Advice needed on indoor housing!

[alexisburgess1]

Hi everyone, I'm new to pig-keeping and adopted my first boar, Dandelion, a week ago. He came with his brother, but they kept fighting so I had to re-home the other boar unfortunately. I will have my remaining boar neutered in the spring when he is big enough, then get him a girlfriend. In the meantime, I want to give him the best home possible, along with all the love and attention he's receiving!

Like lots of people starting out, I took the advice of the staff at Pets @ Home, then quickly realised the housing I purchased wasn't necessarily the best for my piggy...I wished I'd have researched this site previously!

I have a single level indoor cage with plastic bottom (can't remember the name but it cost £70), and I also bought a wooden triangular shaped outdoor run, with lots of tunnels, pigloos and playthings to go inside. Unfortunately my piggy hasn't enjoyed being in the run outdoors or indoors (he seeks a corner and stays there for hours), so I'm worried he isn't getting enough excercise time before I put him to bed again.

I have spent over £200 in equipment so far, and things are going to be a bit tight now until after xmas (I also have two small children aged 4 and 1.5), so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to adapt what I've already bought, so that Dandelion can have some more space, and access to an excercise area whenever he wants it?

He is currently living in our spare room where space is tight, although I intend to move him downstairs into the playroom soon, as he will be on his own for a couple of months and I don't want him to be lonely...

I also have a large old dog crate which I used to toilet train our dog (before he passed away) which has a cage surrounding it (although the holes will be too large), and a plastic bottom. I'm thinking of somehow linking Dandelion's cage with this crate to create an access-all-times excercise area.

Sorry for the longwinded post! All ideas welcome!:{

 

[Stacey]

He just needs to settle and he will soon come out his shell once he's comfortable
Keep talking and cuddling him, offering veg etc etc and you will start to notice a difference. A week isnt long atall so dont worry about him just sitting about. One of mine who ive had for a year is still really timid and takes him a wee while to come out his shell.

Yea pets at home cage are rubbish but i was the same when i first got mine. Do you know what size your cage is? Is the brand name Ferplast? I'm guessing for £70 the size will be the smallest size? Is it this one?
http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=393&pf_id=53507
If your piggie is under 6months, that cage will be fine for the time being. If its the size above that one, that will be fine for him but when you get him a cage mate it will need to be bigger.

With the dog crate, lots of people use them as cages. People have put platforms and ramps and second levels in their crates but to be honest if the holes are too big i would avoid using it. They could either escape all the time or get stuck.

There is loads of sites that sell good cages for good prices.

Tbh i wouldnt stress about the cage just now. Mine are in cages that are from pets at home and mine are slowly outgrowing them and we need to wait til after christmas to get them bigger cages. As long as he's happy and healthy he will be fine and you have the pen you could put him in all night for more space.

You could always use his pen as his cage for the time being til you can afford to get a bigger one or could you maybe attach the pen to his cage?

What pen is it you have?

 

[alexisburgess1]

Hiya and thanks for your reply! I'm very keen to do the right thing by this piggy, and panicked a bit when I found all these forums on the C&C cages - especially after I'd spent so much on the initial set up equipment, thinking it would be the best money could buy! mallethead

The wooden run I have is the £45 one shaped like a long pyramid, you can only access it from 1 small door so I have to tip it on its end to get the piggy out - which must be very scary for him!

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/guinea-pig-run-by-pets-at-home-16046

The cage I have is a Nero 3 Deluxe Small Animal Cage, which I've seen quite a bit cheaper elsewhere already...

http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=456&pf_id=57448

I'm interested to hear people have converted dog crates into cages - I thought after posting, that it's big enough to build a mezzanine floor inside it and use as a sleeping area, with the excercise area underneath.

One of my main problems is that I can't offer the piggy 'floor time' as the kids are too young to have him running around the place...do you know what set up people use if they have a similar problem? Is it good enough to have a large exercise area permanently attached to their living quarters?

So many questions...

 

[lissie]

Can you attach his cage to a C&C? Kinda like this:



And make a lid so your kids don't reach into the cage.



Edit to add: If you use the cage door for a ramp, make sure to put something down so that his legs can't get caught on the wires.

 

[twiams]

Can you attach his cage to a C&C? Kinda like this:



I love this picture ! xx>>> x) i wanna do something like this with my piggies old cage don't want it to go to waste after the fortune i spent on it!
is this your picture ?
My piggie are getting that rainbow bridge thing for Christmas !
How do you stop them from getting out between the c&c and normal cage ?

 

[Murmur]

Hello!

Not sure whether this will be any help, but our piggies can't run around the living room either (because of our other pets). BUT, our bathroom is big enough that we can use that for 'floor time', so that's what we do in the cold weather, when they can't go outside anymore. You can put some toys on the floor, securely shut the door if you need to, and it's easy to clean up mess off the lino afterwards!

J

 

[alexisburgess1]

Great ideas, thank you! That's exactly the kind of reference photo I needed, to show me how I can use my existing cage with another set-up alongside for space. I think something like this will suffice, before I get a 2nd piggy and attempt my own C&C cage next year.

I actually tried them in the bathroom the other day, again, they found a piece of newspaper and huddled up underneath it the whole time (I could tell because all the food was left, and all their toilet was in 1 place).

Maybe Dandy is scared of large spaces at the moment, not sure what his history was, or what he was used to...

I'm sure with a nice fleece covered play area, he'll come out of his shell and start exploring - guess it's all a matter of trial and error!

 

[lissie]

is this your picture ?

It's not my picture. I found it in the gallery on guineapigcages.com

How do you stop them from getting out between the c&c and normal cage ?

The idea is to allow them to have larger cage so they should have access to both cages. The old store cage is just a feeding area.

Have you seen this site?
http://www.guineapigcages.com/
Scroll down to the bottom of the page where it lists benefits of larger cages.

 

[Murmur]

Maybe Dandy is scared of large spaces at the moment, not sure what his history was, or what he was used to...

I'm sure with a nice fleece covered play area, he'll come out of his shell and start exploring - guess it's all a matter of trial and error!

I think it can take them a while to get used to a open play area. My boys are 3 years old, and even now they all react differently to the bathroom floor. One will find a spot he likes and stay there, one will do laps (so funny to watch!) and the third one will throw himself into a hay-filled washing bowl, popping his head out now and again to squeak at me as if to say 'Look! Hay! How awesome is this?!'

 

[alexisburgess1]

he he, so funny, can't wait to see my little man's antics. I'm sure he'll be much happier with a playmate, and I'll get to see his natural, cute behaviour ^)

 

[twiams]

It's not my picture. I found it in the gallery on guineapigcages.com



The idea is to allow them to have larger cage so they should have access to both cages. The old store cage is just a feeding area.

Have you seen this site?
http://www.guineapigcages.com/
Scroll down to the bottom of the page where it lists benefits of larger cages.

I'm saving up for a C&C cage as i know my cage is a bit too small, but atm there still quite young so it's okay for now, but i am planning to upgrade, just wanted to know if you used cable ties to connect the C&C cage to the other cage, thats all

 

[kotov]

We adopted our first boar exactly in cage http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=456&pf_id=57448.
Cage was so small so he not moving much and became so fat so when we adopted him and put to walk on floor he cant walk more than 1m.
He walk 1m and them lay in floor and rest.When we walk him with sows he cant run with them.For 1.5 years he live with us he constantly have health problem and died.As we been told from cancer.
In battersea park zoo 2 GP live in 3x6m2 cage.From my observation cages like

http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=393&pf_id=53507 only temporal solution or as part of big structure.

Problem that big cage much more difficult to clean.
The cheapest solution is if you can diy.
For 1 GP 2 ferplast 100 cages should be ok.I use 110mm pipe to connect them.2 GPs can live here as well but they need to have own water or bowls depends on their characters.Our sows have each bowl and they sometimes arguing anyway.

Also a lot of discussion here regarding neutering and sometimes GP can die.