What kind of floor time?

[Jane_G]

When you say "floor time" do you mean in a larger penned area like a pet play pen or really out there? If you do let your piggies out free range so to speak, what do you do about the poops, pees and getting where they shouldn't? I'd love to be able to let Cookie out with more freedom, but I'm afraid of her getting into trouble. Our house has an open plan so there's not many ways to block her in.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Ly&Pigs]

Floortime can be done in different ways. You can build a larger pen that you can easily set up and take down and put your pig in it or you can block off an area of your home and let them free range.

When I let my girls free range, I do it either in the kitchen, hallway or bathroom. These rooms have linoleum on the floor so I can go afterwards and just sweep up the poos and mop up any pee spots. I usually throw some fleece down in areas for them to lounge on and I always provide hay and water during floortime. I block the areas off with grids.

If I put them in a pen in the living room, then I put down puppy pads, newspaper and fleece and set up their grid pen on top.

Here's a page you can read all about floortime- http://www.guineapigcages.com/floortime.htm

[JarBax]

Check out the floortime section in the galleries too for more ideas!

[JanJam]

Hi Jane. Our girls free range in the day. We built a C&C cage with a doorway (which can be closed) in it. We managed to block off wires with trunking and where that wasn't possible we have used timber boards and strategically placed furniture to block off wires (although there aren't many in the dining room).

We put old carpet down which we can hoover up and shampoo. Once it gets past its prime the carpet either gets used as a weed cover for the garden or we give it away on Freecycle, and get more carpet from Freecycle.

Some areas have towels and fleece down on them, for example we have an old TV/Video cabinet, they girls like to go under there (in the space where the video would normally go). Other areas have rugs down on them, again from either Freecycle or cheap rag rugs we've picked up.

Poops - yes they do get everywhere, but to be honest it doesn't take that much more to hoover them from the room as we do from the fleece in their cage. The routine when I get home is hoover cage poops and swap out any damp towels, then refill their hay racks, which means they go running into the cage. I then "lock up" for the night and hoover the poops out of the room. Total cleaning time about 10 minutes.

The girls have a 3 x 5 cage, which is enough for them anyway, but they like to queue up at the door in the morning and do like to have a wander about, especially Dora who is the nosiest!

[bamby71994]

I let my TWO boys go around without grids. They will have grid soon! Espically since one of then is around 8-10 weeks old!

[Honey_Bunny]

I put Honey in her large pen area so Reggie (my dog) doesnt get to her but when she is outside she like to free roam unless i cant watch her.

[Cherish]

Our boys are free range all day, as long as there's someone home to keep an eye on them.
We live in quite a small flat/apartment, so we let them have the run of the whole place (unless we have a pig in quarantine in the bedroom).

My husband built their cage, and put a door in the side, so we usually just leave that open, so they can run around the flat or go back and forth to their cage as they please, to eat or if they want some time alone.

As for the pees and poops, we litter trained our boys.
It was actually pretty easy.
Once we'd trained our first two pigs, the younger ones we added to the herd later on instinctively copied them, and used the litter trays.

EDIT: If you're going to let your pigs run free range, it's extremely important to remember to securely cover all of your wires.
Not only can it be expensive to replace wires that have been chewed, but it is very dangerous for your pigs, should they chew a wire that is plugged in.

[Jane_G]

Thanks for all the replies. I won't be able to let Cookie have a complete free range floor time. Our house has a big open floor plan and there are way too many places for her to hide or get into trouble. I think my best bet is to use a big pet pen and let her run around in the kitchen.

[zachdave]

Please give us new folks an idea of how you litter train in a cage. It seems that would be a great way to cut down on the need to change the entire bedding so often. I have 2 pigs in a 2x3 C&C with 1 x2 loft. I use carefresh and within 3 days it smells, although I have begun doing partial changes to keep the smell down. I do a full change every week and that's expensive with carefresh.

[auburnmare5]

Floor time can be anything you want it to be! Just as long as you gps are in a safe secure environment, it does not matter what you use! Remember, floor time is a time for pigs to explore a different environment out of their cage, and get exercise!

[DosLunas]

I through a sheet over a large bed and put their salad in the middle and lay down with a book with them. They run around, eat, play, get cuddles from me, while the three of us relax. I then just shake out the sheet in the garden, fertilizer for the plants, and hang the sheet to dry. After a couple of times, I just through it in the wash.