Advice on a hard desicion

[PrincessAngel]

My eldest guinea pig Angelica is about 5.5 years old. She has a tumor and cateract. She eats fine and is normally happy with the exceptions of Java bugging her. Angelica also has some feet problems, she gets poop on them and it causes sores.
That was some background leading up to my hard decision. It is hard to keep her clean and moniter her food intake. I don't want to stress her out more by keeping her with Java who constantly bugs her. I was talking to my dad and we were trying to decide if we should seperate them. I think Angelica would enjoy being away from the other pig and I think she would stay cleaner in a smaller cage where I could clean it everyday. I was thinking on giving her a 1x2 or so.
What do you guys think? My dad said I should ask here before we tried anything.

[mbator]

I think that would be a wise move, I would do that...

[wiggley_narco]

A 2x3 is the MINIMUM for one pig. You could attach her cage to Java's cage with a divider made of grids, that way they can still see, smell, and talk to one another. 1x2, however, is FAR too small for even one guinea pig!

[PrincessAngel]

Originally Posted by wiggley_narco

A 2x3 is the MINIMUM for one pig. You could attach her cage to Java's cage with a divider made of grids, that way they can still see, smell, and talk to one another. 1x2, however, is FAR too small for even one guinea pig!

I'm quite aware of the minumun standards thank you very much, but there is NO way to make my 2 girls 2x3 bigger to divide it between them. The point for the 1x2 would be to help her heal some and make sure she was safe. Angelica spent 3 years in a cage the size of a 1x2 I don't think a few day-week would bother her as she doesn't do much anyway. And if I were to divide my cage in half each girl would have a 2x1.5 which wouldn't far to the one who does run around her cage.

[wiggley_narco]

You didn't mention how long you would separate them for, just that you would separate them.

No need for an attitude. I'm not going to argue over cage size standards. I simply assumed you might not know the minimum cage size for one pig, because if you did I'd think you would adhere to that standard. If not, that's your decision. You asked for advice, I gave it. Take it or leave it.

[Justin]

PrincessAngel:

I have a similar situation and believe that separating an old pig would make him happier. So after two weeks of hesitation, I finally separated mine from herd.

However, I think 2x1 is still too small, even after considering everything you said. You could be taking her very little daily walks away. (which might happens in 5 a.m. when you are still sleeping)

I think best care and cleanest cage might not effectively make your pig healthier if you have to compromise cage size so severely.

[Justin]

If you can't increase current 2x3 cage for space reasons, have you considered a double story cage? I see many designs in the photo gallery, including my humble one.

For the cleaning, how about using fleece and have small designated area for water, food, and their dirty business?

I see how you feel about the "hard decision" I used the same words in my threads just a week ago.

But the thing is, we are stuck with the pigs for their life. For me, thinking it over and over for few more days helped me to sacrifice a little bit more for the pigs.

[PrincessAngel]

Originally Posted by Justin

If you can't increase current 2x3 cage for space reasons, have you considered a double story cage? I see many designs in the photo gallery, including my humble one.

For the cleaning, how about using fleece and have small designated area for water, food, and their dirty business?

I see how you feel about the "hard decision" I used the same words in my threads just a week ago.

But the thing is, we are stuck with the pigs for their life. For me, thinking it over and over for few more days helped me to sacrifice a little bit more for the pigs.

Doing a double cage would make it extremely hard to clean the bottom if they were right over each other, and if I had a grid making one higher it would still be extremely hard as I am extremely short. Angelica has issues with pine, and carefresh and so on it's why shes always yucky.

[Ziggy&Herald]

Maybe you could still stack the cages, but make the top one where it can be removed from the bottom for cleanig. I saw one in the gallery like that. They built two closed cages and used bungy(sp) cords to hold them together so the top couldn't slide off. Or you could use the method where they make two of the grids in front swing open like a door so you could just sweep the bedding out through that? You know your best situation, but maybe these examples could give you some ideas.