Chin Bedroom

[LoveBug]

So i will be turning my spare room into a chin room. and i figured i would just let her have playtime in there instead of carrying her all the way to the bathroom or kitchen. i would like her to be in the kitchen but if she's not gonna be a fan of being carried then i don't wanna carry her. plus my rats occupy my kitchen (bad idea, they're great beggers:rofl

so since i live in an apartment and we're not suppose to have animals that aren't in a cage 24/7 and we don't really feel like paying $1200 for a new carpet.

so what im wondering is what can i put on the floor in the room so if she were to poo or pee i wouldn't have to worry about it getting in the carpet?

 

[Amy555]

She WILL poo, but it should be easy enough to pick up, and peeing shouldnt be too much of a worry. You can put a blanket down, or even tape a sheet in place (although curious creatures they are, she will probably try to nibble at the tape). I would be concerned about chewing on wood baseboards, for which you can make a long barrier from cardboard boxes to line the walls.

 

[LoveBug]

we won't have anything in the room except her cage, food, extra toys 'n fleece sets, and the air conditioner. the only thing she'll have access to is the air conditioner which we'll cover the cord for that.
i thought about putting a blanket/sheet down but didn't know since she'd probably find a way under it. and i didnt know if she would potty during playtime. i knew she'd poo that's for sure. haha.
we'll probably line the walls with cardboard and then put it in front of the air conditioner as well so that she doesn't have access to the cord.
and i'll probably just put her on the carpet, i just didnt know if their little toes could get caught on the carpet or not

 

[Pikaia]

I have my chins in the spare bedroom too. It works out great. They have their own living space with the air conditioner and have peace and quiet during the day. I don't allow them to have playtime in that room, because I am afraid of urine on the carpet. I have tried putting a dish with shavings, but it doesn't seem to work. I'm sure you could put something down on the carpet to protect it from urine. Maybe your chins won't pee during playtime. As long as your monitor the chins and make the room "chin safe" it should be fine.

If it were me, I would still have playtime in the bathroom. I wouldn't risk the carpet. She will get used to you transporting her to the bathroom/kitchen. You could also transport her in a dust bath house. Usually works

 

[LoveBug]

i would let her have playtime in the bathroom but it's so tiny. she wouldn't really have room to do anything. and plus being in NM we get little unwanted critters crawling up our sinks and tubs.. and i'd rather not risk anything.

and like i mentioned my male rats take up the kitchen... lol so that is room is outta the question.
i
have til february to figure it out i'm sure i'll come up with something..just wanted to know if anyone had any ideas of what to do. i'll just leave her in the spare bedroom though so that way she has plenty of room to run around and can even look out the window if we open up the blinds. (not like theres much to look at here lol).

 

[ChinnyMom]

both my boys get playtime in carpeted areas (Guss in the hall and Rhino in the bedroom). i've never seen either pee on the carpet. both are fairly well litter trained, and there has been times where Rhino will run back into his cage, go pee, then come back out to play some more.

you could get one of those smaller steam cleaners, just in case. walmart carries one for 50 bucks: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bissell-Homecare-Spotlifter-2X/14320764

 

[LoveBug]

Thank you Chinnymom.
We need one of those anyways since I don't believe these carpets have ever been cleaned :/

 

[mishellyshel]

you can also get an inexpensive play pen to either block off the air conditioner/cord area or to contain the chins to one larger area within the room and you could put a sheet down in the play area (under the sheet you could put a plastic cloth). then you wouldnt have to worry abiout baseboards or pee. or you could go with the mini steam cleaner option. my chins do pee during playtime IN their playpen on vinyl floor. most of them are litter trained but for some reason they like to pee on my floor!

 

[ChinnyMom]

oh yuck! if i'm moving into an apartment, i'd demand that the carpets are cleaned prior to me moving in. up here it's pretty much standard to have apartment suites cleaned really well in between tenants though.

 

[Jenn]

my chin has reached through the bars of her playpen to chew on the walls. I am missing paint around the pen and have had to secure the pen away from the walls to prevent any more damage or risk to her health. She has also destroyed small areas of carpet by pulling up the carpet fibers. She is a very naughty chin! lol. I'm not sure if I would want to risk a free roaming chin in an apartment bedroom. You could get stuck with some nasty bills if you aren't careful. I have two playpens attached together to make one big pen, then that hard plastic flooring that goes under office desks/chairs to protect the carpet. You could also buy a small section of cheap linoleum to cover the carpeted area.

 

[Pikaia]

The linoleum is a good idea, Jenn. What about laying down cardboard in a playpen area?

 

[Jenn]

I think the cardboard would work well, but it would probably eventually have to be tossed out and replaced. At least with a hard nonporous covering, it could be cleaned.

 

[LoveBug]

well people in New Mexico are rather dirty :/ well the people that stayed in this apartment anyways, and you can definitely tell that the floors haven't been cleaned. we're gonna rent one and clean up the carpets.

the linoleum is actually a really good idea. how would i keep it down though? i thought about using cardboard since we go through alot of it and save every cardboard we use for the rats but we would have to change it every once in awhile. hopefully she won't pee. the poo is fine cause that's not hard to clean up.

but we'll end up using a carpet cleaner before we move out (come on may, get here faster lol) too that way it won't have any smell of animal. i think if we can figure out a way to keep the linoleum down i think i'll go with that. cause the room isn't all that big, plus it'd make clean up way easier. and i wouldn't have to worry about getting any dust in the carpet.

 

[rainey]

Yeah, I turned the spare room in our apt into the chin room too, and I had the same issue. What I did was buy a large section of Vinyl from home depot. I think vinyl is similar to linoleum? Honestly it stays flat on it's own, and I've had it for 7 months now. But I mean, when my chins are out playing, I'm in the room too, so if I catch them chewing on anything they shouldn't be chewing on I can stop them immediately. But really there's not much in there that they could chew, it's just their cages, air conditioner, a metal desk and chair, and then a closet stores their food, hay, etc.

So the vinyl works well in my opinion. I haven't covered my baseboards yet because I've never seen any of them chew on it. I was hoping to line it in fleece soon? or else I'm going to get a playpen once I can afford it, and just place it on the vinyl. I can't use my kitchen or bathroom either, so I find this works just perfectly.

 

[LoveBug]

you could line your baseboards with cardboard.
and i have no idea if vinyl is similar to linoleum, lol i don't know much about those types of things.
but if it stays down but itsself than thats awesome.

 

[LoveBug]

well i am happy to announce that we're upgrading to a three bedroom apartment. good thing about this apartment. it's two bath (downstair, upstair). and the upstairs one is plenty of room for our chin to run around in it, and it's also right across the hall from the chin room

 

[ChinnyMom]

yay for more space!!!!

i looked at a 3 bedroom suite the other day that is right across the hall from my current place. my best friend and i were talking about possibly moving in together a little while ago, and if we do end up taking this 3 bedroom i've already got planned out which bedroom will be the fuzzy boys' room! lol.

best part - easiest move in my life, less than 10 feet across the hall, hahaha!

 

[LoveBug]

Haha that's awesome. The one were moving into is three doors away from our current one