Thumper AKA fuzzy butt!

[PaGal]

I am so freaking excited. I bought Thumper a new cage today. I did plan on building him one but started thinking buying would make it so he would have a larger one quicker and I can always in the future build one like I imagined. The new cage is a dog pen but it's a 4 foot one. It adds about a foot in each direction, so a foot longer, a foot wider and a foot taller than the one he has now. I should be able to add a shelf as well and I won't have to search so hard for what will work such as hay racks. I have always tried to find items that would take up the least amount of space while still ensuring he had what he needs. The cherry on the cake is that it is brand new but cost only $61.88 which is just about half of what I would have had to pay to buy the same thing from somewhere like Pet Smart. Part of that cost was $2.00 extra I paid to ensure it would arrive within a week as opposed to a possible two week time frame. That is the total cost, shipping was free.

Also the cage he is using now will be empty soon so after Isabelle has the kittens there may be times once their mobile when we may need to put them in it for short periods for safety. Basically if someone is here to work on their 4 wheeler or dirt bike and takes it for a test spin.

Now all I need is one more baby gate like the one I bought not long ago. One is at the doorway to the den to keep Thumper out. The other will go to one doorway to his room. Then I will be able to let him run the dining room, kitchen and his room throughout the day. That was my plan when I bought the first gate but putting up his gate to his room after taking it down is a real hassle.

 

[Chrisdoc]

Denise, bet Thumper will be so happy. Sounds like a bargain and so good he has more space. I saw a cage as well at the weekend for Houdini, it´s a bit smaller than his current one but much higher so I could put shelves in there to make more room. I´m still thinking about it but, at some point, I want to get him something higher as he loves jumping.

Pics please as soon as you have it sorted :biggrin2:

 

[PaGal]

Chris...It was a bargain and I am always happy to have extra cages because you just never know when they will come in handy. The one Thumper is using now I got for my dog when he was a pup. We quickly realized he did not need it as he didn't have accidents or chew anything. Then my hubby's cousin used it for a while when they got a puppy.

I bet Houdini would like the cage since he likes jumping and could have shelves.

I'm sure I will post pics when I have it ready. I have been taking pics a little here and a little there. Once I have a good many I'll load them on my computer and then start posting them.

 

[PaGal]

Last night hubby was sitting in the dining room doing whatever on his laptop as I started to get ready to put Thumper away for the night. One thing I do now is to sit on the floor and let him eat some pellets out of my hand as I try to get him in my lap and after a little while I then put the rest of his pellets in his dish in his cage, he'll go in and I lock him in for the night.

So I started doing this last night, go to put the pellets in his bowl and CHARGE goes Thumper...he flies into his cage, mind you underneath me! slides...then quick hops into his litter box shoving his big ole' head under my hand and starts chowing down!

Hubby jumps up from his chair and asks me if he just ran me over! Ha...he's turning into a monster!!! Loveable and fuzzy but yeah...bed time has become quite amusing. I love the Fuzzy Butt!!!:hearts:hugsquish:

And tonight more of the same! Before I put him away though, when I sat down to hand feed him some pellets he hopped right up into my lap with no hesitation. Until now he has just put his front feet on me and stretched his neck out. He's big so he can do that.

Before I got my shower we played chase for a little while and then I sat down and started petting and nose rubbing. It took a few minutes as it usually does before he decided to get comfy and enjoy and he lay right next to me his side touching my leg for his whole length as he meat loafed. It's not often he does that. Typically he just lies down facing me.

 

[whitelop]

He sounds like such a sweet boy! He also sounds pretty funny, running under you. He might run you over one day!

I can't believe that you got the big dog kennel for that cheap! I also love having extra cages, it makes things so much easier. The extra kennels I have, have been used for the chickens and I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have them. I love that they fold up and I can easily store them in my shed or barn.

 

[PaGal]

He is sweet! I couldn't ask for a better bun just sometimes wish he liked being held but we're working on it. With him I wouldn't be surprised if he just needed to get used to it, he's so easy going. The last time he ran over me was when I had bad sunburn, his little nails felt like he tore me open.

My hubby purchases kart, dirt bike and 4 wheeler parts off ebay all the time or I wouldn't think about it but you can get some deals. The only down fall is you have to wait but usually no longer than a week. That and watch for sneaky seller that list items inexpensively but jack up shipping costs to make up for it. I don't like dealing with the auctions so just look at buy it now items.

Hubby said we could use the old pen for chicks. I did though see what looks like an x-pen but made of solid material (not fence) for keeping chicks. It even had a pole attached to hang a warming light. It was between $20-30. Either at Tractor Supply or Southern States. I plan to look into it. It could come in handy for other things as well.

 

[whitelop]

All sorts of pens come in handy for all things. I love having all kinds of kennels and stuff, for hospitals and quarantines and whatever.
I'll take a picture of my juvenile pen and post it for you. We made it, it was super easy and it works great. Too bad we didn't use it this year. LOL

My husband bought some stuff off ebay not too long ago, and we have never done that or even looked on ebay. But he got a good deal with the stuff he got.

 

[Chrisdoc]

He sounds so comical but such a fun bunny and sounds like you´d love to just squeeze him. I´d love to see video of him.

Hadn´t thought of ebay but in Spain, it´s difficult to find things like that...not so many pets and they don´t look after them that well.

Still thinking about the new cage so will let ya all know.

 

[PaGal]

Morgan...Thanks, I would love to see the pen. I guess I'm starting to get excited at the thought of baby chickens and I'm sure by the time they get big I'll be fine with them. I have only ever purchased three things but I did save a good bit on each purchase and the items I got were new not used. Plus you can find some things that you just can't find in a store. Look up anything, they sell it.

Chris...Gosh would I! That's a shame but I do understand other countries feel differently. I think some people here in the US are a bit over the top with their pets. There's guy that invented fake testicles to have implanted after your dog is neutered so he still has some. He had actually made over one hundred thousand dollars selling these. It boggles my mind.

 

[Chrisdoc]

Denise, you´ll be alright if you do get chickens cos Morgan is our resident expert, I love hearing about all things chicken, I just find it fascinating seeing that tiny thing come out of the egg and grow into such a big bird.

Well, I can believe most things about some owners. The amounts people spend on accessories and other silly things. I saw a programme a while ago about rich people with pets....they are animals not people so find it hard to stomach them taking them to the spa or buying them ridiculously expensive stuff. There are so many genuinely needy people in this world that is is really sad.

 

[PaGal]

Chris...just have to be careful not to turn it into a chicken blog!

I know I will spend on the animals before I do myself at times and I have had pets at the vets yet I haven't been to a doctors in years. They are spoiled by some peoples standards but some things I do feel are over the top and just wonder what is it about some that get them to that point.

My mother started taking in stray cats. She wound up with about 30. Now they did go to the vets all of the time, they were well fed and she kept her place clean, you could not tell there were that many animals in the house other than by the food dishes sitting out but she put herself in a financial bind. She wouldn't try and find homes for them because she was afraid they would get bad owners and wind up right back where they started from. She bought expensive food from the pet store. Was constantly running someone to the vet and things got very bad for her financially. She was also working full time so her life basically was work, cleaning and taking care of the cats. That's it. Why? I love animals and have taken in strays and do what I can to help. I can't turn my back on an animal in need but at the same time as much as I love them I know there is only so much one person can do.

 

[PaGal]

I had to leave Thumper locked up for part of the day. I had to take one of the girls to the doctors. After the other got home Thumper spent the rest of his day lying in his boxes so I didn't get to see him until the evening when he got energetic. Finally some bunny love! We played for a little while then I just completely zoned out the world as I lay on the floor giving pets. He seemed pretty zoned out himself. After some time I had to make myself move sas much as I was enjoying it or I would have fallen asleep after so little the night before. I offered Thump a piece of hay out of the box of hay out in his room for him to eat from.

OMG he started tearing the hay out of my hand and munching furiously, eating like he has been his pellets latterly. It was crazy! Now I'm wondering is he just getting spoiled and not eating so often waiting for me to hand feed him something or is he just starting to associate me with eating like a wild, crazy bun because of the pellets? What the heck goes through their minds?

I had seen him eating hay on his own earlier. He still has hay in his cage, in the box across the room from his cage and a few tp rolls scattered throughout the room. So there is plenty of food available.

After he stopped he started just exploring the room. At one point he came up and sat down next to me and looked like he was thinking about jumping in my lap but he didn't. We played for a while and then when he was exploring again I lay down. He came over and sat next to me, did a complete bunny body stretch including a yawn and lay down right next to me with his legs stretched out behind him on his belly. He had that fuzzy butt right there. Like I said before he usually doesn't lay right up against me but has started to. It's like he's bonding even more and I thought he was already wonderfully bonded.

He was very happy to be let out this morning and spent time zooming through his room which can be loud when he really gets going, now and then he'll kick a wall or his boxes as he zips past. he also tears through his boxes which is loud and then he started furiously shaking his baby gate wanting my attention. This house is just not quite. The dog has a huge bark and barks as we walk to the end of the drive way to wait on the bus because he wants to be with us. The girls are always talking. They don't ever stop. It's a good thing the sick girl isn't too bad because she certainly didn't get to sleep in this morning.

 

[whitelop]

Hahaha. My house growing up was always so quiet. Its because it was just me and my mom and our cats. Haha. Then we got our pit bull/boxer mix from the pound and as it turned out she was a racist AND hated men. So if anyone walked down the road she would go crazy. Then I would go down my best friends house and she had 2 older brothers and a little sister and all the teenage boys that went along with older brothers and their girlfriends, it was a mad house. I love it! haha. Your mornings sound kind of wild!

Thumper sounds like he's really loving you right now! haha. Its sounds so sweet. I hope your sick girl feels better, is it the one with asthma and allergies? Thats the worst. I have asthma and I get like every year around this time because of the season and the pollen. I have started taking my husbands allerga and it helps a little bit. But you guys know what to do with her! LOL

 

[PaGal]

Thanks, the sick one is Alyson. She does have allergies also, in fact it's not often she isn't sneezing but luckily she doesn't feel bad, she just could not stop coughing but that has gotten better. She's enjoying the day watching some cartoons, hanging out with the dog who she loves to death and was excited when I let Thump out to run around the kitchen and dining room. Plus she had a good lunch.

We are hoping she doesn't pass it to Angela who has the asthma and allergies. Have you tried zyrtec? That's what we give the girls and it works well for them.

The weekends here are the craziest, like I said with three girls someone is always talking and if they are not talking they are singing and if not that then they are just making some noise. Throw in the crazy dog that gets hyper if you even make eye contact and al, the people that show up for my hubbies help with their racing whatever. We now have three teenage boys that we call our adopted kids. Two we didn't realize at first when they started coming over but their mother is hubby's cousin. I can't ever just go out to the garage in my pj's in the morning because there's almost always someone there.

 

[Chrisdoc]

He sounds like a real cuddle bun and he may well be waiting for you to give him his food when you arrive home. I´d love mine to lay down next to me, they don´t really do that. They will come up when I´m on their level and sniff and lick but they´re too jittery to sit still for any time.

I know what busy houses are like, there were 6 of us plus mom and dad when we were growing up so it was always noisy and busy. I sometimes miss that now and quite enjoy when there are a few people staying although I do love it when they finally leave me in peace lol.

 

[PaGal]

Chris...I do enjoy the times we get to just lay together but also the play time. I guess I have the best of both worlds.

I like having people around at times but do enjoy the quiet when I get it. That's usually while the kids are at school and the hubby is at work but so much of that time is spent getting work done that I don't get to really enjoy it.

 

[PaGal]

Not a bad day...I let Thump out to run around the dining room and kitchen. He actually did start to run in the dining room. That's the first time as he's not crazy about sliding on the wood floors. He also went into the kitchen for the first time by himself and went the whole way through it. He's sleeping now catching up on his rest since he was so active for so long when he's usually resting. I'm sure when he wakes up he will drive me crazy shaking his baby gate to be let out.

We had a good dinner. I would have been really upset if it hadn't turned out good after taking 3 hours just to prepare it, I was not expecting that. I also was having problems with my laptop. I looked up a recipe on it for the general outline such as oven temp but had to keep finding a new recipe due to the 'puter issue.

We had stuffed cabbage rolls. We all had dessert as well. I chose to try the lemon bliss ice cream I bought Thursday. It was so good and the prefect dessert for after our dinner.

 

[PaGal]

WooHoo!!! I just checked my email and had one with tracking info for Thumper's new cage. It warns that tracking could take 48 hours to update but thought I would give it a shot and check. Not only did the tracking work but the pen is in Richmond and will be delivered tomorrow. Yay!

I was starting to think since I hadn't seen an email yet that knowing my luck I wouldn't get it until the last possible day.

 

[PaGal]

You never know what you are going to find in the country...as we were walking down the drive way this morning to go wait on the school bus, one of the girls almost stepped on half of a fish. Yep, there is half of a fish in our drive way. Several times I have seen a bald eagle sitting in a branch of the tee that over hangs the drive way. I'm guessing that it dropped the fish in the drive way since I know they will catch fish to eat and because we don't have a pond or anything on our property. There is a big one across the street but I doubt it has fish in it. There is also one a long ways back on the property behind ours.

I went to the school this morning for an Awards ceremony. All of the girls have gotten all A's on all report cards so far this year and they have all been doing excellent on their AR goals. The oldest last year had the second highest AR points out of the whole school. This year all three girls want to be the highest of the whole school and they have been working at it so we'll see. For those of you that may not know AR stands for Accelerated Reading, it's a reading program.

 

[whitelop]

When I was a kid I had the highest AR points too! I loved reading.

So back to some chicken stuff. I'm going to post a picture of my juvenile pen, the next time we have a clutch of chicks, I'll definitely use it! haha.
I have some pointers that took me a while to catch on to, but it could make your chicken experiences much easier than mine. You of course will do anything you want to do. But these are the things that I've done and they make things so much easier.
1- use sand in the house. It makes everything easier to scoop out or rake out. Plus it makes it so none of the bedding or whatever sicks to the eggs. The sand is really easy to wipe off if you do get any sand on there. It stays cool in the summer. I used to use bedding and it was a pain in the butt, I had to rake ALL of it out every few months and it was terrible and dusty. Now I just scoop the poop out every week and it makes it so much better.
2- use hanging feeders and waterers. You want to make sure that the feeders are up to their backs, so they can get their beaks in but not their feet. They'll scratch out all the feed and make a mess with the water if you let them. I let mine do it, but I hate it. But I can't bring myself to pay so much for feeders, I need to make some I just haven't gotten around to it.
3- use pelleted feed. If you get chicks you'll start out with crumbles, but they're a mess. They're dusty and wasteful. But once the babies get older they'll be able to eat the pellets and they're a lot less wasteful. Whatever brand you choose, you can find pellets. I'm working on finishing two bags of crumbles and I hate them! They eat pellets better, they can get a hold of pellets better and it makes it easier to monitor their eating. I'm feeding like 6 lbs of food a day, its unbelievable.
4- get some rain boots for the coop. They're so easy to hose off and scrub off. I scrub mine all the time. Plus if you get stepped on by little claws they won't scratch your feet, if you get in a muddy coop your feet won't get wet or muddy. They're a total life saver. I used to wear my cowboy boots out there but they were difficult to clean. I got my rain boots at TSC for like $15. And get all the girls rain boots for the coop.
5- don't get a rooster! haha. You don't need them unless you want babies, but if your neighbor has a rooster you can just borrow him to fertilize some eggs! They're more trouble than their worth unless you're breeding.
6- get a trashcan with a tight fitting lid to put the feed in. I just have my bags in my house, but I'm going this weekend because the walmart has their metal trashcans on sale. I use a small 5 gallon container to keep the feed for easy access, so I just carry it around and scoop the feed out when I get there.

I use local feed mill feed and its much cheaper than purina or nutrena. Not really any better, you just have to find something that you like. But dumore from TSC is their cheap brand but its made by purina...it makes their poop stink MUCH more than normal. I don't know why or whats in it, but I fed my flock a bag of dumore and they stunk SO bad. I gave them purina and they didn't stink as bad and then went back to my regular local feed and now they don't stink at all.

The juvenile coop is a 4 x 5 foot coop. It has equine grade fence and chicken wire on it. Its like 2.5 feet tall. They can't jump out of it for a few weeks. Ours is made to hook on the front of the house, it has a door hole in it and room for the ramp to go through. It has an open top for the hen and rooster to get out of but the babies stay in.

And now I'm done taking over your blog with chicken stuff! But I like to pass on things that helped me out!