New Guinea Pig Mom/Grandma

[trmeyer63461]

Hello. My name is Tracy and my kids and I have recently adopted two guinea pigs from a friend of ours. My daughter had gotten a guinea pig from the pet store last year and we did all the wrong things, wrong cage, only got one, so on. After purchasing it, I had started to read on here and was going to change out her cage and get it a friend but then he died within a month of us getting him. She played with him all the time but he never made any noises or did much so I'm going to assume he was sick or something when we got him. After that there were a lot of sale posts for guinea pig cages locally that said used only a month or so and I'm wondering if everybody got a sick piggie from the store? She has been wanting another one since then, but I wanted to be ready this time so we've been waiting to be able to get a good cage set up and find some not from the pet store.

So now we have two piggies in a 2x4 C&C cage with wood pellets and fleece bedding. We got them on Wednesday and we've had so much fun with them already. I added a fleece forest today and we've moved their food stuff all to one end to try to contain the mess. I have their hay in a paper bag right now as I'm trying to figure out the best option and have not been able to find a hay feeder locally that is not outrageous in price. I'm including a pic of the cage when we had just gotten done changing out the fleece and moving their food to the other end, and with the added fleece forest. I need to get them some more hiding spots, and am going to go to the Dollar Tree tomorrow to get another one of the stacking bins. They love that thing.

Oh, they are two boars and were born on Easter Sunday this year. (My friend had had her boar neutered and the vet told them they could put him back in with the female and he was wrong. LOL!). I will try to get pics of the piggies later to upload to this post. The lighting in her room is bad and it's night time now so I will wait until tomorrow. But their names are Dumbo and Lars.

We need to get some more things for them to play with. My husband works at a butcher shop and they always have the really thick cardboard tubes from inside the plastic and paper rolls and they are pretty big. Like a shipping tube. So he's going to bring one of those home for us. I am open to suggestions and tips on things we can put in there for them to play with and make it more enjoyable for them. They started running in the fleece forest as soon as I started tying the fleece to the grid.

 

[ItsaZoo]

Congratulations on your new piggies and kudos to you for all the research you are doing to give them a good home!

The fleece forest is a great idea. I buy the stacking bins from Dollar Tree as well and they are a favorite. I have several and my piggy, Lacey, likes to line them up and make a tunnel, or drag them around by hunching her shoulders - reminds me of a hermit crab.

I also make hideys from the plastic baskets they sell. These wouldn’t be good for chewers, but mine doesn’t chew. I flip them over, cut a couple of openings and sand the edges smooth. They look like a gazebo and she can watch what’s going on and still feel like she’s hiding. Here’s a link to a picture of her gazebo:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvCL3hshLB6/?igshid=12rhrg1iyqsb9

For hay, I recently bought an elongated rabbit litter tray that fits in a corner. I put some paper bedding in the bottom and add a little hay, then bunch up more hay in the corner. My piggy likes to sit in the tray and eat, and the rest of the cage stays cleaner. I clean the tray daily and set aside the dry hay to use in the bottom with the paper bedding, then I add fresh hay bunched up in the corner again.

Good luck with Dumbo and Lars!

 

[spy9doc]

You did a good job on your first C&C cage!

I do have some suggestions based on my own experience with keeping boars. First of all, you really need to make the cage at least a 2x5 to accommodate them as they grow. I have a 2x5 main level with an offset 2x2 loft and would make my cage larger in a heartbeat if I had the room. If you want to keep the cage in the same location and there isn't room to add another grid's length, why not make the cage a 4x3? That would be a terrific size for two adult boars and would give them room to run as well as hide from each other if need be.

If you don't wish to make the cage larger, then I would suggest that you NOT add more hideys/bins as it will clutter the cage and take away from precious running room. Another fleece forest would be a better idea as it won't take away from running room but still give them a place to hide. You may also wish to consider getting the cage off the floor. That way you humans don't loom so large over your cavies and they will be more comfortable and friendly. Having the cage raised will also save your back!

When I was building my current cage, I searched for weeks for a table just the right size. I finally had one of those head-slapping moments when I realized that the most practical thing to do was to build a custom grid stand to fit the cage and storage needs. I did just that with strategically placing the cubby holes to fit the space where the cage resides. I now have all things piggy stored in canvas bins under the cage. You'll notice that I also put casters on the cage to make it easy to move for cleaning.

I gave up on using a hay rack. I had settled on using a shower corner utility rack where I cut out every other vertical rib, but my cavies just didn't eat enough hay. I've included pics below to give you a visual of the shower caddy. Just remove the suction cups and zip-tie it to the cage.

My ultimate solution was to buy a couple of kitten litter pans (one in the loft and one downstairs) and now use a layer of litter in the bottom with a layer of hay over it. The boys loved it! They can now do two things at once.....eat hay and pee and poop there. And, they even love it so much that Sparky frequently sleeps in the litter box. I'll post a pic of the litter box and a link to where I found it.....infinitely inexpensive. Sparky is a Dalmatian and has a perpetually stained white belly, but he loves the litter box so much that I can't bear to take it away from him. We just have to keep the box clean and tidy and occasionally give him a belly/butt bath. Keep in mind that a litter box needs to be of adequate size so that an adult cavy can stretch out in it. Your boys are young, but they will be able to hop over the sides to get in/out of the box. In the pic below of the cage, you'll see the litter box that I started with before finding my current solution

Some pics to illustrate the above:




Litter pan sources:
https://www.amazon.com/Van-Ness-Sma...=1519082659&sr=8-8&keywords=kitten+litter+box
(broken link removed)

 

[trmeyer63461]

ItsaZoo, thank you for your comments. And I love the picture of your gazebo with Lacey looking out of it! I will have to find a basket and do that. I've been thinking of the litter box type thing for the hay, but really don't want to use other bedding options. I love the wood pellets under the fleece option and I don't have to deal with a lot of other bedding around the house.

We live in a very small house, about 940 square feet, with 4 humans, 2 dogs (one that does not go in the Piggie's/Daughter's bedroom, and the other one is an old Sheltie and he just doesn't care about them at all, but he still doesn't go in there often. He follows my son around). My son has 2 snakes and a leopard gecko in the house. LOL. But besides all of that, I really would like to not have to do another bedding option so I was trying to figure out something with the wood pellets. Can i just make a fleece liner for the hay pan/litter tray area and put pellets in there too? And then just change that out more possibly as needed? I know the fleece needs to be cleaned out daily but maybe not the wood pellets as much. Do people do this or is it just not worth it and I just need to get paper bedding for the hay area?

spy9doc, I would love to add another length to the cage but it is in my daughter's room and refer to above paragraph where we are in a small house. LOL. I'm working on her on getting rid of things (she hoards too much, but we went through a house fire a few years ago so she struggles to let go of things since she didn't have anything at all for a while). So her room is small with too much stuff. But we are working on it. And I'm planning on doing another set of cubes to make a stand under it. I just wasn't sure what we were going to do when I bought my cubes so I only bought one set. I was thinking if I added the cube storage under it, I could probably sweet talk her out of the organizer stand she has at the end of her GP area that holds some random things in her room and she could put them under the GP cage as well as her GP accessories.

I will work on another fleece forest to add to the cage instead of another hidey. But do they like to have those changed out to keep it interesting or do they like to have the same one all the time? I don't mind switching them out and not using more than one. Just don't want to freak them out if they don't like that.

I'm learning so much about guinea pigs lately. LOL! I work from home and I keep getting distracted looking things up for them instead of working. Thank you so much for replying and giving me ideas! I really appreciate it so much!

 

[ItsaZoo]

Before I bought the rabbit litter pan, or the eat-in bathroom as I call it, I used a home-made fleece pad for the hay. It is about the size of a placemat with fleece on one side, a microfiber kitchen towel in the middle and plain woven fabric like quilt fabric on the other side. I used the woven side for hay, and it’s absorbent and easy to wash and dry. Or it can be flipped over and the fleece side is extra cushy for snuggling.

I like your cage setup. I had mine on the floor at first, too. Then I realized it’s about the same size as our dog’s kennel so I made a wood base and put it on top. The dog wasn’t really interested in the guinea pig unless he was excited and she was running. This way he pays no attention to her and she’s up where she can keep an eye on the kitchen and sunroom.

I rearrange hideys and the fleece forest almost every day just to give her something to think about. It’s just so much fun to watch what they do.