Cage upgrade!

Packit

Packit

Junior Guinea Pig
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Glens falls new york
I want to add things to both sides of their cage, and I don't know what to add. Any recommendations?
 

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This is our enrichment thread which may help with ideas on how to keep them occupied
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

Things like cardboard boxes with holes cut in, stuffed with hay. Tunnels, carrot cottages, hay cubes are all lovely enrichment for them.

A couple of points of note
Their cages are not large and depending on actual grid measurement (and therefore the overall measurement) probably don’t meet size requirements - looks to be a 2 x 2.5.
Would there be anyway you can make the cages bit bigger? A minimum of a 3x2 c&c (or a cage covering 8 square feet) is recommended for single piggies.

The grids are 7 hole grids which are considered unsafe. 9 hole grids are the safe size to use.
Which C&c Grids Are Piggy Safe?

I would also recommend you check the amount of pellets you are feeding. Just one tablespoon per pig per day is the recommended amount.
 
I wouldn’t add anything until you had more space for them - maybe a tunnel so that it doesn’t break the ‘zoomie space’ that they have. Do you have any more room where you could add more pannels?

I started out with grids with a large hole, but one day I was lifting out a piggy, who ran away and nearly got her head caught in one of the grid holes. The. I saw first hand the danger of the larger grid.

For me - if I was thinking of spending any money - I’d spend it on a larger area if possible, made with safer grids and then enrich with loads of hay and free things, like paper bags filled with hay, or safe cardboard boxes with holes.

Have fun!
 
Unfortunately with the cage size, I cannot make it aby bigger. I am very limited of space in my room currently, so this is the best I could do. They both used to be in one of those pet store cages that are way to small for just 1 of them, so this is still a huge upgrade for them.

With the CnC cage sidings, they are temporarily there until I can purchase new ones. I'm still very new to this, as I wasn't expecting on owning piggies, they were a gift.

Thanks for the tip on the pellets, I had no clue. I will cut back on the pellets.
 
In that case and if there is no way you can reconfigure the furniture in your room to give the piggies the space they need, then as above, make sure you don’t add anything which is going to block their movement around the cage.

One really good source of entertainment is to not use food bowls at all. Piggies spend a lot of time eating and using a bowl completely removes their need to forage and makes feeding time a bit boring and mindless. Instead, scatter and hide their veg and pellet portion in amongst the hay, inside tubes etc so they have to forage for it and use their natural abilities.

I would certainly get new grids as a priority for safety reasons.

This is our feeding guide which will help you
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
Piggies&buns said:
In that case and if there is no way you can reconfigure the furniture in your room to give the piggies the space they need, then as above, make sure you don’t add anything which is going to block their movement around the cage.

One really good source of entertainment is to not use food bowls at all. Piggies spend a lot of time eating and using a bowl completely removes their need to forage and makes feeding time a bit boring and mindless. Instead, scatter and hide their veg and pellet portion in amongst the hay, inside tubes etc so they have to forage for it and use their natural abilities.

I would certainly get new grids as a priority for safety reasons.

This is our feeding guide which will help you
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Click to expand...
If so, I'll remove the bowls and have them forage, and make them toys.

I'm looking at new grids right now.
 
I understand you struggling to give them more space, but are you able to let them have floor time either supervised free roaming in a room or in a playpen?
 
As we mentioned, you don’t want to block free movement around the cage given it isn’t big enough, so I would cut another hole in the side of that cardboard box so that piggy can walk through it more like a tunnel.

Please dont give them that much carrot. If you are going to give carrot, it should only ever be one very small piece and they should not have if more than once a week. A whole carrot is far too much. Carrots should be considered a very occasional treat. They contain a lot of sugar so are very unhealthy for them.
 
Piggies&buns said:
As we mentioned, you don’t want to block free movement around the cage given it isn’t big enough, so I would cut another hole in the side of that cardboard box so that piggy can walk through it more like a tunnel.

Please dont give them that much carrot. If you are going to give carrot, it should only ever be one very small piece and they should not have if more than once a week. A whole carrot is far too much. Carrots should be considered a very occasional treat. They contain a lot of sugar so are very unhealthy for them.
Click to expand...
I had no clue, thank you for all the advice
 
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