs and I had planned to lower, adjust or remove his shelves so he couldn't fall. After seeing him climb the bars to the roof in the temporary cage, that made me think again. If there are no shelves in the Plaza he could climb the bars. The shelves break up the height of the bars and prevent him falling very far if he climbed the bars above the shelves.
So I considered getting him a different cage. The Plaza is quite tall, even when he had 25cm of bedding. After going round the houses I realised there aren't any tank style cages I'd be happy with as I like the front access - and Pip does too. And a new tank style cage would be very expensive. So then I considered buying the full perspex panels for the Plaza and turning it into a perspex tank. Not cheap but cheaper than a new cage and I'd still have the front opening door.
However I didn't like the idea of no bars at all and a lot less ventilation. So instead I'll be having two sets of perspex panels (I think). Some at the bottom for the bedding and part way up the bars, and some at the top of the cage (a good idea from Beryl), leaving a barred gap between them for extra ventilation and also so Pip can still sniff and has some familiar bars. The perspex at the top means, even if he climbed on something and climbed the bars above the bottom panels, he can't get very far and can't reach a height or the roof.
So that's the plan - to turn his plaza into part tank, part bars. And no shelves. So it's safer for him as he gets older. But as he's still very active and liked zooming in his cage before and running up and down to his main shelf, I'll have a low platform instead of the shelf.
Which is why there's currently a thread on how to make a platform! That will be the bit I will need to work out. Platforms are intended for straight sided tanks and the legs don't work with a curved cage base. So I'm working on that..............
The thinking being - the perspex panels will last a long time and can be used again in future and there are options in future to use the cage as a barred cage or a tank. And the perspex is easy to clean.
Meanwhile I watched him on the nightcam tonight and he seemed very taken with the toilet roll treat tube! Although he couldn't quite decide whether to run through it or eat off it or which to do first. He did a bit of both. I think this is a slight conundrum for him. Just as the upturned hay.carrot cottage as a sand bath is a bit confusing for him. He isn't quite sure if it's a sand bath or something to eat! It's actually both but maybe he doesn't associate the two.
