Charlie's thread - Page 51

Pebbles82 · 09-10-2015, 04:03 AM

Aw Archie was lovely and so well mannered Thin Lizzy. A real sweetheart. Charlie used to be very neat and tidy but I think he has dropped out a bit on that front.

Shannonmcn · 09-10-2015, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RubyDG

Eventually even confirmed bachelors have to clean out their houses!!

This is exactly what I was thinking lol

I think it's a good compromise that Charlie cleans out his room and you do the rest of the house Serendipity, he's definitely old enough to do his share of the housework!

Thin Lizzy · 09-10-2015, 06:28 AM

Bonnie Prince Charlie doing some housework is so sweet. But, as Shannon says you do your house, so it's only fair Charlie does his. He must've been watching you and decided to pull his weight and earn some gold stars lol!

Pebbles82 · 09-11-2015, 01:45 AM

I think he just wanted to get the stinky stuff away from him lol - it's interesting though how they naturally cover the toilet corner of the burrow until it gets pushed further and further out. Not as easy as emptying the potty though!

Pebbles82 · 09-12-2015, 02:18 PM

Well I had to clean Charlie's cage out tonight and I've put a big house back in - it is more or less how it was before now. His Fitch mountain just became a big stinky nest really that was difficult to clean out. I'd also noticed his ears have been down a lot recently and he looks scared when he comes out of his tunnel - I think he was missing having a roof over his head. He also started running away and hiding behind his wheel the last couple of nights, if I talked to him through the bars. So he just wasn't looking happy. He had done a good job of cleaning out his Fitch mountain, piling the stinky stuff inside the little hay house but it was still getting stinky.

Anyway - have put in the Rabbit sized Ferplast Sin house. He can have his fitch mountain inside that! It's about the same size as the Lief Labyrinth house, but just open inside. It actually isn't much longer than his old guinea pig house, although it is a bit deeper, but doesn't stick out any further than the old set up as it has a shorter bendy bridge over the tunnel. The house is quite high, so it is set down on the bottom of the cage, so it's mostly subterranean, and loads of Fitch inside - and his potty back inside it. And it has the lift off roof so I can leave the house in place all the time and just lift the roof off. He still has some deep substrate and have left the wheel area fenced off, so the only real difference is the house is over his big pile of fitch. I think he needs the house more than the extra floor space, but hopefully one day he'll have a bigger cage and can have both. He still has his favourite hidey half of the cage in front of the wheel near the sputnik and vine branch, which is where he seemed to spend most of his time. He didn't seem to use the extra floor space much - maybe it was just a bit too exposed.

I left him in his pet carrier while I cleaned out about a third of the cage, and he went to sleep in there, then came out and had some time on the sofa and a little stroke and then his ears started coming back up again so he seemed more his old self.

He went straight down the bendy tunnel into the house when I put him back in the cage and scratched and banged about a bit in the house and seems to have gone to sleep now. Here's a photo

Jen250 · 09-12-2015, 02:58 PM

Aw, Charlie got his big house back. It does sound like he was missing it, even if he did enjoy his Fitch mountain. A lift-off roof sounds nice. That'll make it really easy to spot clean.

Pebbles82 · 09-12-2015, 03:09 PM

Yes it's great! Fits on well and easy to lift off. He's got the red bench back too. It was a nice idea to give him a smaller house with his potty outside it, but he didn't use it and the tunnels were basically an entrance to nest that wasn't inside a cosy house with a roof. So I think it's swing's and roundabouts and the tunnel to the house is like a tunnel to a burrow really. Hope he starts using the potty again now, now it's back in a corner in the house.

virtualkeith · 09-12-2015, 03:33 PM

Wow Serendipity, that house is HUGE!! The lift off roof sounds wonderful! Just a thought, have you ever thought of putting the house along the back wall of the cage to the right of the Wodent Wheel? This way, he would have the full length of the front of the cage to play.
It does look great though! Nice job!

Pebbles82 · 09-12-2015, 08:06 PM

Thanks Keith! Strangely it seems not that huge on the inside! But the extra 1.5 inches depth should mean he has enough room for his hoards as well as his potty. I like the size, it's better than I expected. That is a really good idea about puttimg it along the back - it's one thing I always liked about your set up. I think I just put it back where it was for familiarity. He does have a good bit of space the other side of the bendy stick bridge and stilll has his fabourite spot under the lava ledge at the back of the cage beyond the house. I think I had the house there originally because it was easy to get him in and out of the cage from there - the house entrance is right near the front door. Easy to take the roof off and change his toilet from there too. Just need a bigger cage really lol. I think I did try the old big house along the back once but that was when he had the bigger bendy bridge and it didn't quite fit to allow him to go in and out of the tunnel/bridge. It just kind of made a long thing strip of space at the front instead of an oblong one behind the bendy bridge. But I do think it would look better at the back if the cage was just a big deeper. I couldn't quite fit the granite stone where it was before, under the water bottle, so that is now on top of the house under his food bowl, which is ok as the house rests on the base of the cage so no risk of him tunneling under it and it falling on him. He seems to have taken some torn up toilet paper to make a nest so will now have a proper woven nest again rather than a stinky little burrow lol. I don't think I'm depriving him too much of tunneling because he only really dug the one and that was just to be 'under' something. He didn't seem to be doing it for the sake of it, just to get down below and he was also struggling to get out of it again sometimes. Anyway, hope the little guy is ok with the change back, but at least the set up is familiar and mostly the same.

Pebbles82 · 09-12-2015, 08:28 PM

Yay! He just came out of the house with his ears up. That's looking good. I'm not normally here to see him doing things at 4.30am but woke up with indigestion lol.