FN Double Units: To Divide or Not to Divide

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Chinnyluver

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 20, 2011
Messages
118
My boyfriend and I will be moving into a townhouse in about a month and a half. Which means SPACE like I haven't had in years of apartments. My four girls went from a double unit FN per bonded pair to one section per pair. They did fine, but I held onto my other FN and we will have room for two again. I am very excited to plan layouts and see how they react to having more room again. I've also considered the possibility of leaving the second level floors out and just doing wood shelves and fleece everywhere to provide more climbing options and save money on shavings (potential added bonus). But I'm worried about one of them falling from that high. My oldest girl can be a bit clumsy and I also have a young chin (3 months). Thoughts?
 
I took the middle level out of my FN cage and replaced it with two cage width 2x8 boards. The key is to make sure everything overlaps so there is no chance of falling very far, or if they do it's into a hammock.

As for the 3 month old, I would wait on allowing full access to a double high cage (let alone one that is completely open) until she is about 6 months old. Kits are extremely clumsy as they grow and like to climb, also a 3 month old very likely could still squeeze out of the bar spacing of a FN cage, unless you wrap it in hardware cloth.
 
Thanks, we will probably end up using the dividers initially at least since we won't have time to build new shelves and such right away. The thought of her squeezing through the bars scares me... I said three months, but she is closer to 4. I honestly can't picture her being able to fit but I know they can do magic tricks like that sometimes. Her current cage has the bar spacing that is about the same, only horizontal. We haven't had any escapes or attempts, doesn't look at all like she can fit through even when she's shoving her nose out saying "hey, hey you, down here! Pets, human... please." Do the vertical bars on the FN make it easier for them to get out? If that's the case, I still hope to bond them soon, but I can put the new pair in her current cage until she is big enough for the FN.
 
Hm, well I know a young kit can squeeze though anything with 1" spacing, horizontal may make it not look as easy to escape to a chin? Or maybe she simply never tried or she could just be a bigger kit. Just like human kids chinchilla kits grow at different rates and are different sizes. So if the kit is small it can fit though small spaces longer then a bigger one. Either way though by 4 months even a smaller kit is not as likely to fit though the bars. Your other post yesterday asking about bonding methods said she was "about to turn 3 months", so I was thinking 12 weeks.

Basically if they can fit their skull through they can fit the whole body. A simple rough measure (without having to actually measure the chin's skull) is when she sticks her nose out of the cage, is it just her nose that can fit or her eyes too?
 
I had three months in my head... But she was about 11 weeks when we brought her home three weeks ago, so she is about 3 and a half months actually. It's just her nose that can fit when she is sticking it out.
 
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