Pigs chewing on Midwest ramp cover?

[Kelly Marie]

Hey everyone! I just adopted my two girls August 31st. I used to have two boys around 8 years ago and visited this website very often so I am very knowledgeable about guinea pigs. However, my two girls now have done things my boys never did and I’m not sure how to stop them. They keep chewing on the ramp cover on their Midwest cage. These girls are spoiled and have had many things to chew on but won’t. I bought them a corner wooden hidey. They love this hidey. They chew on the house and the ramps. Nothing else I have tried works. Is there a spray I can put on the ramp that won’t hurt them? I can’t imagine them chewing on that is good for their stomach. They are not bored at all. At least they shouldn’t be. They have a lot of space to run and I also let them loose in my apartment for hours a day. Also, I bought them some Timothy hay powder molar rods. They really seem to enjoy that but I can’t find where it says how often they should have them? Can I constantly have one in the cage for them? Or limit one a day for the both of them? In the picture you can see the chewed up sides on the ramp. Thanks for any tips!

 

[Kelly Marie]

I’m not quite sure what it’s made of. It’s the Midwest guinea pig habitat on amazon. It’s not good for the tummies that’s for sure. I just tried wiping lemon juice on it since they don’t like fruit maybe this will help. I redid their cage completely and put “newer” toys in again to see if that distracts them for a bit. I change everything around twice a week to keep them busy. They love it and love rearranging everything but they still chew on that darn ramp lol. Gotta love them! I could try to wrap fleece around it. Might have to ask a crafty friend to sew me a cover! Thanks for the idea!

 

[spy9doc]

I'm not crazy about the appearance of that ramp.......but then it doesn't matter what I think! lol

First of all, what is the ramp itself made of? Is there a coroplast base under the fleece? If so, there is a simple solution for getting rid of any fabric on the ramp.......one in which you don't have to change any fabric at all.

Let's back up a bit. I have a two story cage where the loft is exactly one gird above the main floor. I have the traditional coroplast ramp such as is sold in the store of the parent site of this Forum. I generally purchase my ramps simply because I don't have the time to make them. HOWEVER, if you would like to make such a ramp, I posted directions quite some time ago:

(broken link removed)

What I do to cover the surface of the ramp is to cut a piece of stair tread material with the "ribs" running transversely so that your cavies can have a surface with traction. This material can be hot glued to the ramp, or I guess one could attach it with sticky-back industrial strength velcro. I clean it with the same solution as I do the rest of the cage at weekly cage-cleaning time. It literally lasts forever so long as your cavies can't chew the edges. To prevent that, I use what are called poster hangars which are a heavy duty version of presentation binder spines around the edges. It is harder plastic and a piggy will soon give up trying to chew on it. I'll post pics of the stair tread material (found in Home Depot in the flooring section) as well as the poster hangars.

 

[Kelly Marie]

The ramp is perfectly safe. The Midwest cages are popular. I haven’t seen any bad reviews about the ramps. I used to have a ramp like the one you have when I had a 2 story cage. The cage I have now doesn’t need a ramp like that but I will definitely keep that in mind for future. Thanks!

 

[Kelly Marie]

Candalalala , thanks for mentioning fleece. I actually just googled to see if anyone has come up with this idea and Etsy sells fleece ramp covers! Problem solved! Thanks!

 

[spy9doc]

But they starting eating the very end where there's no protection.

I experienced that as well. That's when I began to cover the ends.....never again experienced the problem.