Cage Might have gotten carried away

Great cage! Those must be some happy piggies

Also, I believe I noticed some Wild Harvest bags on top of the cage and just wanted to inform you that it is not a very healthy brand. A brand that I highly reccomend is Oxbow.

WheekingPiggies said:

Great cage! Those must be some happy piggies

Also, I believe I noticed some Wild Harvest bags on top of the cage and just wanted to inform you that it is not a very healthy brand. A brand that I highly reccomend is Oxbow.

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Yeah its wild harvest which unfortunately is all I can find in this small town. I only put out a small dish of the pellets. They mostly eat Timothy Hay. Also they get fed fruit and veggies daily.

I love the cage but, be aware, that it is actually smaller than a 2x5 c&c cage as it is only 24 inches wide and a 2x5 c&c cage would be 28 inches wide x 72 inches long so you have the bare minimum size cage for the 3 piggies you have so if there are babies, and you keep any, the cage size will need to be expanded. However, it seems you are pretty darn handy and I doubt you would have any trouble with that.

cfoster1966 said:

I love the cage but, be aware, that it is actually smaller than a 2x5 c&c cage as it is only 24 inches wide and a 2x5 c&c cage would be 28 inches wide x 72 inches long so you have the bare minimum size cage for the 3 piggies you have so if there are babies, and you keep any, the cage size will need to be expanded. However, it seems you are pretty darn handy and I doubt you would have any trouble with that.

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There is room to make the cage 2x8 but really don't see doing that. I thought about building a 2nd level seeing as the cage is over 16 inches high but not sure if they would like it or not. Also IF she is pregnant and has babies as soon as they are weaned they will be finding a new home.

Its pretty good though the piggies have a better home than we do...lol I tiled the base and up the wall to make clean up very easy. Amazing what you can do with wire shelving.

Yeah its wild harvest which unfortunately is all I can find in this small town. I only put out a small dish of the pellets. They mostly eat Timothy Hay. Also they get fed fruit and veggies daily.

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You can always order online! The website that I use is Drs. Foster and Smith. Small Pet Supplies: Quality Supplies For All Types of Small Pets

The rate they are going through their pellets it may take awhile before we need to replace them. Again most of their diet is hay and fresh fruits and veggies, the pellets are just there once in awhile I seen them pick through them.

Have you checked to make sure none of the pigs are boys? If they are they need to be removed and placed in their own cage right away. Even if someone told you they are female please check them yourself. Sexing guinea pigs can be tricky and it's easy for someone to get it wrong.

that is a lovely cage But i dont think you got carried away because that is around the bare minimum of the size of cage for 3 piggies. What did you make that cage out of?

Congrats on the new cage.

I want to comment on the size. Everyone says its a minimum for 3 pigs when in fact it is more than the minimum.

To find the square foot of something you take the width times the length and divide the result buy 144.

So:
24"x72": 1728
1728 divided by 144: 12

12 is the square footage.

The minimum for 3 pigs is 10.5 sq ft, preferred is 13. This is one square foot difference. I think if you plan on keeping any of the babies that you should indeed enlarge it, but other wise its perfect.

Myas pigs said:

that is a lovely cage But i dont think you got carried away because that is around the bare minimum of the size of cage for 3 piggies. What did you make that cage out of?

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I started off by building a counter top with 1/2 inch plywood, then I tiled the counter top and back splash area to make clean up very easy. Its just a matter of taking a sponge and wiping down the tiles to clean up. I then used wire shelving that you can get at most home improvement warehouse type stores. I believe the brand I used was Closet maid or something like that. I did get a bit fancy on the bottom. I cut the bottom bar off and drilled holes into the pine base and inserted each wire into the hole which I filled with a drop of wood glue first.

What does everyone think of a 2nd level? In my original plans I had a 2nd story planned that is why I went with the 16" shelving for the side panel to give enough height for a 2nd story area. Just not sure how much guinea pigs like to go up and down ramps.

Colorado Cavies said:

Have you checked to make sure none of the pigs are boys? If they are they need to be removed and placed in their own cage right away. Even if someone told you they are female please check them yourself. Sexing guinea pigs can be tricky and it's easy for someone to get it wrong.

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I know for a fact 1 in a boy and believe it or not he is the smallest of the 3. He is the one you can see in the pictures. The other 2 are hiding in their house. The flash on my phone scared them, except for Tony he was more intrigued by the flash. When I get home from work I will try and get better pictures of them. This time with the flash off lol

you should put that boy in a different cage. your 3rd pig is female is most likely gonna be preggo as well since he's in there and if you dont remove him he'll get the girl's pregnant again shortly after they deliver the babies their carrying now...back to back pregnancies are very hard on them


so please get the boy out of there and into his own cage away from the girls

I know for a fact 1 in a boy and believe it or not he is the smallest of the 3. He is the one you can see in the pictures. The other 2 are hiding in their house. The flash on my phone scared them, except for Tony he was more intrigued by the flash. When I get home from work I will try and get better pictures of them. This time with the flash off lol

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If you know you have males and females together, separate the female(s) from the male(s) now. It's no funny business with breeding guinea pigs, 1 in 5 sows die from their pregnancies and if you keep the male(s) and female(s) together you risk a very very high chance of the poor sow being bred back-to-back which is so very very hard on her and is life-threatening.

Make sure you have an cavy vet on hand in-case anything goes wrong with the pregnancies. It's very risky and we here do not agree with breeding at all, so if you could please separate the male(s) from the female(s) now and just hope that your girl survives. If you only have one male and two females you can get the male neutered so he can live with the female but intact males and intact females should never live together.

ETA: I think I see the hard seed things on the ground on the left your cage in the last two pictures..if It is that, just to let you know those are no good for piggies and very un-healthy.

I've been looking for a vet in the area that I would trust fixing the boar. But really we only have the basic dog/cat, farm animal vets. We are in a huge rural area so if I had "real" pigs it would be no problem finding a vet. We have one vet that advertises as doing "Some Exotics" but I really don't care for that office. I guess worse case I could see about trading the poor boy for another female but I really don't want to do that. He is such a sweetheart.

I think you should build a second level as piggies love a run about and it will allow extra space and enrichment for them If your worried they wont be able to climb up the ramp, make sure its not too steep and line it with carpet for grip. Also, if you want to keep all your piggies together I would neuter the boar so they can be a happy family. Hope i helped!

Until you find the male a new home or get him neutered, please separate the male and females ASAP. A male can impregnate females at the age of 3 weeks. You should not risk it.

Please read:
Breeding Guinea Pigs
https://www.guinealynx.info/reproduction.html

I have a suggestion...you could build a 2nd story without a ramp and have 2 separate cages. One for the girls and 1 for the boy. You can even keep one of the babies that is a boy and that would give your little boy a playmate. Just insure you have the sexes right. That way you would have 2 cages that don't take up anymore room and you won't have to worry about your little girls getting pregnant. Just a thought. Good luck.

Well we might have to boar thing figured out. My son's girlfriend is going to take him and leave us the 2 girls. A shame to see him go but I really don't want to deal with babies.