Two storey guinea pig accommodations...

[DoinItForTheKids]

Does anyone have? Do their GPs use the ramp and go up to both levels?

DS wants me to change a large three storey chest of drawers into a two storey dwelling. I think they'll not go upstairs and I'll end up doing loads and loads of work (I am NOT a carpenter!) and then they won't use it.

For reference these are nearly 2 year old piggies that came from rescue so we were their 3rd home. They settled well but will never truly enjoy cuddling and so on - I'm not sure how inquisitive they'll be about climbing up a ramp to their penthouse....

If we are going to go down the furniture hacking route, I think a sideboard-type item would be better for them.

Thoughts people?

Hello! Our guinea pigs have this large Liberta cage which has a 'mezzanine' level:
m.petplanet.co.uk/p13289/liberta_rabbit_150_xlarge_indoor_rabbit_cage.aspx?

They love spending time upstairs. But because the size of the upper level is only about a third of the floor space of the actual cage, it means it is easy to get to them even if they are hiding downstairs. I don't think I would want a fully multistorey home for them as it might make it difficult to take them out when hiding in a corner.

With multi levels you 'lose' a lot of space with the hole in the floor for the ramp and the space it takes up on the lower floor.
Mine haven't used a ramp, I think they'd fall down the trap door (because they are spectacularly dense )

My DDad made a massive hutch from an old sideboard when I was a child , really heavy ('cos furniture was proper back then)

I kind of like the ones that have the perspex sides , (with airholes cut out) that have wheels and a 'lid' that forms a table top ...

We had one for our old g.pig.
He didn’t and was lifted up and down and died within a few weeks.

It may be co incidence but I think change was too much.

2 new g.pigs now love it and use both floors

I used to have one with a cage above a run and a ramp to get up and down. I had 2 guinea pigs at the time and the younger one did use the ramp but the older one wouldn't. They're not good climbers guinea pigs, you'd need to make the ramp quite gentle and also not slippy. I suspect you'd find they just snuggle up together in one part of the cage and don't use the ramp

Mine weren't keen when they first went into their cage with a ramp. We glued non slip mats to it and now they quite happily trot up and down with no issues.

Ours only ever used one floor, they are spectacularly stupid and dull, are guinea pigs

We had a two storey hutch for ours many years ago and only one would go down the ramp!

We ended up blocking it off and turning it into two cages because they just didn't use the space.

Oh, we found we could entice them up or down by placing fresh food in the section they were not of that makes sense.

We moved ours from a single storey to a massive 3 storey cage about a year ago. It took them about six weeks of staying on the one level and not venturing up/down the ramps, but eventually (when we were almost at the point of giving up and putting them back in their old cage!) they figured it out and now love charging up and down all day You do need to persevere though, I'm not exaggerating, it took forever for them to get the hang of it!

Yeah, I don't think they'll use it tbh. I also agree that the whole that's created by the upper floor ramp x it does take up a lot of room and I would worry about them just falling down it to be honest. Thanks for recounting all your experiences. I think I'm fixing to get a a long sideboard and put a long CNC base and cage on the top so they get more room but it's all on one flat level? Maybe put an upper floor section at the each short end so they can go up onto a little edge of they want to or just have more room maybe to string some hammocky things that they could lie in...

Guinea pig specialists advise to get large single storey cages for piggies because they can seriously injure or even kill themselves falling from ramps. They really aren’t built for any sort of ‘climbing’.

Useful advice on GPs from the Humane Society

They really aren’t built for any sort of ‘climbing

One of our piggies read the guinea-pig booked and Pah ed at it scornfully.

She stowed her way into our lives when I got her Mum ( who was pg)
She had a 'tail' -couple of extra bones in her spine
And..she could sprint up the stairs to my DSis bedroom

She was always tiny (we reckon because her mum was young) but she made short work of climbing.
Unlike the other lazy cavies I've known.

Are you sure they wasn't in fact a hamster 70isalimit?

Nope 100% pure guinea-pig , though her mum did look like a tail-less rat ...................

My boys are around 11 months old and race up and down their ramp happily. Only took an hour to get used to it.

I’ve just taken a pic so you can see it. Sorry about the dark and terrible quality! The ramps right at the back. I have iy by the 'wall' of the cage and the other side comes up high too. So it feels quite enclosed and safe for them. I used non slip mats and have covered it with fleece or they eats the mats! Eejit pigs!

My boys probably spend more time upstairs than down! Though the hay is upstairs so that helps.

Thanks for the piccie OvO, it does look good, I'm just not sure that our two will go up a ramp. I could go to a darn lot of work converting the three drawer chest of drawers and they then never go up. I think it would be different if a. they were younger b. we'd had them from younger but I'm not sure at their ages. Your cage setup looks really good though.

Our GP summer house has an upper storey. They are fine with the ramp but prefer a very gentle wide slope. I also put a plastic tunnel over it which they preferred. They are currently in an indoor cage and can easily climb/jump up to the mezzanine level.

Our guinea pigs would race up and down the stairs and one goes up the ramp and them jumps off from half way - he has been told not to but doesn't listen.

how dare he ignore you brizzle!

He's always been the cheeky one who knows best.