railings on ramps?

[grEEEn]

[FONT=Courier New][FONT=Microsoft Sans Serif]I've noticed in quite a few pictures of the cages with more than 1 level, that sometimes sides aren't put onto ramps - I'm not ready to be making a multilevel cage yet, but if I decide to in the future I'd like to know how neccessarry the ramp walls are? I'd e very worried about a piggy falling off the side, but maybe I'm missing something like the potential to get stuck if I do put edges.[/FONT] [/FONT][FONT=Microsoft Sans Serif]Is there anything I should be aware of with the ramps?[/FONT]

[Myspoiltpiggies]

My girl's ramp doesn't have sides. They've had a ramp for 1 year and a half and not one of the eight of them has fallen (unless of course I wasn't there to see and they didn't get injured). I'm not saying that this is the right way to do it though.. it probably is better to have railings. Not sure how I would attach railings onto my ramp though.

[this_lil_piggy]

My initial ramps that I made out of coroplast and rugs didn't have sides.......and my pigs wouldn't even use them. I guess they didn't feel secure enough.
Then I remade ramps using large dryer vent hose....they wouldn't use those either. They would start into them, then back out.
My new ramps I made by just bending grids, so they do have sides now....and my pigs run up and down them like race cars.

When I redo my cage in January I think I am going to eliminate the need for ramps altogether. The pigs seem to love them, but I detest cleaning the ramps and trying to clean around them or catch pigs with them in the way. All of my pigs jump on top of their hidey houses, so my intentions when I expand the cage is to just make lofts that are only half a grid high from the floor so they can just jump up on them.

[grEEEn]

Yeah... for now I'd rather go without ramps just to be super safe, but I'm thinking, if I ever need to expand their cage it'll be just opening up a side and building outward that way, not up.

[amfeider]

My ramp doesn't have sides but it is only 8 inches off the ground and they go up and down all day.

[Slave to the Wheek]

People do make them without sides, but it is not recommended for several reasons. One is that cavy feet are easily broken, another is that pigs get excited and will push each other off. They can also popcorn off accidentally.

If your ramp is low and doesn't all the way up for a second level, then going without sides is not as big of an issue. Personally, when my boys start popcorning and flying up and down their ramp I could easily seen an injury happening if I didn't have nice high sides to a sturdy ramp. I am more of someone who would rather be safe than spend money at the vet.

I think ramps with sides are going to be more sturdy as well. I was told to put sides on when I joined the forum, so I never questioned it really. It just made sense to me. Besides, if your going to use grids, why not just bend them to build your ramp? That gives you sides, and makes it safe.

Also, you'll want to make sure that you find a way to connect it to the upper level securely. Many ramps I've seen in the galleries are unsafe, and are barely functioning..so be careful of your design choice.

You can click on the photo next to my profile and see a detailed set of pictures showing how I made my ramp by zip tieing 2 mesh grids together, then zip tieing coroplast to it for a floor base. (engineering to prevent it from stressing at the joint, as per hubby's directions) then covering it with fleece. I find it has to be washed once a month as they pee and it runs down the ramp to the bottom. That's why I chose a washable fabric that won't cause bacterial build-up from the urine.

I made a skinny little pad out of fleece and batting and put ties on it to tie it to the ramp as a "runner". Works great. But, you can also just cut the ends of the fleece so that you have long strands at the ends. No sewing even needed for that idea.