Prinny`s great escape....

[racinghamster]

So there I was, lying in bed just about to get up this morning and had heard Prinny messing about inside her cage most of the morning, when I suddenly heard a small `bump`. I thought nothing of it as she had been banging around most of the early morning. I got up, went to the loo, came back into my bedroom and opened the curtains. Sat on my bed to pull on my jeans and what do I see toddling out from under the bed? PRINNY! :eek::???: I immediately got her little fleece sack and let her walk inside.

I was so surprised because her Gabber Rex tank has no ladders or anything she can climb up onto (or so I thought). She soon let me see how she managed to get out. She goes to the back of her silent spinner wheel, climbs up onto the yellow spindle and then (somehow) manages to get up on top of the wheel and onto the rim of the Gabber rex roof.

I have to admit that I keep the barred lid off her cage a lot especially through the day as I`m in the room a lot and because she has never shown any interest in escaping, I never gave it a second thought.

The barred lid is back on this morning, but I made the lid myself from the spare shelving from other barred cages so it just lies across the gap in the gabber roof, but does the job well. I will definately be keeping the barred roof/lid on now and also placing a book over the top above her wheel incase she decides to have a second go!

The little tinker had me worried sick! I`m happy to report that she is none the worst for her adventure and when I played with her inside her cage, she was all hyper and could`nt wait to show me how she`s managed her escapade! She`s had more kisses and cuddles this morning than ever! :oops:

Lesson learned....never underestimate a chinese escapade! :mad:

[vanilla-yazoo]

Lol naughty girl!! They are amazing climbers, sko shi last night
Got on the inside of the zz1 lid but I use a material mesh so the gaps are
Only 1-2mm lol!
I keep a paper weight on each end of the wire lid, might help if
Its just wire covering it.
Glad you found her and caught her ao easily! :D

[vanilla-yazoo]

Sorry double post >.< silly phone!

[racinghamster]

I blame myself really for keeping the lid off when I used to replace it when I went to bed. I guess I was being nieve thinking she could`nt get up that far. I will definately be making the lid like fort knox tonight and placing a weight on the end where her wheel is.

Now that I have witnessed this I can see how agile chinese hamsters can be and not to underestimate their ability to escape! :mad:

[Munch]

I had a 4 weeks old pup escaping from her cage by jumping more than 10 cm ! :shock:

So I had to buy 5 mousetraps, the kind of traps that do not kill, but capture alive, and then wait for her to be traped.

Fortunately she was cought less than 12 hours after I realised she was missing, but what a shock!

I'm glad little Prinny knew where to go to get back in the cage!

[emilyweb]

hehe *A team music* ;)

[racinghamster]

:mad: A-Team indeed! Wish they would bring that back on TV....

Prinny gathered up some bedding and has went to bed. She is such a character. I think I was more worried than she was! I will make doubly sure she is penned in at nights with a heavy book placed right over the top above her wheel, where she managed to climb up. I`ve read about other people`s chinese hamsters managing to do this and I stupidly thought mine would`nt try it. It`s just as well it happened just as I was getting up and she was`nt running around all night. I could have easily stepped on her this morning as it`s so dark still not knowing that she was running around on the floor as I went to the loo! Thank goodness I saw her when I did or I might have thought she was in her nest!

[racinghamster]

Update: She`s still at it....trying her best to jump at the bars on the roof through the night, even though I have two books and a magazine over the ends! :mad: I think I will have to make a vaulted roof! I was woken at 5:00am this morning from little "Plonk" noises. This was Prinny sitting on top of her cardboard tea box, reaching up as far as she could to get a grip onto the covered bars above and dropping back down onto her box! She drives me mad but at the same time, it`s great to see her having such fun and energy levels!

I`m wondering if a larger, taller tank would suit her better? maybe the Ferplast one? can`t remember the name of it now.....the Multi? :-k

[AliKati]

Do you mean the Duna Multy? I've got one and I love it!

[Gibbs&JackBlack]

They are very smart little critters! That's why I always leave my lid on too ;)

[racinghamster]

Ah yes, it`s the Duna Multi, thanks AliKati! :) I looked it up and it seems to be the same size as the Gabber Rex, but the lid bars seem narrower? Can you tell me what the bar spacing is on the lid AliKati please?

I thought about a Zoozone 2 (since she loves the space) but I would have to mesh the bars and although I`m fine with that, I would rather have a lid that doesn`t need meshing if possible.

[vanilla-yazoo]

if you have a local pet shop that has firplast cages you can ask if they have thwe magazine to order them in, mine did when i asked about the duna fun they had sold, the duna multi, and multi maxi where in there, i think the maxi is a little bigger. if you have a look on
Pets care product manufacturer Italian pet furniture wholesale - FERPLAST (http://www.ferplast.it/prodotti_eng.php)
that has measurements for you :)

[vanilla-yazoo]

the multi is 71cm, zz1 size
small animal cage, Cages Small animals and rabbits Duna Multy manufacturer shop - FERPLAST (http://www.ferplast.it/scheda_prodotto_eng.php/prodotto=small_animal_cage-small-animals-and-rabbits-cages-rodents-duna-multy/id_menu=04010507/frm_pagina=1)
the multi maxi is 99cm long
cage for small animals, Cages Small animals and rabbits Maxi Duna Multy manufacturer shop - FERPLAST (http://www.ferplast.it/scheda_prodotto_eng.php/prodotto=cage_for_small_animals-small-animals-and-rabbits-cages-rodents-maxi-duna-multy/id_menu=04010509/frm_pagina=1)
but the first one is to the site so you can have a brouse at all the cages (some bad some good) :)

[racinghamster]

Nice ages, thanks yazoo. :) Do the multi`s have a water bottle hole or holes running along the lip of the base or in the perspex? I actually built my own water bottle holder by using the plastic insert that comes with the Gabber Rex and modified it so that it held a water bottle. So I would continue to use that if I switched to another tank stype cage, rather than use the hole provided as they are usually too high up for my liking.

My main concern would be any notches or lips running along the top of the coloured base? The Gabber Rex doesn`t have any that a hamster might discover and start to chew.

The Maxi looks huge! But I like the grills on these cages. They are narrow spaced and easily accessed.

[vanilla-yazoo]

no problem :) speak to your local shops if you want one :D
i dont think it has a bottle hole, but i think there is a few 'nooks' between the top and bottom, like the mini duna shelf dips, im sure alikati can verify that for you.
they do look nice cages :D

[racinghamster]

ECF did have the Multi selling for £44.00 just recently with free postage but they have sold out or I may have been tempted. Purely just to have a same size tank with a decent lid! If the Zoozone 2 had the narrow bar spaced lid I would just have gone for a ZZ2, but I don`t want to spend money on something I would need to mesh. Prinny could reach and climb on the bars safely without me having to worry about placing books on the lid to secure it. That`s my main worry with the way things are really. The gabber Rex is a good cage, but the lid is not. I had to scrap my lid as it came very rusted over and too far gone to save. So I had to make a new barred lid from the shelves from other cages and cable tied these together to make a lid. Little did I know prinny would soon learn that this lid was easy to reach AND to escape from if I didn`t weight it down. ](*,)

[vanilla-yazoo]

i wish the zz's had good lids too, i done a neat job on meshing skos zz1 (i agree the extra space is loved!) but i use a paperweight on it as it dosnt clip into its lock bit anymore, unless i have a gap along the back, as much as i dont think she would, i would prefer to use the paperweight and have it secure XD

[racinghamster]

A paper weight is good. I would like to have a nice lift up lid again and wouldn`t need to worry about access or Prinny gaining the upper hand on me again. I hate having to put books on the ends of her cage at night....

In fact, I would love to be able to hang a few ropes and things for her to play on, but I can`t do that with this cage because of the home-made lid.