Playpen Mini Renovation

Revamping their pen setup again!

It's really a small change this time :)

Just to refresh their Before renovation setup. See the grid between the 2 hay racks? 

I just removed the grid between their litter boxes. This is so there will be lesser hays trapped between the spaces of the boxes.

But without the grid in between, the 2 hay racks have nothing to secure. On my first try I used Velcro by 3M. 

Surprisingly, Cotton also pretty well behaved that day when I removed the grid. 

To prevent the hay rack moving too much, I added 2 binders to act as blocker.

But in the next morning, they made a mess - the 3M Velcro is not strong enough to withstand their pulling force. They have a tendency to dig at the rack and thereby pulling the rack nearer to them inadvertently. 

So I knew I need to improvise again and an idea stroke me! So I used cable-tie to bond the two racks together and bought those wire Velcro strips to bind one rack to the litter box mesh. Once one of the racks is secured to its litter box, it will also secure the other hay rack too. 

And this works splendidly! Yay!!! 

New Double Feeders Bowls for Cotton

So I was looking online for a water bowl for Cotton and I found a perfect double feeder bowls! I checked out the price from PLC and they charged $13+. Nothing is cheap at PLC.

I heard that some online pet shops offer competitive prices for the same time sold at PLC and indeed, I found one via word of mouth recommendation. Hence, I paid $9.90 from Mosses Lee from Facebook, My Pet House, without any minimal purchase with free delivery. It's simply too good to be true.  

My idea water bowl cum treat bowl

Cotton's initial impression of the item

Now the double feed bowls is affixed on the playpen, next to the litter box

Cotton enjoying his fresh vegetables from his new feeder bowls

He also gets to eat his hays at his convenience

Nom nom nom

Look! After 8hrs and his water bowl is still cleaned and he drank quite a bit.

Renovating His Playpen

So I went to the $2 shop again and to do some renovation to improve Cotton's litter-box to include a water bowl. As Cotton is very strong, so I also got an anti-slip mat to be placed underneath his litter-box to prevent him from moving his litter-box.

Anti-slip mat under his litter-box

As his cage base is no longer in use in his playpen, so there is no support to hold his log up and he could not use it anymore. He seems a little sad about it at first. So we bought some wooden blocks and cable-tie, hoping to level up the log a few inches.

Ta-da! And it is done within minutes. However, Cotton has yet to use it. Shall see over the time.

I also got him a metal hanging container to contain his dry hays. Now he is eating just like a horse stable concept. His litter-box space is limited and Cotton is rather big in size, hence, to have his water bowl, dry hay and treats - fresh vegetables/pellet, within that small tray and not disturbing his litter habits is really challenging.

So how did he fare under his newly renovated litter-box?

Not bad. His water bowl is also quite clean after a few hours of use - with minimal contamination from the dry hays and pellets.

The price of the renovation project: $16. :D

Solo bun

I really taken a liking to Mini and given that he still has not been adopted since we met him, I think Mini and I are fated. Uncle Hubby even thought of the name for Mini - Milo. However, we are not sure if Cotton will be able to accept Milo. We read a lot online and other people's experiences on introducing new bun to their existing buns success stories and how they did it, however, we still have our reservations.

To prepare Cotton on welcoming Milo, I decided to stimulate the situation such that where Milo would be staying. I re-configured Cotton's 5-fence playpen to a 4-fence playpen and used one of the cage metal to form a 2 playpens of 4 fences.

Original 5-fence playpen set-up for Cotton

 

The reconfiguration to home 2 bunnies if we adopt Milo

Because of Cotton's cage base, his 4-fence playpen has even lesser walking space and this makes him rather unhappy. Then he began to explore the new set-up and running around the house. See video. 

 

 

And I naively thought he might be looking for Milo, aka phantom bun since we have not adopted him yet. Then Cotton did something very bizarre - he kicked away all our stuffs placed under the coffee table and lie there. He was looking for a resting place to compensate for the lost of the space at his 5-fence playpen where he always rest at.

 

Cotton: This is now MY space

 

Cotton: Toying with my ears will NOT change my mind to leave this place

 

Cotton: I have CHOPE this place

I think the loss of the space really upset Cotton very much and so I think by proceeding to get Milo, will not help to bond them any easier. So we decided to halt the idea to adopt a 2nd bun....sorry Milo, but you always have a special memory space in my heart. I pray Milo for a good family soon.

 

I thought of another configuration - move the cage base out and set-up back into a cage, without changing the 5-fence playpen space. The cage will place next to the 5-fence playpen so that the new bunny can still interact with Cotton. But I did not want to test out this alternative configuration because Cotton has just gotten back his original playpen space and is still in the midst of getting adapt to his bell-collar which already upset him as well.

  

I am a strong believer of destiny and fate - if Milo is destined to be with us, we will meet again. If not, then it could also be a blessing in disguise so we never know. So for now, Cotton is a solo bun and I think he is happy being alone as what we saw him did many binkies in the past.

Bringing Easter mood to Cotton

Easter Sunday is around the corner - coming weekend on 20-Apr. Cold Storage supermart brought in their latest car accessories decor - Bunny ears and nose, after the sell-out success of last year Reindeer car decor during Christmas time.

I just have to have it to decor Cotton's playpen and it cost $9.90. So we did and now the decor is affixed to his playpen but Cotton seems nonchalant about it. At one time, he was just curious what's hanging there to check out if it's food/treat, I guess. After that, he totally not amused and life goes on for him. Hmmmmm....but his mummy (yours truly) like it very much hahahaha. 

Cotton's playpen is here!

Cotton's playpen is up! The used playpen costs $30 for a set of 5. The cage door is not closed now since it's within the playpen boundary. However, Cotton does not seem to like his new freedom. He prefers to stay in his cage even at night. I found him also sleeping in his cage at 4am! 

Maybe Cotton needs more time to familiarize with his new expanded surrounding. Luckily I did not buy new playpen for him, else he does not only break my heart, but also my wallet. :D

I played my violin to Cotton last night but he was scared stiff. Seems that he still timid on foreign sounds which he does not heard before. But for sure, he used to our TV sounds. :P

To lure Cotton to be more comfortable with his playpen, I decided to remove his cage metals. I believe this way will boost his confidence to explore.