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Cage I want a wooden guinea pig cage but do not want to make one, where can I buy one?

spongeyvitamins

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I really want to get these 2 boars, but I have not found a nice wooden cage. I've looked on amazon and google, but nothing has come up. I found really nice wooden hamster cages, but I have yet to find one suitable for guinea pigs. Please help me.
 

spongeyvitamins

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Please reply to me, I really want to know.
 

Comely Guineas

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What is making you prefer a wooden cage over say, a C & C cage? Just curious
 

Comely Guineas

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Guinea pigs love to chew on wood, and their urine would damage the wood. C and C cages are extremely amazing, very easy to build and customize yourself. I recommend looking into them.
 

spongeyvitamins

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Wooden cages look a lot cleaner. I just really like the look of them and they make me happy. I'm also afraid the piggies will chew on the bars of a C&C cage or climb out. I know most piggies wouldn't do that but it just scares me.
 

Comely Guineas

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Okay those are good reasons. I don't really have any knowledge on any good wooden ones so maybe someone else will
 

CavyTV

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You're looking at spending a lot of money to buy wood for a large enough cage for 2 male guinea pigs. And trust me... a wooden cage may look cleaner, but it won't be without a lot of effort, money, and caution.

Don't worry, most guinea pigs don't chew on the bars. Only a few do, but it's nothing to be scared about. Usually, guinea pigs chew at the bars for attention, food, or because they are stressed or hurting. It's the first 2 most of the time. Bar-chewing can be stopped by adding a few chew toys in their cage, maybe adding a wooden or hay tunnel... I hear those are a real hit. Guinea pigs climbing out of C&C cages is pretty rare. As long as you don't have female guinea pigs in a cage next to theirs, your boars won't have anything to drive them into climbing out of the cage. Guinea pigs are not escape-artists like hamsters. They stay in their cage.


C&C cages are really great and I think you should give them a chance. They are the most popular cage choice with most guinea pig owners. They are cheap, easy to take apart and build, they look nice, easy to clean, and they are just great. I recommend looking through cage pictures in the Photo Galleries. I'd say 95% of them are C&C cages. You'd be amazed at what people can do with them - how nice they can look with just a few simple touches.

With building a wooden cage comes a few cons....
-Expensive
-You'll need to line the wood with something waterproof... more money spent
-Some guinea pigs like to spray their pee sometimes. It could soak into the wood and smell really really bad.
-If you suddenly want to change the shape of the cage or you have to move or would like to take your guinea pigs on vacation/bring to a pet sitter's house, you can't take down the cage or change the shape/size without having to buy more wood and build it all over again... $$-If your guinea pigs ever get a parasite, for example, lice or mites, a wooden cage could slow down the process of getting rid of them. (I forgot which...mites or lice like to create colonies in wood. Both are common in guinea pigs but don't worry, not every guinea pig gets them.

With a C&C cage you don't have to worry about any of these things.

If you still want a wooden cage, go ahead (By the way, I seriously doubt you'll find a wooden cage online that's big enough for 2 boars... maybe a wooden run on Craigslist or something but those things usually don't have a bottom (or have a wire-bottom which is unsafe for guinea pigs). I think you would have to make it yourself if you decide you still want a wooden cage.) I nor anybody else is trying to force you into buying or building a C&C cage... we're just giving you suggestions. Do as you wish.
 
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Novabean

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Totally agree with everything CavyTV said, if dead set you'll have to look at the sizes they have for rabbits then but you will HAVE to line it with something water/urine proof, probably up the sides a good ways too. Also most rabbit cages have wire bottoms and you need to have a flat bottom for their little feet.
Take a look at the photo gallery as suggested, I myself don't have a c&c cage either, lots of ideas. Good luck & congrats on the pending adoption!

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bpatters

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Look through the photo galleries -- there are lots of ideas for cages there that are combinations of wood and something else. I believe [MENTION=11509]lissie[/MENTION] has one.
 

lissie

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Yes, I have wood cages. They were a lot more expensive than C&C cages.

These are my cages:

Old cage:
718d6e2cf867b04a4b3c28fedc69f448.jpg


New cage:
8a264c3a9d1484a81f06cd1621c2a8a6.jpg




The cage floor is lined with vinyl flooring. It goes up the side a little on the white cage. For the one with the cabinets under the cage, I made it up 12" on the wall. I learned that my sow liked to spray pee on the cage walls.

Edit to add: Some people turn Ikea Billy bookcase on it's back to use as a cage. But the walls will even be shorter than C&C. If you are worried your pigs will jump out, this option might not work for you.
fda3d983a89ed6012810af02ea210b2a.jpg


75c042e243a661b8901eeaf3999d91fa.jpg


You can add lids to C&C cages.
c2255c453c29052c7992b570a4bf4152.jpg
 
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silverblood

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You're looking at spending a lot of money to buy wood for a large enough cage for 2 male guinea pigs. And trust me... a wooden cage may look cleaner, but it won't be without a lot of effort, money, and caution.

Don't worry, most guinea pigs don't chew on the bars. Only a few do, but it's nothing to be scared about. Usually, guinea pigs chew at the bars for attention, food, or because they are stressed or hurting. It's the first 2 most of the time. Bar-chewing can be stopped by adding a few chew toys in their cage, maybe adding a wooden or hay tunnel... I hear those are a real hit. Guinea pigs climbing out of C&C cages is pretty rare. As long as you don't have female guinea pigs in a cage next to theirs, your boars won't have anything to drive them into climbing out of the cage. Guinea pigs are not escape-artists like hamsters. They stay in their cage.


C&C cages are really great and I think you should give them a chance. They are the most popular cage choice with most guinea pig owners. They are cheap, easy to take apart and build, they look nice, easy to clean, and they are just great. I recommend looking through cage pictures in the Photo Galleries. I'd say 95% of them are C&C cages. You'd be amazed at what people can do with them - how nice they can look with just a few simple touches.

With building a wooden cage comes a few cons....
-Expensive
-You'll need to line the wood with something waterproof... more money spent
-Some guinea pigs like to spray their pee sometimes. It could soak into the wood and smell really really bad.
-If you suddenly want to change the shape of the cage or you have to move or would like to take your guinea pigs on vacation/bring to a pet sitter's house, you can't take down the cage or change the shape/size without having to buy more wood and build it all over again... $$-If your guinea pigs ever get a parasite, for example, lice or mites, a wooden cage could slow down the process of getting rid of them. (I forgot which...mites or lice like to create colonies in wood. Both are common in guinea pigs but don't worry, not every guinea pig gets them.

With a C&C cage you don't have to worry about any of these things.

If you still want a wooden cage, go ahead (By the way, I seriously doubt you'll find a wooden cage online that's big enough for 2 boars... maybe a wooden run on Craigslist or something but those things usually don't have a bottom (or have a wire-bottom which is unsafe for guinea pigs). I think you would have to make it yourself if you decide you still want a wooden cage.) I nor anybody else is trying to force you into buying or building a C&C cage... we're just giving you suggestions. Do as you wish.
Wooden cages are much much much easier to build than you think if you have any experience woodworking. They are also cheaper than a C&C cage if you know how to design them properly. For waterproofing I personally bought the cheapest indoor latext paint with primer I could find and after a year there has been zero damage. As for chewing, all you have to do is make the walls high enough they can't get to the top edge, or put a lid on it and leave the front open. If you don't want to paint and leave the wood untouched, just place a Coloplast tray in the bottom with high sides. For 200 dollars I built my cage that is two 8x3 levels with a shelf on top and underneath storage. I'm actually about to rebuild because I learned some new tricks in woodworking and am now going to make two 8x4 cages with a shelf for 140 dollars. Anyways, back to your question. Have you thought about using a nice outdoor hutch and placing it inside and using a playpen for a run? You could also ask local contractors about building some of the cages you've seen in pictures. I would look on Craigslist and try to find anyone who is selling their own furniture and see if you can commission them to make your cage. They'll do it cheaper than a contractor. This is my cage btw, and compared to building a C&C cage this size that can support a couple hundred pounds on top with underneath storage it was way cheaper and only took a week or so to cut and build myself. Wood cages are super cheap if you know what you're doing.
228354c5813bdd781124afc5806ad803.jpg
e8061d2b6b5c16e472c5a7b42bb163f1.jpg


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silverblood

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I swear, wooden cages DO NOT have to be expensive at all. People think they are because a lot of people who make them don't really have any experience with woodworking and spend more money on the wrong wood or the wrong design or using too much wood to make it structurally sound. I used a lot of 1x4s on mine and those are only 2 dollars.

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bpatters

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Many people have made C&C cages for free or for less than $20 by getting grids off Kijiji or Craigslist and using old coroplast political signs. I doubt you can beat that with a wooden cage.

I'm not arguing for one or the other. Just pointing out that a C&C cage is not expensive.
 

silverblood

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I just meant new. Buying the materials brand new or from the cages store is really expensive. But you can also use Craigslist for free lumber. I find free 2x4s and plywood pieces free all the time or for cheap as construction leftovers. Then the Coloplast you could use the political signs and make it just as cheap. I just don't like people thinking wooden cages are way more expensive. They can be really cheap too and just as clean so I think people should do what they like since the price isn't insanely different,especially if you're looking to have all new materials .

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silverblood

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This is my old cage and this only cost me 30 dollars. It's 8x4. The bigger the cage the more expensive. Id think it'd be kinda difficult to build a 32 square foot C&C cage for 20 bucks brand new or even used. The real benefit to grid cage is it can be changed easier, but wooden cages are so cheap brand new because wood products come in huge sizes for cheap. You can build a 4x4 cage for twenty dollars brand new. A ten dollar 8x4 piece of plywood and ten dollars in Coloplast. This is just for insight. Bigger cities probably have more C&C materials for cheap than where I live so it might be easier to build a super cheap grid cage depending on where you live.
aacdfe6f04ff1698cde754b6014d873c.jpg


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silverblood

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Oh! Another idea is you can build the main cage easily with wood because it would only take a few cuts from the plywood and the hardware store can do that for you, and then any lofts or add ons you can use grids and change everything but the base whenever you want. You could make separate lofts to decorate different or use the grids to make easy hay racks or places to hang water bottles. OP, you should keep that in mind. A difficult problem with wooden cages is where to hang the water bottles.

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lissie

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When I built my C&C cage with brand new materials, it only cost me $25.

$15 grids from Bed Bath and Beyond (with coupon) and $10 4x8 sheet of coroplast.
 

CavyTV

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@lissie, where did you get your coroplast? At my Home Depot, 8x4 coroplast is $21.....$10 seems like a great deal to me. I can't seem to find coroplast that's less than $21.
 

silverblood

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When I built my C&C cage with brand new materials, it only cost me $25.

$15 grids from Bed Bath and Beyond (with coupon) and $10 4x8 sheet of coroplast.
Really? How many grids did you get for that? I live in the middle of nowhere and I can't order from online, but the safe grids are really expensive here. I also think that when it comes to multiple cages my size one of the only ways to make room for them is to find another place to store the stuff you move. I can't imagine how many grids I'd need to build my cage in them and still have it hold a couple hundred pounds on top. I also really prefer the look and sturdiness of wood. I guess if you don't need it to be a massive setup or you don't need to store hundreds of pounds on it, which most people don't, grids are nice. I guess I need to look beyond where I live. I'd need at least 82 grids to build my cages over and that's without a stand and supports for the second floor and I wouldn't be able to store all my stuff on top.

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bpatters

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Look at the store locator for Sabic Polymershapes -- I've never paid more than $12 for a 4x8 piece of coroplast from one of their stores.

@silverblood, @lissie is right. A brand new C&C cage, 2x6, costs less than $40 if you do a little searching for the materials. It's fine to have a wood cage, but please don't say that C&C cages are expensive, because they're not.

Where are you? City/state, not your actual address. Walmart has a small box of grids for $22, a large box for $35, delivery to the store is free and you can pick them up there. Bed Bath and Beyond has a size in between those two for $19, free shipping to the store.
 
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