Morning all!! It's cage cleaning day, so I figured I'd ask the community what they do or how they changed things. Specifically, I have an All Living Things cage. I left out the bottom tray and the middle divider because I wanted them to have a lot of jumping space. I did, however, keep the 2 small tray levels in, one on each side, going up like stairs (one on the right in the middle, then the other on the left fRther up). My question is this: does anyone else keep theirs in? I liked having them as they are easy to clean off and gave me a stacking shelf to put a Pom Pom basket on. It also gave me some weird places to hang vines and such. But I also worry that maybe it's keeping them from gliding properly. It seems space is much tighter now (I think they are growing up haha) and since I'm gonna try to do a deep clean as I can I figure I could switch it up. How would I hang things in there middle at different heights without the shelves there? That's a bit confusing. And is it too much space? I've seen a lot of recent posts (Terry's especially!) about changing it up and I haven't really at all so it's high time but I don't know what to do!
Thanks all!!!!

I have a large cage (60"H 36"W 28"D). I've done minimalistic & I've done packed full. Mine seem much more active & playful when the upper half is fairly elaborate & the lower part is mostly empty. Seems to give them a good balance of tree-top feel (I'm guessing) & jumping space down low.

I don't have any fixed/hard shelves, evenything is fleece, c-clips, or toys. I'll use the fleece loops or make a long chain if I want different places to hang other things from, such as pom-ball-pits.

Just sharing, for whatever it is worth.

I have to chime in here, even though I do not have the same kind of cage. I agree with Karen, it's pretty much just jumping and climbing in cages, not enough space for gliding. That's pretty much what out of cage time is for anyway, besides enriching your relationship.

That being said, and knowing I could go on and on, (and I will) but the simple fact is, I love having shelves in my gliders cage, I think most people who have read cage posts of mine and seen my pics know that, lol. The number of shelves really depends on the size of cage you have IMO, that makes sense to me anyway.

In my first gliders, first cage (Does that make sense? Lol), I didn't have any shelves. That cage was the size of my current, latest cage. In the Madagascar cage, I had three shelves, then down-sized to two shelves, and that was perfect! In the HQ Lrg Sturdy cage, I had to purchase shelves because it didn't come with any. I at first purchased a lrg corner shelf, then opted for a front-to-back, wire shelf. After a while, I purchased a second wire, front-to-back shelf. In my current cage, the Brisbane cage, I at first placed both shelves in, but last weekend I removed one and relocated the one shelf I left in. The reason I did that was to open options in that size cage. I also offer a few ledges/perches to give them places to jump to & from, offer activity stations, as well as some extra space to place other cage furnishings I place in there from time to time when changing up the design.

The design you described, and in the size cage you have, I believe two shelves would not be too much, but if you want to try just one, that's up to you. For the reasons you mentioned, places to hang things around the cage and more activity stations. Plus, as Karen mentioned, it gives them launching and landing places for jumping around the cage. I say go for it! When you go to do your major clean, and everything is out of the cage, just look at the cage, and I mean stare at it, and all the while think of what you have to go into it, what your gliders enjoy doing the most in their cage (their favorite activities). Try thinking like them inside your cage and thinking about how they move around in there, how they utilize the space and how you can enhance the space for them to utilize more of it. A lot of redesigning the habitat space is a big part trial and redo's. Give your arrangement a little time, unless you see something that needs changing immediately (I have at times with my trio's cage), give it at least a week, see if just swapping out some furnishings and accessories makes a difference. Try thinking a head of different toys and accessories you want to place in there for mini-change ups.

It's a lot of thinking involved, sometimes it takes me more time just thinking about an arrangement of things than it does to take it all out, clean, and replace, lol.