Just Looking for Some Encouragement

Haley0489 · Apr 28, 2008

My 2x5 C&C came in today. I spent the majority of my afternoon moving my furniture around so I could make room for a 6 foot table to put the C&C on. I decided to keep my pigs in my room instead of having them isolated in the spare room across the hall. I got them to love them, and I feel like I can't do that, to my satisfaction, if they are in a room I rarely venture into.

My room is quite small, and yes, I am still living with my parents, so my room or the spare room are my only options, and I've decided the spare room isn't happening. My room is pretty cramped up now, and it's not something that I personally enjoy. It's not particularly "pretty," but I'm doing it for the benefit of my piggies.

After building my C&C, my dad and I realized that our six foot long table and six foot long C&C weren't given the proper dimensions. My C&C is falling off the table and breaking apart. Now we'll have to make the cage slightly smaller, by overlapping the grids by 1-2 squares width and length. This means we're going to have to figure out a way to redo Sue's coroplast to fit the new "smaller" cage, and it's very possible we'll just end up destroying it and needing more coro.

I'm just feeling pretty lousy for having to make the cage smaller, even if it's just a slight modification. All I want to do is give my pigs the best I can and right now I feel like I'm failing.

Maybe it's just because it's finals week at college, but having to modify the "piggie mansion" has put me in the dumps. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day...:sorry:

devilfish79 · Apr 28, 2008

Perk up, it'll be alright. I just got done building my first C&C cage and all throughout, I had to make changes, adjust things and work it out myself. Still, the coro doesn't fit like I had hoped and now I know of some things I would have done differently had I known, but it's all good. My piggies have more space now, are happy that they're all a bit closer and for ease of cleaning (which I'll do more often now), they're in the same place.

I'm sure that your adjustments will work out just fine for your piggies and that they'll love you for making those adjustments and not leaving them in a room away from you.

Good luck with finals too.

Paula · Apr 29, 2008

It doesn't sound like it's that much smaller than was originally intended, and it's probably still bigger than the cage they are in now, right?

So, see, it's not so bad after all and I agree with devilfish79 that your pigs will love you for the effort you're making to make their lives better!

As for the coroplast, my first few cages were a nightmare as far as that stuff. I know that theoretically it should be easy but it wasn't for me.

For the second and third cage when I just had my boys I actually paid someone to cut it to the right dimensions for me!

This time, though, I was able to cut and score 5 whopping pieces of coroplast to 27" x 84" with 6 inch sides ... So, it just takes time, like most things, and I'm sure you'll figure it out.

Justin · Apr 29, 2008

paulammoore said:
5 whopping pieces of coroplast to 27" x 84"

Sounds like a piggy village. I am jealous.

Cosmictadpole · Apr 29, 2008

You could put one large piece of pegboard or some kind of wood on the table, under the cage, to support the longer parts. Or, you could just reinforce the ends of the cage that are hanging off with lots more zip ties or something sturdy underneath. Building my C&C cage was quite a trial and error experience, and I had to start over and revise quite often. It is also not too difficult to make the coroplast smaller and still be able to use it without destroying it. I had to do that myself. Right now, I have my cage sitting on a raised part of my floor, and part of the cage hangs off of the end. To support it, I grabbed a stack of books and magazines out of my bookshelf and stuck them underneath. I guess you just have to find and use whatever works. Good luck, and let us know what you try and what works and what doesn't!

Haley0489 · Apr 29, 2008

Thanks everyone!

I'm having a better day today...I'm glad to see it's not just me having some issues.

My dad is trying to convince me to turn a spare walk-in closet in my room to a multi-level guinea pig cage. In theory it's great; 22 square feet of living space, out of the way, doesn't affect the "looks" of my room, buuut it's a closet! The natural light in there isn't good, since it's right off the wall where my one and only window is, even with some snazzy UV bulb and I'm sure it gets stuffy in there. Not to mention they'd be pretty isolated from me, even with the door open and me in my room.

I'm just gonna keep working on the C&C until there's no options left!

paulammoore said:
It doesn't sound like it's that much smaller than was originally intended, and it's probably still bigger than the cage they are in now, right?

Oh yes! They're in a pet store cage, which is about 1-1½ grids by 3 grids...for three males! It's done it's job and was a pretty decent cage for the first month I had them [they're still very small], but they won't stay babies for ever and I can't wait to give them a cage that has room to roam and space to leave in multiple toys at once.
I was really amazed at the size of the cage when I took the coroplast out of the box. I could live in it! Anyone who thinks pet store cages are the way to go, obviously doesn't realize how huge the C&Cs are.

Justin · Apr 29, 2008

Haley0489 said:
but they won't stay babies for ever and I can't wait to give them a cage that has room to roam and space to leave in multiple toys at once.

I ended up removing most of toys for my 2~3 months boys. They liked big open space better, to run and chase.

I also recommend not being tied up with minor details. I think people often end up changing design anyway, after figuring out characters of their pigs.

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Just Looking for Some Encouragement

Haley0489

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devilfish79

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Paula

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Justin

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Cosmictadpole

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Haley0489

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Justin

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