Chin burrowing under liner and eating litter pan

[pinkpiggy1989]

I've never had this problem before, but lately my chin is burrowing under the fleece liner. At first I thought it was funny and cute. Then when I cleaned the cage last night, I realized hes been chewing on the pan and theres a HUGE chunk missing! These pans dont come cheap!! :hair: With the Holidays coming up, I cant afford a new pan just yet, but I plan on getting one after Christmas. So my question now is, what can I do as a quick fix to prevent anymore chewing? Would switching to bedding temporarily help until I can afford to get a new pan?

 

[alli713]

I would think that with bedding the chin will just push it out of the way and continue to chew.

Can you go to the hardware store like Home Depot and pick up a marble square tile? They're 12" x 12" generally and then you could put that in the place where he's chewing and he won't be able to lift up the liner. They aren't expensive either around $4 or $5

 

[pinkpiggy1989]

The pan hes using is a FN pan with the cut out. I have a tile under the hole so he cant get onto the bars. I've tried putting bowls, houses, tiles, everything you can imagine to weight it down, but he slides everything out of the way and continues to dig. The liners have an inch+ on each side that I fold under the pan but that doesn't seem to help. As much as it sucks that he ruined a $20+ pan, I'm just more worried about his health than anything. I know chewing plastic is bad for chins. I don't know what else to do!! :wacko:

 

[alli713]

Well, would he still be able to move it if it was on top of the plastic liner and underneath the liner?

When you replace the pans you should get metal Bass pans.

 

[pinkpiggy1989]

Well, would he still be able to move it if it was on top of the plastic liner and underneath the liner?

When you replace the pans you should get metal Bass pans.

Yeah, I had a few tiles on top and he still slides them around so he can burrow under. And I plan on getting some metal ones, but theres nothing I can do until after the Holidays unfortunately.

I have a smaller, almost guinea pig cage that I use for travel, thats about half the size of the cage hes in now. Should I move him into that for two months until I can get the new liners and just allow extra playtime outside of the cage? Like I said, I'm more worried about his health and well-being then the pan being ruined.

 

[Stackie]

You could get fleece liners pillow case style- they basically go over the pan like a pillow case, keeping your chin from getting to it. Most people velcro the open ends shut or put something heavy like a tile over the end with the opening.

 

[fanofdmb84]

I did the fleece-pillow-case thing until I tiled my cage because I had the same problem with Tala pulling up the fleece to chew the pan. If you wrap the pan with some fleece and then put the liner over it, he won't be able to chew it at all and you might not even have to buy a new pan. Or you could replace the pan with tiles which is pretty inexpensive--around $12 to do one level of a FN.