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Cage What is a kitchen, how do you make it?

MamaGuinea

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So I'm a newbie. I just built a basic 2x5 C&C cage (no upper levels - my piggies hate ramps) for our three piggies, and I am mystified by the concept of a kitchen. Right now, I just put their dry food in a food bowl which moves around the cage. Their fresh food takes up a lot of space when they get it a couple of times a day - I put the veggies on a large tray/platter which I place basically in the middle of their cage, and later remove after they have eaten. They have water bottles at each end of the cage as well. Their hay goes into a large walk-in box (entrance/exit on each side), almost the size of a kitty litter tray. This box also moves around the cage. Basically, the entire cage is their kitchen.

I am intrigued by the idea of them pooping and peeing mostly in that space, but not sure how to go about setting this up. How do you make a kitchen in a 2x5 or similar? How big should it be? Is the kitchen supposed to have bedding, hay, and all the fresh food and water, with none of these items available outside of the kitchen?

Also, a slightly different question: how important is it to have a hayrack? Right now I just provide hay in a large walk-in bin - no hayrack.
 

Snugglybutt

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I am also confused about the concept of a kitchen. I'd love to have one though!

To answer your question about hayracks: it's not really important to have one. One of my pigs prefers eating hay off the floor. It's a matter of preference. I used to leave big piles of hay in the middle of my cage but my cage got messier quicker.
 

wheekermommy

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Hello so the whole idea behind a kitchen is to have a designated area that the guinea pigs eat. Normally people will put there hay along with veggies/pellets/water bottle in the kitchen depending how big it is. The whole concept is guinea pigs will go to the bathroom where they eat, so if you have a designated area with all/most of their food the idea is most of the waste will be contained there.

You can make a kitchen area using a variety of things, some ideas include modified litter boxes or coroplast kitchens (can be made or bought from the cages store)

I have my cage set up with two of the coroplast cavy cafe kitchens from the guineapigcages store. I use it with a extra absorbant fleece bedding and a giant pile of hay. The hay is contained in the kitchen so it doesn't make a huge mess if you have a huge pile for your piggies to lounge in.

A lot of people will use a disposable type of bedding in the kitchen for easier cleaning. So you could have fleece bedding for the whole cage but then disposable bedding in just the kitchen. I used to but personally prefer fleece. Since my hay takes up the whole kitchen I feed the veggies in a giant pile next to it. Initially I used cute little dishes but I found it a pain to always pick them up and didn't like them taking up space if I forgot to grab them.

Oh a tip to make them use the kitchen more is cover it. Most guinea pigs hate eating out in the open so if you add some sort of cover, such as fleece forest or even fleece drapped across the top of grids, it will encourage them to spend more time there. Since you have three guinea pigs I would recommend 2x2 kitchen so they all have space to be in it at the same time.

Are your three girls or boys?

If you have any more questions let me know!
 

MamaGuinea

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Thanks for clearing that up! Very helpful explanation. I have three girls!

And yes, I just figured out exactly what you said - that piggies hate to eat out in the open! In fact, they seem to dislike being out in the open much altogether. Just this morning, I put some cardboard "tents" in their cage to test this out - I had made them yesterday for their outdoor run, where they were a BIG success. I got the idea after watching a video of a BC couple who uses piggies to mow their lawn, here: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/guinea-pig-grazers-keep-backyard-trimmed-1.2339007 Notice the folded cardboard they use over the piggies - I thought at first that it was just to protect them from hawks, but after testing it out, I see that it also makes the piggies a lot more comfortable to wander around!

I had been putting my piggies outside almost every day, and they were just huddling in their pigloo, not coming out at all. Then yesterday, I put in my improvised cardboard fold-outs (made out of the Costco big boxes), and eureka - the piggies actually ran around their enclosure instead of huddling in their pigloo, and ate the grass!

So this morning I put those fold-outs into their cage and now they are far more comfortable wandering around. Note that they are fairly new to our family, we just got them over a week ago - so it's still stressful for them - new family, new cage, new everything, and they've been mostly hiding when we are around. Maybe for that reason, I've been finding a lot more poops in their pigloo areas then in around the hay, pellets and fresh food.
 

bpatters

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Be very careful of the heat. I know it's not usually a factor where you are, but this isn't a usual year. Guinea pigs don't tolerate heat well, and can die at anything above 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius).
 
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