Charlie's thread

[Hamtaro8888]

Omg he is soooooo beautiful

[Pebbles82]

Charlie came out of his house for his veg tonight looking quite perky. I also gave him some scrambled egg and cheese on a teaspoon which he liked. I've realised that to take the inner panel out of his house will mean his nest will fall apart when I take the house out - so not sure now. But his potty needs emptying again and I can't face throwing his hoard away again! By taking the inner panel out I can move the potty a bit further along so he can still hoard in that place and have the potty next to it. It might actually be easier just to swap the house for another one, if it has to come out. Hmm thinking.

[cypher]

Charlie's doing so well for his age Serendipity, such a lovely & amazing little guy bless him. He seems remarkably active so I would think the panting & losing some weight is just down to old age, he's getting everything he needs & sounds generally healthy so I don't think you can do much more really.

It does sound like a bit of a dilemma with the house/potty/hoard issue, does it bother him too much if you remove his hoard & replace it? It's hard to know what will be best & less stressful for them sometimes but I think maybe using another house rather than trying to modify his current one might be easier, I did a bit of DIY on a Rodipet house once & it wasn't that easy!

[Pebbles82]

Yes it does bother him - he gets very upset when I take the potty full of food out! His potty badly needs cleaning right now so will need to do something! I do have the Ferplast rabbit house, but that's not as wide as this one - don't know it will help much as in that one he did the same thing because there was only room for a nest and a potty. The Rodipet one only needs one "wall" cutting out with a saw! But looks a bit fiddly. A cardboard house might do but can't seem to find boxes the right size and shape. What was ideal was the long built in house in his holiday cage. A bit like the one in the Alexander, but that doesn't work with deeper substrate and doesn't fit this cage.

[Coco61]

Is Charlie using the potty both to store food and wee in? Then I see why the change is needed. Otherwise does it need touching? I am not as brave with Mocho. He uses his potty for the right reason and so I don't go into his house complex as often as I should. I have been trying to pluck up courage for a couple of weeks now.
I suppose it is too late and cold now for Charlie to use his potty just outside his house so that his hoard remains fresher for longer. Otherwise since he gets so upset and he is an old boy set in his ways, the best thing is to do as little as possible. If he is happy in his house then leave well alone and move him back to the ferplast rabbit house only if he needs one open plan house.

[Pebbles82]

Yes he is hoarding in his potty (in a big way) and peeing in it as well - it gets pretty stinky. I think he wants to hoard in the room next to his nest area (moved his nest into the bigger room again and blocked up the little back room). He used to bury it but clearly digging down and so on is more difficult for him now and the potty is an ideal level place to access his hoard! So yes I think it would be better to remove the partition and just move the potty along a bit further - so the hoard can go in the same place (ie where the potty was) with the potty next to it. Which might work. As the potty would then be in a corner again.

I wish I was good at making these things! The long house that fits in his holiday cage is just two pieces of wood that slot together and rest on the rim of the cage base. Because it's long there is room for nest, hoard and potty sort of next to each other.

[Coco61]

If you do open up the rodipet house as you describe, have you a small container Charlie might like to use for the hoard so the potty is used for the right purpose. He might not like the hoard being loose. I think Mocho has built his nest on top of the hoard and abandoned one room. Too lazy to go next door to eat!

[Pebbles82]

Two potties maybe? But then he might just pee in the first one he reaches ha ha. I suppose I could put the hoard right next to the potty - I've done that before in the past to encourage him to put it there. I think it's the position (next to the nest room) rather than the potty itself but no doubt I will find out soon enough! Charlie also used to nest on top of his hoard - I think a bit of arthritis has stopped him doing that maybe.

[CMB]

I was thinking the same (two potties,exactly the same if possible). The new one for the hoard and the old for the potty. The smell should attract him to keep using it.

You may have to change the position depending on Charlie's preference.

Option 1Nest, hoard, potty.
Option 2 nest, potty hoard.
Option 3 hoard, nest, potty.

With option 3 both hoard and potty either side of the nest he doesn't have far to go from the nest to either. Less walking.

[Coco61]

Genius thinking CMB! Option 3??