Need some Cage/Pen Advice

rjespicer

Post   » Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:12 pm


Lynx - Thanks I read the instructions and that is pretty much what I do, although I will try the technique mentioned when returning them to the pen and wait for them to stop resisting. I will also focus more on making sure the front leg is restrained.

Siouxsie doesn't bite when I am trying to pick her up, in fact she resists the least when I try to pick her up, but when she is safely settled on my lap. I think it is her way of saying "Put me back where the food is!". She has a bit of a head tilt which gets worse when I pick her up (The vet said this is a common thing related to stress) and can be a little unsettling but once she is back in the pen she is fine and trots of to eat.

JX4

Post   » Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:05 pm


We are not DIY's at all, so getting our cage online from the guinea pig cages site is what we did. We made a bigger than normal cage, and they worked with us on how to do that. We have lofts, which we love because we can keep the hay piles pretty much confined to the lofts which helps when it comes to cleaning. We put the lofts half way up the grids rather than at full grid height, so they double as large hideys underneath.

We have tried both the fleece liners and the fleece flippers. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The liners are good in that there are no cracks for poos and pee to fall between, but pigs can root their noses under them along the edges and get underneath them if you have a smaller cage. For larger cages, they can be a bit unwieldy to move around and wash (we have one that is for a 2 x 5 grid cage). Also, if you have a smaller liner, vacuuming it can be a pain as the vacuum can suck the liner up off the cage bottom, especially around the sides.

Now that our cage is 2 x 8 we use fleece flippers. The poos fall between the cracks, but by and large they are what we prefer. We can vacuum poos off of the fleece flippers with no problem -- no lifting up even along the edges that happened with the liner. You can also flip the panels that get used more often (like the ones underneath the lofts) between cage cleanings.

We toss the U-haul liners in their own load in the washing machine (since we have 8 panels there are plenty enough for their own load) and the fleeces and ramp liners in a second load. We have two sets of fleece flippers that we rotate between, since two washing/drying cycles is a long time for the pigs to be without a cage and we can't always supervise floor time with them for that long.

We tried paper bedding in the lofts for a while, but it was too darn expensive. We are back with liners in the lofts that we switch out more often than weekly cage cleanings since they pee and poop far more while they sit in the lofts munching on hay. We have collected fleece liners for the lofts over the years and have a stack of them that we go through as needed and we also use them for lap pads when watching TV with our piggies.

The liners and fleece flippers are expensive as an upfront cost, but after you have them, they last a long time and save in the long run over paper bedding.

rjespicer

Post   » Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:34 pm


Thanks for the Info

We have 2 sets of two 2x3 Guineadad fleeces that we switch between so we can put a new set in when we clean the other set. However they don't currently cover the whole area so we use odd fleeces (without the same absorbency) or a couple of smaller GuineaDads, that we initially got for other purposes, to fill in the gaps with variable success.

I tried vacuuming the Guineadads (with a hand held car vac) but the noise scared the girls so I generally use a dustpan and brush or just pick them up, folded in half, and empty the poo and any other debris into the rubbish and then give them a good shake outside to get rid of any other bits. It doesn't take long and they tend to stick to the other half of the pen when I take them out one at a time.

We would need to get a couple of loft liners so they were cut to fit but will take a look at the flippers too but after having invested a reasonable amount in the GuineaDads over the last few months we would need to be convinced that they provided a significant improvement.

We are almost settled on a 2x6 with a Roomie Zoomie Wide loft for now . Just debating colors for now but I think we will go for a neutral color like cream as that kind of matches the decor (for now) but also would allow us to spot any white patches or bits that needed cleaning . It would give them slightly less space in teh main area but with the loft area it would be about the same, assuming they use it. We decided on the Roomie Zoomie loft as the openings are a little bigger (Chunkita is a big girl ;) ) and two ramps would avoid traffic jams or collisions.

Thanks again for the advice

rjespicer

Post   » Mon Aug 06, 2018 7:11 pm


Cage is ordered and on the way. Hopefully it will get here in time for the weekend

rjespicer

Post   » Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:33 pm


New cage all set up this weekend

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you ........New Guineaopolis!
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They haven't worked out how to get to the loft yet although we did pop them up there briefly so they could see what was up there
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bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:42 pm


Great cage!

It's easier to teach them to go down than to go up, I think. Put them at the top of the ramp and put some yummy treats down the ramps. They'll get the idea pretty quickly. Then you can go in the other direction.

rjespicer

Post   » Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:39 pm


OK thanks will give that a try.

Slightly less space on the lower level than they had before so we took out some hideys but they seemed to love the fleece forests so hopefully that should encourage them to explore the loft.

Had to modify it slightly so we can let them out for floor time too but fortunately it came with some offcuts of Coroplast that we could use for that along with the french door kit I ordered.

Will see how it goes but may expand the lower level at some point so give them a bit more space and if they get the hang of the loft might put a narrow one in at the other end.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:44 pm


Oh, that is super! I love it!

JX4

Post   » Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:51 pm


Awesome cage!

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Catie Cavy
Supporter 2011-2020

Post   » Mon Aug 20, 2018 8:32 am


Wowie zowie! That's one of the nicest cages I've seen. You have very lucky girls.

rjespicer

Post   » Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:17 pm


The Good News is that one of the girls, our biggest, Chunkita, made it up to the loft and back down yesterday evening.

I had to leave her a trail of Endive leaves (she will do anything for food) but I am hoping that now she has done it once she will do it again and maybe teach the others as well or they will follow her up like they usually do when they are trotting round in a piggy train during floor time.

She had a little popcorn (no mean feat for a piggy that is 1057g ) when she got up there and left a few little piggy chocolate drops up there to prove she made it ;)

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Aug 20, 2018 11:42 pm


I have to say, I love the name "Chunkita" :-)

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