What cage to get for indoor guinea pigs?

[MsMermaid]

I've been wanting a couple of guinea pigs for ages, and dh has just agreed that I can have some for my birthday in a few weeks.

So now I want to make sure they will be happy, and I don't really trust the pet shops to give the best advice. What cage would you get for 2 little guinea pigs? They'll be indoors all year round, we've got a reasonably big space in the dining room for them to live in, and will let them out to roam the kitchen/dining room every evening.

I'd love any other advice you can give me as these will be my first guinea pigs.

Guinea pigs actually need loads of space, contrary to what most people believe. We had 3 pigs, and had a 3ft by 4ft cage which I made myself. Take a look at guineapigcages.com.

Thanks. That's the sort of thing I wanted to know. I don't think the cages in the pet shop look very big, so knowing how big to go for helps a lot. I'll look at that website now. I'm so excited about getting them.

Those cages look like the sort of thing I was hoping for, they look so much more pleasant to live in than the ones I was looking at in the pet shop. Would you recommend a loft as well? This may end up rather more expensive than dh was imagining

I wouldn't bother with anything which requires them to use a ramp. They aren't the most agile creatures and are quite lazy. Lots never use their ramps. Just get the biggest cage you can and make sure you have room in for a couple of hidey holes so they can have one each.

Do you have a lawn so they can go outside at all? Mine are indoor pigs and during winter/wet days, I stick down an old fleece blanket on the kitchen floor with a few boxes so they can exercise, but they love grass, so during the spring and summer, they're outside a lot in their run.

OK bigger cage rather than a loft. No we don't have a lawn unfortunately, just patio. We do have a playing field just outside the garden, but that wouldn't be suitable due to dog walkers, etc. I am sort of planning a raised bed with grass in, specifically for the guinea pigs, but dh doesn't know that yet lol.

I'll post in chunks because I can't get a long post to send.

Bigger is better especially with boars. At least 4'x2' for two (they don't stay little )

C&C with a lining (then you can be flexible with shape)
Or a big solid based (maybe one aimed for rabbits?)

I'd recommend a solid side base unless you like hoovering up hay, pellets, assorted piggie detritus
YY to hidey spaces
YY to no ramps (they are lazy)

I'm thinking a C&C cage, now I know they exist. I'll measure my space but I think I can fit a 2x5 C&C cage in. What sort of lining would you recommend?

They'll be going in a room with vinyl floor so I can sweep up rather than hoover, but I'd rather keep all the mess contained if possible.

Will they need fleece on the floor when I let them out for exercise or will they be happy on a vinyl floor? Or carpet (not keen on them weeing on my carpet really, but it's been weed on by both dds at some point)?

We have this cage as a replacement for our C&C one, which kept coming apart at the seams (possibly because I kept falling over it).

It's 2 ft by nearly 5 and houses three bone-idle adult GPs quite happily, as all they want to do is sit blobbily around chewing hay (their mad pelting in circles days seem to be behind them).

They do get to go outside in summer and sit blobbily around the lawn as well.

I LOVE my C&C. We had a Midwest Habitat at first and within a week or so Betty was cage bar chewing. I changed to a 4 x 2 C & C with a 1 x 2 upstairs which they never used lazy buggers!!! and it stopped immediately.

I use puppy pads as a liner (they have never chewed them) with fleece blankets on top. I only put the fleece blanket about 3/4 of the way across, put a big pile of hay in the 1/4 not covered by the blanket, and they do most of their wee's on that bit.

I shake the poo's off the blanket on to the hay and change that pad about every 24-36 hours, and do a full cage clean (pad and blanket change) every 3 days and that keeps smells away.

We do have an outside run for nice days but I still find if I go somewhere with lovely long dandelions or thick grass I get genuinely excited and grab handfuls to take home!

Hope you really enjoy your gorgeous piggies

x

When they get out of their cages, do they need to go in a run (indoors) or can they just sort of roam about the house?

They can have free range floor time as long as you make sure there aren't any wires they can get hold of.

...or any fridges they fit under, or carpets to pee on.

That'll be a "no" then!
Can't I just train them to be sensible..?

I've got my new cage now, the c&c grids arrived today :) So I'll spend tomorrow putting it together, then I pick up the baby piggies next weekend (hopefully - the place I'm getting them from has a boss who occasionally gives reserved guinea pigs to his friends because he doesn't check what's reserved before giving them away so I might have to wait an extra couple of weeks for the next litter to be old enough). I'm getting 2 baby girls, fully ginger (as long as I get those ones, brown with a white stripe if I have to wait for the next litter)

My piggies will be able to have free range time in my dining room, there's not a lot in there other than the dining table and chairs, so no wires to chew and nothing to get stuck under, I just need to train the dcs not to leave the doors open (easier said than done I think)

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