Free Range?

mtm88781 said:

So, I have the space, and I was thinking about giving my guinea pigs 24 / 7 FREE RANGE! The floor is concrete, so sweeping poos and mopping pee would not be an issue.

How many of you do this?

What is your set up?

THANKS!

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In the summer, when my non-AC house is too hot, my pigs are kept in my well-lit basement. It has a concrete floor, but I never dreamed of not having something on top of the concrete. For their comfort and overall long-term cleanliness. I put down heavy duty carpenter trash bags with towels and fleece over them. I then set up a fence of grids to make a huge -3 x 8 space for them. I did not want to take a chance on them nibbling wires, or stored items so they do not have free run of the entire basement.

be very carfull with free range. I thought it was a great idea untill one of my pigs had an accident. I was heartbroken. while I give a lot of floor time it is always supervised for their safty.

and yes I thought the entire area was safe to roam, but I was wrong.

partygirlha said:

be very carfull with free range. I thought it was a great idea untill one of my pigs had an accident. I was heartbroken. while I give a lot of floor time it is always supervised for their safty.

and yes I thought the entire area was safe to roam, but I was wrong.

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Any advice on what to avoid/ensure..?

no furniture, or anything that can fall
nothing they can climb on
no cords or any type
the only thing that belongs in their play area is stuff that also belongs in a cage. so unless you can turn their free range area into something that;s basically a large cage, they will get board and find trouble and you may not kow what it is until it's too late.

I love the "idea" of free range (for their added fun) but I admit it scares me to death ! I would be so worried and have terrible anxiety about the "what if..." factor ! But the idea does appeal to me, I admit ! If I could provide an environment where I was SURE they would be safe ( like from mice) from getting into mischief of their own making,(like trying to crawl through little holes in walls or something like that) I would definitely like to try that someday.

Wow, it is hard to even think about free range, since my husband and I found out JUST TODAY that we have to move in two months ! We have been here for 11 1/2 years, so we are a bit anxious about how we are going to do that in such a short amount of time, when we have junk in the garage, down in the cellar and ohhh well, just about everywhere !

Due to my limited physical abilities and illness I am not in any shape to take this major undertaking on. I am hoping my husband will be able to humble himself and make an announcement at our church asking other church members for help ! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, if you would ?

I love the idea of free range as well. My piggies are not litter trained so there's no way it would really work with them, and my place always has trouble somewhere.

My tip would be to let them roam free during supervised floor time for a few hours. Once they get bored, watch what kinds of trouble they get into to determine if you forgot anything when you piggy proofed the area. What I noticed by doing this was that when I blocked off an area, it was almost like asking them to try to find a way in -- suddenly that was the most interesting part of the room. Also, ANYTHING on the floor will be chewed and swallowed. My friend walked by eating and a piece of food fell, and my piggy raced me to it and had it swallowed by the time I got there. Luckily, the cooked red pepper didn't do her any harm. My other piggy got to a cord. He chewed through the ground wire. Luckily, he never made it to the important wires. And I watch my pigs like a HAWK.

Don't keep things leaned up against the walls. My piggies think they're good hiding places until they push to give themselves a little more room, and the whole thing topples over.

Those are just incidents that I've had that have helped me better piggy-proof my house for floor time. I'm sure there's still a ton of stuff that my piggies could do if they had a whole day and the whole house/room to themselves.

Also, mine chew on the wooden furniture. I shoo them away when they start chewing, but keep in mind that treated wood isn't good for them to be chewing, so if you have any, expect it to be devoured.

Really just expect the worst and plan accordingly. The piggy free range room, as partygirlha said, shouldn't have anything within piggy reach that you wouldn't put in their cage.