Flooring for floor time?

T

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Hi,
I'm new here, we don't have piggies yet but are planning to get a couple once we've finished completely re-doing our daughter's bedroom, as they'll live in there. We have space for a 5x2 C&C cage, planning to get one with a stand. But we want to make sure that the room itself is suitable for floor time. We'll make sure the furniture doesn't have any small gaps that they could squeeze behind and get stuck, and sockets/cables will either be inaccessible or we can make them inaccessible by blocking them off during floor time. But my main question concerns the flooring we put down in the room, since we're changing it anyway.

My daughter has a strong preference for carpet, but this seems a bit risky to me in terms of clean up afterwards? Would love to hear of others' experiences with room flooring and floor time! Currently considering the following options:

1) Carpet the room, buy a play pen for floor time and cover that area with waterproof material covered in fleece - downside is that this would cut down on the piggies' open space, would be tricky to pen off an area any larger than their cage, so not sure if ok long term, although we could potentially do this to start off and then move to 2...

2) Carpet the room and try to put waterproof material/fleece down in the spots where they're more likely to wee/poo, without using a pen - this would open up more space, they could use the compartments under the cage/stand etc, but is it inevitable that they'll wee on the exposed carpet anyway, however hard we try to guess where they'll go?! Any recommendations for the best sort of carpet to go for here? I'm thinking poos shouldn't be too hard to clean up but wees could start to smell after a while especially if undetected?

3) put some sort of hard flooring down, probably LVT, which can be cleaned more easily, but still use fleece/pee pads in some areas to make them more comfortable for the piggies - my daughter is less keen on this option but her main motive for having her room done is the piggies so she might settle for this... Would probably want a fluffy rug in this case, which could be removed or have a waterproof/fleece layer over it for floor time.

We're hoping to get our piggies from a shelter, ideally an adult bonded pair rather than babies. But we won't know to what extent they'll be litter trained and need to make a decision on the room flooring first...

Would really appreciate some advice, thanks in advance!
 
Hard flooring will allow you to spend more time having fun with your piggies and less time cleaning up. They wee more in some areas, but it can be a bit unpredictable 🚽 Truffle's bed stays quite dry, but Polo just wees in his bed and a couple of other areas. The same with poops 🫘
 
I had laminate floor already. My boys had floortime when they had their veggies so they weren’t free roaming, I just put down a large waterproof pet blanket which covered most of the floor area outside their cage (it was a small room). It was fleecy on one side with water resistant backing. They didn’t tend to venture off it but if they did I just wiped up the wee as it doesn’t soak in to hard flooring. Poops were easy to pick up too.
 
Welcome to the forum

First thing to note is that the piggies won’t be litter trained to any extent - they can’t be litter trained in the true meaning of it. They tend to pee where there is hay and pee while they are eating but it is not exclusive and they don’t always deliberately take themselves somewhere to toilet (they will do it in their sleep etc). They will definitely poop everywhere. Any exposed carpet is going to be at a risk if they are out for any length of time. For that reason a hard floor is going to be less maintenance.

However, if you/your daughter really would prefer the carpet and don’t want the risk, do note that while free roam floor time is nice, it is not essential. A large cage means they get plenty of exercise in there. (Mine live in my shed so can only get out of their cages during the summer months when they can go on the lawn. In the summer when it’s too hot in the shed or on the lawn they come indoors. I have spare grids cable tied so they concertina up for storage. I throw down a plastic sheet, put some newspaper and fleece down, unfold the grids and connect the two loose ends - quick and easy pen and it can be any size I need it to be).
A playpen is absolutely fine in giving them time out of their cage and it’s fine if it’s the same size as the cage, given it’s a large enough cage with it being a 5x2, a playpen of the same size is just fine. Perhaps use different hides or enrichment in the playpen than you use in the cage.
Enrichment and entertainment for piggies is just as much about mental stimulation as physical running space (adult piggies can be quite lazy in terms of movements anyway. All of mine used to do zoomies and popcorn everywhere as youngsters but now as adults, their run time consists of mooching about seeing what they can find to eat!)

It’s also worth noting that floor time can be scary for them - sometimes only initially and they will will learn to love it, others wont and will spend all floor time just hiding. Piggies don’t like large open spaces so if you are going to free roam floor time then they need loads of hides everywhere so they have places to go. It may mean they just hide during floor time and don’t actually move about.

A playpen has the benefits that toileting is contained in an easy to clean space.
A playpen also means that they can feel more secure and protected. You can cover the playpen with a sheet to help them feel even safer. (As recommended to do even in their main cage when they are new and just settling in).

I think what I’m really saying here is that free roam floor time is great if you can provide it and the piggies actually want it but it isn’t the be all and end all. A playpen can serve the same purpose and you don’t need to feel like it’s a disservice to them not to do free roam time.

New and Wannabe Guinea Pig Owners Corner
 
Thanks so much all of you, I hadn't expected such full replies so quickly! Tbh I think I'd prefer hard floor for convenience, but my daughter does seem quite set on carpet, so it's good to know that a playpen is a decent option, and I guess we could probably have a go without it if they seem to want to run around more, putting more mats down etc... Silly question, but how long do you reckon it takes to set up one of these playpens with all the extra floor coverings etc, and do they fold away fairly compactly? Did you just buy extra C&C type grids for this purpose? Thanks again!
 
I get mine set up within five minutes.

I just bought a pack of c&c grids from Amazon. Laid them in a line, as many grids as I needed, and then cable tied them together. The ends remain free. They then just concertina up for easy storage.

When I need the cage, I lay plastic sheeting on the floor, lay down newspaper and a fleece. I then unfold them, pop connectors on the two end grids to join it and it’s done!

It’s compact, yes. I have enough grids tied together to make a 6x3 pen so it would be more compact if I had less grids tied together but for me that isn’t an issue!
The plastic sheeting I bought off the roll from a garden centre. Fleece is just ones I have anyway. I always have newspaper on hand because I use it to line the cages in the shed.
 
That's good to know, thanks! Looks like I'm going to be asking my son to pick up copies of the metro for me on his commute to school... I can't remember the last time we had a newspaper in the house!
 
Welcome to the forum. My boys used to be free roaming until recently, I had hard flooring mostly coveredwitha big rug. I blocked off certain areas with spare grids and at first had loads of fleeces and pee pads down. Once it became obvious where the preferred potty places were, I put cat litter trays with pellet litter and hay there. I am extremely lucky that both of my original pair tended to go in one place rather than all over. When Tim Nice but Dim had to be replaced by Mischievous Master Boris, Dignified Sir George appeared to teach him to use the hay trays, open carrier or go back into the cage. There were occasionally accidents of course but as the boys got older they got less frequent. There has been no damage to the rug as clean up was done quickly. We also discovered that for most piggies there is an invisible force field in doorways and they won't go through when the door is open.
 
I'm not sure how helpful this is but I just wanted to say that I have carpet in my piggy room and it works for me. The carpet is actually very old (it was originally a spare room so never re-carpeted when I had the rest of the flat done) so I'm not all that worried about it being damaged. Obviously in a newly carpeted bedroom it would be more of an issue. During Covid I used the room as my 'office' when WFH and was planning to renew the carpet but then the piggies came in Sept 2020 and I left things as they were.

Over the last 4 years I've experimented with different ways of doing floor time. When i first had the piggies I had a minimum sized cage so I would let them out ever day. Since upgrading to a bigger C&C cage they only have floor time about 3 times a week. I've tried giving them the run of the whole room but I found it hard to fence off the bits they shouldn't go so I don't do that any more and actually I think they're quite happy with less space. I've got a play pen which only takes a minute or two to set up and what works best for me is to put plastic sheeting down and cover part of it with fleece. The plastic doesn't cover the entire area of the play pen but they seem to always wee on the plastic though they poop everywhere. I try to avoid using newspaper because they eat it!

When Toffee was younger he was a real escape artist and somehow managed to get out of the play pen on a regular basis - I was never quite sure how! but now he's older he's a lot calmer and like @Piggies&buns says above my two just wander about rather than zoom around and try to get out.
 
I second the majority of the points made

Our girls don’t necessarily NEED the floor time, but it’s a nice way to engage their “entertainment factor” if that’s a way to put it

I have a carpet in their room, but fold it back & just make sure any areas I don’t want them to go is sealed off

The floor is laminate so it’s easier to clean as they will poop randomly, but generally don’t pee everywhere, I found dropping a pee pad in a corner etc that has their scent they would usually drop a pee there and keep on trucking
 
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