Size Ease of access?

[KittyKrochet]

Hello,

In a few months, I'm planning on buying a C&C cage for my piggies. I'm definitely getting a 2x4 two tiered cage, but I'm still having a hard time deciding on whether to get a 2x1 narrow loft or 2x2 wide loft. I can pay for either of the two, so it's not the cost at issue, and I really want to give the girls as much space as I can. My only qualm with the large loft is how workable it is. I'm SHORT. And I know the website says that it can be difficult for short people to reach under there and capture pigs and clean (although they'll be on fleece, so I think cleaning won't be as TERRIBLE as it would be with other bedding material).

Can anyone who's also short with either a norrow or wide loft give me some insight into this? As it will be now, the cage will be on the floor (and covered, so my cat can't get it-although he'd only be there for the fleece), so i can wedge myself a bit to reach, I think. But I'm worried that in the future I'll have problems if it's up on a table.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[MummyOf5Piggies]

Hi!,Its up to you, I have always had a narrow loft for my 5 girls and it works fine, but it depends what you will keep in the loft area, if its just the kitchen, then a narrow loft should be good, if you plan to have other things in the loft area then the wide loft will be good also, and maybe if you're worried about them being to high, you could make a table (what I did) just the perfect height for you, and to hold the cage good too, and make it so you have storage underneath for them also. and if its covered cause of your cat the home built table would be good so you could catch them easily, cause you could just open it up and close it with ease. I hoped this helped!

 

[KittyKrochet]

That is very helpful. I would love to have a custom built table, but I'm stuck living at home for the moment. Fresh uni graduate and a poor job market aren't the best combination.... I've had a very very hard time convincing my family to let me upgrade the cage, and they're beyond upset at me for insisting they need a c&c cage because "they're just rodents they don't need that much space."

My cat's actually pretty good with the girls, he's actually a bit afraid of them. He just LOVES fleece. *rolls eyes* He's a special one...

Is there a way to make the side of the cage open, then, without messing with the structural integrity of the grids, though? That would be super helpful in the future.

 

[MummyOf5Piggies]

Yes, you can do that, since you are getting a 2x4 you can undo the middle of the 4 front grids and use binder clips to hold the "doors" shut. And when its time to clean you can just un-clip! its much easier than taking off the tops. You can also do that for the loft as well to make it easier!

 

[KittyKrochet]

Thank you! That is super helpful! I'll probably do that then, since that will really help with sweeping the fleece in the morning and at night.

 

[MummyOf5Piggies]

Your welcome! I'm glad i helped!lol

 

[Megaredize]

I have a 2x5 with a wide loft and i cant reach under it. im 5'6'' we have the cage on tables but its not that tall. my fiance had to get into the cage when we switched from loose bedding to fleece to vaccum all the dust in the corners of the coroplast from the side under the loft. it was quite funny because only one of the tables we put under the cage is good enough to hold our weight. the rest are cheap end tables i wouldnt trust with that much weight on it. what is worse is my girls refuse to go up their ramp. i have seen one of them do it maybe twice. they will walk down their ramp if we have moved them to the top. we only use the loft when we are cleaning the cage we put them on top and block off the ramp so they cant get down. not all piggies will use a ramp. a narrow loft would be good if you want to make sure you can reach under it.

 

[aeiou]

You can always order a few extra grids and have a floating loft

(not my cage, it's from the gallery)

 

[YourSoJelly]

I'M SHORT! My cage is on a stand that my papa made me. I actually stand IN the cage. I strip the cage like that and place the clean fleece in it. The girls have np problem with it and when I climb in to read to them (which I often do) they will do zoomies and wheek and popcorn, because they get all exited, then they snuggle up on me. Any ways, if you can climb in the cage, getting the running fluff balls won't be a problem and it helps them bond with you! I suggest getting the wide loft. My cage is soon (hopefully) going to be a 3 tiered cage, equivalent to a 2x16.

 

[aeiou]

Woo-hoo! 2x16? good for you and lucky piggies! I'm working on an upgrade too but just a 2x7 with a 2x3 for a L..then the 6x4 I wanna get for a pair of boars I'm gonna have to beg my parents for...haha.

 

[YourSoJelly]

Yeah... I haven't brought the idea up to mom yet!

 

[aeiou]

Me either! I'm going to wait a week or so..I have some babysitting jobs coming up and the extra $$ will be persuasive. Fingers crossed our mothers are feeling generous!

 

[KittyKrochet]

Those are all great suggestions! Thank you! I'll definitely keep them in mind. I think I'm gonna lean more towards the narrow loft for now, just because I don't know how they'll take to the ramp, and just so I can see how I am with size and whatnot...I wish I could get my boyfriend to help me with catching the girls, but he's still gonna be in uni and he's got an internship halfway across the country for the summer, so he won't be around. THAT and he refused to pick them up. He's terrified he's going to squish them to death.

A 2x16 sounds awesome by the way! =] If I had the space for that... I don't know if my piggies would know what to do with all that space!

 

[aeiou]

Haha popcorns and zoomies! But some of us just enjoy a little DIY sometimes..haha. A narrow loft is fine! If you put the hay up there and make it sort of a hayloft, then you don't have to worry as much about getting hay everywhere is you have fleece.

 

[R5 plus]

Somewhere on this site are pictures of a cage with a side opening under the loft section, like on the 2-grid end. This made cleaning the cage easy, and gpigs can't hide there for long.


I have also used a piece of coroplast to block off part of the cage when trying to catch the girls. I have a particularly wily one who is really hard to get most days. We did end up taking our loft down. Hopefully, when the girls are more used to us we can put it back up.

 

[lissie]

Here are some cages with doors.




More ideas:
Doors - Guinea Pig Cage Photos

 

[G_Piggler]

I learned soooo much from viewing the Photos section here! Check out the features section there too, lots of inspiration! Also, narrow lofts (half way up grid) are fantastic, and make for easy cornering when you want to snuggle them.

 

[YourSoJelly]

Me either! I'm going to wait a week or so..I have some babysitting jobs coming up and the extra $$ will be persuasive. Fingers crossed our mothers are feeling generous!

We can only hope! I need ot order more coro and grids though.

 

[bguardguy]

I agree! I def. recommend doing the binder clips so you have doors. I think you would be okay without them, especially since you are using fleece, but why not take a little time to make doors, and save tons of time cleaning. You can then pull out the coro if it gets dirty and just spray it off and let it dry. Doors make life much more easy it seems. I will be putting a door on my bottom sometime this week.

 

[KittyKrochet]

You guys are all so helpful! Doors are a great idea, I'll have to browse through the doors photos. Two term papers,a midterm, working two jobs, and readings for classes don't leave me much time.... =[ My boyfriend is super excited now, though. He's an engineer and he always loves projects....I told him I was just building the cage, and he immediately went into SolidWorks and made all the individual grids and part drawings and all that jazz. He'll be excited to design doors.