Raphael (Raffy's) Adventures

[Pebbles82]

It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for ages but finally got round to last night. Moving Raffy’s labyrinth house from the middle to the end of the cage. It wasn’t really working like that - he’d take a short cut under it to his wheel behind pushing all the substrate out and ended up with virtually no nest. It’s like his house was just a tunnel basically rather than a retreat. And it broke up the floor area so there wasn’t much - two strips either side.

Anyway it had seemed an idea at the time. (It replaced his temporary cardboard house in the middle) His cage was getting a bit whiffy and needed spot cleaning anyway. He was having a whale of a time on the playpen late at night (discovered jumping off the flying saucer while in motion and then looking cheeky). So I just got on with it while he was in there.

Of course it meant having to move the wheel as well as that was at the end of the cage - which also meant having to move his hay house step from the back (wheel in the way) to the front (it’s next to his house) and remove his tube up to the shelf that was at the back and put a longer one at roof level - which meant having to add an extra Sputnik as the tube didn’t extend far enough. Meaning the bendy bridge on his house roof to get into the Sputnik had to stand partly in his large teracotta food dish (part of the house roof). So gave him a separate food bowl.

The right hand third wasn’t changed at all.

So it was quite a few changes. Set up is now like the ones I’ve usually done before (except the other way round).

I found a few enormous hoards under the substrate and saved some of those but some had been peed on. And one in his house which I left alone.

He was living a bit like a nomad - house was a kind of tunnel and hoards outside it rather than in it and hadn’t quite nested properly.

Anyway it wasn’t difficult moving the house further back - had to fiddle with the legs a bit so it didn’t get fouled up on the cage base. It was a fiddle moving the wheel to the back and attaching it from behind and twice dropped the rear washer and nut trying to do it. One I found easily - the other fell down the inside of the radiator! It did come out the bottom but got stuck behind a pipe. That meant pulling the cage stand out to get at it!

Anyway got that done and all put back together. And put loads of treats in the cage and a new dangly thing that hadn’t arrived when I first set it up. The egg box hammock needs to go back somewhere at some point but he’d been out of the cage long enough and enough was enough!

So he will need a bit of adjustment time probably. First thing he did was forage for all the treats and took them into his house as usual then explored a bit.

He checked out the house roof back and sides and seemed surprised there was nothing behind the house but bars (but a lot more space in front of the house. Also a bit surprised that his step wasn’t there when he left the house roof at that end (so started using the other end), and his tube wasn’t there.

At that point I started to feel mean I had made these changes! He was quite happy with the wheel being in a different place and took to that straight away. But actually the shelf end has changed as well because the tube led to it from his house roof. He did quite a bit of checking out on the shelf looking for the tube and finding he edge of the wheel instead. I felt really mean then wondering if I should have just left it as it was! But eventually he found the new tube leading from the Sputnik and the extra Sputnik and seemed quite happy with those although not keen on coming out at the far end. Hopefully he’ll get used to that.

He’s older now and not quite such a mad baby so seemed to adapt to all this quite well but he did sit looking very surprised a few times snd meerkatting. His routes and habits will change slightly as a result.

I don’t like changing a set up around and should have put the house there in the first place instead of just swapping it out. But didn’t realise he’d see it as a tunnel from one side to the other!

Anyway I feel mean at the changes but think it’s an improvement for him to settle over the winter and build a proper nest. I do think he’ll miss that old tunnel from the house roof along the back of the cage to the roof - but at least now he can use the top door of the house.

Hope he’s happy with it when he gets used to it. I think he’ll start to enjoy the roof run when he gets used to it.

It did need a partial clean as welll but reused most of his old substrate and added some more. Strangely his hyacinth ball was missing! I suspect he chewed/shredded it hence I kept finding bits that looked like cardboard strips and wondered where they had come from.

I’ll add a photo later. Looks like Moo’s old set up in reverse.

[cloudy]

I can understand you saying you feel mean as I do when I have changed anything in Orko's cage. I think sometimes it takes us time to get to know what is best for a hamster by observing them and how they use their cage. Only then do we know if we need to make some changes.

Raffy was awake when you made the changes which is far less stressful then if he woke to them. It sounds like you have improved the set up for him and I am sure he will be happy when he is used to it.

[Pebbles82]

Double posted

[Pebbles82]

Thanks cloudy. Thing is - I know what works having done it before in that cage but Raffys house hadn’t arrived when I did the set up this time and he was very small and some hamsters get overwhelmed by the space so I’d put the smaller temporary cardboard house in the middle to break up the space a bit. When I did swap it out for the labyrinth house that was bigger and not really much space behind it and meant some rejigging then (he lost a couple of mini shelves and the tube was in the way of the top house entrance. So I should have put the house in a better location then, when I had to make changes then but thought it was less upheaval to just swap the house out.

I think I wanted to try something different as well - so it wasn’t exactly the same as the usual set up (which works!). So it didn’t remind me of the previous hamster …….. Anway large labyrinth house in the middle doesn’t quite work for a Syrian.

Hopefully he’ll approve of the changes and get into a new routine and enjoy his set up. He was happy enough in his wheel anyway!

Which is why you should get everything set up before they arrive. With rescues though the timing isn’t always that simple!

Actually for a different hamster the old set up would have worked - for a shy hamster - but Raffy is super active and uses all the space.

I suspect he will avoid coming out for a few days now - guarding his cage.

[cloudy]

I can understand you trying a different layout so as not to remind you of another hamster. I would have done that too.

[Ria P]

I think we all have a basic cage set up formula which we follow because it works. Sure, there are always adjustments here and there depending on the hamster's preferences.

Now and again we think that we ought to try something different and then go back to the original set ups.

You are only doing what you know you should have done in the first place. I don't think there's anything to feel mean about. Raffy will soon let you know if there's something he's not happy with. Chances are that he will prefer this set up once he knows his way around.

Looking forward to see a photo.

[Pebbles82]

I think he will prefer it when he gets used to it - he can nip straight out of his house door and onto his wheel

[Pebbles82]

Living room is a complete mess ha ha. I have a lot of cleaning up to do today. Substrate all over and hamster stuff all over the sofa.

Took these with my phone and they seem strangely warped! (ie tubes and wheel don't look too round). It's a new/upgraded phone recently - maybe I have it on wide angle or something. Prefer using my camera. But phone is handier.

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[Pebbles82]

So his only route up to the shelf now is the cork log and the old tube was an easier way up there - he'll need to get used to that too. Or he can get to the shelf via the sputniks/roof tube. The one thing that isn't quite right is getting into the sputnik over the house - wish I hadn't cut so much off the house legs originally - as it could do to be a bit taller. There is a bit of a gap between the bendy bridge and the sputnik. He is athletic enough to handle that but it would have been better if the house roof and bendy bridge were higher and closer to the sputnik.

I cut the legs for the house height in the middle of the cage! I do have some spare legs that are longer but gave up fiddling as only had three.

So might need to rethink that sputnik access at that end so shelf access at the other end is simpler. Maybe another little back shelf with the bendy bridge leading to that.

As you can see from the set of photos above - he has already, overnight, managed to stuff substrate between the side of the house and up the bars! Not quite sure how he managed that but he is determined to push substrate out of the bars! I suspect he was digging under the house and it got pushed up.

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[Pebbles82]

Just sorted that His old little shelf he had before fitted just right and screwed the bendy bridge to the bars leading up to it. So now the large food dish is free again as well.

So now he has an easy route from the house roof, through the roof run, to the shelf at the other side. Also tweaked the roof tube as it wasn't quite high enough at one end. Should have cleaned all the bits off that bendy bridge! But at least it will smell familiar.

Of course now he'll probably jump off the shelf onto the flower basket (which I moved higher up to stop him doing that!)

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