Raphael (Raffy's) Adventures

[Pebbles82]

It is a shame. I guess they have struggled like everyone else. I had a terrible batch of food from them last year and haven't used their food since. But it's a bit much when prices have gone up and quality has gone down. If we had time we could make our own labyrinth houses here - to sell on!

[Ria P]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

It is a shame. I guess they have struggled like everyone else. I had a terrible batch of food from them last year and haven't used their food since. But it's a bit much when prices have gone up and quality has gone down. If we had time we could make our own labyrinth houses here - to sell on!

People are making good quality hamster furnishings and selling them on Etsy.

It's the high postage i'm unwilling to pay for Rodipet items but wasn't even aware of the deteriorating quality. Thank you for pointing this out.

[Pebbles82]

It may be just a one off. I'll see what the wheel is like.

[cloudy]

I am happy with the Henry Hamster multichamber hide and sand boxes.

[Pebbles82]

Cloudy - yes theirs seems almost identical in size and design apart from being slot together and having the ramps inside. At the time I wanted a house quickly and delivery was going to be slow. But in the end the Rodipet one didn't get here in time anyway!

Actually it's not as bad as I thought. I can see what they've done. They've changed the design of the house slightly. The two small compartments at the back are now slightly bigger (which is good because they were too small). Meaning the two compartments at the front are not quite as big as before but still a good size for a nest.

And the partition between them has changed. Instead of being glued between the sides it is "slotted" partway down the sides (still glued in place though). So the "gaps" are below the slotted in part. Probably easier if I put a photo up to show what I mean! The gaps are very small so not really an issue.

So it's a design change rather than quality control. Although one of the roof nubs fell off! And needs glueing back on. Otherwise quality is not much different to before - the odd slightly rough bit I sanded but then I'm fussy. It was only one or two bits at the edges and inside one hole. Don't remember needing to do that before but hard to remember. Plastikote usually solves anything like that anyway.

So this is the partition between the front and back compartments

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It used to be fixed inside the two side pieces, but now, "slots" into the side piece partway down

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As the slotted bit only goes part way down, the bit underneath, inside is not glued/attached so a very slight gap - but not enough to worry about.

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Where it slots down the side there's a tiny hole underneath too which I'm not that keen on but won't do any harm.

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What is slightly frustrating is - if they were going to change the design like that, it would have been better if those partitions were removable! Instead of well and truly glued in place. They look like they should slide out but don't.

[Ria P]

Could be a H&S measure. If the partitions were removable someone may leave one out and a small hamster could get stuck in the gap where it would slot in.

[cloudy]

I wonder what the reason for changing the design was. It could be feedback from customers. It is really good you are still able to use it.

[Pebbles82]

Oh yes it's perfectly useable. It threw me for a bit though until I realised it was a design change. Seems stupid to have removable partitions that aren't removable though! But yes Ria Rodipet always prided themselves on safe stuff - they will only sell certain wheels.

I still don't like the tiny gaps, but you'd get those with removable pieces probably anyway - I've just let the plasikote go into them so they're kind of sealed. If I was being perfectionist, I'd fill them with wood glue. Might do that actually! But that's the point - you want something immediately useable - not something you have to diy. But then that's the case for a lot of hamster stuff that isn't quite right.

I don't think the gaps are a hazard but they are at the bottom half of the house, so could encourage chewing in that area - something to get their teeth into.

[Pebbles82]

So the other night I put the labyrinth house and new Rodipet wheel in Raffy's cage. Which took me ages faffing about. Raffy was quite happy being in the playpen for two hours in the other room! (I kept popping in to see him - it was late at night - and he kept looking at me all happy as if to say "can I just stay here all night?". Now when the playpen is in that room he is fine and enjoys it. I can't always put it up in that room if stepson is here - then it goes in the living room around the coffee table! Meaning there is a roof over the playpen (the coffee table). That's when he chews the carpet in one corner. That carpet must taste nicer than the other one.

Anyway. I did a straight swap. House in the same place, wheel in the same place. I wouldn't normally put the labyrinth house in the centre of the cage as it kind of divides up the floor area, but didn't want him to have too much upheaval and it's only slightly wider and longer than the shoebox house, so fitted in there well. So everything was still familiar (except the house has a hole on top).

To make that work meant removing the small shelf at the end of his tube along the back (that he used to hop onto to get on the shoebox roof) and the bendy bridge attached to the bars and the other small shelf at the end of that. In other words the three small shelf areas beyond the long tube. Because with the house and the bigger, wider wheel, they wouldn't fit in.

The bigger house roof replaced the small shelf anyway and I turned the bendy bridge back into a bendy bridge, in the same place but not attached to the bars (as it would have been a dead end then!). And as a way of getting on and off the house roof to get to the wheel.

A lot of fiddling about. Spot cleaned at the same time. Saved his nest. He had been peeing under the house (always just tipped the potty upside down and didn't use it). I'm hoping with the labyrinth house, he'll use the potty as it's in it's own compartment (and not easily moved!).

Because the wheel is so big (so sits lower) and the house is on legs there is a bit of a drop between the back of the house and the wheel.

Anyway all sorted and then I realised that he had no way of climbing into the egg box hammock any more! (Over the house roof). I don't think he used it anyway so decided to think about that another day. Also his rainbow bridge didn't fit on top of the house any more as there's a large food plate covering a hole in the middle of the house - so I put that behind the house too for him to climb down onto to get to the wheel - because I then realised that when he comes out of the tube, instead of flat shelf - he comes out at the hole on top of the house! ie no footing! So I moved the tube along a bit so he had a bit of roof to step onto.

It wasn't till he was back in the cage trying things out that I realised he had to step over the hole in the house roof to get to the bendy bridge after coming out of the tube (hence putting the rainbow bridge at the other end).

I was a bit worried the changes might freak him out, but is the least freaked out hamster I've ever known! He didn't seem the slightest bit bothered. Although he did investigate. The right hand side of his cage was exactly as before - no changes.

So he came out of the tube and looked like uh! There's a hole there. Jumped over the hole onto the bendy bridge and into his wheel. Not ideal but I reckoned he'd probably just jump off the house roof or use the bendy bridge.

Wrong - he just tunnelled under the house out at the back and I found the rainbow bridge upside down, further along, virtually buried .

So I've now put the rainbow bridge on top of the house roof at the front - so he can get into the hammock - and he seems to like running over the top of the rainbow bridge there anyway.

So - I'd given him the wheel in the playpen earlier that evening and he loves it - ran and ran and abandoned his trixie wheel. So once it was in the cage it was already familiar.

He just seemed to settle into everything straight away. Thought I'd leave him alone for a couple of days in case he was skittish with the changes - but no - he was still pestering to come out every night as usual.

So all has gone smoothly. I'll leave the house where it is for now but at some point might move it to have more open space in the cage. However the large wheel (and it's huge!) Limits what I can put where.

In fact I almost think Raffy needs a bigger cage. He is incredibly active and if you don't let him out by 10pm he starts bar chewing. He wants to be out a lot.

Anyway he seems to like the house, as they all seem to. And LOVES the wheel - he absolutely thunders in it. And as mentioned on the wheel thread, it does make the cage bars rattle slightly when he thunders in it. The wheel itself is silent and stable on the bars, but when Raffy thunders in it, it makes the bars rattle very slightly. Not nearly as much as the previous wheel though and not really that much. Can't hear a thing tonight from upstairs.

I kind of miss that actually! Hearing him bashing around in his wheel at night!

I have a video of him running in the new wheel in the playpen but haven't uploaded it yet, but here are the photos of the house and wheel in the cage.

Also have another very funny video of him the week before where he is doing a lot of digging. I'll get them uploaded soon ..

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[cloudy]

That was some serious interior designing! How cute Raffy likes the changes and just finds them fun to explore. He seems to really love being in his playpen. He is gaining more and more confidence.