Hello e1-
Has anyone ever converted a bedroom closet into suggie dream house? We finally moved into our new house and I am over the moon that I now have a pet room which means I can now turn the closet into a sugar glider wonder land! YAY! The problem I am having is actually creating what I have in mind into a reality regarding: safety/practicality of door construction that will allow viewing while providing security and privacy for my suggies; options for non-toxic coating or materials to cover walls/ceilings/shelf ledges; real or artificial foliage/vines; and lastly- how to mount that darn water bottle! Any ideas and suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you in advance and have a great day!

I haven't converted a closet but when I got my first 2 gliders, I built a 4 x 2 x 6 foot flight cage for them from vinyl-coated wire mesh. Apparently the PVC-coated wire mesh became problematic a couple of years later but you can buy straight up vinyl mesh and give it structural support with schedule 40 (white) PVC pipe. The nice thing with constructing with PVC pipe is that you only need one tool for cutting the pipe and you don't need to glue it for things to hold together. This means you can disassemble it for washing or transport AND you can vary the layout from time-to-time. You'll probably want to wash the PVC thoroughly but that's pretty quick and easy -- you can paint it if you don't want the white standing out but that's probably not going to be a problem after you put up the vinyl mesh (which you can get in a variety of colors).

Use the 1/2-inch PVC -- that's all you need for structural support and it's easier, cheaper, and lighter to work with. If I'd known then what I know now, I would totally have gone this route as getting my current cage across the room, down the steps, and then outdoors for intensive cleaning is always a chore. It would be SO much easier with flexible vinyl mesh and PVC struts that I could pop out for disassembly. Using the vinyl mesh also means you don't have to worry about the paint on your closet wall or shelves. You can use the shelves above the usual hanging rods to store your toys, spare pouches, etc. or you can take them out and make the cage even taller (but bear in mind the height of the cage will affect your ability to clean it).

There are a number of things you can do with the PVC -- get some tee fittings so you can put out extra branches for your suggies to perch on -- I would trim actual branches from a tree outside to fit into the tee or use a 1/2-inch dowel rather than use PVC pipe for this so it's not slippery. With the PVC pipe providing structure, you can also work out cross-struts to hang things from the top.

Lesson learned: figure out the collection trays you want to use and then design the cage to fit over them. Getting a couple sets of the custom polypropylene cage liners (so you can swap them out, having one set in the cage, one - or more - sets to be cleaned and dried) makes cleaning the trays really quick and easy.

Another lesson learned: I bought a decorative backsplash for window wells to put behind the cage -- it keeps the wall behind from getting messy and I think looks better overall. You'll need to figure out a way to hang it but that will be easier inside the closet (you could use 3M CommandStrips for this) than for my cage in my living room.

I would worry about enough ventilation for them in a closet. Not to mention the food they fling, it may be hard to clean.

Hello, and thank you- ventilation is something I didn’t even think about; I was so excited about the project that it didn’t occur to me. Thankfully, it was pointed out BEFORE I proceeded!😉 I very much appreciate all of the replies- luvs me some fellow suggie parents! Have a great day!