So cage set up finished. I sneaked most of Pickle's cage contents out while he was asleep today so he can move in - I just need to wait till he's awake and then move his nest, hoard and potty. Took his little shelf out and moved and the other toys.
The left side of the Plaza fine but the house end needed some re jigging and setting up. I didn't use the legs in the end and set it lower down or Pickle may just hide under it. And put hemp mat round the inside at that end. The Plaza base is smaller than the Barney so the house doesn't sit on the base but rests on the curved edges near the bottom. That left too small a gap underneath in case he tried to get under the house, but once the hemp mat was in place that wedged the house in firmly with a 6cm gap underneath. So he can't completely disappear under it but still has some substrate underneath. It's a nice slope down to the house entrance as well.
Anyway that worked better with the small back shelf from his old cage. And all his old toys in there but not all in exactly the same place. The coconut had to go at floor level as the roof was a bit high to hang it from, even over the little shelf. His old door tunnel bendy bridge is now the ramp up to the big shelf.
But the whole cage smelled familiar anyway after his exploration yesterday. He seemed quite unfazed by moving in and really enjoyed checking everything out.
Then I found I couldn't fix anything to the bars due to the hemp mat tied in place! So had to cut a long thin piece out to fit the shelf, and a small piece to fit the water bottle holder through.
He moved in tonight. Moved him out of his empty cage into the rat ball for 5 minutes while I moved a bit of his nest and hoard over and his toilet. Hopefully he'll get some better habits now as he'd taken to nesting in his toilet again recently! But who knows!
He seemed very happy in it straight away - more confident exploring this time after his visit in there last night, had a run in the wheel - did some foraging and found all the treats and seeds I'd scattered. He seems very happy with it.
Now I just have to resist taking the house roof off for a while as that's what scared him last time.
It was nice to see him out and about in the cage in the evening and using the wheel. I may have the odd thing to add later - haven't used the cork shelf yet.
Photo just before he moved in - hadn't put the food and water in at this point.
Attachment 51307
Attachment 51308
Attachment 51309