A demonstration of simplistic mass mealworm harvesting and then bulk feeding a cage.

Most of the popular budget or flimsy style of cages have the lift up "guillotine" type of access doors on them. These are inherently dangerous to sugar gliders. In my own past I had been feeding gliders on the threshold of the cage and the door came slamming down. Luckily nobody lost anything in that event but it managed to scare the crap out of me, so I set forth to find a better way.




For me the answer was in junking the "budget" cage that came with my sugar gliders and buying a better designed and larger cage with swing out doors. I have three of the Exel cages right now and they are perfect for my needs.

Some folks just cant afford the sturdier cages so the budget ones have to do. I have had it on my todo list to come up with a way to modify the lift up doors to be more safe. I finally got this done tonight.

There may be various designs for the lift-up door, but I only had this one to work with which seems to be a very common one from ebay sellers. There may always be a better way to accomplish this so use your noodle. I do not have access to a spot welder or anything else that could have made this better, so I just made do with the basic homebrew.

All you really need to do is turn one side into a hinge and the other into a hook. Then you simply lift up the door an inch and it will swing open and safely stay open so you can do what you need to do without fear of head trauma to your little pets or your own fingers.

I subconsciously decided to make my door open to the left for some reason.

I turned the original bottom loop down to become the bottom locking hook.





The top loop was bent out of the way and not used. You can cut this off when you are done and satisfied with your modification.



The top corner of the door gets cut and the free wire gets bent over, in and down to hook into the cage while holding the top of the door shut. You can tie the loose wire to the door with a metal twisty if you want to.




Both of the hinge side loops get squeezed together to become a tight hinge to hold the door.







Here is a motivational video if you had any questions about the idea:







I hope this helps someone. Please leave comments here or on youtube of your success or probable modifications to this concept in order to help others.

Pican died early this morning. She was 8. She was mother of three and is the first glider I have lost in my care.

I had noticed her slowing down a little and a day ago I noticed her perching up high all by herself which I have never seen her do. So I have been keeping a worried eye on her. Yesterday afternoon when I pulled out the food bowls I peered into her group pouch and found one of her children had been overgrooming on her for awhile to such extent that she had ripped a large gaping hole in her mothers back and was in the process of continuing to do so and did not want to stop or let go. I dug Pican out of there and tended to her wound. The hole was the skin only, not the body and there was no blood. But The skin was so loose, I could easily move it around and peer inside at her muscles and whatnot. It was very strange and also did not seem to cause her discomfort.

I did what I could to the wound to keep her for the night until we could see the vet in the morning. Around 3am I went to bed and realized that she was probably not going to make it. She was very sluggish and only wanted to rest her head and would not take her favorite food. I gave her a petting, a kiss on the head and one last "I love you" and I think she passed soon after alone in her pouch. I am pretty sure that she succumbed to her original problem whatever that may be and not the fresh wound. I dont think a vet would have been able to save her as it was an internal problem, perhaps a liver failure or just old age.

So why did Junior start eating mommy alive? Maya is one of the last born twins and she takes after her mom as far as being food aggressive with her siblings. She is not a biter, but she is bitey. She bites the feet of the other cage mates and even daddy. It's an odd behavior that I have also seen in my colony of 8. It seems that they know biting causes grief and they use that tool if they want to.

I think Maya was grooming mom and a nibble that would have normally gotten a reprimand went unanswered by mom. Maya kept grooming and pulling and nibbling and sooner or later she got too far into it and broke skin and then kept going.

It is a very strong instinct of gliders to be "mouthy". Most owners will attest that gliders will remove scabs or try to bite off a wart or mole or yank your hair. In nature they bite everything they are curious about as that is a large part of how they perceive the world. They bite into trees to make them bleed out yummy juices. They bite worms and berries and whatever they see ends up in the mouth.

As smart as they seem, I do not think that these animals have any understanding of life and death. I do not think that little Maya was trying to harm mom, she was just nibbling away at something new and removing something that didnt seem like it should be there. Unfortunately, tired old mom just sat there and let her go at it.

This afternoon I let her mate named Buddy explore her body. He nosed around her a bit, climbed on top of her for a bit, left some poo and moved on. I dont get a feeling that he knew anything specific or that he'd miss her but it was worth a try. He has his three kids to keep him company now.

Pican was not my favorite critter. She was bitchy, fussy, noisy and would bite if you didnt handle her super gently. But I was able to take her from her previous 5 years alone in a tiny cage eating catfood and shrimp. I gave her a mate and children and a family to spend the last few years of her life with. So I am happy that I was able to have her and I will miss bitchy old Pican.

Rest in peace Mommy.













http://www.sugarglider.com/journal/Kazko/Received_Pican_4...

Much like the usual worn out counter appliances, kichenware, lamps, accessories, dated decorative knick knacks, hats, shoes, clothes, toys, books, and so on, you can always depend on there being a bin or two full of various purses at your local Goodwill store. Most purses usually cross the line of ridiculous for some reason or another, perhaps they are all picked through and only the crazy odd remain, but you can dig around and occasionally find some perfect purses or bags to bring home to use as sleeping pouches for your sugar gliders. And if you are the type to lug your gliders around all day, well a purse seems right for that task.

I look for the tough cotton types of material such as denim, canvas or duck to help avoid problems with nails.

Used purses are so cheap that you can pick out more than you need, dump them all into the front loader for a cycle or two, removed the straps, internal dangly pockets and other things that get into the way, and hang em in the cage.

Mine love their purses.

I usually hang them on the cage door so that when I open the door, the purse swings out for very easy access to the critters inside. A large bolt and pair of fender washers and nuts does the trick.

My stealth wheel is somewhere over a year old and has gotten a lot of use between my three cages. The plastic bearing has been going out and it has just gotten worse and worse. So I decided to fix it any way that I could muster.

The best thing I was able to find to replace the bearing was a 3" garage door pulley from the home store.




I removed the wheel from the stand and then used a small nail to tap out the one way quick screws that secure the plastic bearing onto the wheel.




I was not able to find a way to remove the axle bolt from the bearing as it was either rusted into its sleeve or was somehow magically affixed, so I simply pried the bolt head through the back wall to release it.






The pulley is a very close fit as a replacement.




I drilled a larger center hole to allow the new bearing to protrude through the wheel.





I decided to drill out three of the six rivets that held the pulley together and then use the holes to affix the pulley to the back of the wheel using new rivets. Small bolts would work as well.






A quick reassembly of the whole thing and I have a much better working wheel again ready for more slow motion videos.

Most of the cages we get are made in China by people who are not really trying for best quality or design for our animals. This can lead to some unintended side effects.

For instance, what do our sugar gliders love to do when the door is open? Well mine love to come running, or climbing really. Any time I open a door, the critters come around from the side and always wrap a finger hold around the open door frame of the cage. Some of the cages have lots of space around the door frame so when it closes on a finger, no problems, and some dont.

I have one cage that is very bad on the sides. I have known this since I got it and have been very careful with it yet I still manage to get a finger in there once in awhile. If I werent being so careful with it, those fingers would have all been chopped off.

BAD DOOR



GOOD DOOR



Also, even when the door is wide open, a single clingy glider can grab the door, pull and accidentally slam it shut which could then cause severed fingers or limbs in all sorts of places around the frame. So be weary of this.



Many folks have those "budget" bird cages with the slide up doors. I used to have some of those and I cant tell you how many times that door came slamming down accidentally when it was not supposed to. That is enough force to break a glider neck, chop a foot or at least hurt somehow. So I recommend extreme caution with this style of cage door as well.

The good thing about the budget doors is that they can be reworked to swing out simply by bending some of the metal tabs or adding a little bit of homebrew if needed. What you want to do is make it so that the door has to be lifted one inch to unlatch and then it swings open on one of the sides.


So be careful when closing your doors on your gliders and plan for accidents.

Out of random curiosity I did an Internet speed check from the server console. It's looking good. Upstream is a bit over 18Mbps. If I can get some of my sites making income this year I am going to fatten this up some too. I think the next tier is 50Mbps upstream. Imagine that.

This site is currently running on a real hardware server but I may virtualize it eventually to save energy. Most of my other sites are already on a linux virtual machine hosted here as well.

Some day everything I use here will be merged down to just the single VM box with a few guests on it. I already have the hardware that can support all of it. 16Gig ram goes a long way to support basic Internet servers.

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.

   

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 of 15

Kazko
Gender: Male
Occupation:computer geek
Member since: Jan 24, 1997
Posts: 3473 View my pictures!
I'm on the map!
My Hobbies
I'm no expert, but I play one on TV! My News
I have a colony of 8 in the Sugar Shack, a colony of 5 in the Nut House and a collection of 4 misc males in the Misfit Manor. All boys are neutered. Favorite Quote
"all we have to fear is fear itself, and of course Eric's farts" My Bio
Pican 4/30/2002, died 6/02/2010. Buddy 5/01/2006 Hazel 2/01/2007 Maya 4/25/2007 Pili 4/25/2007 Big Guy 9/23/2003 Lil Guy 9/23/2003 Hunter 4/19/2006 JP 8/12/2006 Chico 1/15/2006 Cookie 10/15/2005 Kimmie 10/15/2005 Lucky 5/25/2007 Spritz 8/24/2007 Ginger 8/24/2007 Rock 9/09/2007 Crystal 9/09/2007

   

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 of 15