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Small pets

Good place to buy a hutch?

4 replies

millimat · 06/02/2016 11:56

We need a new hutch - recommendations please? I can't see many in pets at home and don't know where else to look.

OP posts:
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EastMidsGPs · 06/02/2016 13:23

We got our first one from an old fashioned independent pet shop .. it was big and very solid unlike the ones seen at P@H type stores. It was cheaper too but this was 16 years ago Smile
Since then OH has repaired it along the way but its still solid.

Sort of related to this, keep telling OH he is missing a trick ... everytime i go to a pet shop and see dogs 'choosing' new leads or coats with their owners and see all the clothes for dogs and cats sigh the thought crosses my mind that perhaps there is a market for rabbit and guinea pig runs and hutches to be made to look like fairy castles or forts .. if OH would only listen and set to work, we'd make a fortuneGrin

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70isaLimitNotaTarget · 06/02/2016 22:16

Apart from our indoor cage (bought from The Range) which is plastic base/metal top, I've never bought a hutch either .

My DDad made our hutches when I was a girl, IIRC an old really heavy sideboard , the doors' fronts replaced with wire, made into two accomodations with upper/lower levels and ramps.
We had 2 pairs of Mum/Daughter pigs in there (the pairs lived as pairs)


With our present Pig Presences , DH customised the DC old Playhouse. All the inner bits have been made from furniture carcasses or garden boxes. They use a plastic trunk (the sort you put garden cushions in) as their sleeping area.


If you contacted some local carpenters they might be able to build you one. You can get a better quality of wood, your own specifications.

I don't like open front hutches because it seems exposed to wind/rain and they all seem very shallow. The sleeping boxes are tiny. And the locks and latches are feeble.
I'd want different areas maybe two sleeping areas and a middle play area with a safe area (behind a divider) if something scares them.
An extended roof to give shade and keep rain off and a rain cover.
Mesh cover that can be put over in summer for the flies.

Mine are far too lazy to use ramps but some pigs are happy to , so you could have up/down levels.
And an attatched run, though one that is static would get muddy.
Maybe something along the lines of the RunAround tunnels so you could have a secure access from the hutch to a moveable run?

(DH was going to attatch a run via a catdoor but it hasn't happened yet. I just put them in their rabbit run. It would be lovely if they put themselves to bed but it ain't gonna happen Wink . I don't think my pihs would use a catdoor either. We couldn't find one of those old thin ones that we could secure open, they were all new fangled and too much of a climb )


I gave my three an old bookcase (it was going to be banished to the shed) with 'doorways' cut in each end and in the dividers so they can run through. There are 3 'rooms'. 99% of the time the three of them are larding in the middle. These are the pigs who bellyache if they're in their carrybox for more than 5 minutes.............Hmm

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70isaLimitNotaTarget · 06/02/2016 22:21

East I asked my Himalayan about Fairy Castle Cages.
She had an image of small children dressing her up in a Build-a-Bear dress and making her eat Mr Kipling cakes with some assorted stuffed toys.

She shuddered, looked beadily judgey and hoiked. Grin

I'm sure Normal Guineas would like one of those rabbit forts (I'm sure I've seen them not dreamed them) they're heavy duty cardboard.
Guineas would pee and eat them

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NorahBone · 06/02/2016 22:48

If you're looking on the internet, zooplus.co.uk is good for hutches. And they have customer photos for fluffy browsing time. Littlepetwarehouse.co.uk is good for indoor cages, but doesn't seem to do hutches.

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