A question for those who have a playpen

[JamaisVu]

I recently purchased a playpen for my chins.

It's about the same as this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Zebra-Pet-D...183?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a573272ef

So far, my chins love it. I just have to throw in some chews and things for them to hide under/jump over and they are happy just running around. I love it because it makes playtime a lot easier (since none of the rooms in my house are very chin-proofable).

We've had several playtimes in there and they have a blast! However, today I had a small accident with the female. She urinated in a place where I couldn't really see it. The floor of this playpen is completely water-proof, so the urine doesn't get absorbed. She then walked on top of the pee and got her neck and forearms a bit wet.

As soon as I noticed, I picked her up and dried her as much as I could. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as I thought initially, so after towel-drying it she seemed to feel better (she wasn't desperately trying to clean her fur anymore). After a sand bath and a treat to calm her down, she seemed to be as good as new, and no longer stressed. I kept my eye on her, and she has eaten, drunk water, and run in her wheel completely normally.

So I have two questions:

1) If I take some bedding material and put it in the playpen, will she go pee on it? I want to try to avoid situations like these again. What do you fellow playpen-owners do?


2) Is this something that happens with females? I never seem to have problems with my boy peeing anywhere during playtime, but she always seems eager to "mark her territory" of sorts.

Thank you!

 

[SactoChinMom]

That's a good question. I look forward to seeing the answers.

I have only boys and they do pee but I have my chin room floor covered with plywood and a special office-type carpet that I replace every 12 to 18 mos.

 

[sheena lee]

I have that same playpen, and I made an octagonal fleece liner for it. I just put the playpen on a big piece of paper (a bunch of newspaper taped together would do) and traced it, then cut it out and used it as a pattern for two pieces of fleece and sewed them together. Chia doesn't really pee during playtime, but I like it also for the cushiony-ness. She tends to land really hard, and I feel better knowing she's not gonna hurt herself.

 

[LiquidBlue]

Well at the moment our play pen is small but I'm planning to buy another one of those to block two way entrance so that way, they can have the whole room to play in and maybe some cardboard to block the cabinet so they wouldn't hide under it. The only thing I'm wary about is the three cats...then again they just watch curiously from the sides.

(we got something that looks kinda like this)

 

[Shooper]

Maybe if you put a litter box (glass dish w/ shavings) in the pen she would use it?? I have boys and sooo far they have never peed outside of their cage.

 

[LoveBug]

neither of chinnies have had a pee accident outside the cage.
we don't use a playpen though.
we just use a baby gate that has four gates attached to it
so that way we can put it in whatever shape we want to
and then lean that up against the wall.
and block the gaps where the gates connect so no chinnies squeeze through it.

 

[Kialana]

I have a playpen for my boy with a canvas bottom and every so often he does pee in it. What I usually do is after he pees I toss a handful of wood shavings (his bedding) over it to soak it up and to prevent him from landing in it. So far it's worked like a charm; he stays dry and I know where to clean up when he's done playing.

 

[mistywaterwoman]

Good luck, one of my females will pee on anything nylon that she can reach. I used to let them play in some of those pop-up cat cubes, but Amy treats anything Nylon as her personal bathroom. And then she chews holes in it, too.

I receommend the Marshall Deluxe Ferret Playpen gate system. I have two sets, and they go completely around the whole room.

http://www.ferret.com/item/marshall-ferret-playpen-11-panel/650889/

 

[ChilliPepper]

When we had the boys using a playpen, we put down a plastic floor cover we bought at Home Depot for painting and then covered it with an old sheet. That way, we knew the carpet was safe if they peed and we could shake out the sheet and throw it in the washer. Now we just trade off on who gets to sit in the bathroom with them.