Gonna scrap but HELP PLEASE

I don't know if this is your largest aperture but if it is that could be an issue ... you might need a lens like the canon 50mm 1.8 it's like $120 but with the 7D crop factor it's hard to use in a small apartment. if you have a setting like 3.5 at 18mm I could try that and get up close and personal with the animals. Try the ISO around 800 or 1000 and shutter speed at around 200 or 250 and see what happens ... you should get a sharper image that way. If you end up with the 50mm then drop it to around 2.2 or 2.5 and drop the ISO even lower ... remember that a high ISO not only raises the amount of noise but also makes edges fuzzier.