I think we went another two steps back then maybe three steps ahead so we're making progress again!
The other evening when I was planning to change his house things didn't go well at all
he came out & took a seed from me but when I tried to coax him back out again he wasn't having any of it so I removed the christmas pudding house & rustled the substrate a bit before removing a little bit but he was determined to burrow down & escape from me so not wanting to stress him too much I left him be but couldn't put the ceramic house back really as I wasn't sure exactly where he was & didn't want to squash him so I just put a big bendy bridge over his nest area.
He was so nervous after that I left him a couple of days to settle a bit although I could tell he wasn't happy without a proper house to hide in & finally tried again yesterday evening.
Getting him out was much easier, he's still a bit reluctant but it wasn't too much trouble & I popped him into his carrier for a bit while I changed things over.
He want straight in to have a good look & I did wonder if he'd come out again while I was around but his curiosity got the better of him & he had to come out to explore & was quite fascinated by the corner tunnel I put on top of the house, he was going round & in circles in one end, out the other & back in again
I decided against the granite roof as he is a real burrower & not happy if he can't dig his way out under the house so I hacked another roof a bit to use instead.
He was much less nervous straight away & took a couple of seeds from me before disappearing for a while then coming out to explore some more.
This morning he popped out just as I lifted the lid off the bin to put his food in & much to my surprise didn't just disappear again so I offered him a sunflower seed & he took that quite happily, he began to look around for his food so I got the tub & showed him what I was doing then offered him the tub & he wasn't too sure about that (unlike the others who would just pouch the lot!) but he did have a good look so I chanced offering him some of my extra seed mix & after a moments hesitation he pouched it all & had a good sniff of my hand looking for more, that really is the most confident he's ever been so hopefully we'll keep moving forward now.
I'm undecided yet as to whether or not to try putting a silent runner in place of his silent spinner, I think I have room but it may be one change too many so I'll probably wait a day or two.
I weighed him while he was in his carrier, first time as I kept forgetting before so I have no idea what he was when I got him but I can see he's grown a lot & is 40g already! He might even weigh a bit more after this mornings treat fest
Here's his new layout, I want to add more if I can but for some stuff I will probably need to drill some more holes in his bin so that will have to wait for now, I got him a cork tunnel too (not sure where it will go but I'll hopefully find a way to squeeze it in) but that's in the freezer & will need a really good clean when it comes out!
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