Customizing CN Without Breaking It?

[EternallyCynical]

Right, so before I got too active on this forum and learned how fragile the CN bars can be, I'd already picked up my 2 story CN for my boy. Now, I don't know if this'll happen any time soon because high school and a job don't mix well and I'm trying not to spend all my savings but at some point I'd like to put a bunch of wooden shelves and a tube or two in Pepper's cage. IDEALLY I'd like to be able to take the shelves that actually came with the cage out at some point. BUT I don't know if I can do this without breaking all the bars on my cage!!!!

Has anyone had any experience with putting shelves up in a CN? Is there anything I can do to go about this without breaking a whole bunch of cage bars? Any thoughts would be appreciated! Unfortunately getting rid of the CN and buying a FN isn't an option but I may consider it when I go to college if I have to move really far and it would be easier to just ship a FN up to my new residence as opposed to trying to take my CN with me, but that won't be for a good year and a half at least (taking a gap year) and isn't a given.

 

[Devi Xiao]

You can use washers to spread the weight along multiple bars.

 

[Smidgeyy]

I'd like opinions on this as well. I want to get rid of the smaller levels and replace it with wood. My CN seems sturdy though, so I don't know what to do now.

 

[CRG7]

I just made a few small shelves for my CN. I have had one small one in there since transferring my boy from his old starter cage to the CN. That one measures probably around 3" x 5" and is secured with one bolt. I had extra large fender washers on it from when it was in the starter house that had larger bar spacing.

Anyway, I just made a small corner shelf, using 2 hanger bolts per side (and smaller fender washers). This one seems very secure; when I press down on it it does not budge or flex the bars of the cage.

I made one shelf that measures around maybe 5" wide by 7" long, secured it with 2 equally spaced hanger bolts and washers. That one gives the slightest flex when I place weight on it, but doesn't budge when my boy is on it.

The last one I made is probably about 6" wide by 7-8" long. This one angles down just slightly. I also have it secured with 2 equally spaced hanger bolts and washers. I actually used the extra large fender washers from my original ledge (replaced them on that one with the regular fender washers) to help secure this one. I think this would be a good route, but feel that I should have used longer hanger bolts (used 1/4-20 x 2") for the longer ledge.

My conclusion with this project is that if the weight is properly distributed, and large fender washers are used, the bars should be fine. Of course, I have only had my CN for a month or so. I'm mostly using the corner shelf as a basis for this, in consideration of having large shelves to replace the plastic pans.

 

[matildamom]

I have 2 CN cages outfitter with multiple shelves. I used the fender washers and spaced the hanger bolts out. If you can, depending on how long the shelf is, try to place one of more of the bolts where the vertical wire intersects with the horizontal wire. This helps support the shelf without flexing the horizontal bars as much. I have 6 shelves in each cage and they are fine. One of chins is 750 grams and she doesn't budge the shelf!