Most cages used for sugar gliders will have 1/2" bar spacing all around. This is acceptable for climbing on but isnt much for the animals to stand on or perch comfortably.

I recommend laying 1/2" or even 1/4" mesh cloth on the floors of the cage. This gives more surface area for them to rest their weight on yet it still allows most things to fall through.

All you need to do is cute the mesh to size and fasten it with four or so tie wraps.







If you happen to have one of the typical Tower Cages that are preferred in our community, then you have the ability to also build a second floor for the animals with mesh too. This give double the floor space for perching, exploring or placing objects, and it makes the occupants happy. A cage can never have too many hides, pouches, shelves and things to explore and stimulate.

I have long been wanting to find the perfect nest box for my sugar gliders. To date I just have not found one that suits my needs. I have so far been using plastic kitty litter containers as nest boxes which work pretty well but they are huge and just eat too much valuable cage space. Plus they are hard to get to.

For me, a nestbox needs to keep my animals safe and warm but have them within easy reach by me. I also want to have a webcam on top looking in so a bit of height is necessary. I have wanted to hang a box on the door of the cage for some time so that I can open the cage door then open the nest box to hand feed my critters treats and give attention.

So I found and modified a suitable cardboard box to see how it would go. I put the hole in the side so they can climb in from the cage wall and I cut a very large access door in the wide side leaving about 4" untouched at the bottom for their bodies so that they cant just fall out. The outside dimensions of this box are 4.5" x 9" x 12" and it straddles the hinge side of the cage door so that it leaves room to swing all the way out without hitting the doorway.

I moved their pouch into the new Exel XL Tower cage and within minutes they were all out exploring the cage and then they all ended up in the new nest box and there they have been since. I think they love the new space. The box bottom stays wide so there is no more narrow bottom to crush someone under the colony. It holds my 8 very well.

I think it's time for me to get hold of a table saw and start experimenting with wood creations.

One thing I have to be weary of in the design is pinch points. Sugar gliders grab, thats what they do. There is always a hand grasping the edge of an open door. So my door will have to sit over the doorway like a hatch, be hinged an inch or so away from the hole and possibly be set away from the box by a small shim as to prevent a toe from going missing. I will also probably hinge the access door on the inner cage side of the box so that I can still fully close the cage door in an emergency even if the box is left open.

I might also like to experiment with hanging the nest box outside of the cage through a feeder door, but this scares me with a wooden box. Perhaps I will try and do a plastic model using some sort of mdf panel or such and see if that is harder for them to chew through.

I threw together a fun 18" exercise wheel tonight for my sugar gliders. I found a decent donor plastic tub, cut off the excess, mounted an inside track using rivets and put the thing onto a hefty ball bearing system.

It's ugly but it is absolutely silent and it works. They love it.

I think I will continue exploring a good and safe design for this concept and I'll try to get some really good slow-mo videos in tent as well.

I highly recommend using Wodent Wheels for your sugar gliders, especially ones with nail trimmer tracks.

I finally got my new sand paper roll in the mail today which allowed me to begin redoing some worn out exercise wheels. The sand paper I had previously tried was 2" wide and had a fabric backing to it. Through this first iteration I have learned to not use a fabric backed abrasive in a glider cage as the fabric will string off and get caught on anything which could turn into a dangerous situation for the animals, so dont do it. Here's what I mean:






The new sandpaper is a 2-3/4" longboard roll with a paper backing and a pressure sensitive adhesive to help it stick. I got mine on Ebay. I did some reading and chose the DURA-GOLD brand, but there are others that may work fine including 3M. What you want is a 320 grit 2-3/4" roll so that you can custom cut the length you need. You can get these on Amazon as well.


So all you do is lay out your open Wodent Wheel, load in the sandpaper, load in the inner track and close it all up.






The example above is using an inner track cut out of 1/4" diamond pattern gutter guard from the hardware store. The example below is using a squared 1/4" mesh inner track. I am curious to see if there is any preference or modified results between the squared or diamond tracks.







The inner track and sandpaper need to be about 33" long. You do not need to do any sewing or fastening of any kind, you just use the inner track to hold the paper in place. The inner track is connected and held in place with a single small piece of an FRP panel trim which can be found online at AMAZON or at any Home Depot .






The plastic hardware net can be found on AMAZON as well.


If you keep it clean and replace your nail trimmer a few times a year as needed, your Wodent Wheel should last you a very long time.


Here's my blind boy rescue Hunter running on the refreshed wheel.

I was not going to do a sugar glider Christmas ornament this year. Times are tough, money is tight and I hadnt found the time to pick some art and begin work on the transformation. But at the end of November some forum members started poking around for an ornament so I decided to work on one at the very last moment and we managed to get it out in short order.

The 2009 ornament can be seen here and can be purchased until early January. We only do a limited run for these things each year so you have to buy it now if you want it.

The 2008 ornament can be seen here . It was a success and a lot of fun to do. It was the very first time I ever tried to do a laser machine wood piece. There was a whole lot of back and forth and experimenting and waste involved but we learned a whole lot and brought all of that along to 2009 which we nailed with the very first data file and prototype.

It is not easy converting artwork into the vector format that a laser machine requires. Most digital images come in raster form and there is just no easy, quick or automated way of converting. There do exist some tools to do it for you but they all suck and just do not get the job done, so it gets done by hand. Essentially, the art is redrawn or traced referencing multiple layers so that the machine can follow the final map and know when to do a light etch, deep etch or a cut. The machines can even do a raster kind of output but I havent found a use for that yet. All of the raster we did last year just did not have the detail I was looking for in a quality ornament. Yet, it might be neat to try to overlay a photo onto something after it has been vector lased first.

Most of the laser etched items you find out there on the market now are from purchased clipart, are not detailed and are generally just cut, not etched. Our ornaments always have multiple layered details and I cant wait to keep experimenting with the machine to see what I can get out of it. With the right extensive multi-layered data set, the machines can practically do a smooth graduated curve or bump or pretty much any kind of 3D output from a flat piece of stock.

So then there is the logistical side of selling something like this. Each unit has to be presented somehow, protected, boxed, packaged and then shipped. The size of the ornament this year did not fit in a near-sized box by any means, so we had to compromise and go for a much larger standard sized one. The ornament then was very loose inside of the box so I had to come up with some way of protecting it. A custom greeting card did the trick. The ornament has a ribbon threaded through it and it is paperclipped to the inside of the card to keep it safe.

So after all of this effort, you get a neat and unique item and I'm happy that we can offer these things here for those that like to participate and help support the site.

I was out in the yard today taking pictures of this years ornament against some natural settings; grass, leaves, bushes, vines and tree.

While doing a macro shot against the tree, I discovered something I have never seen before. Apparently my tree is hosting a vertical forest of micro mushrooms which are only revealed when looking very close.

They are amazingly beautiful and very very small.

Also, if you click on the very last photo below, I did a super macro zoom of the same area which revealed some amazing micro inhabitants of the forest.

We have a few monarch butterflies around today. I stepped out and about eight of them flew around and landed on my head like to make a crown (I wish).



I found one to play nice and got some decent photos. I was also able to locate one fat monarch worm on the plant too. Earlier this year there were about six bugs to a bush but now only one as far as I can see.

It might freeze tonight so I figure they wont make it.

I am away for work this week and find myself in Houston staying at a Marriott Spring Hill Suites. I rolled in around 10:30pm Monday night and was pleasantly surprised to find a very cold and comfy room. This is a mini-suite and has a separator that allows for two rooms with a sitting area, couch, chair, desk, mini-kitchen... The bed is a Tempur-pedic foam mattress on a hard box. I was very pleasantly surprised that I woke up the next morning with absolutely no back pain and I had a very good nights sleep for the first time in awhile. I am thinking now that my mattress back at home has passed the point of no return and I should look at replacing it with something such as this. I really am amazed at how the generally firmer mattress supports everything better and hurts less, so I may have to become a Tempur customer.

But that's not my eureka moment.

Here are some photos of the room.











My eureka moment happened after I had spent an hour on the laptop and decided to call it a night. I turned everything off, turned off the main room lights and made my way over to the bed very slowly and cautiously. I had pretty much forgotten about the little wall piece that separates the rooms where I had earlier supported myself as I kicked off the shoes from my tired feet. So in the dark my creeping feet encountered my shoes, I tripped forward just a bit to catch myself as one might, and out of nowhere the sharp corner of the short wall managed to slam the front side of my face.

My eye came out mostly unscathed, but it hit hard enough that I saw a big flash of light as one can at times of impact or stress. So, my eureka moment was a bad experience that reinforces the fact that you shouldnt be roaming around in pitch darkness in an unfamiliar place.


THE CULPRIT:

I dont know if anyone will actually see better performance, but today marks the fastest connection the site has ever had. I'm surprised that the little firewall keeps up with it.

I just noticed about 5 large monarch larvae on the single milkweed that we have. I think they are going to destroy that plant here very soon. RIP milkweed.

   

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kazko
Gender: Male
Occupation:computer geek
Member since: Jan 24, 1997
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My Bio
NUTHOUSE (3) Pican 4/30/2002, died 6/02/2010 Buddy 5/01/2006 Hazel 2/01/2007, rehomed 11/28/2011 Maya 4/25/2007 Pili 4/25/2007 MISFITS (3) Big Guy 9/23/2003, died 1/29/2014 Lil Guy 9/23/2003, died 5/13/2015 Hunter 4/19/2006, died 3/23/2014 JP 8/12/2006 Shikoni 2004 Kioko 2003 Washi 2003, died 5/27/2014 SUGARSHACK (3) Chico 1/15/2006, died 9/14/2011 Cookie 10/15/2005 Kimmie 10/15/2005 Lucky 5/25/2007 Spritz 8/24/2007, died 7/06/2011 Ginger 8/24/2007, died 12/16/2012 Rock 9/09/2007, died 3/23/2013 Crystal 9/09/2007, died 11/01/2012

   

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