[KittyHound]

Morning all,

I desperately need some advice please.

We have had Oscar for a week. We are his third and final home (at 7months) but I made a rookie error on his second day. The cage he was in was far too small with a tiny wheel so I went out bought the largest one I could find in Pets at Home and transferred him but only with the ‘burrow house’ he had from his previous cage as the substrate he had was thin and a little stinky.

On his first day, in his old cage, he would come up to the bars and take food from me and seemed generally fine. Since transferring him he just freezes every time we’re in the room - and can be for a long time. I understand why so have left him to it for a week. He’s drinking and eating just fine.

He’s in our sitting room and I have been sitting on the sofa about 3 m away every night so he gets used to my being around and increasing the time i’m there for. I have now started putting food in every night when he wakes up in the hope that he associates me with good things, but I’m not sure if that’s working - maybe i’m being too impatient? I did try and tempt him with a mealworm last night but he just stayed in his frozen state.

So now I have two concerns:
1) I need to clean his home but I don’t know how to do this without freaking him out. I don’t want to remove his scent and I don’t want to scare him by poking around whilst he’s asleep (i’m not really sure where he is sleeping because he is burrowing) but equally I don’t want to fiddle around whilst he’s awake and scare him and set him back.

2) The taming - should I wait until he stops freezing and seems happier before I go anywhere near him? Ie don’t try and feed him directly, only put food in when he’s not there etc?

Any help is gratefully received.

Many thanks K x