General Kwee just got caught in the hayrack

[Mastershroom]

In the 2x4 cage we built for Quee and Kwee, we have a hay rack made of a spare grid. Well, long story short, little Kwee somehow managed to get her head stuck inside one of the grid squares! She started screaming something fierce, so we cut the grid off and took the whole Kwee/grid clusterhump to the couch where she could avoid putting too much stress on her neck. We tried to push and pull her head out of the grid without hurting her...pretty scary few minutes. Anyway, in the couple of seconds we stopped trying to help her, she just yanked her own head back out of the grid like it was nothing. Needless to say, we let her have pretty much an entire bag of lettuce and a good chunk of cucumber for her trouble. Also needless to say, we got rid of that hay rack.

We had quite a scare, but she seemed to have forgotten all about it as soon as she got out and purred when I pet her and hand fed her. Silly little pig.

I'm still not sure how she managed to get her head into the grid; we use the regular 9x9 grids, not the larger holes. She's still pretty young, at about 3 or 4 months now, but she's not that tiny. Ah well...I'm just grateful that she's alive and okay.

 

[Paula]

You might consider babyproofing the grids until this type of incident isn't a possibility. It could have had a very different outcome.

 

[Mastershroom]

We just got rid of that grid. The cage itself isn't a problem; neither of the pigs try to get over the walls.

 

[Aertyn]

I stopped using Grids as hayracks, I used boxes (tissue boxes are excellent). I now use a product made by jenscustomcrafts. It's a material hay holder, it has two triangular holes for the hay so no risk of a pigs head getting stuck and the hay can be pulled out very easily. I think they are abuot $20 but it was well worth it for me.

 

[pinky]

I use plastic, corner litter boxes for my hay. I line it with shredded paper in case they climb in there and pee in there. I empty and clean them once or twice a day, depending if any of them climb in there. I lined them with newspaper but they'd pull out the whole piece. You can use carefresh instead of the paper but since I change it frequently, there's no odor. It makes it easier to clean out. I velcro them to the corner of my cages and they work well.

 

[PigPandemonium]

Ah! Sounds scary! I wish I could use any type of hay rack with the pigs, but sadly they will have none of it. xD I just have to put a lump of hay on the floor. Though I think this is easier, because there is no constant refilling, and they seem to have fun with it too! They love to make a sort of tunnel out of it, then lay in the middle and eat the walls. xD

 

[MissJean]

I stopped using Grids as hayracks, I used boxes (tissue boxes are excellent). I now use a product made by jenscustomcrafts. It's a material hay holder, it has two triangular holes for the hay so no risk of a pigs head getting stuck and the hay can be pulled out very easily. I think they are abuot $20 but it was well worth it for me.

I was looking at that one. Do you think smaller pigs (2-4 months old, 600-700 grams) could crawl inside the triangles?

 

[Aertyn]

Even my lumps can get in the holes (I routinely find Fizzy sleeping in it...she's a strange pig...) but I don't worry about it all that much since she can get in and out quite easily. I basically use it to keep the hay off the litter so it doesn't get peed on, rather than an actual 'rack'.