Preparing For Play Pen Time For New Piggies

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

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I'm wanting to prepare Piggle and Puggle for play pen time... am I going about this the right way?

The plan is...
1) Start with laundry basket time, laundry basket containing piggies on a towel I wont wash for a few weeks plus fresh hay and coriander every evening, placed in view of the kitchen while we make dinner but a safe distance away- achieved so far and they are watching us and eating so not too scared!
2) Next week place laundry basket plus piggies in the new 5ft x 5ft play pen
3) Week after remove laundry basket but keep smelly towel in play pen and add lots of hidey tubes and boxes
4) Remove towel and wash as hopefully by then toys and play pen will smell of reassuring piggy smells

Does that sound like a good plan? We are starting with half an hour to an hour each evening but hopefully eventually Piggle and Puggle will just play in the playpen for 3 hours every evening!

Then we need to get a similar plan for outdoor hutch time in the summer...
 
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Can't decide if Puggle is just having a fluffy day or if she's gone from being skinny to having a proper majestic piggy bottom in just 5 days... she was the smaller one when she arrived last Thursday!
 
It sounds as though you're being very good! I went straight to week 3. If you have a fairly quiet house, and they have plenty of places to hide away in their playpen, you probably don't need to put yourself through the laundry basket stages. Is this advice you got somewhere? I'm asking because I've never seen it suggested, and I'm now worrying that I've been doing it all wrong. Absolutely gorgeous piggies by the way !
 
Wiebke suggested a laundry basket rather than a playpen for cage clean time to start with as they are both babies who are a bit scared of open spaces and hide in the nestbox a lot. They seemed to like the laundry basket and find it quite relaxing based on the amount of hay and coriander eaten, and it means they can have family time from a safe distance, so we tried laundry basket evening time last night while PigglePuggle's human daddy did his choir practice- and they seem to love singing and they came to stick their noses out of the laundry basket and joined in the singing with a lot of purring and chirping and chuckling sounds! I think it probably depends on the age and experience of the piggies, ours are babies who only left their mums last week and Puggle especially is quite nervous around people and open spaces so I'd rather work up gradually :)
 
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