Kitchens!

[Keezy]

Over the past six months of having piggies I've experimented with kitchen areas. For a long time we used a large, under-the-bed, plastic bin with an entrance cut out. This was placed on top of a cheap, woven rug to prevent aspen from being trailed everywhere.

Didn't work.

We also found that the piggies kicked out a lot of the bedding (when running from "THE HAND"!). We had to put these pieces of black posterboard up to prevent any from getting on the carpet.



Since then we've built coroplast kitchens: 10 inch walls, with tubes as the entrance. They seem a little crowded, and to be honest, I don't like the high walls.



I've been admiring WEAVER'd kitchen area, with the tropical fiddlestick bridge..

So. Everyone post your kitchens! I need ideas to steal. >:) What sort of bedding do you use in them? Do you line them? With what? Does your bedding end up kicked everywhere or am I doing something wrong? Go, go!

[babytulip07]

My girls' kitchen


Fosters' kitchen


Maddie and Wesley's kitchen

[WEAVER]

Let me just say that I have had/tried a million and one kitchen areas, and I have yet to find one that was "perfect" or spotless. Pigs are messy, and hay is a pain.

We are fixin' to put our house back on the market and I am fretting BIG time about the cage setup and what potential buyers are going to think/say. I really think when we tried this a year and a half ago , one of the main reasons our house did not sell was because the pigs' cage in the master bedroom. It is a HUGE distraction and for whatever reason people in the south don't think that animals should live inside of the house, never mind in the main bedroom.

I am curious to see if anyone has found the "magic" kitchen. I am soooo open to ideas right now.

[Aertyn]

I have a 1x2 shavings/hay area and in front of that i put a separate piece of fleece (1x2 again as it was the size it already was). Every day I take it outside and shake it off as I find that most of the hay and shavings get tracked off in that area, and I pick up any long loose strands of hay...my vacuum gets most of the little pieces of shavings that might be left.

I did experiment with using shower mats but found the smell after even a few hours to be horrible.

[JennG]

I'm like Weaver and I've tried MANY different "kitchens" as well. I'll try and post a few in alittle while.

I really don't have a current "kitchen" set up. For the larger herd that has 2 levels, I keep their pellet dish and veggie dishes on the upper level where I use fleece as bedding. On the lower level, I use shavings for bedding. With 10 piggies in this herd, I just take a huge thing of hay and throw it on the bedding. Trust me when I say I don't have to worry about any going to waste because they eat it so quickly.

In the two other smaller herds, I have a small kitty litter pan that I put a layer of newspaper/shavings/carefresh in. I put the hay in that box. I'll try to show you all in a bit. I used to use hay racks but w/ all the current issues w/ piggies getting stuck, I just throw the hay in the box and they pretty much eat it all before it gets wet and moldy.

BTW-Weaver, if I lived closer, I'd let you keep your crew here. What I wouldn't give to care for the Weaver kids. :)

[CavyHouse]

Weaver - I just read an article on "staging" homes for Open Houses and they suggested sending all the critters to a kennel during the open house! That's not real practical for most people on this forum.

[rshevin]

Next time I clean my cage, I can show a kitchen that doesn't work.

[calicavylover]

I was just up looking at the boys cage and decided to work on a kitchen for them today, they don't have one and really need it
-I'll try to post pics of my girls kitchen area later today. They have a 2x7 and their kitchen area is basically a separate coroplast box that is a little less than 2x2. They seem to keep most of the mess in the kitchen area, except when Kitty decides to grab a mouth full of hay and make a run for it! I couldn't figure out why big batches of hay were ending up on the opposite end of the cage until once day I saw her grab and run for it! It was hysterical!

[Feylin]

Aspen shavings seem to stick to fleece more than carefresh or pelleted bedding. I have the same trouble as everyone else, but using woodstove pellets helps a lot.

Weaver, have you tried putting a drop cloth over the pig cage?

[camende]

I think, in general, it is harder to sell a house with animals.

Weaver, your setup looks awesome and so neat! I wouldn't think it would turn off potential buyers.

I am going to have the same problem when we go to sell this place in another 6 years or so. I think its one of the reasons that Ted doesn't want to take on any more piggies. I mean, the entire sunroom is the piggie room and I know, that will turn off potential buyers.

[JennG]

camende, I'd LOVE to buy your house. It's beautiful!!! That sunroom would be perfect for my piggie room. Of course, you live on the "wrong" side of town. ;) We're SouthEast people.

See Weaver, you just need to find a family that love animals and piggies. I bet they'd buy your house IF you threw in your great cages. ;)

[TWP_2]

We're also struggling with what to do when our house is being shown.

But, once our house is sold and we have a new one elsewhere, we can get to work building a "kitchen" in each cage.

[tia2370]

BTW-Weaver, if I lived closer, I'd let you keep your crew here. What I wouldn't give to care for the Weaver kids. :)

Are you sure about that, JennG? I bet the Weaver kids would get quite demanding and require a great amount of cuddle cups and cozy sacks!

A quick question about kitchens - I noticed someone said that aspen sticks to fleece really bad, but does pine? I picked up some really cheap fleece at the store today and will probably switch over before the end of the week and I was considering doing kiln-dried pine in a litter box as a kitchen. Any thoughts?

[camende]

JennG, the house is almost 20 years old.

It needs a new roof, new carpet, all new appliances (they are all making weird noises so I know they will all die in the same month).

Oh, and one of the windows in the piggie room won't lock because the wood around the frame is all rotten out on the outside. The window BLEW OPEN and my piggies were freaked out when the COLD air came rushing in. Thankfully, Ted was home to close the window. I am worried about what could happen if we are not home.

That window is my highest priority right now.

I live on the wrong side of town? Really? I know, its so crowded over here. I'm bad at directions. Where is southeast? Laketown? Ted's mom's in Laketown so I always think that's southeast.

I was just thinking if there was a better way to organise the piggie room. I'd really like to make an "L" like Weaver has. It would open up the floor so I had more room.

[Justified]

I know this is about kitchens--sorry don't mean to hijack the thread.

Weaver, we have had our home for sale for over a year--can't sell it though due to the real estate market right now. :(

Anyway, to keep from scaring potential buyers, I took all the piggums out of the kitchen/breakfast area & put them upstairs in one room. We are in the south also and having animals in your KITCHEN is definitely a big no-no!

When we have showings (I request 2 hour advance notice) I lock the pig room door and hang a sign on it that says, "We are involved with small animal rescue. This room is used for that purpose. These animals are easily frightened by strangers and as such, this room is temporarily unavailable for viewing. It is a single bedroom with two closets and two ceiling fans. If you require viewing this room, please let us know and we will make arrangements. Thank you for your understanding."

We have yet to have anyone call back & request to see that bedroom.

[camende]

That's a great idea about the sign. You could also put the rooms dimensions on it so that the buyers would have an idea. Even a couple of color pictures would work as well.

Although, if I was a buyer, I would want to see the room and I probably would want to see it when I initially was there.

And, just so that I don't hyjack the thread anymore

Here is a picture of the kitchen area. It is a 2x5 grid section of the cage.

[WEAVER]

I don't want to hyjack the thread, but a drop cloth over this huge cage would look like I was really trying to hide something and would look awfful. I have been debating downsizing the cages just until we move, but I feel like such a bad piggie mommy. Right now though we have to sell this small house. We have sooo outgrown it and the cost to add on is more than just moving into a larger house. I may have to be a bad piggie mommy for a few months to be a good mommy for my human kids. My kids really need more space, and the pigs need their own room with my sewing stuff. I just feel awful even thinking about downsizing, and I worry about how messy the cages will look than. I am so stressed out about this!

Let me go and locate some kitchen pictures to put the thread back where it needs to be. Maybe I will start a new thread so I have a place to "vent' during this process.

PS. Jenn thank you for offering to take the crew. You think you are busy now, add fourteen more pigs to your to-do list, three rats, one large dog, and a high maintence cat.

[rshevin]

Ohh, you should definitely spread them around. Dibs on Mr. Peabody!

[WEAVER]

This was my cage a while back. Same kitchen concept.


Bottom two cages had kitchen areas on the second level. The kitchen area is to the far left. I just used a throw mat over the fleece.


(I am thinking about doing another cage simuliar to the above one if I downsize)

Another view of the kitchen areas when I just used throw mats. I really liked doing this. Worked out fine with me changing the mats daily and shaking them out seeing hay gets all over the cage anyways. The only problem is I have a septic and hay and field lines is not a good combination. Let's just say, that was costly :P



Now my boys have the same concept, but we use a litter pan to collect most of the hay.

[rshevin]

Oh my gosh you didn't even read my post yet and I got a Mr. Peabody Fest! Look at his tiny little tushie eating hay. I am in love. That may be one of my favorite pictures yet.