How high can I put a shelf/ledge in a cage?

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Sandi

non-stop poop sweeper
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
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Chicago suburb
I need some advice. I got my chins a month ago and they are housed in a cage where they are not currently utilizing the top half of the cage. Below is a picture of my chins cage (it was a bird cage given to me by my mom). The height from the floor of the inside of the cage to the top of the dome is 40". I have placed an order with quality cage for some shelves, ramps and a chin spin. My question is, how high can I place the shelf/shelves from the bottom of the cage so that they can start utilizing the top of the cage as well? What I'm afraid of is a nasty fall by one of them if I place a shelf to high. Should I consider adding some type of flooring or wider shelving to separate the top half from the bottom?
 

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When we use tall cages I make sure to stagger the shelves / tubes / hammocks so if they do fall they don't go far. I probably wouldn't put anything to high up until I had all of my shelves etc. ready to go.
 
I second putting a hammock across the middle. Someone told me 18 inches is the most amount of space you want to have without having something to catch them if they fall.

In one of my tall cages I have ledges parallel to each other in the center. I screwed in eyebolts to the shelves and put a hammock across to each shelf. That way they don't have to use the hammock to get around, but it is there to catch them if they fall.
 
Some people also use giant hammocks in the middle of the cage to "catch" a chin if he/she should fall.

It's really an art to place chinnie shelves!! :)
 
Thanks for the great advice. Yes, I love the look of this cage as well, but I was concerned about the height and thought about getting a different cage but since I got it for "free" :) I need to make it work.
 
I have that exact same bird cage! It's super nice and I would have never thought it would make a good chin cage but it is a good idea! I dont have any birds right now so I might have to use it!
 
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