I never meant remove the middle level pan either. What I had meant was how even a fall from the top of the single unit is enough to possibly cause injury. If you are having shelves/ledges up at the top, like you would need in order to allow the chin to access the top unit, that can be a long fall for a chinchilla too, especially a young one if you don't have anything to catch it, even in one spot. So if you don't have the shelves/ledges/ or hammocks to overlap with I don't feel that it's safe. I have had kits and young chinchillas before so I do know how spastic and hyper they can be at times and they seem to forget where they are in relation to the edge of shelves and stuff and hop/popcorn right off the edge.