Cage Setup Question

[pigglewiggle]

Hi! I'm new to these forums and am currently looking forward to taking in two young pigs in a couple weeks once they come of age to be separated from their mother. A friend of mine got a wrongly sexed pig from the pet store and ended up with a pregnant pig. I've had several pigs in the past but I have never owned a C&c cage. I am going to buy a 2x4 off of guineapigcagestore soon, but I was wondering how I could set it up so that it makes it easier on cleanup? I am going to house them on fleece btw. Should I make a certain portion of their cage a "kitchen" area with care fresh bedding (to soak pee) and their hay and food and water? Or should I try to litter train them with a litter tray? With this method I would just place a hay rack over a litter box. I'm trying to get them to poo/pee in one general area, which I know they usually do anyways, since they poop where they eat. Which method have you found works best in order to keep things a bit more tidy? I would still spot clean every day, but what works best for you guys? Thanks

 

[SingstarPiggies]

Hi!
If I was you I would have two litter trays. Place one in the "kitchen area" and the other on the fleece at the other end of the cage (length wise). Put a hay rack above the on the fleece. See if that works. If it doesn't try moving the trays somewhere else that they seem to be pooping in. You may find because they are babies and excited that they will poo everywhere to begin with but after a few days to a week will choose a corner. A problem for me is that my piggies change corners every week so I never know where to but the litter tray.
Hope this helps! Emma x

 

[pigglewiggle]

That makes a lot of sense! I'll try that. I'm going to leave the litter tray out of the cage for the first week to see where their favorite potty spot is. Once I pinpoint that I'll put the trays in. do you have boars? I hear they're generally a lot messier than sows

 

[SingstarPiggies]

Yep I got 2 boars Chaz and Dave-lol. They poop mostly in one corner but kinda do it everywhere ;/ *facepalm* I don't think they are messier then sows. I had a sow before but she had bowel problems so she couldn't really control where she pooped it just 'happened'. So I don't know the answer to that question. You may find boars will be more messy peeing because sometimes they like to spray it everywhere as they are marking their areas. With boars they sometimes mount each other and if they get too excited can sometimes urrr leave some reproductive stuff behind on top of another boar or all over the bedding-and it smells. Though this is quite rare and has never happened to me lol...that was awkward explaining but I hope it helped Even though I went WAYYY of topic

 

[Brittany Unrein]

I have 4 boars and unfortunately have had no luck potty training them as I have two babies and two adults. I use fleece bedding in a C&C cage and I have the front part of each level lift up so I can easily clean each level daily. Other than that my boys poo everywhere lol. I tried potty training many different times but it never seems to work unfortunately.