[hilary]

I currently have just one piggy, Cubie, and while she seems happy I know she'd be much much happier with a friend to run and play with. I pay for all of her expenses, and being 17 and only babysitting here and there, I'm not sure if having another guinea pig will be too much. Not the care itself, but the expenses. I'm pretty sure I could afford a friend for her, but in the mean time I first want to get Cubie a C&C cage because right now she is in a petstore cage :[ I adopted her from a friend about three weeks ago and started researching everything there is to know about guinea pigs right away, and soon enough I found out about the C&C cages and the requirements for guinea pigs and realized I need to get her a bigger cage. I see her running around inside, but really she has nowhere to run it's way too small. I have the money for a cage, and I want to get one that is plenty big for her and also big enough so that if I eventually add another piggy to my family it's big enough for both of them as well.

I was thinking a 2x3.5, or should I just go ahead and get the 2x4 if I have the space? (I need to measure the desk I have her cage currently on, which is very big and I think would fit even up to a 2x5)
I could build an upper deck I suppose, to add more space? So, please tell me what size cages do your piggies live in and how many do you have?

Also, I am going to switch from a combo of aspen/carefresh bedding to fleece once I buy the C&C cage as this seems to be much cheaper, more sanitary and just easier overall.