Cage Dog pen cage?

[Miraandnibbles]

Our first pair of piggies currently has a cage created from their old cage being dismantled. Our newer pair came with a cage that doesnt come apart easily. However they came with a dog pen that the old owner initially said was for letting them graze outside but we've already got a pen outside and haven't used the dog pen once. Has anyone made a cage out of dog pen? I measured it out and it would be around 18ft². And what would I use for the base? Our other piggies have a clear plastic tarp attached to a giant piece of cardboard (couldnt find coroplast anywhere) but we dont have any cardboard near that size left.

 

[ItsaZoo]

What I have is plywood with a 2x2 edge all the way around, like a frame. I have a grid cage that sits inside the frame. I cover the wood with Tyvek fabric that I cut from a waterproof mattress cover so the wood never gets wet. Then I use a washable incontinence pad and a top layer of fleece. I've had this setup for 2 years and no leaks or issues. The nice part is the fleece fits over the whole base and frame and the cage fits inside the edge so if you have pigs that burrow, they can't get under the fleece. You can kind of see what I mean on this link:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv7R2kfhLfu/

 

[spy9doc]

That's a very clever setup......is it yours? My only issue with it is that I don't like having the wire grids next to the piggies. No particular reason except a possibility of them hurting themselves by getting a body part entangled or perhaps if they are chewers. I have 6" coroplast sides in my cage which are sufficient for babies or adults...no babyproofing required.

Have you thought about covering the wood base with either linoleum or tile?

 

[ItsaZoo]

Tile or vinyl flooring would probably work on the wood base. However, I didn’t want the added weight with my setup. The guinea pig cage is on top of a metal dog kennel.

Tile would have to be grouted well so it would be waterproof, but that would be easy to clean.