PJ the man cat
May 30, 2006 l Leave a Comment
I realize that with all of the business surrounding the rabbits new home, finals week, house projects, and the like, I haven’t posted about PJ in a couple weeks.
He’s doing well, though introductions have been put on the back burner because of all the work being done in the house. I didn’t feel we needed to add agitated cats to the already hectic environment, so we’re waiting until things settle down a bit.
We’ve started letting him roam the house for a few hours each day, during the girls’ ‘nap time’; they sleep in my room and he gets a chance to explore his domain. He loves playing with the girls’ toys, and if it bothers them, they don’t show it; they’ll still play with them, which I’m assuming is a good sign. There are occasional hisses and growls exchanged under the door, but I don’t blame them for that.
Around the humans PJ is, to put it plainly, a socially awkward cat. He doesn’t seem to know what the appropriate response is in a given situation, and it has caused some tense misunderstandings. PJ doesn’t understand that he can’t attack our hands in play, and when we cry out, he looks slightly confused. He also has a hard time grasping that he does not own everything in this house, and last week he hissed at Hannah when she attempted to remove a key chain that he had been chewing on. He isn’t punished for this, of course, it’s a perfectly natural reaction. But it’s also inappropriate, so lately we’ve been working on “Remove, Redirect, Reward” and we’re seeing good results.
In many ways we’re still in the “Getting to know you…” phase. Having lived with his sisters since birth, their vocalizations and body language are easily understood, but PJ has a whole different set of mannerisms that we’ve had to learn. For instance, he doesn’t like a lot of physical contact. The girls allow a good deal of manhandling (gently, of course), but PJ gets really peeved if you don’t give him his space. So that’s a learning curve for us.
Other than that, he’s doing great. Perfectly healthy in every way, says the vet. He’s really taken to the raw food diet and his coat looks great. And if there’s one thing he does share with his sisters (besides amazingly good looks), it’s his vocabulary. That boy is talkative with a capital T. You’d think their father was a Siamese or something…
Monday May 29, 2006A New Home progress report: containment and water bottles
May 29, 2006 l Leave a Comment
I made a rather wonderful discovery last night. As I mentioned, I don’t like the look of the exercise pen very much, and I had considered using wire grids (see here), but the dimensions wouldn’t have exactly matched my flooring giving me yet another aesthetic dilemma.
Then I remembered that several years ago I had bought a Configure Gate system: two panels and one gate. It’s in storage at the moment, but on a whim, I decided to check the dimensions online. The panels are 24″ wide! Which means that if I buy another panel, I can have something that contains the bunbuns, while looking nice and fitting my flooring perfectly. And I get the added benefit of easy access with a gate.
So that made my day for sure.
In related news, I’m going to buy the rabbits a Water Buddy. Rex has never been a fan of those bottles with stainless steel balls, but water bowls get dirty very quickly, and I’m always afraid they’re going to spill it or run out of water when I’m not around. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about the Water Buddy, so it sounds like just the thing we need.
A New Home: the temporary incarnation
May 28, 2006 l Leave a Comment
Because the rabbits can’t live in the reading room indefinitely, after finishing the flooring and litterbox today, I moved them into their ‘new’ home. I’m fairly happy with the new set-up, and the rabbits really seem to love it, but there’s still some tweaking to be done.
Of course, I’m pretty sure that most rabbit owners have an obsessive desire to “tweak” and modify cages and environments to better suit our lagomorph pals. I don’t know that I’ll ever be done tweaking. But there are still some changes I would like to make, mostly regarding placement of items.
Here’s what we’ve got so far:
What I Like About It:
- it’s very open and accessable
- easy to clean (HUGE plus)
- the rabbits have a lot of room to stretch out
- there’s space for their dishes, litterbox, toys, and other things, without detracting too much from their overall living area
- there’s room for more toys 
- it’s older bun friendly: low-entry litterbox, nothing too high to jump on, grass mats provide extra traction
- did I mention its easy to clean?
The only thing that I really don’t like about it is the exercise pen. I just don’t find it aesthetically pleasing, and I’m toying with the idea of using some other kind of enclosure, like wire grids. We’ll see how that pans out.
I’d also like to give the rabbits some kind of hide-away. I’m thinking Rubbermaid bin. Will post pictures when its all said and done.
I knew that I needed a floor that would work for the rabbits and for their dutiful slave, yours truly. Carpet was completely out, both because of possible soiling issues, and my fear that they might eat it. Foam mats would provide good traction, but like carpets and rugs, they’re an eating hazard. And Rex will eat just about anything.
My bedroom floor is laminate vinyl tile, which is nice, but it scratches and stains far too easily. So, faced with this dilemma, I did what any rational bunny mom would do: I went to Home Depot and ran my fingers over each and every sample of flooring they had, using my fingernails to simulate a rabbit’s claws to determine which one provided a moderate level of traction for hopping around. What I found was a textured tile of the peel-n’-stick variety:
Easy to install, easy to clean, and just 98¢ per square foot.
Ultimately, this tile doesn’t provide significantly more traction than the tile that’s on my floor. I’m sure if I had been willing to spend a little more time and energy (and money) I might have found a non-chewable-non-staining-easy-to-clean floor with great traction. But I didn’t, and so I stuck with the non-chewable-non-staining-easy-to-clean part. I would love to hear if others have had more success. Ultimately, we’ll have to find other, less permanent ways to increase the rabbits’ traction, such as grass mats.
In order to use the tile without permanently bonding it to my floor, I purchased a sheet of luan cut to the dimensions of the exercise pen: 4′ x 4′. The luan had to be lightly sanded and given a coat of latex-based primer to ensure maximum adhesion of the tiles. The luan cost me roughly $12, the primer was $6, and the dropcloth, roller, and other supplies were around $6. So that, along with the tiles, put me out a little over $40.
The priming was very easy to apply and dried quickly (thank you, Kilz). Laying down the tiles took maybe ten minutes, start to finish. As you can see, Stephanie had to make sure I was doing things just right.
And when it was all finished, I had to admit, it looked pretty good (note: board and tiles are very heavy, I recommend working in the area you intend the flooring to remain)
x-posted from Rabbits Only:
I found these while poking around the web:http://www.petwerks.com/prodpage.cfm?prod_code=MO400
http://www.bunnybytes.com/cgi-bin/start.cgi (click on ‘Supplies’, and on the second page is the SP006m Low Entry Litterpan)
A low-entry grated litterbox would probably be perfect for rabbits that have mobility issues and have difficulty keeping themselves clean.
*eta*
I’ve made our very own low-entry box for the rabbits’ new home:
Start with one concrete mixing tub from your local home improvement store (Home Depot should know me by name at this point), some kind of non-slip rubbery material (in this case, a pot holder), and Super Glue.
Cut a portion of the rubber to fit on one corner of the box, and glue it in place.
Repeat this for all four corners, and elsewhere if you so desire. You now have a box that won’t slide around the floor.
You may also, as I chose to do, create a grated cover. Illustrations of that procedure are here. As a final modification, I cut down one side to create easier access for older rabbits who may not want to leap in and out of the box. As you can see, Rex loves it.
