So my partner and I bought 2 gliders, brother and sister, (Jazz & Yoda) and with them we got a cage.... I'm never satisfied with the norm so I altered the cage just a bit. The following are some before and after pics of the cage and a few other projects that I have been working on in preparation for their arrival. We havent brought our gliders home yet. They are still too young but they will be soooooo spoiled when they do arrive here to their new glider mansion!!!



































Also bought a new sewing machine... learned how to sew... these are the results along with a few rope projects I put together...

























A few baby pics!!!











Thanks for looking... Hope you enjoyed.

Love it!!!

Absolutely LOVE it! You are very talented! I would love a door that big on my hexagon cage! I have to feed the wodent wheel thru the bottom cuz the door isn't big enough. (8.5 X 10)

Great job!!!

I love the roll up "blinds" you made. Now I want some for my cage:)

Awesome! Glider Heaven! Can I come over and play?

Looks great! Just cruious tho.. for anyone who has an answer, I thought using wood in a cage was a no-no. Of course depending on the kind of wood and such. But I thought it soaked up urine over time. (looks like yours is stained and most likely has some kind of protectant over it tho) Just curious. Me and the boyfriend have always talked about making a huge pvc cage when we move out and hiding the PVC with wood (non toxic and out of there reach of course) Looks awesome tho! My babies love there big cage, im sure yours wont know what to do with themselves! :)

that is one of the nicest cages I've seen! I also love the accessories you made.

Nice mod.

xSwtxSugax, you are correct. I think in this case because the whole cage is not constructed of wood that it will not accumulate a smell so rapidly. Also if you look closely the cage extends out pass where the door frame sits closed, blocking off the gliders access to most of the wood but the middle piece of wood is still exposed to them. Covering that with some hardwire cloth might address any possible issues.

Sjones needs to check out these mods so she can hang things from the top of her cage.

Thanks vicious! I was just curious! Nice to know for the future! The cage looks great!

It is a great cage! I have that cage - would you like to come modify mine?

I will say - the canvas cover - it is great for the sides of the cage against the wall, for keeping splatters down! But - you don't want to use the covers on the front of the cage. Gliders need exposure to the natural light. Keeping them in complete darkness would not be good for them.

Awesome cage! And great stuff, and beautiful babies!!

~Michelle~

Thanks sooooooo much for all your complements and advise.

On the wood... No stain just poly. I chose mahogany to avoid the urine smell and put several animal safe coats of poly on to protect it. Mahogany is not very porous. Using hard woods with tight grains will be mor expensive but will last longer and resist retaining smells from food, mold, urine and other smells. They are also less susceptible to rot. I probably didn't need to poly it but I wanted to make sure that there would be no smell... I can remove the whole frame by removing the bolts around the outside of the frame if i should ever need to hose off the door or replace it.

There were some other modifications I made to the cage that you cant see... The cage comes with some bolts that screw into some wheels on the bottom and also into the lid, however the only thing that keeps the sides together is the light green slide rails... Not enough stability! I put 3 stainless steel bolts through each edge and used the slides to cover them up.

I drilled several holes into the top so I could hang toys and pouches from the roof.

The curtains I made from light canvas mostly for the back of the cage to keep the mess as contained as possible. I made the ones for the front with some extra fabric I had left over and figured that I can put them down when the gliders are out hanging with us.

Oh be careful with PVC... I believe pocket pets was having a problem with there PVC cages making gliders sick. They had to replace several customer cages.

That is awesome!

YA thats only pvc covered cages. Not actual pvc! :) You know your going to have to put up instructions on how u did this. Im sure the people with that cage, or who plan on getting that cage are gunna wanna know sooner or later ;)

Yea I'm working on the plans...

So regular PVC that you buy at Home Depot is ok? I wasn't to familiar with the pockets situation. I never did business with them and assumed that PVC meant like the tubes you get at hardware stores. My girl and I bought some 3/4" pvc for the gliders to use instead of the wood dowels that came with the cage because PVC wont soak up urine like the birch ones perches do, a friend of mine said that PVC could be harmful and based this on the pocket pets thing.

But I'll have another problem if it's the PVC coating because I used PVC coated wire for the door... I'll have to change it if this is the case.

this is a link for the stuff I used. I got it at Home Depot

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WAHT A GREAT SUGGIE MOM YOU ARE!!!

Haha... Thanks! I hope they love me as much as I love them. We bring them home next week!

Correction... WE hope they love US as much as WE love them... lol my girl felt left out. : P

I use PVC pipes instead of the wood perches that come in the cage. Way easier to clean! You can also make a sleeve out of fleece and slide it on there so its easier for them to hold on to. My tend to flip and slide without one. lol

Lots of people make cages out of the pvc pipes with no problems. But yes there were issues with the pvc coated mesh. I dont know much about it, but I would def make a post about it to ask and make sure. Im not sure if it was just a certain batch or what!

Ok, so just so im not confused... haha 2 people under one name. You keep saying "my girl" so im guessing g/f! I gotta know names tho so I dont get confused on who im talking to. :)

Another thing.. My cage is fairly large as well and has a solid top as well. I use industrial strength magnet hooks to hang my toys from. But since my cage is so tall, I put a pvc pipe perch across the middle, snap a baby link on it and hang a toy or two like that from the pipe. That way... they have toys at different heights. They have to use the whole cage and work more for there food and treats!

Also!! I love your skull hammock! I make rock n roll skull toy sets if your ever interested! I see you guys have alot of fleece pouches and such but not alot of toys. You may not have shown them tho, but just wanna let u know because toys with foraging cups and stuff are important. Atleaste I think so. You can always make your own toys as well if your crafty! Super excited for you guys! Cant wait for u to get your babies!

Haha... My name is Cristi (Cris) and my girlfriend is Amanda. We have 2 gliders coming (brother and sister) Yoda and Jazz. I'm the one with the account but my girl, Amanda, reads my posts sometimes and gives me crap if I call the gliders mine... lol

Anyways, I'm going to look into the PVC thing. I just want my gliders to be safe. I bought PVC pipe to use instead of the wood dowels but was concerned that it was harmful for them. But now it seems that it will be ok. However the wire I used in the cage is "vinyl coated" wich is the same thing as PVC coated apparently. I read this on the package I got for the wire and it's posted on the link above on the Home Depot site.

I'm going to get a number for that company to find out some more info on it But if I can't get an answer that satisfies me then I'm just going to use the mesh that I used for the bonding puches. It's not as see through but its safer and thats all that matters to me. I'll keep you all posted on what I find.

Your right about the toys tho. We need some. Send me pics of your rock n roll ones if you don't mind. We still have about a week to prepare for these little guys and toys are at the top of our list. I made some rope ones but I want a variety of different kinds. Variety seem to be the way for all things glider... lol

Oh one more question.... When I got the PVC pipe I thought of a way to make it more glider friendly... I sanded the pipe to create a rough surface do you think that is unsafe? It's not too rough just added some texture to it.

Thanks,

Cris

Holy cow! I could just about live in there...WITH suggies. Somehow, spoiled just doesn't seem to cover it. Awesome job!

Holy cow! I could just about live in there...WITH suggies. Somehow, spoiled just doesn't seem to cover it. Awesome job!

Thanks!

Heres my classified link for glidercentral:

www.glidercentral.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/1157618/The_Rock_N_Glider_Shop_Matchin#Post1157618

If you cant see them lemme know.

I dont see sanding the pvc down being a problem. But again.. u may want to make a post asking someone a lil more experienced. I dont know if it will release any unwanted chemical or something. I know.. sounds stupid... but if they chew u never know.. I would also check around more for animal safe mesh. Ask some peeps who have PVC cages what they used. Its not like the stuff u make for pouches. And it would be easier to see through and clean! it should work just fine! :)

Posted a PVC ? just to make sure... Love your toys, by the way... Do you sell them on Etsy?

I saw ur post! Hopefully someone can answer ur question and help! I do not, I usually go through pay pal. :) I could always go through etsy if need be tho :)

No no need, paypal works for me... might be a few weeks but I'm interested. I gotta pay for our gliders on friday frist. and run it but my girl... :)

Did u go to a class to learn how to handle your gliders is that why everyone is in a circle? I think thats awesome bc many people have no idea love the cage an your a quick learner I wish I could sew

The short story... kinda...

The long story...

My girl an I got our gliders from Granite State Gliders (GSG) in NH. Tina, owner of GSG, has a great process for placing her gliders. She rents a small office in NH where she displays all the cages she offers as well as fleece items, food and toys. You email her through her site, granitestategliders.com, to arrange a time to meet with her and discuss your intrest in becoming a glider parent. She will bring a glider for you to handle while you discuss any questions you might have and decide weather being a glider parent is for you. She is very frank and is more focused that you understand the responsibilities of owning gliders over the actual sale.

Amanda and I met with Tina for an hour and a half the first time. She brought a joey for us to handle and answered all our questions even tho we learned about some of the displeasing things that come with being glider parents. She was consistant and reminded us that these creatures are not like dogs and the require a tremendous amount of attention and dedication. Gliders aren't for everyone. She was honest and by the end of the session we had a lot to think about.

We decided that we were ready to make the commitment. We contacted Tina and she put us on a list. She called us about 5 weeks later and let us know that she had some joeys that would be ready to be handled in about a week and wondered if we were interested.

She worked her schedule around ours so we could handle the joeys from when there eyes opened till they were ready to come home. We met with her 5+ times for more than an hour each time. Sometimes there would be other glider parents there that bought from her in the past or were new like us. we all were able to share our experiences and see the differiences in each gliders personalities.

Last week she started to separate them from there parents and asked us for some shirts that we had been wearing the night before so that they would be with our sent for the coming days...

It has been an awesome experience and it's awesome to know that our joeys have been handled sense it was safe to do so. There was no extra charge for this either. If you havent bought from her, in most cases, you have to buy a cage package but it comes from a ton of stuff.... and it's cheeper to do it this way if you don't have anything to begin with.

She also has the males neutered. I don't recall a fee but if there was one it's only like $25

Tina donen't believe in shipping gliders so I guess if you weren't close you would have to come and pick them up.

All in all there is no other way I would want to be introduced to being a glider parent. It was a great learning experience and I would recommend her to anyone looking for first class customer service and healthy joeys handled from the earliest time possible till you bring them home.