setting up house?

[cazzyuk]

Hi - I am nw to the forum and to having GP's.

I have put a post in intro's to say hello!
My husband is building a house for our 2 piggies out of wood and perspex at the moment (he is a carpenter) and we were planning to have a lower area which measures about 60 inches by 30 inches and then an upper deck which measures about 30 inches by 12 inches for the litter area.

We are planning to make it so we have a litter tray (like a cat litter tray) which sits neatly into the upper deck so we could fill with something like care fresh and shavings and then have most of the lower area fleece with a kitchen area (lino) for the food, hay rack and water....

But now after reading some posts here, I am wondering if this is going to be any good?
After reading up on fleece - I appear to have misinterpreted how it works. I just assumed that everyone trained their piggies not to urinate on fleece (apart from the odd accident) and just had to pick up the poo!

If the piggies regularly urinate on the fleece - doesnt it smell quickly with normal towels underneath? Ive also got this horrible vision of pickin up urine sodden towels that are dripping!!!!

My guineas always go in the same corner - so I was hoping to train them bu putting a tiny bit of their already soiled shavings in the new litter area so that they got the message!!!

Any suggestions - am now wondering whether the upstairs area should be used for hay and litter area? Logic told me that eating area and litter area should be apart?

Sorry if I sound a bit thick - not had GP's before but want to do things right!

Caz x

[Lauren&Pigs]

Food in the litter area would be ideal. Pigs eat, then shortly after usually do their business.
The urine will smell on the fleece/towels if it isn't cleaned very often. Fabric requires more maintenance then say just carefresh, and will need to be cleaned weekly. However, a method that has worked for many people is two layers of towels, and a layer of fleece on top.
The urine will wick down to the towel layers below, and the towels will absorb the urine.
The fleece and towels won't be anywhere near so filled with pee that they're dripping.
Also- not all pigs are potty-trainable.

[starshine123102]

Some people also have a kitchen area. They usually keep it filled with carefresh or aspen shavings and keep the food in this area. This is the "litter area". It's usually kept sectioned off with coroplast with a little doorway cut out of it so they can get into it without having to climb over it. The rest of the cage would be fleece. Like Lauren&pigs said though, not all pigs are litter trainable. they have to want to be trained, and can't be trained like a dog or cat is. I would suggest keeping the litter area downstairs though as not all pigs use their lofts.

[Ly&Pigs]

Fleece has to have something underneath it that is absorbable for it to work correctly. Fleece takes the moisture and wicks it through to the underlayer. If you use towels, you will want to change them a couple times per week and they won't be dripping with urine. Pigs only potty train if they have the want to do it. We cannot force them to use a pan or a certain area of the cage. If they are already doing it on their own, then you may have more luck getting them to pee in a certain area but it's doubtful that you will be able to get them to poo in one certain area as well.

I also have to say that wood doesn't make a good cage because it can harbor bacteria and mold.

[cazzyuk]

thank you for your kind replies.

We are planning on having perspex on the inside so that the wood - which is minimal anyway will not get wet etc. When it is finished I will post a picture so that you can give any advice.

The base is made from laminate sheets and is then covered with lino. I would then use the towels and the fleece. What do you think?

I was amazed to find this website and did not realise just how dedicated some GP owners were! When we first got our piggies - which came from a friend who was moving and could no longer keep the piggies, we brought a larger cage from a petshop which we assumed was ok as she had them in a smaller cage, but after browsing the forum, we realised that our cage wasn't enough and in actual fact we had a big litter tray!

I think I will still continue with the plan of a food/litter area in the loft as we have done things already to accomodate this, but if it doesnt work I will make the loft into a fleece area and make a food area downstairs. But I am thinking that if the food area is i the loft then they will use it!

Also, can someone tell me, is meadow hay the same as timothy hay?

Thank you

[guineapigluver1]

Any grass hay can be fed daily, meadow hay is one of them (others are timothy, bluegrass, bermuda, brome, and orchard).