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Cage retro-fixing flawed setup of inherited commercial cage setups

frNzR4evr

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Posts
115
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
115
I adopted two males with a very large (sorry, storebought for $200) free cage, water bottle, some food pellets, and some aspen wood chips. The cage came with a plastic loft closed in about 2/3 of the way underneath, so the "cave entrance" is about 1/3 of it, at one end. I asked the owner what it was for, and she said "oh sometimes they like to jump up there". Since they've been here (about 24 hours), one of them did jump up, glance around, and jump back down right away. I have not yet observed the other one doing so. To ease their transition, I asked where their water bottle had been (far end of the cage from the loft), and did they have a spot they liked to frequent for poo & pee purposes? She looked at me like I had a hole in my head, saying "all over, I presume". So I brought the guys home (she cave me a cat-carrier to keep ~ super handy), got the cage all set up, fresh water where she said, a ton of fresh shavings spread all over, a dish of food, a dish of lettuce, apples, carrots & yellow peppers (salad) and put the cat carrier in with the door propped open. One came out after about an hour, ran right into the cave, and disappeared. The other one was still in there after about 3 hours, so I 'encouraged' him by tipping the carrier a bit. HE ran right into the cave, too. Not surprising, but I was concerned they hadn't had any water or food for a long time. Eventually, one ventured out, and DEVOURED the salad. The other one came out at some point during the feast, and their was a bit of a skirmish, but it ended quickly and well. I've been 'poop scooping' since they started roaming around, to see if I could detect a pattern. Sure enough, there were a majority of pellets right next to the cave's wall, and along the one side. I decided to take out the loft/cave for cleaning, which is when I discovered the AWFUL TRUTH: Their 'cave' was their choice of bathroom space, and had been for quite sometime (whew!) Here they were, with no other hidey spots, sleeping on the soaking wet shavings, wet thru to their cage bottom. It was so easy to just pop in a couple of coffee tins, one for each of them, while I managed the (barnyard smelling) mess... I have the same problem under their water bottle, of COURSE, it drips. Thanks in part to the suggestion from YourSoJelly to CavieGuy I found in the forum, I have decided to turn the loft into the kitchen area! It's brilliant, will keep their shavings drier longer, and provided the other guy CAN jump up, it will be the perfect lace for their kibble and salad and fruit treats to stay up, free of shavings. I am getting some Timothy Hay later today, which I plan to put in a wiremesh suet holder so they can't contaminate it. This is so gratifying, being a cavie slave, no wonder there are so many of us!
 
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