play area

I've been reading everbody's questions and replys....and I have a question. Where do you let your pigs have their floor time???? I used to let them run around the living room but they went under the couch and it got to be a pain to clean up after them. Now I'm not sure what to do. I have alot of wood furniture in my home so it slao limits where they can go as Pig is a chewer!!!! Does anyone have any suggestions????

Do you have any open spaces in your home? The middle of my living room is furniture free and I put a little "playpen" out so they can't get under the furniture. (The playpen is made of cubes zippee tied together...folds for easy storage!) Another option would be a hallway, or kitchen. You want your pigs to be in a playpen for safety. So any of these places would be great playpen places!

Hope this helps!

Miriam

Thank-you for the suggestion! I think that is the route I will go (playpen). Right now I'm in the process of trying to find out where I can buy the cubes....I live in Canada.

Thanks again!!

Kristina

Do you have a Costco? I think those are in Canada? I know they have them...but people in Canada do have a hard time finding them sometimes. Target, Wal*Mart, and Menards are some other places. (I have no idea what Menards is...) Hope you find 'em!

Miriam

How big should the playpen be???? I have 2 large pigs and hope to get another. Which is my next question.... has anyone ever had a hard time with an odd number of pigs. People seem to think that its like children...if there's three theres always one left out. What do you think??????

Ummm...I don't know about the odd # pig thing...I know of Teresa's CavySpirit site, she talks about adding pigs:

www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm

If you scroll down it is towards the end of the page.

Anyway, what I did with the playpen was make one large enough to take up most of my living room...my living room is pretty small though! That way they can run around and have more space to explore. I think it is just a matter of whatever floats your boat. You might read through this page:

www.cavycages.com/floortime.htm

I talks about floor time, the purpose, places to have, ect ect.

Miriam

When I let my piggers have their floor time what I do is I take some grids and block off certain areas in my kitchen or bedroom or wherever I'm at for a few hours and lay down a huge beach towel and some junk towls. Then I put some toys and veggies down, put the pigs in and WHA LA!!! Everyonce in a while they'll pick a cornor and I just put their litter tray there and they usually use it but thats up to you if you want to use that. Then when their done and you put them back all you do is throw the towel into the laundry machine and they are clean! The guinea pigs love the towels and are happy. Try that it works great! Good luck!

Brynn

[GuineaTV]

Also - I put "bitter apple" gel (made for rabbits) on places I didn't want them to chew. Of course, give them a wooden hidey hole to chew because this is what they usually chew on rather than wooden "chew toys". ALso, my pigs love to chew cardboard tubes from paper towels that I have torn spirally down the middle (so now there are two curly tubes to play with). They can get a good grip on any part of it.

[mom to cujo]

I was able to cut up large cardboard boxes and block off areas where I was afraid Cujo might get lost or stuck and it worked out fine. Just be sure to keep an eye on them because they are funny. Cujo really stays in one large area of the living room but I wonder if curiosity will ever overcome his fears and cause him to wander into territory that has remained unexplored. The cardboard worked really well for me and I just fold it up when he goes back home.

[GuineaTV]

Right - curious pigs have in the past turned my cardboard "barriers" into swinging doors with a little strategic chewing! Grids cable-tied together always keeps 'em in. The perfect thing to do with your extra grids when you run out of connectors! (cheaper to buy a new set of grids/connectors than order new connectors)

[tashagurl]

I have five pigs. I have them in two groups. I have the parents (Salem and Honey) in one pen and their three children(Samson, Sassy, and Penny) in a larger pen. I have them outside all the time right now as I am still trying to convince my mom that I need two LARGE cages in my room. Part of the back yard is sectioned off for them and they love it and are VERY happy not to be stuck in their petstore cages.

Well any way I was trying to answer someones earlier guestion about odd numbers. They have worked great for me wile my boys were getting nuetered I had all three of the girls together. Now I had to try different combinations of pigs to keep all of my pigs happy. But I finaly found the right match. You shouldnt have that problem because you dont have as many pigs.I hope this helped a little.

I think the odd number pig thing is totaly wrong. If pigs want company like to snuggle or play with they will seek it out from their cagemates. Otherwise they like to just hang out with each other. Sometimes they dont want to be bothered so they find a hiding spot and enjoy some alone time.
Sorry its so long.

I bought a play pen but i dont use it much...its smaller than his cage so i just let him run around in the cage...when i DO use it though i put a layer of newspapers and then a towel over it so no waste gets on the floor and stains it...

[KmKrazy9]

If you go to the Cavy Cages page and you look under the box that says find materials,then click on found mine at: you can click on where you live,and what you are looking for,and it will tell where people in your area have found materials. That way maybe you can find a store that sells cubes and you can make a playpen. Hope this helps!