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General best cages?

riley.wolf

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i'm wanting to upgrade my cage for my two piggys, i'm wondering what is the best cage for guinea pigs?? i've tried building a c & c before but it didn't go too well... looking for advice on the best cages or how to make a good cage!


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sonsofpiggies

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You could try connecting Midwest cages. 1 alone isn't good for piggies but you could buy a couple of those and connect it :)

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sonsofpiggies

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We don't recommend Midwest cages.

If you want a C&C cage, you can buy one from https://www.guineapigcagesstore.com. Or, there are instructions on how to build them yourself at https://www.guineapigcages.com.
Just a question if you put 2 Midwest cages together why isn't it an okay cage? Isn't the Midwest 8 square feet? So if you connect it to another it would 16? That's alot of room for two piggies. So why wouldn't that be recommended?

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bpatters

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Pigs need a flat space to run in. The walls of the Midwest don't allow for that.
 

onefutui2e

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If you look at the dimensions of the Midwest cage printed on the box and do the math, it's actually 7.833 square feet. So being conservative it's more like 7.5 square feet. Funny story is that they used to advertise it as 9 square feet on Amazon but I wrote a review saying that this number is incorrect (and provided the math to prove it). Shortly after (I'm not sure if it's actually because of me) they changed it to 8.

What you could try to do is line up the two Midwest liners but wrap the cage around each other so that you leave the middle open. Then you can use clips/pins to pull the canvas down in the middle so your pigs have all the space they need to run in. It's a bit messy, but doable.
 

wigglemish

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Just to chime in, I know you've mentioned you had trouble with the C&C before, but I would really give it another go if you can. The links BPatters gave you are fantastic, the instructions are really simple and clear. With some care, you can have a cage up within twenty minutes, and the wonderful thing about it is that over time and with a little practice and imagination you can grow it and improve it. The important thing is -room-. I have a pair in a 16ft square set up at the moment, and they are SO happy. They can run enormous loops and popcorn without crashing into anything, and they just love life. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing them so gleeful. And even at that size, I'm still looking to expand to give another 6-7 feet soon. I gently but enthusiastically suggest you try again,
 

riley.wolf

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i'm going to try it out again :) how do you go about cleaning it?


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CrystalCavy

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Cleaning is pretty easy. Just get a small dustpan and sweep up the poops and soiled food once or twice a day. And then once a week (or maybe once every 10 or so days) you remove all the bedding (depending on whether it's fleece or paper/wood shaving bedding, you either toss it or wash it) and disinfect the cage. You can make a DIY vinegar and water mix or buy a pet cage disinfectant. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the vinegar-water mix is 1 part water, 1 part vinegar. After the whole clean up, just put everything back in.
 

Shieme

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Pigs need a flat space to run in. The walls of the Midwest don't allow for that.

What do you mean by this? It's flat to me. Is it because the canvas bottom? Someone here said they used coroplast for it to sit on. Which is what I do. My girls are having a blast. Today I'm getting another to attached because the canvas bottom is easy to clean. Coroplas, which is mostly paperish plastic absorbed some water and that's why my first attempt fell apart. I know you guys here sell c&c cages but you incourage others to make them. But getting back to your quote, walls don't allow it? You mean the bars? This cage isn't good if you are breeding but I don't anyway. And a Midwest cage is large enough for two sows (not boars) to live nicely in. But I want a play area so I'm getting another to join togeather. I can't wait!
 

bpatters

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They need a flat space, without walls, to run in. They don't need a C&C cage. They need square footage that is free of obstacles so they have room to exercise.

"We guys" don't sell C&C cages. Teresa Murphy, who owns this site, and provides it for free, does. On the main page of this site, she also has instructions for how to build your own C&C cage, and for not much money, at that. So she's not doing it for profit. For years, she's been the leader in the movement to provide adequate sized cages for guinea pigs, and her standards have been endorsed by several national organizations, including the SPCA. You are perfectly free to choose to put your pigs in a less than adequate cage. What you can't do, without getting pushback here, is insist that those less than adequate cages are appropriate for guinea pigs.

Coroplast is made totally of plastic, and does not absorb water. You must have purchased something else.
 

lisa325

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I have a C&C cage and many accessories for it purchased from this site for my 2 boys, and I love it :). On the other hand, my mom bought 2 midwest cages and joined them together for her 3 girls, and she loves that too. She did add a layer of coroplast in the bottom of the cage for more stability and to prevent staining the canvas, but her girls run up and down the length of the cage with great ease. They actually spend most of their time outside of the cage, but when they're in it, they seem very content, and have plenty of running room. Little Sprite zooms around it like lightning. Also, this site ( the site not the forum ) is now selling purpose built coroplast bases to fit midwest cages, so thats always an option if you feel the sides aren't solid enough.
 

Shieme

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They need a flat space, without walls, to run in. They don't need a C&C cage. They need square footage that is free of obstacles so they have room to exercise.

Coroplast is made totally of plastic, and does not absorb water. You must have purchased something else.

I thought the question at hand was "best cage" but I must have missed something. And maybe lowes sold me the wrong stuff which could have been why I had an epic fail. It seem like plastic but when I scrub it the second time it fell apart. Lowes has pointed me to wrong stuff before. I didn't keep it. But it does seem like the same stuff I got when I worked the voting polls. A candidate put is sign close to the door and I kept the sign to make a cafe for my girls.
 
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