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Breeder block hutches

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Susan9608

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To all of you so against C&C Cages .... you don't *have* to use a C&C cage to give your guinea pigs adequate space. I tried C&C cages for awhile, had a variety of different difficulties with them, so I constructed something else, that, while not being a C&C cage, still meets the space recommendations of this site.

If you look at the photo gallery, there is a section called "Alternative Cages." There are many, many examples of people's cages that are *not* C&C cages, but still meet the minimum space recommendations.

The excuses for not giving your guinea pigs the space that they need - you have a dog and cat so C&C cages won't work; C&C cages are dangerous (I cannot fathom how you got that idea); and that the C&C supplies aren't available - seem pretty pathetic to me. If you're handy with tools or even just a little creative and *willing*, you can create some great cages that give your guinea pigs adequate space.
 
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Sabriel

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Guinea Pigs shouldn't live outside in a shed, they should be inside with thier loving owners. I don't know how I could give my 5 all the attention they need if they were outdoors. I frequently pick up a pig and watch TV or surf the net with them. I hate quarantining my pigs as it means I cannot walk about the house with them, but I'm sure my boar (who has sired a litter before I adopted him. There was a mix up and he was left in a pen with his sisters and mother.) will be very happy to have an older buddy to show him how to be a boarly boar (he is quite the wimp, poor little man)

You must have quite small pigs if your pigs are not at least close to 10" in length. Lina the foster skinny pig, is very tiny. She is 800g when she is not stressed at she sometimes drops to 760g when stressed. (We are working on her social skills). Her body is 8" in length and her head is approx. 2" so she is about 10". So either all you have is pups or your pigs have really really stunted growth patterns. Maybe you should look into a better feed and more veggies.

Sawda, you must have giant cats. My cats could not move my 3X6 if they wanted to. Heck I have a hard enough time moving it and I have 120lb more bulk at my disposal then my cats do.
 

cavy-cool-crazy

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Sawda said:
My dogs and cats would knock the cage off the side. its not worth the risk of finding them mangled up one morning.
Also new pet store pigs will proberley be scared. In the wild, predetors would attack from overhead. Getting the pigs out from overhead can panic them.. im not saying it will when there settled.

That's why you use cable ties to make it extremly secure. No dog could snap 5 cable ties off a corner if you went to the trouble of preventing it.

You put the cage on a table rather than on a floor. That way you don't scare them by 'swooping down' on them and the dog doesn't get to knock the cage off. If the dog continues to get at the pigs cage, then you stop the dog getting in. Simple as that.

Pet store pigs are just as scared as pigs from breeders and pet mills.
All pigs are terrified when you first bring them home - it's in their nature! You have the honour of building up trust in them, and you do this by careful movements and planning.
 
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Susan9608

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I really don't understand what is dangerous about a C&C cage. The spacing on the cubes is large enough to prevent a guinea pig from getting his foot stuck in it, while small enough to prevent him from getting his head stuck in it - therefore, I'm confused how guinea pigs are breaking their legs on these cages.

Also, the construction instructions on this site show the coroplast box placed inside the cubes, rather than the cubes being placed inside the coroplast box. So again, I'm confused how these guinea pigs are getting to the cubes to break their legs in the first place.

Again, as I said in an earlier post, giving various reasons why C&C cages won't work is a pretty poor excuse for not giving your guinea pig adequate space. There are many, many alternatives, if you're only *willing* to explore them.
 
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Myspoiltpiggies

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Sawda said:
You can't get chloroplast there.. also i have dogs and cats so i am not allowed a c&c
I ordered ALL the materials for my cages. Correx, grids, cable ties... There are places that deliver to ANYWHERE in the UK. It may cost a bit, but it is worth it. If you want me to give information about the shops I bought my stuff from, contact me:)

I also have a dog and a cat... doesn't mean you can't have a C&C cage. You build a lid for it. There are a few with lids in the Galleries:)
 

Sabriel

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I have 2 divider walls where there is no Coro box. This allows the pigs to see each other and sniff each other better. I have never seen a foot or any part of my pig, get caught in a grid. Are you maybe thinking of chicken wire or hardware mesh where a nail could get snagged?
 

salana

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I have a lethal white and I don't think he's quite 10" long when he stretches out. Interestingly, he's never been injured by C&C cages, not even the two he's lived in that had shelves, and you'd think a blind and deaf pig would be at the most risk for these hypothetical injuries.

My other pigs are all 10" long or more.

But I obviously only love myself, not my pigs. This is why, in an apartment that really isn't all that huge, I have a 3x5 and two 2x5s. This is why I have a 2-year-old lethal white. Mmhmm. Well. I obviously don't care anything for my pigs. I mean, I probably treat them like commodities, making them pop out babies to enhance my poor self-esteem. Oh wait.

As far as breeding, let's reiterate this...I have two intact boars that have played with spayed sows. There has been humping and butt-licking. How is this any different to those boars than mating with an intact sow? And yet they get along. Personality is everything!

Also, Gracie, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you a warning for swearing. Just because I'm American doesn't mean I don't know "bloody" is a swear word in the UK. There is of course the mass of personal insults you've leveled quite indiscriminately at all of us, but...I'll be nice and only warn you for swearing.
 
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cavy-cool-crazy

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Anaesthatizing a pig is no more dangerous than doing so to a cat. Getting a boar neutered is less risky than spaying a sow, but both aren't as dangerous as you might think.

I understand how you feel, but if you go to an experienced vet you should find that your pig will be home within a few hours.
 

daftscotslass

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Sawda said:
I would never neature or spray a pig.. its just something i couldn't do.. i'd be worrried sick

I take it you mean "neuter" and "spay". My female just died after being spayed. She had hugely cystic ovaries that made her pull out her own fur and mount her cagemate, making both their lives miserable. When they operated they also found a tumour in her uterus the size of a golf ball. She lived for 4 days afterward. Are you seriously telling me that if you had a sow with serious medical problems like that, you wouldn't have her spayed if her life depended on it?
 
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thecalders

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Sawda said:
I would never neature or spray a pig.. its just something i couldn't do.. i'd be worrried sick

Yet you have no problem with breeding sows? I don't understand, with all the potential risks it just does not make any sence at all. And I am very sure that you "know what you are doing" and that you take all the possible procautions and steps possible to try and prevent fatalities, perhaps you have yet to experiance loosing a sow or babies. However, the fact remains, according to higher placed people within the ACBA there is a 20% chance that the sow will die if breed.:eek:

However, as for your dogs and a C&C cage, I can see your point, in that only you know how resourceful and determined your dogs can be. Hearing you are making a new cage is encouraging, I don't think anyone here disproves of anything but a C&C cage, it is just they advocate there usage for most people as an economical and handy way to build large cages. The most imporrtant factor is cage size, not building materials.lol
 

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cavy-cool-crazy said:
Dangerous? How? Explain it to me please.

:expressio Um I think I mentioned this before, broken legs from the wire sections that they are made from.

I have seen many guinea pigs that have suffered broken legs due to these cages and before you say they probably had wire bottoms, they had solid bottoms.

I have seen many people change back from c&c cages and similar designs to the conventional hutch made of wood.
 

cavy-cool-crazy

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A 1 cm thick leg broken in a 2" gap?

I don't have problems with wooden hutches as long as they are a decent enough size. Other than the fact that one of my pigs got infected from sniffing and chewing a wooden hutch, I see few problems.
Cubes and Coroplast are simply my first choice because they are so easy to build on and alter compared to wooden cage/hutches.
 

Gracie

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cavy-cool-crazy said:
A 1 cm thick leg broken in a 2" gap?

Yes thats right. I have seen the results from these wire sections that are used.

If you are wondering how this can happen its simple. The guinea pigs are running or popcorning around and the leg gets caught in the gap. Quite simply a broken leg results, normally at the ankle joint which is the worst one to repair.
 

Sabriel

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That is impossible! I can see them brusing a leg but not breaking one. What is there to get stuck in? It's like saying I broke my arm by stcikung it out a window and smacking it off the side. It wouldn't break. It would hurt, but it would be fine.

And even if a freak accident did happen why don't you just make higher coro sides instead of putting them back in a tiny cage?

Edin: Running involes feet being close to the ground and popcoring is usually done in the middle of the cage. How did you pigs get their legs over the coro again?
 

cavy-cool-crazy

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Gracie said:
If you are wondering how this can happen its simple. The guinea pigs are running or popcorning around and the leg gets caught in the gap. Quite simply a broken leg results, normally at the ankle joint which is the worst one to repair.

Not in a 2 inch gap. If they were in a big enough C&C then they shouldn't even hit the sides, let alone manage to get their leg through and hit it at such a force that the bone snaps.
 
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Gracie

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Hey look ive seen the results from these cages and i dont like them. If you do fine but im not going to keep going round in circles with you waiting to find out if you think this sort of thing happens.

It does happen and ive seen guinea pigs that it has happened too.

Lets just leave it at that.
 

Sabriel

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1 person vs How many happy C&C owning people? I think you just want an excuse so you cen sleep well at night with your pigs outside in dinky cages.
 
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