Donna and other interested parties -
We had one of our males get caught and hung by his penis from the second
level of his cage too.  Unfortunately, for us and more so, for him it did
permanent damage to his penis.  We had to have him neutered.  We couldn't
even use him as a vasectomized male.  The vet said that if he were even
able to penetrate a female, he would probably do irrepairable damage to
the female.
 
We went to Hechingers and bought the stick-on tile squares and cut it to
fit the second level of the cages.  We already had tile on the bottom
floor, but now we put the tile on the top level as well.  We make sure it
overlaps the top level by about 1/4 of an inch so there is nothing there
that the boys can get caught on.
 
It makes a big difference at cage cleaning time as well.  It wipes off real
easy, and on the bottom level, we just use a little dustbrush and sweep any
litter, food, etc.  into the drop pan underneath, take that out and dump it
and wipe everything down.  It cuts down cleaning time tremendously while at
the same time, protecting our little guys private parts.
 
I will never forget that earpiercing screech when Senor got hung up.  I
was horrified.
 
By the way, the tile that we get only cost 78 cents a piece.
[Posted in FML issue 1271]