A revised box

Basti playing

After months of trying to coax her into her box and failing miserably, I figured something had to give. In this case, my thought was that the box made Basti feel claustrophobic and so I searched the internet for an alternative. The only option left was to change the top of the box into something transparent which meant two possible options; plexiglass or acrylic glass. The former turned out to be too soft and would probably sag so I went with the latter. I ordered 1 cm (.4 inch) thick acrylic glass, precut.

After replacing the wood with the plastic, Basti wouldn't step on the plastic when the lid was closed because she presumably thought there was nothing there. Then again, she wasn't interested in eating in her box anyway as her interest in food in general was lagging.

Finally, one night, my husband managed to place the food in her box and she jumped in. He then closed the lid and happily reported that she continued to eat as if there was no change in the situation. With the wooden lid, she normally would stop eating as soon as the lid closed and scurry out of the box a few seconds after that. It went horribly wrong because after finishing her food, Basti thought she could jump out of the box through the lid and bumped into the clear plastic. Basti was startled, my husband panicked and opened the lid and she got out. The next few days we couldn't even get her close to the box.

Box with clear plastic lid

It's now back to basics; she needed to be reassured that we wouldn't close the lid before she got in. Closing the lid and putting a piece of cloth on top will make her understand that she can't jump out through the top but causes the same problems; as soon as she realizes she's closed in, she'll stop eating and will want to get out. And I've been reading a book on cat behavior; it may simply be that she doesn't like getting out through the cat flap because she can't see if there is another cat ready to pounce on her (as Blinky will sometimes do). I may have to create peep holes...

Another glitch may be the fact that we put a small carpet underneath the box to prevent it from scratching the floor and Blinky has been using his claws on it. This potentially means that if Basti wants to exit her box, the only thing she'll smell is the marks that Blinky left. Territorially speaking, I may have made a huge mistake!

That being said, yesterday she weighed in at 3.45 kg...so she is gaining weight!