RChurch Fuzzy Wuzzy    USA
1377 Posts
First of all, let me say that I am by no means an expert. In fact, I've only had 6 months of suggie parent experience under my belt. However, I just wanted to share some pictures with you about my cage setup so maybe you can be inspired to tinker around and make yours as comfy-cozy and fun for your babies as I think my cage is for mine.
Here is my overall pic:
You can barely see it, but on the top right next to the cage (on the wall) is a digital thermometer so that I can be sure to keep the room at a nice temperature for them.
Since I only have 2 suggies (currently), I have my cage set up with 2 pouches, 2 water bottles, and 2 wheels.
They also get water in their dish (it's a child's separator plate, not pictured) next to their HPW Original Supplement just in case they are feeling lazy--that way, there is water on all levels except the floor level.
Here's a closer look of my set up, level by level:
You will notice that I have "hidey holes" on just about every level of their cage. On the top level, there's the strawberry on the left and the little hut on the right; two Lego forts at mid-level on the right; and the turtle and plastic ferret tunnel on the floor level. This is so that they will feel more comfortable leaving their pouch. If you've got a "pouch potato" like my Batman, having a lot of placed for him/her to duck and hide in when he or she is feeling insecure will help him or her come out and play more often.
Check these guys out:
It also helps if you use their toys as foraging toys. Baby not "getting" the ball pit? Throw some meal worms in there. You feel like you've wasted money on those hammocks? Put a yoggie on top. (Be careful, though: you don't want fat gliders! It's easier to do than you think!)
I have two wheels, one is wall mounted and easy to get to because I have a ladder placed there for easy access. I also have a floor stand wheel just in case my Batman gets a little scared. He's used to a small cage on the floor from his previous owner--but he's getting over it slowly but surely. He's just got to gain his confidence.  That might be something to consider. If you've got a glider who's afraid of heights, you wouldn't want him or her to lose good exercise because the wheel is too high. Also, you can't tell from the picture, but we've zip-tied the floor stand wheel to the cage so it wouldn't move. We've got some very aggressive players at MY house! 
We also like "dangly stuff" in our cage. We used to hang the monkeys one at a time, but then we got the idea to link them like you would a beaded curtain. Here are my kids in the wheel. You can tell Batman is thinking about those monkeys. They must have offended him somehow!
We REALLY like dangly stuff. Check this out:
Yep! That's their ball pit in the back! And quite often, we'd hear those cat bells (no catnip in them) go jangling in the night. I try to picture it being one of those fun houses that human kids go into...those little plastic punching bags you'd have to wade through to get to the other side? Remember those? Well, I'm all out of punching bags that are glider-sized, but I used the bells and shapes to try and simulate that. There's even a plastic tamborine on the cage floor that makes a noise every time Catwoman jumps on it: which is a lot! I think she likes the way the plastic buttons clang together.
I even threw in some bird toys with bells on them. One is a simple ring that they can jump through if they wish. The other has a mirror, in case they want to check their fur and make sure they look OK. 
Other toys include the famous Batmobile bed. It's fleece stitched together with tiny stitches, stuffed with more fleece, stuffed inside the "car" so that no stitches show. It's entirely washable in the machine, and the wonderful thing is you can flip it like you would a normal mattress and it stays clean just a little longer before you have to wash it. Sometimes, it's just nice to sit in something a little extra comfy.
And of course, I can't forget about Catwoman with all the Batman stuff in there, right? So she has a cute cat mug (from Halloween) that I occasionally hide treats in as well as a plastic cat flashlight that has no batteries, nor is ever used as a flashlight. But it's nice to watch the kids hop over it, stand on it and play--just like human kids do at a playground.
You will notice I don't have any fleece vines or braided fleece hanging in my cage. This is because even after hanging foraging cups from them and putting meal worms in there, they seem too afraid to try. They are hanging in the tent so if they want, they can climb on it there and I will be happy to rescue them if they get scared. (Which actually happened with Batman. Talk about a bonding moment! He got scared and I was there to help him down. He was like a cat up a tree! He was OK going up until he looked down. Poor guy!)
Anyway, this is my cage set up. I hope you enjoyed this and feel free to post your own! I'd love to see your decorating tips!  That would be  cool!
Hollybugz Super Glider 215 Posts is ur boys eyes ok it looks like it has stuff in it or it can be just the picture RChurch Fuzzy Wuzzy USA 1377 Posts <blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by lilangels</i> <br />I love your cage set up. I like how you have all the dangle balls in there....mind if i steal that idea for my babies? I have a few gliders that are bell lovers to the max. I have been thinking about making a batman cage set for our baby Riddler. However his wife says she wants pretty and sparkly...lol. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> Heck no I don't mind!! I want ppl to steal these ideas! Aw…well you can alternate Batman stuff and pretty sparkly stuff. Marriage is about compromise, right? TJones09 Goofy Gorillatoes 3524 Posts
RChurch Fuzzy Wuzzy USA 1377 Posts <blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by sugie bandit</i> <br />How did you make the dangly ball? It looks like a bunch of beads attached to something. And, I just bought a couple packs of plastic bracelets...do you gliders use the bracelets you have dangling? <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> THIS dangly ball? 
It's called a Neutron Ball made of flexible plastic. It's the kind that you can throw and it has some device inside that would flash lights. I got it at Toys R Us if that helps, in the impulse buy bins up front near the register. The flashing light part NEVER worked even when I bought it. Guess kids must've thrown the thing one too many times or the internal battery was just old. Idk. But I used Rex Lace and strung up some beads, and clipped it to a C link. That's it. PM me if you want me to do a tutorial on this. I have to restring it anyway. This was one of the first toys I've ever made, and one I made especially for Catwoman. She doesn't play with it so much anymore (now that she's got a HUGE selection of toys to play with!) But she used to jump on it from below, hold on and just SWING! It was great fun to watch. I miss those days. RChurch Fuzzy Wuzzy USA 1377 Posts I cannot guarantee that they will love it. Every glider IS different, after all. Sometimes, they will leave a toy alone for days, weeks, months, and then all of a sudden, it becomes the IT toy...the must have. I was almost ticked off after buying a second wheel. You know those things aren't cheap! And neither of the kids gave it a look! OMG! They just wanted to play on the one they had. Now, all of a sudden, this wheel is the wheel they want to play with and they abandon the other one. There is just NO TELLING. If you don't want to make the bracelets, don't forget you can always get one of those plastic bird rings and bell, like the one i have on the bottom right of the cage. It will save you time, money and labor. If you want to make a toy that is SURE to get some use out of, check out my Tutorial #1
thread and make a simple foraging toy. If you put treats in it, it will be sure to get used! TJones09 Goofy Gorillatoes 3524 Posts When I got my girls all they had to play with was a wheel and 2 jingle balls. I bought some more jingle balls (smaller & all plastic) and some other hanging plastic hanging bird toys (link of rings, a mirrored thing with a bell, and the balls came as 3 strung together with plastic cord). The first set was just a pack of the 3 balls strung together, so I cut the cord and just added the balls to the other 2 and put them in a small plastic bin "ball bin". The other bird toys were the set of 3 which I hung in various areas from the roof, but I noticed that they really didn't play with any of their toys. They investigated everything once, then left it alone pretty much. I eventually took down all the hanging bird toys, cut the cord on the ball trio and placed them in the ball bin also. The rings I hung with the bells on the side of cage above the ball bin, and I through in some fleece toys (1 was a free gift from suncoast, the other I made), they would hardly touch their ball bin until I started dropping some of their pellets in there so they use it as a forage toy now. The wheel they hardly touched, it was chewed up quite a it when we got them, so I know they've been on it, but I didn't see or hear them use that much, only a few times in the couple or so weeks. The wheel move around the floor, and I figured that deterred them, after seeing on here how some mounted them on the walls of cage or latched them down, I decided to attach mine to the walls, the one they came with is high on one side, the new wheel (wodent w/nail trim) is low on the other side. One of the gliders (Skadoosh) uses the original wheel so much now that it's attached to cage wall and she will use the other for short periods of time on occasion. The other glider (Lulu), I have not seen so much on the wheels, but only a couple of times, and she doesn't really run so much as take a few steps and then stop and jump off. I am left to believe that they don't know how to play, because they didn't have hardly any toys for almost the first year of their lives, or is it normal that some gliders just don't play? Chosen12020 Super Glider 205 Posts You are so creative RChurch! I love the way your babies cage is arranged! And it's so funy that you mention how your gliders only wanted to play with their *old* wheel for a while, instead of the new one. Well, I just got two stealth wheels. They came in the mail a few days ago(thank You JESUS!). I took my gliders' (Bertia,a girl, Scarlett, also a girl, and Mortimer, a boy)old wheels out (junior wodent wheels)and put the new stealth wheels in. At first, they were PETRIFIED of them! They are substantially bigger than their old junior wodent wheels, so they were frightened of it. They were afraid to even go down to eat! They would scurry to the bottom of the cage, grab a quick morsel or two, then run quickly back up to the top of the cage to finish eating. At first, I was really worried about stressing them out too much. Then, the very next night after getting the new wheels, Bertia, decided to try it out. She started off slowly at first, then fast. She LOVED it! Mortimer and Scarlett watched her closely (from the other cage next to her) and studied her on the wheel for a while. Then they started running on *their* wheel. I guess they said, "Oh, it's okay to get on this thing if *she's getting on it and *she's* okay"  They loved it too! Mortimer and Scarlett are in two separate cages. I'm going to get Bertia a new cage mate, so she won't be lonely though. Anyway, I was all smiles and couldn't stop watching them  I was soooooo happy that they quickly got over that hump. Now, they love their new wheel, and it doesn't disturb me at night like their wodent wheels did. The diffence is night and *day* between the noise factor of the two wheels. Wish I had've gotten them sooner!
Some photos from our members RChurch Fuzzy Wuzzy USA 1377 Posts Thank you, Chosen! Tjones, I think you have to train your babies to like their toys. Engage them by putting treats in there. I'm not a big fan of pellets because I've heard of gliders losing their teeth because of them (and they do not grow back). I suppose if it's really high quality pellets, and you're only giving it to them on occassion, maybe that's not so bad. But still...I am not a fan. Attach foraging cups to their rings or mirrors, throw meal worms in their ball pit and watch them go crazy! Also, don't lose faith in their ability to play. Sometimes, it just takes a while. Took Batman about 3-4 months before he learned to have a little fun. Just leave the toy in there and see. You may also need to "trick" them. If the treats don't work, take their yucky blankies and rub, rub, RUB their scent all over their wheel, on the inside of the huts or hidey hole toys. The very fact that they smell themselves in an area makes them think, "Well, this place can't be all bad. After all, I was here before...though I don't remember being here before...Let me check it out." If you can, just leave their stinky blankie in the place you want them to go and watch and see.  Worked for us! TJones09 Goofy Gorillatoes 3524 Posts <blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by RChurch</i> <br />Thank you, Chosen! Tjones, I think you have to train your babies to like their toys. Engage them by putting treats in there. I'm not a big fan of pellets because I've heard of gliders losing their teeth because of them (and they do not grow back). I suppose if it's really high quality pellets, and you're only giving it to them on occassion, maybe that's not so bad. But still...I am not a fan. Attach foraging cups to their rings or mirrors, throw meal worms in their ball pit and watch them go crazy! Also, don't lose faith in their ability to play. Sometimes, it just takes a while. Took Batman about 3-4 months before he learned to have a little fun. Just leave the toy in there and see. You may also need to "trick" them. If the treats don't work, take their yucky blankies and rub, rub, RUB their scent all over their wheel, on the inside of the huts or hidey hole toys. The very fact that they smell themselves in an area makes them think, "Well, this place can't be all bad. After all, I was here before...though I don't remember being here before...Let me check it out." If you can, just leave their stinky blankie in the place you want them to go and watch and see. Worked for us! <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> Thanks for the tips, and of coarse sharing the pics of your cool set up for your gliders, it's very helpful in determining what to use & how. Also, it's reassuring to know that they can learn how to play.
 |
New Message |
 |
|
. |
|
Home
Glider Gossip
Gliderpedia
Journals
Resources
