Bathtub?

[BlueButterfly]

Hi!
I'm having a bit of trouble with floor time. My pigs usually have it in my garage, but lately it's gotten much to hot for the pigs to be out of the nice, air conditioned house. I don't have too many more options for floor time. I can't do it upstairs, because it's carpeted and would be horrible to clean. I can't put them downstairs, because that's where the dog is, and I'd be very uncomfortable with them sharing space with the dog. So my only option I could do would be to put them in my bathtub. It's a very large bathtub, almost twice as big as their cage. I could guinea pig proof my bathroom, but it's a very small bathroom, so they'd probaly be better off in the bathtub. If I were going to do floor time in my bathtub, would I need to put towels down so that they wouldn't slip? And I'd of course wipe it down and remove anything that they could get into. Would it work?

[spy9doc]

You can try it (yes, put down a towel), but it never worked for me. The boys had no real place to run and they were intimidated by the appearance of the tub.

You can do an arrangement of zip-tied grids connected with a binder clip as a play pen and put them on the carpet. Use a vinyl tablecloth or shower curtain to protect the carpet.

[mommazilla]

We have a medium pile shaggy type of carpet that I let my boys run around on with just a blanket over it. I just linked extra grids to keep them in the back half of the room. The blanket doesn't cover the entire area. They prefer one corner over the rest so I put their hidey there and put a towel under that and I've never noticed any wet spots on the actual carpet. Not to say it doesn't happen but I find several wet spots (and poo) in their hidey and on the blanket. Maybe hit the thrift store and buy 2 big blankets, that should soak up any tinkles that may happen.

Before I had extra grids (and a 2nd gp) I would put Juniper in my walk in closet to run around.

If you're still worried about your carpet, maybe talk to the pups, tell them they get run of the downstairs all day and the piggies need an hour to get out so they're going to need to go chill outside (or in your bedroom, etc) while the piggies get run of the kitchen. Then lay a blanket down for them and block it off and let the fun begin!

[Mastershroom]

Our entire apartment is carpeted except for the kitchen and bathroom. We just set up a ring of boxes and put old sheets down to cover the floor, and let them loose. They have fun, and the carpet is protected.

[BlueButterfly]

Thanks for the advice guys. I decided not to use the bathtub, I cleared out a space downstairs for them. I put down towels and a baby playpen and let them loose for about two hours (with quick bathroom break in their cage in between). I do have a question though, how much do I have to set up for their floor time? Today I gave them a food bowl, both hidey's, veggies, a bowl of water, (Their waterbottle wouldn't fit on the side of the playpen.) and hay. I thought it was a bit overkill, since they barely ate the hay and wouldn't touch the water.

[mommazilla]

I normally put out water and hay and then sometimes I will hide some treat veggies and fruits here and there so they actually explore. Also put out some toys they don't normally have in their cage. Different tunnels, some make shift ramps, different chew toys etc. just to get them moving since they are sometimes very shy about exploring such a big new area.

[beachgurl_1988]

I got a big vinyl tablecloth at walmart for 5 bucks (it's a cute print too ) I block off a good bit of the hallway and let em loose. They love it! Extra peices of coroplast are great for blocking stuff off too. I don't have jumpers though!