escaped !!

[sheilajcutler]

after making an outdoor play area for sprite & Timmy although i have only seen Timmy once outside. sprite has escaped!!. he has dug up the concrete that filled the gaps of the paving stones for the base.must not have set properly.  what are the chances of him coming back??  as Timmy is only a few months old do i risk getting another 1 or 2 males to go in with him? what do you think. 

Sheila

[tarcus/Kevin]

 If timmy has not come home by now then he may appear in the morning.
A small cage with his smell in may tempt him back to captivity if he survives the night. As for adding others? it takes a while but can be done by putting new chips inside with others in their own cage and let them get used to each others smell.

[Doghouse135]

Hi
Two of my chippies escaped last year.  We'd built their aviary on concrete and the wire mesh went all the way to the floor HOWEVER when we were walking on the bark chips, the wire mesh split over a period of time and they escaped.
The good news was that they both came back.  Alvin had unfortunately been attacked by a cat and it was touch and go whether he would make it but with an excellent vet and our dedication, he made a full recovery.
If I were you, I'd put his mate in a smaller cage inside the aviary and leave the aviary door open.  Your escapee will probably come back to investigate and hopefully you'll be able to get the door shut before he escapes again.  Naturally, you'll need to repair the area that he got out of.  It will take hours of watching and waiting but for me, it was well worth it.  Make sure you leave plenty of tasty treats out for him
Good luck

[Nate]

Sheila don't give up on Sprite yet, he was the active one, and should be fully aware of where his home is. Though if he can't get back in to his home tonight, it's very likely he will bed down somewhere for the night. I don't think I can give better advice than Doghouse135 , I would never have thought of doing that. It's OK to put Timmy in a small hamster cage for the night, just so you can leave the door open of their main aviary, excellent idea.

Fingers crossed for you and Sprite

[Nate]

Did this not have a happy ending Sheila, so sorry if Sprite did not return, guess you would have posted if he did.

[sheilajcutler]

sorry not been in touch, no Sprite never came back although i tried every thing the forum suggested, i even planted peanuts in pots and got a humane trap. to begin with the peanuts disappeared and the middle of bananas went missing as i know that what Sprite did. well, after 2 weeks of reseting traps and having a video camera on most of the time it turned out to a very cleaver mouse!!. Timmy is doing fine he's coming out more but still shy.still hides when i get close.
last weekend i bought 2 more - bouncer & bubbles there are brother and sister they are separate from Timmy as i was told not to have 1 female with 2 males. Timmy will have his own home next week so the others can have both an in/out side area. bouncer & bubbles are settling in fine bouncer is very active, hence the name, when  i let him out of the box i was amazed that he really did bounce all around the aviary was so funny. bubbles is eating out of my hand already though she cant tell the difference between a peanut and my finger!!
what do you think about Timmy being on his own?? he is about 5/6  months old I don't want to get another male because it may put him back to square one. what about a female ? but I don't want to many of them in case I cant pass them on.