Socks: Mouseworks Dynamic Cardboard Redesign and Basic Tunneling

I bet he is :-) Isn't it kind of them to tolerate us in their environment ha ha.
 
Socks: I was out for a free run this evening and noticed that we have some guinea pigs living here. I remember them from my pet shop days. I ran around as usual and then...
Mom: I thought to myself, the cage base is too high for Socks to get up. It would be dangerous for him if he went into the guineas cage. A few seconds later, I looked at the cage and there was Socks on top of it staring down at Truffle and Jazz like a ninja. I picked him up before he could go any further and held him. Socks stared hard at the guinea pigs.

Socks: I didn't even have time for a sand bath tonight. Mom is going to put up the playpen around hhe guineas' cage to keep us all safe.
 
Oh my goodness! How did he get on top of the guinea pig cage? Is it on the floor? Even so how on earth did he get up there?!! I believe hamsters and guinea pigs could be hostile. I know you'd make sure they would never mix.
 
Yes, the risk of catastrophic injury is too high. I can free roam Socks in the shower/loo room. He was very good last night and only bar bit once, to get me to keep him company while he was on his wheel. Keeping guineas is a learning curve, but I am enjoying it. I groomed them this morning. They don't like being picked up so I had to be gentle but firm and get them up quickly as they try to shoot away and get wound up. It was a success, but did involve a bit of wriggling about and lots of little apprehensive guinea pig noises. It is very important though and needs to be done every day. Jazz has a bit of poo on his bum, not on his pooper, but in the fur above it, so I will need to find out how to clean this. They look OK otherwise. I had to cut a mat out of Truffle's fur, but he was quite sporting about it.
 
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At least I can photograph the piggies as they are more or less diurnal. Jazz having a post grooming lie down and recovering from his ordeal. Being groomed is a little stressful at the moment. I am coated with hair and will need to vacuum myself as well as the flat today (and possibly everyday)
 

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I have found our ghat grooming doesn't need to be every day. They are very friendly and love my company but being picked up isn't their favourite thing!
 
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It’s still very early days :) They probably just need a little bit of adjustment time. It’ll be easier with socks when they’re on a table :-). He was probably thinking “ha - my cage is better than yours “ 🤣
 
Socks: I was inspecting my premises about mid evening last night. Mom had the shower room set up for my out of cage session. However I had to so something urgent and unseen and dodged into my cellar. It took a while and when I came out everyone had been asleep for a while. I resorted to a long run on my wheel. Mom woke up.
Mom: Socks clearly wanted an out of cage session and ran around his cage, pausing and meerkatting and gazing through the bars. He ran on his wheel while I was watching him and seemed to like having me watching him. When I went back to sleep, he started chewing cardboard (crunch crunch crunch). Eventually he started chewing the bars 😵‍💫. However I have more Carefresh bedding I added this morning and will mix some hay into it to it to make it deeper and to get it to hold tunnels better. I need to try to get him out for a free roam for at least ten minutes most evenings. And put up more chew things and cardboard pieces to chew instead of the bars. I don't want my little Ninja to need a vet dental visit!
 
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Maz said:
It’s still very early days :) They probably just need a little bit of adjustment time. It’ll be easier with socks when they’re on a table :). He was probably thinking “ha - my cage is better than yours “ 🤣
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It was quite scary at the time. I still can't understand how he got past the cage base (about the same depth as the Plaza 120) and then climbed up the bars onto the roof so quickly. It was just lucky that he didn't go through the bars into the cage, phew! Yes, keeping the guineas and Socks away from each other is absolutely essential.
 
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I didn't think about that! Yes he could have got through the bars as guinea pig bar spacing is quite wide - about 2cm I think. Assume he jumped and hung on to the bars to climb up.

They constantly surprise us with what they can achieve!

Would it be possible to set up part of the playpen around the guinea pig cage? To kind of fence it off. Then socks could free roam in the rest of the room. Assume he can't get over the playpen? And presumably you can then just have the guinea pigs out when Socks is in his cage.
 
Yes, barriers are a good idea. The guinea pig cage is not very heavy and I can wheel it into the passage/kitchen while socks is running around the room. He only does a few rounds of the room. More underground space in his cage should also help.
 
Do you have it on a dolly trolley then?
 
I mixed Carefresh with hay and piled it up behind a bendy bridge to make a (hopefully) inviting space to tunnel covering about a third of Socks' cage. We did a free roam session in the evening in the shower room, small but big enough to allow Socks to run about for a while. I kept a watch on him constantly as I was worried about him eating paint or sealant. He rolled his eyes at me a couple of times and sighed when I interfered 🙄😄 but made good use of the area. I think he prefers the larger space of the room however. I heard him running energetically on his wheel later, back in his cage. I think I will need to glue a very thin piece of sandpaper to the underside of his wheel base to stop it sliding. He did not take well to my "Well, just push it back" response to his complaint that I was asleep when it skidded. He was pretty quiet last night, and I don't think he did any bar biting
🤞😴
 
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Cork or hemp mat might be better :-). I use hemp mat for lots of things. You can just cut a piece to size. I put it on a house roof in winter to make things cosier sometimes. And have used a whole one under a cage to stop it slipping on a cupboard, so it would work well to stop a wheel slipping. Not all hemp mats are the same though. The Hugro ones are ok and the Rodipet ones are the best (easier to cut) but then there’s the cost of postage with Rodipet. I get the biggest one though so I always have some when needed.

I’m wondering if things changing in Socks cage could be adding to the bar biting. Although adding extra substrate and hat shouldn’t do that. But they can get a bit stressy if we mess with their environment sometimes! Although I realise you’ve added it to distract him from doing it so it’s the other way round!
 
This is the one I get.

Rodipet® Hemp Mat 100 x 40 cm

Non-slip pet carpet for easy cleaning of the enclosure This pet carpet is made from untreated hemp fibres and fits into many home-made pet enclosures. It is a lovely and ...
www.rodipet.co.uk www.rodipet.co.uk
 
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