Climbing the stairs!

[Rachy1412]

I let my boys free range the garden, I will normally sit on the doorstep or on a chair to watch them, or if I am out my mum will watch them for me. (There is no way out so don't worry about that!) Anyway.. for the past couple of days they have been coming indoors. They climb up the backstep in through the kitchen door. They then walk through into the hallway and climb the stairs! My stairs are not just straight up, they curve in the middle. They then walk through the landing to my room and come in to say hello to the girls! I came out of the bathroom the otherday to find two of them asleep under my computer desk!

Is it even possible for the boys to smell the girls from downstairs?! Or do they just want to live indoors? I previously built them a C&C cage but because the cage was above the girls they started to fight. I tried in the past to teach them how to climb the stairs but they never caught on.. now they are doing it on their own! I have a rabbit who can't even climb the stairs.

Has anyone got any ideas on how I can make the garden fun for them.. to distract them from going into the house. They have runs and tunnels and hidey spaces but I don't know what else to give them. I sometimes put the girls blanket out there and that gives them 30mins of fun; popcorning, squeaking and running about. It is funny though. When they were living in the C&C cage above the girls they fought. Now when I let them smell something of the girls they call eachother over!

 

[Daisy Duke]

Wow, that is really odd, but cool. I am not sure about if boys can smell the girls as I have no boys. Why don't you just contain them in the pen or put a pen around the garden so they can't go inside. Goodluck.

 

[Slap Maxwell]

I would consider making them a pen. If they are free range in that much space, you never know what they could get into.

 

[zakfoxmom]

We have a two story and I am always paranoid that they will fall down the stairs. I was told that they don't have good depth perception and easily walk off the edge of the stairs or off of a bed and get hurt. I want to build a 2nd level to our 2x4 but am worried about them falling off the ramp. Is that lame???

 

[Rachy1412]

My garden is tiny.. they have a run but it is small. And anyway.. I supervise them all the time(Or my mum!). They cannot get out of the garden.

 

[Slap Maxwell]

We have a two story and I am always paranoid that they will fall down the stairs. I was told that they don't have good depth perception and easily walk off the edge of the stairs or off of a bed and get hurt. I want to build a 2nd level to our 2x4 but am worried about them falling off the ramp. Is that lame???

It is unlikely they will fall off the ramp. It is possible they might do off the second level, so it should be blocked off.

 

[charliesmommy]

Whenever I let my pigs free range around the house, they love climbing up the stairs, but coming down is always a problem. I'm not sure if they're afraid or if it's the depth perception issue, as you mentioned. I've had one of mine run off my bed when I first got him (that was quite a scare!) but he may have been trying to escape rather than it being accidental. As for the ramp in my boys' cage, you can look at it in my gallery... it has low sides so that they have to make an effort to jump off of it and over the sides. I, too, was afraid of them slipping or somehow falling off it, and even though it isn't a great distance, I didn't want to risk it.

 

[Daisy Duke]

I have never let my piggies climb up the stairs because i am afraid they will slip and roll down the steps. My dog fell down the steps when I first got her, but luckily she was fine and got right back up.

 

[charliesmommy]

They haven't had any problems with slipping, but our carpet is pretty thick and lets them get their little nails in it to grip with. It's so cute to see them hop up the steps! But yes, I have to watch them carefully when they do it.