C&C Alternatives A reminder why Pigs need lots of unobstructed space at all times

[ginipigsinspace]

I have my boys in a custom wood/plexiglass cage that is approximately 3'x7'. It sits against my desk so I can spend time with them while I work from home. If I am at my desk for a while, they usually forget I am here and I get to observe some pretty awesome private biggie behavior. One of those is the younger boar's random bouts of furniture rearranging/zoomies. I often observe a round of zoomies every hour or so. As you can seen from this video, he uses all of the available space and still seems like he could use more. I know some people are limited so I don't mean to shame anyone, but for those who argue that it is enough to just give some floor time each day, know that one or both of your pigs might be denied the ability to do laps when they really want/need to.

[video=youtube_share;tsgry280Ibc]https://youtu.be/tsgry280Ibc[/video]

 

[ginipigsinspace]

Also featured, my older boar--Han--whining because he is a super chill dude and does not appreciate his brother's high-strung temperament.

 

[lisanjake]

ahh that is some awesome cage!!
I know what you mean about the fact they love the space rather then having it too cluttered with toys etc. Ive noticed my girls run over and around everything I put I love watching them zoom around and popcorn it really does make me smile! a lot more entertaining then TV

 

[lissie]

How adorable! I love watching zoomies.
I like how you left some space for your pigs to run behind the hay bin. Nice layout!

 

[wombats]

What cute pigs, and what a nice layout! Someday, when I expand my little 2x3 I'll keep this in mind when I design it's layout. I do agree though, while floortime is nice and important, they need room to run when THEY want to, which is just another reason why a big cage is important. It is wonderful when they decide to do zoomies in front of you though--when Bob wants to he's a streak of lightning, running around at the speed of sound under the bed and around my room like he's never run so fast before....and then he suddenly stops and lays down because he's tired, only to popcorn back up and keep going again. He's a strange pig, that one.


(Also I love the tubberware container as a hay box...that's a very good idea, I might have to try that when we get a bigger cage. Bob loves to bury in his hay and will actually pull hay out of the bag to sit in it, and sometimes he finds a way to sleep in the bag so this might be a good option for him )

 

[J.Bosley]

That's adorable! And a good video to show people how active guinea pigs can be. Thanks for sharing it!

 

[Cavies4EverEver]

Really great thread!

 

[BarBGirl1999]

SO cute! I love your layout, and the piggies seem to love it too. I love watching them run around in circles...it's way more entertaining than most things on TV, lol. All 3 of my boys are more like Han and don't run around much, but when they do it's so fun to see.

 

[ginipigsinspace]

Thanks @lisanjake . I went through several iterations of C&C but ended up moving them to a more central location and wanted something that looked cleaner. I love how visible they are with the plexiglass. They seem to like it too.
@lissie I actually started adding that space on suggestion of @bpatters because my boys were fighting more than usual and against the bin was the only place that they could maybe be cornering each other. Clearly I should have done it sooner since it is now a main feature on the racetrack.
@wombats Yeah the bin works pretty well! I tried a bunch of different hay rack configurations, but they kept pulling down the hay, spreading it everywhere and peeing on it. When I put litter boxes down, it still piled up and they were a pain to change. However, with this I just put down a puppy pad to collect the pee, pile in some hay, and let them play. Usually one will be inside the bin and the other will just grab pieces from the edge. They do end up pulling out some and tossing it around the cage, but not as much as before. At the end of the day I just toss everything. Luckily I am able to get hay from a feed store for cheep so throwing out a bunch isn't a huge deal.

 

[lisanjake]

https://www.facebook.com/lisanjake/videos/10153024882670794/?l=7924227096200758643

not sure if this will work for those who aren't on my FB x

 

[ginipigsinspace]

I can't open the link. What is it?

 

[savannahsatchel]

If you don't mine me asking, how did you secure the plexiglass to the wood? Building my 6 babies new cages soon and I'm trying to get ideas and know how to do them correctly

 

[ginipigsinspace]

@savannahsatchel Mostly those little plastic mirror hangers. I do have posts with slots for the plexiglass to slide into in the middle of the long sides, but that was tedious to make so I did the rest with mirror hangers and they work just fine!

 

[savannahsatchel]

Thank you so much!

 

[lisanjake]

my guinea pigs doing laps ah dangit I cant save it from facebook to my computer. ill try and make it not private x

 

[taffy123]

Aww I love how your piggy just lays down on the bridge at the end. I don't know why I found that so adorable

 

[ginipigsinspace]

Aww I love how your piggy just lays down on the bridge at the end. I don't know why I found that so adorable

It's actually to antagonize the other pig. Chewie is smaller so the only way he can win a nose off is to stand on something. Thus he takes every opportunity to do so. Han may be bigger but he is nimble. They are just fuzzy little jerks.

 

[Cavies4EverEver]

It's actually to antagonize the other pig. Chewie is smaller so the only way he can win a nose off is to stand on something. Thus he takes every opportunity to do so. Han may be bigger but he is nimble. They are just fuzzy little jerks.

Lol I call one of my pigs the douche bag pig.. he used to always be a jerk to my little popcorner lol.

He would just sit on him or snatch his food even if he had his own.. little shit.