Hi! I’m having an issue with my newly bonded twins Ms. Hip and Mr. Hop’s litter habits. Any insight / advice appreciated.
A bit of background in a nutshell… I adopted the siblings this January when they were 7 mos old. They were born at the shelter and kept separate since they were altered. I don’t know when exactly they were altered within their 7 months (seems early no?) except to say there were no physical signs of surgery. They were in a room separated from other animals in the shelter and their cages were stacked on top of each other.
When I first brought them home they each had their own space that was 2 x 3 NIC panels big. They immediately used their litters for peeing. Only once each did they pee out of their litters and it was when I was emptying and cleaning them. When I got back they had each left a puddle in the spot their litter should be. Lol. How dare I take their litters?!?! I did have to secure Hop’s litter bin because he would try to toss it about.
Neither had very tidy poop habits. I assumed this was territorial even tho they’re both fixed. I would sweep up poops and put them in their litter often figuring it would ease eventually and once they were bonded. Easter day marked their first day together bonded and they are now in a shared 2 x 4 NIC panel enclosure with a larger shared litter. They roam free when I’m home and awake, so 6-10pm weekdays and at least double that on weekends.
Finally onto the problem at hand. Now that they’re together they share a large common hay/litter. One night before I topped up the hay Hip decided to turn it into his personal diggy box. He got in there and started to dig out the trampled hay and poops and flung them ALL OVER. Bum. I said “Hey hey hey!!” and went over to clean it up. When I sat back down he immediately repeated. I cleaned it up again and topped up the hay which stopped the digging. I also observed him tossing their water dish when it was nearly empty.
I started topping up both hay and water twice a day thinking this would satisfy him. No dice. And they always have a cardboard project on the go.
The last 2 mornings i was greeted with the ENTIRE contents of their litter/hay, save the urine soaked newspaper at the bottom, spread evenly throughout their enclosure. There was a puddle of pee next to their litter yesterday morning and this morning it was obvious that some bun had peed in the scattered hay / poop outside the litter. Why not since it looked like a giant litter?
I’m 99.9% certain this is Mr. Hop’s doing. Is he bored? Frustrated? Any ideas?