Floor time and stress

[Wheekie]

I know piggies should have floor time for exercise, but I also know stress isn't good for them...so what do you do when time outside their cage(unless they're cuddled in my lap) seems to get them so upset it makes you worry that they might have a heart attack or worse? I've been dealing with this for 3 1/2 years now and I always made them have floor time anyway, but My Guys are getting older (3 & 3 1/2 yrs.) and it's really starting to scare me. They've been put in the same surroundings for out- of -cage time for forever, so you think they'd be used to it, but they always act scared to death! I've tried different things I've read on this site, but nothing seems to work-everything from giving them the whole room to run free and explore to fencing off a smaller area...and I'm always right there...I never,ever leave them unsupervised.(Although I have tried being out of their sight to see if I made them nervous-it doesn't seem to matter). I've even tried giving them separate free time! They either hide under whatever they can and refuse to move, so they get no exercise anyway, or if there's nowhere to hide, they huddle in the corner, shiver and glare at me! Their stressful heavy breathing is what scares me until I get so worried that I put them in their home again! In their 3x5 C&C cage ( 2 piggies ) with their toys and hidey houses and food and cuddly fleece is the only place that they seem to want to be (besides my lap)-they still popcorn! Besides relaxing "piggie-style", they are very active and their health is great! I guess my question is, what's worse for them-less floor time or more stress? Could it possibly be fine just to only take them out occasionally?

[CF#5]

With that size cage, they'll probably be fine. If you can expand the cage to be a little longer, to 3x6 or even bigger, that will give them plenty of room to do laps whenever they feel like it. Maybe you're just giving them floor time at the wrong time of day. I hear my pigs zooming all over the place sometimes around 6:00AM (in the few instances that I'm still awake at that time, LOL). Of course, the 2x10 extension I built to their cage doesn't hurt. You have to keep in mind that one of the biggest reasons for having such a large cage is to let the pigs exercise and run whenever they want, not when it's convenient for you. As long as you keep the obstacles to a minimum, 3x5 should be big enough for them to run and they don't really need floor time as much. Since these particular pigs are still terrified of it, they'd probably be better off without it completely.

[Wheekie]

Thanks! That's exactly how I feel! I do have houses, toys, food dishes and a hay rack in their cage, but I never let anything touch the sides, so they have plenty of room and I have seen the younger one running laps!