One of my few talents is that I am pretty good at solving physical problems. I have replaced all my cages with Quality Cages which I love except for the spring latches. When the weather gets dry here (often) my finger skin gets cracks and really hurts. With thirty or so latches to open several times a day it puts a lot of wear on my thumbs, so I have been trying to figure out a way to improve on this. I have purchased regular rounded latches from Klubertanz and am using them to improve the closures on other cages, but how to get some padding on them? Eureka! Aquarium air hose; fits just right. It must be put on the lower end first, before fastening it to the cage. It won't go over the little hook at the end. But the tubing was very hard to slide on. Then I remembered some slippery goo that electricians use to pull wire, so..... squirt the inside of the tube with WD-40, the all-purpose silicone oil. Using a 4" piece of tubing, it will easily be pushed and pulled up to the rounded push part, stopping before the hook. Now that I have that figured out I need to get the machine-wrapped ribbon off the original latches of the Quality Cages. They are really tightly fastened. I've only gotten one off so far. I have been improving the black Ware cages by removing the spring closures and replacing them with two latches on each door. The J clips are also good for repairing the cages wherever the wire fasteners have come off. After I am done rebuilding the cage it is better than new. A good clip plier and a bunch of J clips can save a lot of cages. Carol Owens Tucson [Posted in FML 5731]