We rented a house with a large garden when eldest DC was younger. She had always had animals but asked for guinea pigs. All was fine until we bought our forever house last year. It’s a new build on a slope! A shitty garden at the best of times. We have 3 dogs. So for a year they have been indoor animals in a hutch in her room whilst she has been an uni with us going in daily. We have battled a losing battle with the garden although we have installed a decking. We Clean out once a week. There is no way we can get grass to grow outside it’s a total mud bath and on a slope. We have some decking so we thought about an outdoor hutch on there.
DH has built them a large outside hutch to go on the decking but we haven’t really thought through what needs to go on the bottom at the moment it has a wooden base. Some people say artificial grass and then buy them grass or grow wheat grass and put it in.
We have discussed animal welfare with both the youngest 13 and eldest 19. Eldest at uni thinks they should be rehomed and youngest cries when we discuss it she is SEN and does spend time with her pig, feed her etc They are 3 so realistically we have another 3 years to think through. We are having a huge glass door and insulation put in the garage which is being converted into a den this summer so they could go in there longer term after this summer and they would be warm with light.
any ideas?