Building a cage and have a few questions

[jennclink7]

I am gettng two new chins soon and I am building a cage. The last time I had a chin was about 10 years ago so I am pretty excited. My cage is 6 foot tall, 4 foot wide and 2 feet in depth. It will have a wall that runs down the center from top to bottom with access holes to both sides on a couple of different levels so that if need be I can make the 1 cage into 2. I plan to tile the floors and have lots of ledges. When I do the shelves I know I should stagger them so there is not a complete drop to the bottom, but how far apart should I put them? What is too close and what is too far away? The same with tubes and hammocks, how far away should they be from shelves or should shelves lead right up to them.

 

[mistywaterwoman]

Shelves should probably be no more than 8-9" apart. That makes for an easy jump. For tubes, I usually hang them about 4 inches above a large shelf, that way they can go in, over or under the tube.
My hammocks are hung next to my uppermost shelves, but at the same level to make climbing in and out easy, with maybe an inch of space between the shelf and the hammock.
There's nowhere in my cages that my girls can fall more than 10" at a time.
Hope that helps!