Filling the levels

The real fun part for me (other than when we actually come to put the girls in) was beginning to customise the levels to try and give the Goos extra enrichment.

The first level I wanted to tackle was the digging pit.
Having read up a fair bit on Degus being burrowing creatures and having swept up enough sawdust/Finacard to know they love kicking all the substrate about I wanted to create the opportunity for them to root about and have a  natural play area at the bottom.

The first thing was to ensure they could get up and down.
I mentioned when building the shelves this was a reduced size entrance to give the feeling of going underground so I needed to make sure they could in turn get back out.

I made a little ledge which was going to be the most 'non-natural' part of this level other than the terracotta tunnel which will be added when it is finished.
This platform will allow them to jump in and out fairly easily.
I also added two branches either side to bridge the gap.
They seem high but then when it is complete there will be a deep layer of substrate.
As you can see I started adding branches I had collected.

]The only issue with this level was that I hadn't closed it off yet because of adding these branches.
Now that was done I could seal the front.
However due to a moment of stupidity I had used the correct sized piece so had to improvise by making it from two sections.
Left

Right
(Gratuitous G Clamp shot)

On the next level was to be the sand bath, however I wanted to make each method of traveling between different so hopefully it will be more challenging for the girls.
I also wanted to augment each level with ledges so I thought I would incorporate this level's ledge with the way of getting to the next one.

Removing all the chains from the spare ladder we had I attached it to the shelf with eye hooks and clipped it to hold it steady.

I originally was going to hang it from the chains but it was very unstable and I didn't want the Goos falling off all the time (ours are surprisingly uncoordinated at times!) so I fixing the other end to the wall without the chains.

Removing the chains then allowed me to add a corner ledge run above this entrance on the next level up.

The top level would have the wheel on it so apart from adding two perches I wanted to leave this clear.
In addition to this I cut some holes in the lower level shelf support so they could play hide and seek (or rather they can't hide from us as easily). This will play havoc with my easy to remove shelf so when I permanently install the build I will alter the fixings on this.