Introductions of the new little fuzz-beanlet went excellently!  Tenaka and
Cayanne were gracious hosts, and though Jabba was a shade of a curmudgeon at
first, even he had one heck of a good time.
 
This begs a problem, however.  The cage I have is now a four and a half
story cage with LOTS of playing space.  Putting another litterbox in is not
practical, as my Tenaka, Cayanne, and Jabba are all 100% on the litterbox,
and to add one now will confuse them.  Besides, the boxes they'll use would
take up a LOT of the space on the shelves.
 
I am thinking that I may have to see about borrowing a cage (or buying one)
for a short while and segregating the new guy in it for two weeks or so.
Just long enough to pan-train him as he wasn't in the store.  He used the
litterbox once, but that was more luck than anything else.  He has messed on
the bedding twice.  I caught him the first time before he really did
anything.  Second time he pooped..  and pooped... and POOPED on the bedding.
I see now that the poor quality food indeed increases output volume
SUBSTANTIALLY.  It's one thing to hear it, another to SEE it.
 
Poop was rather grainy in appearance, and extremely loose, bordering on
diahrrea.  I think I can safely chalk this up to stress and poor food, on
top of putting him on a new food (Iams Kitten) so quickly.  No way was I
going to transition him... the stuff was little better than Purina Cat Chow.
I will monitor this closely, and tell the vet when I take him in for his
shots.
 
Can I beg opinions on wether I should segregate the new fuzzy from the
others for pan-training?  It wouldn't be fair to force all four to live on
one level for this..  though it probably would speed the training...
Suggestions?  Or should I just wait this out, cleaning the bedding everytime
there's a mess (at this rate, frequently.  I have never SEEN a fert poop
this much!  He really defines the term full of **** :) )
 
All suggestions are muchly appreciated!
 
And thanks to everyone who wrote me with suggestions and comments regarding
this little guy in the pet store.  You folks made this possible.
 
Respectfully,
 
Bryan Hall
 
PS: AARRGGHH!  Names??  I gotta think of a name..  At the moment, I have
three in mind.
 
Han Solo: Because you NEVER told him the odds..  he'd just beat them..
Kinda like this fuzzy!  :) besides, he play fights and plays an AWESOME game
of lionmouth with Jabba-the-Fert.
 
Smudge: He's got a little black smudge in the center of the white patch on
the bridge of his nose... too cute!
 
Nike: Granted, Nike was the GODDESS of victory, but hey, the fert is
snipped, he doesn't know the difference anymore.. :P  Still, he did win
against the petstore..  and kept one INTERESTING personality to boot!
[Posted in FML issue 1831]