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Switching FROM fleece liners

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1.5K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  silvercat  
#1 ·
I brought Annabell home last September. At the breeders she was on woodchips & then had litter. Here, she's on fleece liners & litter in her litter pans (one in the cage & one outside for playtime). In or out of the cage she seems to spend all her time in only 3 places - in her hidey hut, playing/sprawled in the litter, or on her wheel. She has a rubber snake that she plays with out of the cage and pulls it into her litter box to play with it. In her cage, I find all her toys in her litter box in the morning. Last night I also watched her take her piece of chicken from her food dish over to her litter box & eat it there.

I'm thinking it's a texture/digging thing. She likes to dig in the gravel litter and lay out in it. The only time I every see her doing this somewhere else is next to the litter box, ontop of all the litter she's kicked out.

So I'm thinking about switching from the wonderful easy to clean fleece liners, so another bedding material. Any suggestions? I would like to stay away from wood chips due to the dust & the mess they make. Or do you think I should just leave the one area with litter and the set up as is? My concern is that she's playing & eating where she's using the bathroom. Not too hygenic.
 
#2 ·
If you haven't already tried, you could leave an old worn shirt in the cage for her. My little guy was on shavings when I got him from the breeder and loved to burrow and hide in them. I immediately switched him to fleece when I got him home, but left a shirt in his pen. I've noticed that any time he wants somewhere dark or somewhere to burrow, he'll run in to the shirt and dig around in there until he's satisfied. Might be worth a try.
 
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#3 ·
Could you try adding a large-ish pan to dig in...something shallow...maybe filled with mid-sized aquarium rocks? I dob't know the size/set-up of your cage, this is what we've done for Snarf:

Snarf's cage is 24" x 35" wood with lino floor. He loves his fleece bag but seems to prefer flat, smooth surfaces when out and about, so using coroplast, we covered about 1/3 of the cage, and cut holes in it for the wheel/litter box to sit in so nothing moves. Does this make sense?

As he likes to dig so much, I want to make 1/3 cage covered in something that would be basically a plastic baking sheet filled with aquarium grave (or other safe stuff). He loves his bowl filled with aquarium gravel, so should be in his glory with 1/3 cage for digging!
 
#4 ·
Annabell is in a 3 x 2 C&C cage. Fleece liners. She has a large hidey hut that's filled with fleece, her blanket from the breeder & touque. Her litter box is a large baking sheet filled with gravel litter. Then her wheel. (of course food & toys).
 
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