C&C Newbie with C & C cage questions

[Krispen]

I am building my very first ever C&C cage in anticipation of my two baby piggy boys coming home in approximately one week (as soon as they are ready to leave their mommy). My cage so far is a very basic 2 x 3 grid cage with coroplast (I plan to expand as they grow, but I wanted to start out as simple as possible). I have a loft, but I am still struggling with how to make an easy yet stable ramp. I plan to use fleece, which I will be getting within the next couple days. I plan on making a fleece forest- those are so neat!!! I have a water bottle and a couple of boxes for playing/hiding/sleeping. Should I make a hay rack, or just put the hay on the floor? Should I use the loft for feeding, or for a cozy sleeping area? What else do I need?

Thanks, and I am loving looking at everybody's cage pictures!

Krysti

 

[Soecara]

Be careful as they age, lofts sometimes cause issues when boars enter "puberty". They also might take some time to adjust to the ramp so if you do end up using the loft as a kitchen you will need to make sure they both are confident going up into the loft and coming back down again. To have a hay rack or not is personal preference, hay racks usually mean less waste and less mess but my pigs prefer piles and because I get my hay by the bail (the cheapest way to get hay) I don't mind the waste.

 

[SquigglyPigs]

I have a cage with a loft and I began using it as a kitchen. I liked that it was completely separate from the rest of the cage so the bottom of the cage stayed clean. However, I have one pig with a bully attitude who would sit at the top of the ramp and wouldn't let anyone else up to eat. lol The other pigs would go up and eat as soon as she went to sleep but it was still annoying. I ended up making a kitchen area in the main bottom part of the cage and they have two large hay racks so 2 or 3 can eat at a time. I wish that the loft would have worked out as a kitchen area because it looked better but I had to change it up so that everyone could eat. Now they just have some beds and a water bottle in the loft and they still like to use it. I also like to keep another small bowl of pellets in the loft which entices them to use the ramp more often. Another tip for lofts: make sure that they have a place to hide. It could be a hidey like an igloo or you could just cover part of the loft with fleece over it. They won't use the loft if there is no where to hide from noises.

In terms of hay, my pigs also prefer a giant pile on the ground. However, they like to sleep in it and pee on it so it smells up the cage and the house within a day. I opted for two big hay racks over a kitchen insert with disposable bedding to keep it clean.

 

[Krispen]

Thanks for your reply! I am all for less waste and less mess. Maybe it'll be best to set up a kitchen corner in the cage and leave the loft for a play area. If bullying becomes an issue, it would be easy to remove it.

 

[Krispen]

Considering my piggies are brothers raised together from birth, should I still expect much bullying? (if they are anything like my sons though, I think I know the answer to this lol)

I'm definitely liking the sound of hay racks... would a bent grid attached to the side of the cage work?

 

[PandaPiggle]

Brothers (or sisters) can fight just as much as any other pairing... Some will and some won't and you never know how much.

If you want to use a bent grid as a hay rack, you can bend it and attach it vertically, so no piggies can get in it, but do not attach it horizontally because pigs have been known to climb in them, get trapped, and break their leg trying to get free when something startles them.

 

[TandZpiggies]

You could always use a hay rack and maybe put a smaller pile of hay on the floor so the piggies can dig through it. That way they have the best of both worlds. Of course it will make more of a mess, but it's an idea.

 

[wombats]

I'm glas that you know to expand your cage later, but make sure you have enough space to do so. For boars, a good size would be 3x4 or 2x5, or larger. Boars just need more space to be happy with each other, as they are more territorial than sows. Make sure you have a place to put the cage that can eventually become something that big...along a wall or in a corner, or wherever.

And a few misc. notes: if they do turn out to have little "disagreements" sometimes, you might want to get more than one water bottle/food bowl/hay rack, so one can't corner the other from the food and water. Plus, with the water bottles, in case one stops working or goes empty too quickly, they'll have another one to fall back on. If you're using fleece, you might want to use a hay rack as opposed to a hay pile as hay sticks to fleece like nothing else. Hay racks don't keep all the hay off the floor of course, but it's enough to make a different when cleaning.


Best of luck with your new guinea pigs, when you get them. It's so exciting to add new animals to the family, and I hope all goes well when you get them.