Thank you 🙂 I have two types of cages for my degus. One is two of
the cages from pets at home
combined in to one cage, the other is the liberta 2nd edition explorer
cage. In both cases I
removed the original shelves and replaced them with wooden shelves
(check the wood is safe for degus for when they gnaw on it) which I
got from the local hardware store.

One of the combined pets at home cages came with the two degus, the
other one was made with two second hand cages to reduce costs. I got the
liberta cage new, I think I paid £180 for the cage and then there was the cost of the wood for the shelves on top of that. So it’s not a small amount of money but it is less than some of the other cages I was considering. I’ve found that I really prefer the liberta cage to the pets at home cages, it’s bigger, sturdier, easier to
clean as the doors open fully and has deeper trays for more bedding.

I think that the main thing to keep in mind when building a cage is that you want to take account of Cumulative Available Running Area rather than the volume and make sure that if they fall off a shelf they can never fall too far. I have some more information on my FAQs page and feel free to send me any other questions you might have.

What cage do you have at the moment? Would it be possible for you to add more levels/branches in the meantime? It sounds like you know what to look out for in a suitable cage, I hope you manage to find your friends a new cage.