Superman afraid of heights! - Paw Talk

Angelnstuff · #1 12-09-2006, 10:45 PM

we finished putting hoppitys NIC cage together on tuesday, i took some pics but my phone got fried so i dunno if i'll get them back.. anyway.. i made it 3 grids wide, 2 deep, and theres a 1x2 shelf, and a 2x2 shelf looks somethin like this..
____
|_._. |
| . ._|
|_._._|

it took him until friday to figure out the whole shelf thing, he went on the middle one and is ok there, but when it went up on the top he was scared to come down, we left him up there awhile, thinking he would figure it out, but he got real nervous and started ripping at the temporary cardboard floor, he would go toward the edge some, then freeze up and run back to the corner.. Anyone else have this problem? hes been up higher before, i mean for the first 3 or 5 months we had him his little cage was set up on a desk, which is about the same height as the top shelf, and it never bothered him. any suggestions?

we also connected his little cage to it, hoping he would still do all his potties in there to help contain the mess.. well that didnt work.. it seems hes forgotten all about his potty, he uses it sometimes, but hes also peed on the floor a couple times, and poos are everywhere.. i dont know if this is cuz of the new cage or cuz hes hit puberty tho, maybe both? he does seem to like new cage, weve blocked off the top shelf so he cant get up there, he hops up and down on the middle one just fine. he also does binkies around the bottem level, hes soo cute. heh i loves him

Angelnstuff · #2 12-09-2006, 11:29 PM

my lil cage example thing got messed up somehow when it posted so i made this.. heh it looks crummy but it was fun to make

hoppy cage.JPG
(click on it to make it a lil bigger)

Millimi · #3 12-10-2006, 01:02 AM

The top shelf just might be a little too high for him, and if he's happy enough not using it, I wouldn't worry about it.
As for him not using his potty, he just got a new cage and needs to mark his territory. Once he has his smell established, I would just always clean up the pee and move the poo to his potty.
Good luck!

kathydip · #4 12-11-2006, 07:02 PM

We just completed (almost) the cage for our buns. It has the floor level and three more shelves. They learned immediately to go up and down. Luckily it was not a problem. They are also doing well with the litter boxes. There are some stray poos but no pee-pee. Which is good since the bottom right now is a plastic tablecover. We made the real bottom with plywood and lineoleum. We just have to drill the holes so that we can tie it down.
I am sure that once he gets used to things he will learn to fully use the shelves.
Has he been fixed yet? I cannot remember.

Angelnstuff · #5 12-11-2006, 11:25 PM

No, hes not been fixed yet, were gonna have to take him to the city to have it done (2 hours away) which i know is going to stress him out, and david is gonna have to take some time off work, which his schedual has been really messed up so its hard. im thinking he might have to wait till spring. I know its better to do it when there young, but do you think it will be ok to wait a few more months? ive heard of rabbits 3-4 years old being fixed, so he should be ok right? the 2 hour drive scares me, and trying to find a hotel to stay in while were there, i wouldnt want to take him there and then back the same day, maybe string it out over 2 or 3 days if at all possible.

kathydip · #6 12-14-2006, 04:22 PM

Good luck when you take him. I am sure you will be happy once you do. Oliver did really well. Although our drive was only 25 minutes each way.
I am still amazed at what a difference fixing them made. Oliver was able to calm down and stop biting me all the time! And Ophelia is now great with her litter box. She has not peed outside the box since before she was fixed. There were a couple of poos but I am not sure if they are being knocked out of the box or they are due to the new enclosure being marked. Still when I say a couple of poos I mean literally 3 little balls! And ONLY in the cage. When I let them out to play they don't pee or poo in the room. A huge improvement from Miss Piddle Pants that every time she was out she pee'd on the couch in their room. I got wise quickly and placed a plastic sheet over couch so it was no big deal to wash the throw that covered it.

Angelnstuff · #7 12-14-2006, 08:03 PM

Thats great it made such a difference, im sure it will make a great difference in our hoppity, especially in how he interacts with my boyfriend. i really do want to take him, just not ready yet.
We rebuilt his cage abit last night.. last night changed things around and took the extra level off the top, and put his catlitter pan in there, which is Huge! when we put him back in he invesigated everything, then he peed a bit on the floor and it looked like he turned around and tried to cleaned it up? have you ever seen your rabbits do this? it was strange, and a bit gross i might add.. how are your buns doin btw? are they back sharing a cage again or not yet?

kathydip · #8 12-15-2006, 08:47 AM

What do you mean clean it up? Scratch like a cat? Or eww... taste it? Maybe he was just sniffing it? My dogs do that. Usually they are sniffing where the other pee'd but sometimes they sniff where they just pee'd. I swear they are making sure they covered up whatever "offensive" odor they were peeing on.
My two have been sharing a cage since last Friday night. They did so well so quickly I decided to try it. I read that once they are bonded you should never separate them again so I thought maybe it would be bad to drag on the bonding any longer. They are so happy together! They love the top shelf. Whenever you go in the room they are laying together. Oliver has been stretching out more that Ophelia. Usually he is all stretched out and she is right next to him. It is so sweet. It is also easier taking care of one large cage than two smaller ones!
Oh and they love their new cage so much that last night they didn't even want to come out and play! It took an hour before they finally came down and decided to come out.

jewels · #9 12-15-2006, 12:28 PM

He may have just turned around to eat his poo balls (which they do) and maybe got confused if he didn't have any. If you wanted to give him a second level you could try making him a ramp out of a NIC cube and put a woven hay rug on top of it - granted he'll eventually destroy the rug, but they're relatively cheap anyway so it's easy to replace.

As for neutering him, he'll be fine health wise, but it'll probably take a toll on you. The older boys get without being snipped the more rowdy they get. Rocko started spraying before he was ready to be snipped, so to protect the carpet and walls around his cage I used plastic table cloths. I found a fun Birthday pattern that was yellow with rainbow polka dots that didn't show his mess, and they were easy to clean with wet wipes.

Good Luck!!