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Cage Unplanned Piggie, will this work as a cage?

J.Bosley

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Hey Everyone!
Just a VERY quick question, I am VERY new to Guinea Pigs... will a dog kennel work as a cage, just temporarily while I figure out a C&C cage? I'm looking into rescuing a Guinea Pig from a hoarding situation, but it's time sensitive!

(broken link removed)

I posted a link to the kennel I have, and it's about 24" in length, and 18" wide. I will use puppy pads, and then fleece for the bottom! I've been reading a ton about Guinea Pigs on here, and am hoping to rescue this guy soon.
 

PiggieWigglies

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Hi and welcome! I think its best to wait for a pig once you have everything in order.


Pellets: A good brand of pellets to get is Oxbow Cavy Cuisine for pigs 6 months and up, Oxbow Cavy Preformance for newborns to 6 months old (it has extra calcium for them to grow) and KMS Hayloft. You will need PLAIN Timothy pellets, no nuts, seeds, or colores bits. The amount of pellets to give your pig is 1/8 of a cup per pig, per day. Pigs under 6 months can have unlimited pellets.


Hay: Guinea pigs need a long grass hay to keep their teeth worn down and their gut moving. Good hay to give them is either Timothy or Orchard. There are more substitutes but I cant think of the other substitutes. Baby guinea pigs need Timothy hay, along with either parsley or alfalfa hay WITH their Timothy for extra calcium to grow. Alfalfa is not a long grass hay to be feeding your pig. Its a legume like a pea, and does not keep their teeth worn down.


Water: People say water bottles are the best choice, because water dishes get too dirty and can flip over. If you are worried about extra minerals in the water and you have a Brita Filter you can use that (I use it)


Cage: A C&C cage is the best type of cage for a pig. If you look around you can see where to get DIY tips and items on how to build one. The minium space for two pigs is 2x4 grids. If you can fit it, 2x5 is preferred. Warning: if you get grids, make sure the squares are 9x9 in the grid. They changed some of them to 8x8 and peoples guinea pigs were getting heads stuck in the bars.


Bedding: Nice beddings to use are either fleece, or kiln dried pine shavings/aspen shavings. Never use Cedar because the oils in it cause respitory and foot problems.


Hide Houses: Every guinea pig needs a hidey house. Dont get the medium size pigloo, those cause lack air circulation and who wants their pig sitting in a stink hut. Each hide house you get will need to have 1 entrance and 1 exit. Some people including me use RubberMaid stools for hidey houses. There are other house options besides stools dont worry.


Veggies: Good veggies to give your pig are: Green/red leaf lettuce, cherry tomato, carrots every once in awhile, and green bell peppers. Green bell peppers are a good source of vitamin c for a pig. Piggies cant make their own vitamin c, so giving them 1/8 of a green pepper a day will help them. To add about the carrots; guinea pigs cant process sugar that well, so keeping the amounts of fruit and carrots small and spread apart is best. There are other veggies you can give your pig and how often to, and what veggies are not good to give: (broken link removed)


Care and cleaning of your pig: Guinea pigs rarely need baths, unless they are super smelly or dirty. A good shampoo to use for your pig is either Gorgeous Guineas, or Squeaky Clean for small animals from a petstore. Also, their nails do grow and there are tutorials on how to clip them or have a vet clip them for you. If you ever need a vet, make sure they are an exotic pet vet and are cavy savy.


Getting a buddy and how to introduce: Guinea pigs are happier with a buddy. If you are looking to get a buddy, please check recues, craigslist, or petfinder. Do not go to a petstore or a breeder. This forum is anti-breeding/petstore and pro-adoption. Breeding guinea pigs is hard on the mother and babies. There are enough pigs without homes in the world, breeding makes it worse. Breeding also means a 20% chance the mom might die. Anyway back to buddies and introductions. You will need a same sex pig friend for your own pig, or if your pig is a girl you could also find a neutered boy. After you found your desired pig, there is a 21 day quarentine to make sure your new pig isnt sick. Quarentine needs to be in a different cage, in a different room. After quarentine is over, find a large open space for your pigs to meet. It needs to be on neutral ground where neither pig has been before. Do not just plop your guinea pigs in a cage, this needs to be done on neutral ground. Put a pile of some veggies in the area and a pile of hay, and put the pigs in the area. See this for more details: https://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm
 

J.Bosley

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Thank you for the reply! Lots of great information.

I own 2 rabbits, so I basically have extra of EVERYTHING! Hay, veggies, dishes, hidey caves and even fleece. I ALWAYS have leaf lettuce in my house for the buns, and feed my Rabbits Oxbow, so the Guinea Pig would be on the Guinea Pig version of course :) I know people use crates for Rabbits, so I was wondering if it would be okay for a Guinea Pig until I get a proper C&C cage built? And I will definitely look into getting the Guinea Pig a buddy once I know the gender!
 

PiggieWigglies

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How long would it be until the cage was built? They might fight in small spaces.
 

labgirl5

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For a cheaper option you could buy a puppy/large small animal playpen and use fleece with that :).
 

J.Bosley

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How long would it be until the cage was built? They might fight in small spaces.

I was thinking about zip tieing the extra grids I have with larger spacing (bought the wrong ones for my rabbit cage) onto the crate to make the spacing smaller...

I would say maybe a week or so... though I do have a plastic crate I could use if that's better?
 

PiggieWigglies

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A plastic crate doesnt sound safe. If it will only take a week or so, maybe just wait. Its up to you.
 

chloej

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Seeing as you have the dog kennel already and seem to know what you're doing, I would say go ahead and rescue the pig. :) Sometimes things aren't ideal situations, but if you can get the C&C bulit as soon as possible, I don't see what harm letting the pig live in the dog kennel a few days would do to it in the long term. I am wonderign about the spacing of the bars. Are they wide-spaced or narrow? From the picture it looks like the bars are pretty wide - you may want to put cardboard against the sides and tape it on so you don't have an escaped piggie. :)
 

J.Bosley

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Thanks everyone!

If I can find some of the cube shelving on sale I will get that and make a C&C cage!

I really just wanted to get him/her out of the bad situation... I've been told they are euthanizing most of the small animals because the shelter doesn't have space for them.

Will keep everyone updated!
 

chloej

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I really just wanted to get him/her out of the bad situation... I've been told they are euthanizing most of the small animals because the shelter doesn't have space for them.

Will keep everyone updated!
And this is exactly why I figured it's better to just rescue the pig now instead of waiting for a more convenient opportunity to get a pig. 'Time-sensitive' made me sit up straight. I hope things go smoothly.
 

PiggieWigglies

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Thanks everyone!

If I can find some of the cube shelving on sale I will get that and make a C&C cage!

I really just wanted to get him/her out of the bad situation... I've been told they are euthanizing most of the small animals because the shelter doesn't have space for them.

Will keep everyone updated!
That definitly changes my response, I thought this wasnt ASAP but you were just planning on getting a pig soon. Disregard what I said and save that piggy! Im sorry, I didnt see that it was time sensative. You can keep the pig in the dog kennel for now, save the piggy! :)
 

J.Bosley

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Update!
The pigs were taken by a small animal rescue :D

I am still planning to get a Pig, but AFTER I have everything ready haha. Plus I am waiting until after I neuter my Rabbit, as I am planning to try and bond my two rabbits. If this happens, it will give me more space for a Guinea Pig C&C Cage!!!

Thanks for the help.
 

chloej

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Update!
The pigs were taken by a small animal rescue :D

I am still planning to get a Pig, but AFTER I have everything ready haha. Plus I am waiting until after I neuter my Rabbit, as I am planning to try and bond my two rabbits. If this happens, it will give me more space for a Guinea Pig C&C Cage!!!

Thanks for the help.

Awesome! So happy they were saved. :D Good luck with making arrangements.
 
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