My pot belly tore down the out door pen...

[ittybitty98577]

I used chicken wire and wooden stakes to make a large play area for my GPs but my pot belly tore all the chicken wire down. Does anyone know of a good STRONG material I could use thats both cavy and pot belly proof?
Thanks

[piggly wiggly]

Haha, I have no suggestions sorry,but I love pot belly pigs. I used to have one, but he was an indoor pig, he was litter trained. Is there left over veggies or something he wanted in the pen? Mine was nver destructive, maybe your guy wanted something.

[ittybitty98577]

Mine is also an indoor pig and potty trained. Nope no veggies or anything "good" in the pen I think he just wanted to get in there, pritty sad actually. My two girls didnt even get a chance to go in the pen.

[PrincessAngel]

Maybe try some grids and staple them to the wood.Erm if you can't get what I mean you can forget that suggestion.Or maybe you could put some wooden bars then the chicken wire to make it stronger.

[ittybitty98577]

I had wooden stakes in the ground and the chicken wire attached and he just pulled the stakes out of the ground and crumpled the chicken wire. I thought about the grids and having them in the ground like an inch or so but he would probably be able to push those right over. Do you mean with wooden bars make like a box frame and then have the chicken wire attached?

[PrincessAngel]

Originally Posted by ittybitty98577

I had wooden stakes in the ground and the chicken wire attached and he just pulled the stakes out of the ground and crumpled the chicken wire. I thought about the grids and having them in the ground like an inch or so but he would probably be able to push those right over. Do you mean with wooden bars make like a box frame and then have the chicken wire attached?

Yes that's what I mean.When I was trying to design a rabbit cage that was the type of thing I was going to use. But with some bar's in the middle attacthed to the box frame a few inches apart to help keep it together.

[aqh88]

Well I know how to make it sturdier but I'm not sure you want to go that far or have the means. For me with a stack of posts laying around I'd just pound some tposts into the ground and string 4' high garden fence or heavy duty hardware cloth between them. Little posts aren't going to help you and chicken wire isn't that sturdy. I suppose maybe those spade 3' high reebar I used to reinforce the bottom of the dog yard might work but I don't know how strong the pig is. I'd use tposts. Pretty much need a tractor to remove them though so the pen is rather permanent at that point.

[guineapigfan9000]

Try this with grids: Make a grid enclosure as you would a C&C minus the coroplast, then strap all the grids together with twisty ties (or twisty wire, which is like a 30m long twisty tie), string, wire or cable ties.
Then use tent pegs to whack it into the ground.
You could also make a removable enclosure that you could pack up when your piggies aren't inside.

[aqh88]

Tent stakes are very very easy to pull out of the ground. I've only found one type that I can't pull out with 1 hand. If you can pull it easily by hand the pig can definitely pull it. It's at least stronger than most people. Reason I said maybe spaded reebar. Once you get the stuff in the ground it takes an adult in ok physical conditon using both hands to pull it out. Not as immovable as tposts but still fairly permanent. Not sure if that would be enough though.

Grids just tied will swing and be flat out destroyed by a pig. That's definitely not sturdy. Now if you double grid on all the joints it has potential but will get flipped over unless it's stuck down with something sturdy. Most tent stakes do not fall under my definition of sturdy. In fact I don't even use tent stakes for my tent I use fiberglass rods that are actually used for horse fencing or the reebar.

[crazywiggy]

Here is my suggestion:

Get 4 wooden stakes and some grids.

For each wall of the pen connect the grids together using plenty of zip ties. Overlap the grids by 2 squares and zip tie them tightly together at both edges, in the top, middle and bottom (so you use 6 ties). This should stop them folding. Build 4 side walls this way.

Lay out the four walls where you want them. Use the wooden stakes in the corners. Cable tie the walls tightly to stake, again top middle and bottom. Each stake is therefore connected to 2 walls. This way the pen should be solid and unflexible and because it is a low box shape the pig shouldn't be able to knock it over.

If you want extra stability, you could also leave some extra length at the bottom of the stakes when you attach the grids, so that you can whack them into the ground as an extra precaution.

Hope this makes sense!

[ittybitty98577]

Thanks all for the great ideas I think im going to try them out and hopefully it will work!

[i-love-nev]

Could'nt you buy a cheap eletric fence to put around the guinea pig pen?. The cheap ones dont hurt at all and I have felt the shock it's like nothing!

[envisionary333]

Perhaps rather than building from the ground up, you could make an open-bottomed enclosure with a cover that is weighed down? I've never had a pot-bellied pig (although I'd want one!), but I imagine they are very strong and I doubt grids or chicken wire would stand a chance. You could do something that looks somewhat like these examples: http://www.guineapigcages.com/photos.../3149/cat/516m , http://www.guineapigcages.com/photos...o/4235/cat/516. Obviously the wood and mesh probably wouldn't hold, so perhaps you could look into making a metal frame and a very sturdy, heavy duty mesh? Then you could weigh down the sides with sandbags or concrete blocks so it can't get pushed around. Aqh88, obviously you're more knowledgeable then me with this, so do you think there would be a way of modifying this general idea that would work?