Whats Your Best Toy Invention???

Have you seen this photo gallery: https://www.guineapigcages.com/photos/showgallery.php/cat/510? There are a ton of ideas there, as well as this page: https://www.guineapigcages.com/recycling.htm.

A lot of great cage accessories can be made from leftover grids. Grids bent at a 90 degree angle can be used for tunnels, or hayracks. My latest creation is a square tunnel made from two grids bent 90 degrees, then attached and set up on the cage wall a few inches above the ground. I've also made a piece of fleece to cover it, and the pattern follows the pattern on the cage floor so it fits in perfectly. I'll get a picture up once I'm back home, at the moment I'm out of town.

Another recent creation I've come up with is a bunk bed made from two-level wooden shoe rack. I cut up linoleum squares to cover the wood and protect it from urine. There is a brick stairway for getting to the second level, and a comfy pet pad on the top and bottom bunk. The shoe rack looks kind of like this:

There are a whole heap of easy, toy ideas, which can be made for home for almost nothing, on a section on the main page of this site:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/toys.htm

My inventions (not very creative inventions though!) include a cuddle cup (following the instructions on another thread), toilet roll stuffed with hay and parsley, 4 inch PVC pipes and a sock stuffed with a tennis ball and hay. Admittedly they are all ideas from the site above!

Here is the instructions on making your own cuddle cup:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/accessories/17507-how-make-cuddle-cup-requires-sewing.html

At the moment I am working on making a bigger cuddle cup so that all 3 girls can fit in properly, as at the moment they are a bit squished. In the following pic you can see all 3 girls (from left to right, Toffee, Buttercup, Lily) enjoying red bell peppers/capsicum.

The best toys my pigs have are cardboard boxes of different shapes and sizes, and newspaper rolled into balls and left in a heap for them to investigate. I find that changing their cage around regularly is a good idea, as they love exploring their 'new' environment. As said above, grids make great tunnels and bunks, and bits of fleece too can be used to hang around - like a curtain, or a tunnel, or a hammock! My girls like to investigate, and creating a maze from boxes etc a few inches away from the side of the cage/floortime space gives them lots of running around time and fun!

Some good ideas there. Im going to try the paper ball idea this minute lol.

Hmmm, I know this is way off topic but I have just noticed white patch's (almost like chalk) on the fleece What is it?

Cardboard boxes are always fun, and those thick cardboard tubes used for packaging are really great. PVC pipes make fantastic tunnels. I've also been using all kinds of kitty beds for my piggies, most of them bought at Walmart for very cheap. Leftover coroplast can be used to construct houses and toys. Some kid's toys can be made into guinea pig toys as well, I have a kid's bard that has been converted to a piggy house. Here is a picture of that, as well as a better example of the shoe rack I used:

Getting.cavys said:

Hmmm, I know this is way off topic but I have just noticed white patch's (almost like chalk) on the fleece What is it?

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They are probably calcium deposits from your piggy's urine. If it is gritty, you need to cut back on the calcium in your piggy's diet. Here are a couple of links for more info: (broken link removed), Guinea Lynx :: What's Normal?.

It is a powder like substance. I have counted the number of patches there is FIVE!! What can I do to reduce the calcium amount?

Getting.cavys said:

Hmmm, I know this is way off topic but I have just noticed white patch's (almost like chalk) on the fleece What is it?

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Probably excess calicum which has been exrected through the urine, try to use vegetables with lower levels of calcium as too much calcium can lead to bladder stones. The following site should help:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...cavys-diet-read-me-nutrition-charts-info.html

It has all of the different vegetables with details on calcium levels, you need to choose vegetables with the smallest amount of calcium.

Check the veggie charts on this site and Guinea Lynx, and cut back on the veggies high in calcium: Guinea Lynx :: Diet, https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/diet-nutrition/22156-everything-you-need-know-about-cavys-diet-read-me-nutrition-charts-info.html. Also, don't feed alfalfa hay and alfalfa-based pellets unless your piggy is less than six months old. The alfalfa is too high in calcium to be fed to older piggies regularly, and a grass hay such as timothy or bluegrass should be used instead.

Getting.cavys, I just PMd you about the calcium deposits without realising other folk had replied! :crazy:

Thats OK. I just did the same thing back lol. But thankyou for your help.

My piggies' favorite toy is a paper bag filled with hay. They eat it and then use it as a hidey house. It's great, easy, and cheap!

I make a cozy for the boys last night and they flipped it over and hid underneath it. lol

My pigs also like cardboard boxes. You can usually find a few for free at the supermarket (meant for people to carry their shopping in). For extra piggy fun, cut holes in each box and tape them together to make a maze!! (Make sure the pigs don't nibble on the tape though).
You can also build houses or steps out of bricks; piggies like climbing on them.

The best toy for my piggies... The don't really play but their favorite or coroplast tunnels, paper bags, 2inch x 2 inch piece of newspaper, plastic cups, a half level with hay and a sleeping space below it, fleece blankets to lay on, and cardboard rolls with hay or veggies in it. That's a long list but its the way I entertain the piggies.The favorites of those are paper bags, hay piles, fleece, and newspaper.

Heh, it's fun getting creative with the toys :cheerful:

I had brown paper bag/lunch bag and I cut either side and made it so it would stand up and they both use it as a tunnel (and sometimes they nibble on it)

Another invention was that I save my paper towel rolls, and I cut them in half - then I cut out a slit in the middle and I put ther chew block through the slit (all the way through)

Let's see, oh I cut a Chube so it was a "U" shape and I used that as a hay rack for a while.

And ofcourse, making hidey houses out of tissue boxes are popular for the piggies !

Oh, and an easy one was bending a cube and I attatched it to the cage with Zip Ties, and put fleece ontop of it (to make like a bed), then I kind of wrapped a blanket above it, attatched one side to the cage using a clip, and that made a tent - so they love cuddling in there.

So far that's what I've got .. I have to go check out the toys page, I see there is one :silly:

The best cardboard boxes are the 12-pack soda ones. They are the perfect width and length. My pigs will go back and forth just for fun without a destination in mind.