Size Do accessories take away from square footage?

[Kathy_D]

I have been looking through the gallery a lot and I see some fabulous C&C cages that have a ton of fun things for the piggies. I'm talking about things like beds, hidey houses, tubes/tunnels. Do these things take away from the usable square foorage? I know piggies love to run around, mine sure do, so would all of this stuff be in the way and make for less running room? Also, does a ramp take away from usable square footage? I'm not trying to be a smart-alec, I'm ust trying to design a big, cavy-friendly, entertaining and stimulating home for my boys and I want to make sure I do it right!

 

[pinky]

One of my guinea pigs likes to sleep under the ramp so I consider it a good use of the space. The pigloos do take up a lot of space but they use them a lot. Sometimes they sleep in the kitchen area instead of in the pigloos but I'm still hesitant to take them out. One likes to sleep in the pigloo on the upper level. I have a 3 x 5 for three but the space is significantly reduced with the pigloos in there.

 

[cfoster1966]

I find that using foot stools, fleece tents, bridges, pvc pipes, and lofts create lots of places for them to be without taking up much floor space. I have 7 piggies in one cage so floor space is definitely at a premium. I also created corner tents with coroplast boxes under them(the boxes are 12 sq inches and 2 inches high, I got the idea from the piggy bedspread site). I line the boxes with washcloths and a fleece covering. It is great to catch poop and pee but also acts as a nice cave. I have 4 of these in my cage. The pigs LOVE these! I also find that by hanging a hammock pretty low it creates a great place for them to get on top or lie under, mostly they like to lie under. My pigs don't have "toys" except for their fresh apple sticks which they adore. They just love to run and to hide so I provide enough places for both.

 

[vickyangel3]

I find if you arrange them carefully its not a problem. I have an external ramp in my cage to save on running space. Also I have used a bent grid with cover to create a tunnel/hidey all in 1. That way when they want to run its a tunnel, when they want to sleep its a hidey home. Hammocks still leave room for them to run under when they don't want to sleep. All my kitchen bits are in an upper level so they have the maximum space to run around in.

 

[VoodooJoint]

Absolutely. Pigloos, ramps, cuddle cups, litterboxes, litterpan kitchens, etc all take away from the usable space for the pigs. If too many "accessories" are added it becomes more of a maze then a large area where they can run.

Technically, in a cage adequately sized for the number of pigs, each animal should have a pigloo or cuddle cup/hidey and that's it, other then the space bowls and a reasonably sized ramp would use (a very wide ramp takes up too much space).

I'm not saying you can't have lots of stuff for the pigs, you absolutely should! However, the more you ad to the cage the bigger you need to make the cage. Each additional cuddle cup/pigloo/small litterbox needs an additional "square grid" of space. Large litterboxes/petstore cage pans need at least 2 sq grids of additional space. The cage is measured by unbroken space. Having some sort of wall or divider takes away space. That is why when people build a 2x3 cage and then (for reasons unknown to me) plop a petstore cage inside of that and try to post it in the gallery it gets deleted. The cage takes away from the inner, usable space. The cage would need to be added on outside the actual cage.

People can accomplish this by building second stories and lofts though. People will put kitchens and bedrooms upstairs in their cages so that the pigs have a large area to play and explore in but they have the additional space to add all of the "extra" without taking away the animals' living space.

In the galleries there are many cages that simply have too much stuff in them. Technically they could be deleted but we make an exception if they otherwise show a great cage and exemplary care. In all honesty it is better to have a few too many luxuries for your pets then not enough.

 

[Lil Fella's Mom]

I have a 2x5 cage with two pigloos in it. i feel like the pigloos take up way too much space and there is not a lot of room for any extras like hammocks, cuddle cups and other toys. I am currently considering alternate sleeping arrangements and have removed one pigloo. One of my boars seems happy enough to sleep under a grid tunnel.

 

[GPigsRSweet]

Yes, accessories DO take up floor space. Here are a couple that are minimal, though:

•CORNER HAMMOCK -- Doesn't take up any floor space, only unless the pigs hide underneath.



•BENT GRID - it's a more open tunnel that pigs can do "zoomies" right through:

Tiffany loves her new hidey - Guinea Pig Cage Photos

 

[Kitara_CavyMom]

One idea I use is to make "curtain" hideys by cutting a blanket to hang over one grid. (I got the idea from one of the piggy bedspread sites) This gives them a hidey but they can still run through the blanket so it doesn't take up any space.

Another thing I use is a fleece "cat pad" I bought from our local (no-kill) Humane League. This is just two sides of fleece with cotton batting in the middle and they love to lounge on it, and my girl will even flip it up with her nose and make it into a tent to hide under. Like my other idea, this gives them a cuddle area without taking away any space - it is flat so they can still zoom right over it if they wanted to.

Finally, you should put a hay rack on the side (or on the roof) so that it doesn't take up any room.

If I think of anything else I'll post

 

[GPigsRSweet]

Couple more ideas:

•TOWEL TENT
Sebastian - Guinea Pig Cage Photos

• BUNK-BEDS
Cuddle Caves - Guinea Pig Cage Photos

 

[JD In Van]

I LOVE towel tents as a space saving measure. I just use large tea towels and binder clips. My guys burrow under them when they want to and when they don't they push them flat and run right over them. It works VERY well in my cage.

 

[ingrid]

i have a soda box tunnel as well as a pigloo and a stool in my 2x4 cage right now and it is cramped to the max as 1x2 is the kitchen. i really can't imagine not having a kitchen, it is so nice and neat most of the time with the kitchen getting cleaned every other day and being very wet and lots of hay from the rack fallen down on the floor.

my pigs seriously don't leave their hideys. i would love for them to run around the cage and have tried it, but they get cranky if there isn't enough hideys in there. they start chattering and doing dominance behaviors much more intensely. so i don't know what to do about them. they really use the hideys almost exclusively.

 

[hurleyslave]

My piggie loves his blue dome home to death. It looks a bit like a pigloo but with the small tunnel thing cut out and it's opaque in color so you can't really watch what your piggie is doing. Which is completely fine - my piggie doesn't do anything interesting when he's resting anyways lol. But I think that a lot of accessories can take away from the cage running space, so maybe limit each piggie to a pigloo and cozy cup/sack and tube?