E
eddieiscool
For those of you who have not discovered the delights of housing your little beasties indoors, here's something that you might be interested in...
I have 2 very lovely piggies, (Eddie and Copernicus), and they live in our sitting room, in what we call the CAVY CAGE. It's more like a pen then a cage and it's a little bit like them having their own part of the living room to just get on and do the things a pig likes to do.
And here's how you make one:
You will need:
1 sheet of corrugated plastic, (which you can obtain from any reputable sign maker. They might refer to it as fluted plastic). The size of the plastic depends on the amount of cubes you are using.
1 set of cube shelving, (this is hard to get in the UK but Screwfix offer some metal mesh ones). One pack is enough to house 2 pigs
1 tape measure
1 craft knife
1 roll of sellotape/duct tape
1 pencil
1 steel long ruler (1m +)
Plus all the other items a pig might need, such as wood shavings, newspaper, sleeping huts, hay and rack, water bottle, etc.
To make the pen:
1) Arrange the cubed shelving so that it forms a rectangle without a base. The amount and size depends on the number of pigs. For my 2 pigs, I have an arrangement of 4 squares X two squares but if you have more pigs you will need to adjust the size accordingly. There is no set amount/ratio for the number of pigs BUT BIGGER is BETTER
2) Measure the INSIDE of the newly formed rectangle. To get the required amount of plastic you need to add approximately 10cm to the inside measurements of the cube. This allows for the plastic to form "walls" around the sides of the pen and will stop piggy claws from getting caught in the mesh.
3) Once you have acquired the right amount of plastic, measure 10cm from the outside edge in to the middle. Do this all the way round the plastic and mark out the line all the way round. What you should have now is a large rectangle of plastic with another rectangle drawn on the inside which is 10cm in from the edge. Make sure the lines you have made around the edge cross at the corners, making small squares. This is essential for making the flaps which will hold the base together.
4) Take the craft knife and the ruler and score along the lines which you have drawn. DO NOT CUT THE PLASTIC ALL THE WAY THROUGH. This is just meant to make the plastic more flexible.
5) Fold the flaps in to the middle of the plastic, making sure that each flap lines up with the bottom line of the small squares you have drawn. Fold the smaller flaps round the larger flaps and secure with sellotape.
6) Place the plastic tray in the centre of the cube rectangle.
Congratulations! You now have a Cavy Cage! I understand that these instructions might be a little hard to follow so, if you are still interested but cannot follow the ones above, have a look at this instead...
http://www.guineapigcages.com/cubes.htm
It is American so the suppliers' names are irrelevant. But it will explain in simpler terms how to build one. They are quite cheap if you get the cube shelving from Screwfix and the plastic from any local sign maker, (we paid £40 for the shelving including delivery and £10 for the plastic, which was approximatley 3m X 1.5m )
Happy Cavy Cage building!
I have 2 very lovely piggies, (Eddie and Copernicus), and they live in our sitting room, in what we call the CAVY CAGE. It's more like a pen then a cage and it's a little bit like them having their own part of the living room to just get on and do the things a pig likes to do.
And here's how you make one:
You will need:
1 sheet of corrugated plastic, (which you can obtain from any reputable sign maker. They might refer to it as fluted plastic). The size of the plastic depends on the amount of cubes you are using.
1 set of cube shelving, (this is hard to get in the UK but Screwfix offer some metal mesh ones). One pack is enough to house 2 pigs
1 tape measure
1 craft knife
1 roll of sellotape/duct tape
1 pencil
1 steel long ruler (1m +)
Plus all the other items a pig might need, such as wood shavings, newspaper, sleeping huts, hay and rack, water bottle, etc.
To make the pen:
1) Arrange the cubed shelving so that it forms a rectangle without a base. The amount and size depends on the number of pigs. For my 2 pigs, I have an arrangement of 4 squares X two squares but if you have more pigs you will need to adjust the size accordingly. There is no set amount/ratio for the number of pigs BUT BIGGER is BETTER
2) Measure the INSIDE of the newly formed rectangle. To get the required amount of plastic you need to add approximately 10cm to the inside measurements of the cube. This allows for the plastic to form "walls" around the sides of the pen and will stop piggy claws from getting caught in the mesh.
3) Once you have acquired the right amount of plastic, measure 10cm from the outside edge in to the middle. Do this all the way round the plastic and mark out the line all the way round. What you should have now is a large rectangle of plastic with another rectangle drawn on the inside which is 10cm in from the edge. Make sure the lines you have made around the edge cross at the corners, making small squares. This is essential for making the flaps which will hold the base together.
4) Take the craft knife and the ruler and score along the lines which you have drawn. DO NOT CUT THE PLASTIC ALL THE WAY THROUGH. This is just meant to make the plastic more flexible.
5) Fold the flaps in to the middle of the plastic, making sure that each flap lines up with the bottom line of the small squares you have drawn. Fold the smaller flaps round the larger flaps and secure with sellotape.
6) Place the plastic tray in the centre of the cube rectangle.
Congratulations! You now have a Cavy Cage! I understand that these instructions might be a little hard to follow so, if you are still interested but cannot follow the ones above, have a look at this instead...
http://www.guineapigcages.com/cubes.htm
It is American so the suppliers' names are irrelevant. But it will explain in simpler terms how to build one. They are quite cheap if you get the cube shelving from Screwfix and the plastic from any local sign maker, (we paid £40 for the shelving including delivery and £10 for the plastic, which was approximatley 3m X 1.5m )
Happy Cavy Cage building!
