Small or far away?

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amoral.lucey

New member
Joined
Nov 27, 2017
Messages
2
Hi folks, new member here. I have three chinnies, a dad (neutered) and two daughters. I’ve had them about 4 years now, but am facing a dilemma coming up to the holidays.

For the first time, I will be living quite far away from both my family and my partner’s family at Christmas, so I won’t be able to simply pop round and check on them throughout the holiday season, and I’m looking for advice on how to look after my chins over the holidays.

We have only just moved into the area, so we don’t know any of our neighbours yet - otherwise I would ask someone to stop by and check on them every day or two.

I will be travelling home to visit family for about five days, and there will be no one in our house for the duration. I won’t be able to bring their normal cage along with me, as it is very large and my car is not. I bought a small cage (a birdcage, about 2.5 feet tall) which I had hoped to use as a holiday cage, but after putting them in it it seems extremely small.

In the past when I have gone away for a weekend, I have simply left an extra food packet in their house and an extra water bottle attached, but this would be a rather longer trip and I am concerned about leaving them on their own for so long.

I am trying to figure out whether it would be better to bring the chinnies along with me in the cage, knowing that they won’t have very much space and might not have a chance to run around outside the cage very often, if at all, or whether I should leave them to fend for themselves (with plenty of supplies) while I’m gone.

Has anybody any advice or experiences to share on this?
 
5 days is too long to leave them alone, so the small cage would have to do for them, so long as it's at least 2'x2'x2' in size. Of course they will be mad about it, but as ticklechin said they will get over it, once you get back home. Too many things can go wrong, a water bottle could leak or clog, leaving them with a flooded cage and/or no water. They could manage to kick their food and hay out of the cage. They could get hurt or sick and be suffering until you get home or die in the mean time. Or there could be an emergency at your house, fire, flood (like from a burst pipe), etc and the chins would be all alone.

You could also try asking at the vet if they know of anyone that can take care of chins. I know sometimes vets or vet techs are willing to critter sit an exotic to get some hands on experience since they don't see them often. It could be a dead end but worth a try.

Another option, not the best but possible if coming home in an emergency is possible, is getting a security camera that you can access from you phone or computer were you are. It's an expensive option an as I said would only work if you can get home within a few hours (you say "quite far away" but that means different things to different people), but it would allow you to keep an eye on them remotely. It's not the best idea, but could also give you peace of mind on your shorter weekend trips.
 
Thanks!

Thanks for the recommendations everyone, I will kit out the birdcage and try to get them used to it over the next few weeks.

I’ll have to look into getting a security camera for future trips, or even just for wasting time during the workday!

A horribly early happy Christmas to everyone and their chinnies!
 
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