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Post by ntg on May 20, 2018 8:47:20 GMT
Told my parents about the joint massive cage idea for everyone and (shockingly) my mam just came out with "well that makes sense." No trying to discourage me on the size or anything Gone home this weekend which means the chins have been left for a day (Liam came back yesterday - a day later than me - thanks to his shifts, and I'm heading back today so we'll see how grumpy they are. Degus are with me as usual due to Sherlock's med routine and will be coming back for a two week stay in a weeks time while I'm away in the Netherlands for a conference and Liam and I go camping for a few days. I'm going to get a friend to go in every day for the chins to feed and interact with them which will also be the plan for any weekends we're away for in the future. On a slightly different note, has anyone tried miscanthus bedding before? I'm out of finacard and looking for something with large chips that absorbs better and so far I've only come up with bedmax...
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Post by moletteuk on May 20, 2018 9:32:38 GMT
I think randomname has mentioned miscanthus bedding, at least, I've heard of it so I'm assuming it was Random that mentioned it.
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Post by ntg on Jun 13, 2018 21:57:45 GMT
I'm pretty sure I've adopted the dirtiest boys in the world! Been trying to litter train them practically since I got them and they still just pee everywhere even resorted to no bedding anywhere other than in their litter trays and Gizmo decided the perfect place to pee was on top of the wooden bridge, right in front of me after I'd cleaned them out Fortunately the degus aren't too bad and keep most of their pee in one place so I've only got one pair of messy animals The boys are doing well though, Giz will happily be stroked, has a beautifully white coat and his grumpy times have gone down (that or I'm now quick enough at giving him treats on a morning before he gets too grumpy). Benji is coming along from getting extremely skittish after the vets and refusing to be touched to tolerating a short stroke but is quick to either retreat or push your hand away if it's too much for him. He just needs a little extra confidence and then I'm sure he'll come along nicely! We are having issues getting them to go into the transport box to go into the bathroom for free range though, hoping progress on the kitchen/living room will happen quickly and then we can get them moved downstairs and figure out a way to portion off the room for them to run around in straight from the cage as it'll make things 100x easier than spending 15-20 extra minutes trying to coax them into a box
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Post by ntg on Jun 13, 2018 22:08:39 GMT
Giz doing his best bunny impersonation Benj using my feet as a perch
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Post by deguconvert on Jun 14, 2018 13:26:29 GMT
Benji is MASSIVE!! Is he a little over fed . . . I'm so used to seeing a the head look larger than that? They are so beautiful!! I bet it is hard not want to cuddle them right in!!
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Post by ntg on Jun 14, 2018 13:55:12 GMT
He's a 3/5 on the body scale so yep, he's a tad chubby don't think that'll change until I get them grain-free though as that's when they tend to start dropping weight in my experience... Sherlock was the same when I got him and lost fat but gained muscle with me so stayed the same weight overall - Bronwyn the vet I saw the other day called him a tank with all his muscle
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Post by ntg on Jun 14, 2018 22:43:07 GMT
I've managed to go 6 years with degus without being peed on, less than 2 months with chins and its happened twice now :/ It's a good job they're cute
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Post by darthchinchi on Jun 15, 2018 11:26:57 GMT
Peeing is a sign of stress... Even if they are just sitting on you and peeing. So might want to look into why they are peeing, even though they are super cute and chubby
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Post by ntg on Jun 15, 2018 11:41:16 GMT
Would it be stress if he's properly settling down to pee rather than spraying?
Seems to be more of a "this is my time and I will go" sort of thing as it's always a similar time of night that they're out and Giz is always pretty relaxed unless a strange noise has startled him. I'm definitely surprised by the volume though as it's a good tablespoon or so that he releases.
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Post by darthchinchi on Jun 15, 2018 12:00:20 GMT
Normally they will be looking for a specific spot to pee each time, so they really shouldn't look to you for a pee-spot - haha
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Post by ntg on Jun 15, 2018 12:44:18 GMT
Honestly, I don't think Giz knows what a pee spot is, he just feels the call of nature and goes for it (which is usually either perched up high with his bum sticking off the end or on material) I wasn't lying when I said they were messy boys xD pee is also a normal colour and there's no sign of distress while peeing so I'm not too concerned about kidney function either.
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Post by savvy on Jun 15, 2018 15:34:42 GMT
When I worked in rescue there was one particular ferret who pee'd on me every time I had to pick him up, it wasn't stress, he was marking me as his and his alone.
He could be trying to claim you from your OH.
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Post by ntg on Aug 26, 2018 11:59:08 GMT
Boys are both doing well! Gizmo has figured out how to jump on top of the open door of the aventura to then gain freedom to the top of the cage, which is putting a bit of a dampener on working with Benji's confidence with us in the cage since we have to deal with the escapee but he's getting there, will let us ruffle his head, and stroke his side while he has treats whereas Gizmo is a bit of a "inappropriate word" and will let you do anything for treats (and you can get away with a small amount of petting without him eating). Let them out and they're a couple of nutters, happily bouncing off walls and trying to destroy the doorframe. They'll jump on my shoulders - Benji was even on my head the other day - and just come over to say hi every so often. Still haven't figured out who's the boss between them though, there's usually at least one humping attempt by both every free-range time so I'm not sure they know either youtu.be/gnV_eBnTmig
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 26, 2018 18:49:59 GMT
I feel like I've got them mixed up in my mind . . . Gizmo is white and Benji is black? But then I looked at the video (VERY cute!!) and the one I think is Benji came up to say hello and had a tiny scratch from you. So now I am wondering if Benji is the white, since you mention Benji lacks confidence in the cage, and Gizmo is the black? But now I read your post again and see that Benji is more forward in the free run time, coming up to you and even sitting on your head, so maybe Benji IS the black one!!
Please set me straight, LOL! Whichever one is which, they are as always ADORABLE!!
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Post by ntg on Aug 26, 2018 19:12:10 GMT
The black one is Benji he doesn't mind so much in free range,I'm guessing it's maybe because he has more room to move away if it's too much for him.
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 27, 2018 10:05:32 GMT
Lovely to get an update I'm seeing the image not found notice from post image for the photo you posted above on 13 June, any ideas what that it is about, it must be what MissC mentioned the other day?
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Post by ntg on Aug 27, 2018 10:24:14 GMT
Yeah I noticed that too, but can't figure out what photo it is to see what's going on.
I'm wondering if it maybe has something to do with if you upload photos without making an account if they have a clear out every so often? I know I sometimes don't realise that it's logged me out of postimage so that seems like the most likely reason to me.
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Post by ntg on Aug 27, 2018 10:28:41 GMT
Lovely to get an update I'm seeing the image not found notice from post image for the photo you posted above on 13 June, any ideas what that it is about, it must be what MissC mentioned the other day? Just checked the link and it's the whistle gif that isn't working on this or the page before, I think that's hosted on your account isn't it?
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 27, 2018 14:36:41 GMT
I've just checked my postimage account and the whistles pic has been removed for contravening the terms of service! I only found out when I tried to re-upload it. I suspect the image may belong to somebody in terms of copyright who now objects to other people using it. I got them all from free smiley websites, but maybe they took them from other people without checking copyright too carefully. That's all I can think of anyway.
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Post by ntg on Sept 8, 2018 21:50:34 GMT
Somebody's worked out I hide the treat bowl under my leg...
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