Play Time Mk2

With the new improved house all sorted we could concentrate on the things that we like doing.
IE playing with the Degus and not spending all our time and money on them (sorry girls!).
With the demise of the double decker cage I had an idea on how to use the left over bits to create a decent play area outside of the cage.
We already had a rabbit play pen for when the other apple of my better half's eye comes inside.
The problem with the rabbit playpen is that the Degus would be able to slip through the bars as the mesh isn't fine enough.

In order to cure this I cut up the Thickets cage to get sheets of mesh.




I then attached this to the lower section of the run.



I then tied cardboard above this so that it was slippery and they wouldn't be able to climb any higher.
This was then secured to the cage by eye hooks and we could happily let the girls out to play.






As mentioned previously the ladder is great, but Degus aren't as tough as they would like to believe, so as you can see in these two pictures we kept a cushion under the ladder in case they knocked each other off.

Exploring.

This also meant we finally had room to use the Lazy Susan wheel I made.
It has taken them some time to grasp what this actually is (Clue - NOT FOOD!!!) and they are still learning to use it effectively.
I hope to post a video of it in action someday.
When they stop eating it.

Surveying the surroundings.

The very reason it is 150mm wide!

Practice honestly does make, er... potential to be perfect.

This was funny.
I can't remember when it was but we did have a hot day this summer.
We had to shut the lounge doors to let them out and it was warm without the airflow.
As it was Sunday and I was rewarding myself for a good job done (on something...) I got myself an ice cold beer from the fridge to have whilst I watched them play.
Being nosey as they are they were curious about the can when I set it down outside the run and as I hadn't opened it I thought I would humour them and placed it in the cage.
Due to the condensation on the can and it being so cold, they loved it and spent the next couple of minutes (until I retrieved it!) rubbing up against the can and licking the moisture off.

Silly Goos.

Alterations

So having lived with the cage for a whole three weeks, we went back to the drawing board and changed it.
I kid you not.

The problem was that I had constructed the cage on the floor in the living room, then moved it and placed it on the cupboard so when we looked at it from the comfort of the sofa the flip top with the mesh and the top shelf blocked out our view of them on the wheel.
Which is where typically they spend most of their time.
So this needed to change, which meant a serious alteration the front section, and door frame.

However on a smaller scale there were little improvements to be made to the way the house worked.
For example I had to place cut up bits of cage and metal over a couple of vital inner bits of pine like the wheel struts and the mesh top frame.
I had made these out of pine so they could be chewed, but as always with Degus they will find a way of testing the security of their home.

These were fairly simple and merely involved trimming bits of cage mesh and securing it to the wood.

However one observation was that the sandbath was so filled with substrate from being on the same level as the shelf as this next picture will show of the first 24 hours worth of activity.

 Obviously there is not much point having a permanent bath in there if they are going to fill it with hay and Finacard so I decided to raise it slightly. This was a simple frame of pine, measured to fit the bath which would then in turn sit on the shelf.

And it was that easy.
They will always kick bedding into the sandbath, but by raising it just slightly so the lip isn't directly on the level keeps it fairly clear and only needs to be sieved out twice a week and the Goos feel the benefit of this being (relatively) clear and always there.

 After putting the Degus in the DIY build I had sensibly opted to preserve the Thickets cages in case we needed them.

 

Realising that the alterations to the front would take a few hours and involve drilling , sawing etc on their house I didn't want to put them in the travel cage so the first hour of the day I altered the DIY buikld were spent rebuilding their original Thickets cage. 

I also decided that if we moved house or had problems further down the line (with potential introductions, destructive Goos, etc) we could probably do with a large secure cage so whilst the double was of no further use a single one would nicely fit in the shed to be broken out for emergencies.

I stashed the girls back in their first home and tried to fill it with a few hours worth of entertainment.

As you can imagine they were quite bemused, or unamused by this.





With them safely stored the first thing that I needed to do was to remove the flip top.
As you can see from the photo below this finished some 50mm above the top shelf and was casing the vision obstruction.

I had to build another front frame, extending the length by 50mm.
Because I had an entire Thickets cage left I cut more pieces of mesh to fit the new length rather than cut more perspex.

The major job was that in order to accommodate this change I had to drop the door frame by the same distance.
This process started with removing the frame completely (doors and all) and cutting the digging pit down by 50mm.
At this stage, at the insistence of my better half, I checked the remaining perspex in the shed.
Low and behold there was enough perspex now to replace the MDF shield for the digging pit with clear material, which would not only allow more light into the cage, but also meant with the improvements to the top that we could see them where ever they were in the house.

Whilst not build related that then gave us this effect when they are in the bottom which, I will admit, makes for a far more interesting view.

So with all the major building work done (touch wood, cross fingers etc, etc).
It was time to finish the lounge off aesthetically.

Out of MDF I made two doors .

I hinged these to the cupboard.

Added magnetic catches.

Then tested them.

And the (nearly) finished article.
All that remained was to paint them the same colour as the walls (the cream walls!!!!) and it would match in completely.

Moving Day - Part Two

As I have hinted at last time, the dismantling and rebuilding of the cage took a good few hours.

We left the girls in their double decker Thickets cage to make sure they had plenty of room to run around in, but due to the construction having the wheel bolted to the back they were without their beloved toy for the duration of the move which probably took 4 odd hours to attach it, move the box into place and then repopulate it with shelves and accessories.

As the day wore on I ended up removing their toys, hammock, branches etc from the cage for the new home, by the time we came to fill the new house with substrate we had three very confused little Degus in now what looked like a huge, largely empty space.

To their credit they were patient and fairly well behaved (for them).

Needless to say by the time I came to collect them for the move they all but threw themselves into the carry cage.

We put them in the top with the wheel and Serrano went straight back on her comfort toy - and stayed there for ages, whilst Jalapeno went straight for the chewing sticks and gnawed on them for 20 minutes!

Eventually Pimento found the entrance to the lower levels and tentatively made her way down.

 Being used to having just two levels Pimento didn't venture any further down for a while.

When she did though she moved extremely quickly!

That blur in the tunnel...? that's Pimento...

Exploring the cut out hidely hole.

Discovering what real stones are for the first time.

Taking advantage of the full length sandbath that they now have permanent access to.

Managing to stand still long enough to get a decent shot.

Playing with cut up bits of pine.

Pimento can be going flat out on the wheel and then stop when you approach to watch you - it is hilarious as the wheel swings from side to side but she sways with it and keeps an eye on you.

Jalapeno did eventually leave these sticks alone and go exploring.

Some more digging pit action.

Exploring the next level down.

Serrano action shot.

Making full use of the ledges (and eating more sticks).

Tasty hay.

Trying to roll the ball.

Being nosy as usual.

Getting to grips with the new levels.

Peekaboo.

Ladder storage.

The ladder in full daylight the next day.
IMPORTANT: Degus are small, but tough creatures - however the ladder we have, whilst carefully designed for our cage is quite high. I shall be updating the blog to include cage modifications and play time pictures  in due course, but we do not allow our Degus to come out on the ladder without having a plump cushion underneath it in case they knock each other off. 
 Falling from a height like this onto a hard surface would undoubtedly cause sevre injury.
These pictures were taken as a demonstration shot for the man who very kindly built the ladder for me as he hopes to sell them to other interested parties.

We left them to explore the house for a few days without really making too many demands on them so they could settle into their new environment and feel more secure.
Their behaviour has changed since we rehomed them - Serrano was quite dominant and bossy towards the end of their residence in the Thickets whereas now she is quite timid in comparison.
Pimento has really come to the fore and is fairly fearless now.
Jalapeno is, well just Jalapeno really - she hasn't changed but then she was never as close as the other two sisters so still throws herself out of the cage at us.
They have all become much more curious about life outside the house though which is great.