Ramp Coverings

[CactusCavy]

I'm making a second level soon (already have all the materials, yay!...but first my dad wants to know my plans before I start cutting...), and to my delight have enough (coroplast) for a 2x6!!!...Anyway, I am planning to make a ramp out of bent cubes, but need to cover it over with something. Coroplast sounds slippery. If I cover it over with bedding, it's very likely the little oinkers will kick it to the bottom. I'm not very sure about wood; wouldn't pig-waste make it...discusting? Please help with ideas!

~Cactus

 

[dagwellismypigy]

A folded towel works really well. You could also get a bathroom rug and use it on the ramp, but that's a bit hard to clean.

 

[Marlania]

I used some old indoor-outdoor carpet to cover my ramp, and it works well. The pigs fly up and down it all day long. It's also easy to clean and easy for them to grip.

 

[Alanas]

I used potato sack type material for mine. It is called heshem bag material here I think. I will take a photo for you. It is really cheap too.

 

[mab0615]

I used fabric placemats from K-mart.

 

[pennick]

I bought a few $2.00 carpet mats that I cut to size and interchange when dirty. It's washable, and the pigs can climb up and down easily.

 

[cavy-cool-crazy]

I made my ramp with wood (big mistake though - I didn't realise that they would go down the ramp specifically to pee right at the bottom of it!) and covered it with carpet. It works brilliantly for my piggers.

 

[Fujiko]

I use two bent grids, one bent at a ninety-degree angle, and one sorta-bent, maybe at one side it is thirty degrees and at the other end, it is twenty (from the normal, of course, I guess the real angles would be 150 and 160, respectively. Very obtuse.) Anyway, it's hard to describe, but I hook the two together, with the 90 degree grid on top attached to the top level (with one side of the grid acting as a guard rail so they don't fall off the side), and the other grid hooked up to the first one with the sharper angle first. It works out so that the bottom grid forms more of a gently-sloping base/short platform. It's great because it gently slopes off to the side (into the middle of the cage), but if the pig were to go straight, there is a 3-4 inch drop off--basically, if they want to run in circles on the outside of their cage, they just run underneath the ramp and come out under this side. The whole thing is covered by a throw rug I bought on clearance from walmart, which makes it stable and gives them traction. It drapes over the edge where they run under.

I'm sorry if my description makes it hard to understand!

 

[Piglet]

I used carpet which was good for traction but it got soggy at the bottom - my pigs peed at the bottom of the ramp too!

 

[A4PigHome]

I used potato sack type material for mine. It is called heshem bag material here I think. I will take a photo for you. It is really cheap too.

Is it washable?

 

[Piglet]

It's also called hessian

 

[CactusCavy]

Okay, thanks, everyone! It looks like carpet does well, as well as that potato-sack-type material...so, material in general. Maybe I won't bend so many cubes after all--I liked cavy-cool-crazy's idea of using carpet (or towels!) over wood. Still, it might be good to stick a bent cube at the top to keep them from falling off...excuse me while I ponder aloud my options ... I believe that for starters, I'll use towels, until we have time to go hunt down the other materials...

 

[StrangeKat]

Could you use fleece, or is that not grippy enough for the piggers?

 

[CactusCavy]

Could you use fleece, or is that not grippy enough for the piggers?

I guess one could, but it's a bit soft, and I would be worried the pigs' legs would sink through the fleece-covered holes in the cubes. However, if you put wood or something firm between the cube and the fleece, I believe it would do just fine.

 

[StrangeKat]

Yea, 'cos some people do use wood or corro for their ramps, so in such a case it would work.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I glued a piece of scrap carpet onto a piece of scrap coroplast. It works great, good grip for the piggers, but it's a pain to clean. Mine pee on it as well.

 

[Sabrinasmommy]

I made the ramp out of a piece of coroplast then layed a piece of cardboard over it taped them together and then taped a piece of fuzzy fabric I had and clipped it to the side.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

If you put some cardboard or coroplast on the grids then you can use fleece on top of it. Fleece has good traction for helping them get up a ramp. I use fleece on my ramp, but mine is made of pvc pipe cut in half lengthwise.

 

[Tucky4ever22]

My ramp is mesh-wire. So to avoid sores on his/her feet, I use leftover carpet. I use it on the ramp and the whole second story!

 

[mommyX2]

I use a peice of plywood covered with indoor - outdoor carpet with ducktape in between each peice.