You are genius!! We have an old Midwest cage that was saved from our house fire, but not before the shelves were toasted. The base was fine,however. We've hated that cage because of the limited space and gunk problems, and we bought our ten kids a new 'mansion' to live in, so we don't currently need the Midwest. However, since we are a pseudo-rescue, we may need the space for quarantine or something in the future; I plan to use your idea but instead make whole floors, and wallpaper them so they don't absorb the odors. If I overlap them just right and use longer nails on the shorter end, the kids will be able to slip between the nails onto the lower levels, and climb up them and so forth. The wallpaper will make the cage prettier,too. It's washable, and kind of seals off the wood. We could also use contact shelf paper or linoleum if the wallpaper thing doesn't work.We have to do something though; the wood WILL absorb odors! But these are great ideas to get this cage in operation again! Gotta love that 'hose down' flooring! Gotta love it! Wish we would have had this knowledge about two years ago! Oh well... :oP ~ Telaraj, Miles, and the Twister Ten ~ [Posted in FML issue 2421]