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I took some photos while setting up the cage for the new russian dwarf coming. It is very different setting up a cage with perspex rather than bars, and generally I do prefer setting up barred cages and using the bars to screw shelves to. Either way, shelves and platforms are sometimes the thing you need to work out first.
After my last fiasco trying to get a free standing platform to fit in the corner of the cage with a curved base, I tried to make it easier this time and got the cloud platforms from Happy Henry's Homes. I really like them as they are cloud shaped on one edge and straight on the other. The idea being not to have them up to the edges or in corners, but more in the middle of the cage over to one side. Plus the legs are very easy to attach!
One has 20cm legs and the other has 25cm legs. Two together work quite well at all kinds of different angles, or one sitting partly under the other at right angles. I liked that arrangement but didn't do it in the end as the 20cm one was intended to have the sand bath sitting on it.
So this time, instead of putting the substrate in first and then trying to push legs down to the bottom (always means getting your hand right down there so they actually sit on the bottom). I put all the things on legs in first thinking to add the substrate afterwards.
Well that sort of worked but part way through I was finding it too fiddly to get substrate round the back of things or in between things, so ended up taking the ceramic hide and house out again and just left the platforms in.
The house has dowel legs glued on. I find the maths quite tricky! How long to have the legs for the house, how deep is the substrate going to be. I was going to do the substrate just over 20cm deep - ie just a bit taller than the lower shelf so the substrate came up round the edge of the sand bath a bit. So had to deduct that height from the length of the dowels (easy bit) then work out the height of the house (as the dowels stick to the full height of it). I didn't want the house too high so as to fit my water bottle holder on top (but it's still a tight fit!). So I think the dowels were 28cm in the end - the front of the house was 8cm.
Legs glued onto the bottom of the ceramic hide (thanks to Elusive for that tip). Again there was maths involved! Working out the final height of the cermic hide so it a) wasn't half under the substrate and b) wasn't too tall so easy to climb onto (and from the shelf next to it). That ended up having 15cm legs.
Once everything had legs on, and I'd jiggled around with the platform positions a few times, and once I'd got the substrate in, it was fairly quick and easy to set up after that.
So house and platforms and wheel in and then worked out where I needed bridges and decide where to put other things. The large shell was a find by Rainbow Brite so was going on the taller shelf and even though that taller shelf isn't right to the edge of the cage (due to the legs and curved base) the shape of the platform means it nearly is and the ceramic shell gets some support from the side of the cage as well. That has cork granules in it. It's huge! But it will also be good for a Syrian in future. I am nervous of breaking it lol. When washing up etc. It is something I hope will last a long time though and could even be a sand bath.
The wheel is fixed to the bars slightly above substrate level. I'd forgotten how well silent runners spin.
After my last fiasco trying to get a free standing platform to fit in the corner of the cage with a curved base, I tried to make it easier this time and got the cloud platforms from Happy Henry's Homes. I really like them as they are cloud shaped on one edge and straight on the other. The idea being not to have them up to the edges or in corners, but more in the middle of the cage over to one side. Plus the legs are very easy to attach!
One has 20cm legs and the other has 25cm legs. Two together work quite well at all kinds of different angles, or one sitting partly under the other at right angles. I liked that arrangement but didn't do it in the end as the 20cm one was intended to have the sand bath sitting on it.
So this time, instead of putting the substrate in first and then trying to push legs down to the bottom (always means getting your hand right down there so they actually sit on the bottom). I put all the things on legs in first thinking to add the substrate afterwards.
Well that sort of worked but part way through I was finding it too fiddly to get substrate round the back of things or in between things, so ended up taking the ceramic hide and house out again and just left the platforms in.
The house has dowel legs glued on. I find the maths quite tricky! How long to have the legs for the house, how deep is the substrate going to be. I was going to do the substrate just over 20cm deep - ie just a bit taller than the lower shelf so the substrate came up round the edge of the sand bath a bit. So had to deduct that height from the length of the dowels (easy bit) then work out the height of the house (as the dowels stick to the full height of it). I didn't want the house too high so as to fit my water bottle holder on top (but it's still a tight fit!). So I think the dowels were 28cm in the end - the front of the house was 8cm.
Legs glued onto the bottom of the ceramic hide (thanks to Elusive for that tip). Again there was maths involved! Working out the final height of the cermic hide so it a) wasn't half under the substrate and b) wasn't too tall so easy to climb onto (and from the shelf next to it). That ended up having 15cm legs.
Once everything had legs on, and I'd jiggled around with the platform positions a few times, and once I'd got the substrate in, it was fairly quick and easy to set up after that.
So house and platforms and wheel in and then worked out where I needed bridges and decide where to put other things. The large shell was a find by Rainbow Brite so was going on the taller shelf and even though that taller shelf isn't right to the edge of the cage (due to the legs and curved base) the shape of the platform means it nearly is and the ceramic shell gets some support from the side of the cage as well. That has cork granules in it. It's huge! But it will also be good for a Syrian in future. I am nervous of breaking it lol. When washing up etc. It is something I hope will last a long time though and could even be a sand bath.
The wheel is fixed to the bars slightly above substrate level. I'd forgotten how well silent runners spin.
I was wondering about whether it needed to be on a platform, and asked Elusive if she put legs on hers and she said yes and they stick well so I did that 
How thick are the ones you used for the ceramic hide? That is what I have always been confused about.