Future housing plans

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Alicia

Alicia

Adult Guinea Pig
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My hutches are all quite small and I am making plans to improve them in the future. My Mum doesn't want to sell hutches or throw them away because she likes to use what we already have. I have an old wooden playhouse in my garden that the guinea-pigs go in during the winter, I put their hutches in it and put woodshavings on the floor and just let them run around in there. I was thinking of maybe keeping my smaller one storey hutch (about 4ft long) and putting it in the shed, putting woodshavings all over the floor and using the hutch as a base, so they'd never be shut in this hutch, it would just be a sheltered place and I could put their hay in there to stop it being messy. I will post a photo of the inside of the playhouse tomorrow and work out measurements, but do you think this would be ok? I have 2 sows and 2 boars, the sows live together, the boars live seperatley. I am undecided on whether or not to get one of my boars neutered so he may join them in a couple of months but at the moment it looks unlikely as my Mum doesn't really want me to get him neutered, and my other boar, Roy, is too old and I don't want to stress him out by moving everything around yet, but this is a plan for the next couple of months.
One of my worries is that the woodshavings would need changing regularly and I think that all of the woodshavings that would be needed to fill the shed floor would take up a lot of room in the bin (though I think someone on this forum recommended some stick on tile things, I can't remember really sorry, but I will definetly look into them) and also they wouldn't have the run attatched like they do now, so would it be a problem for them to just be put out in the run when I get home? In the winter it would be dark and so they would probably only spend weekends in the run but the shed is quite big and if they could run round that all of the time would a seperate run really be needed? I know its nice for them to be able to have grass and things like that so they will go out when the weather is suitable if I am at home, I don't really want to put them in the run and then go off to school because I'd like to be able to keep an eye on them.
Also, in the Summer it gets quite hot in the playhouse, its a stable door so I open the top half but it still gets quite hot in there, how can I keep in cooler? There's no electricity in there so I couldn't put a fan or anything in there.

Here's a photo of the outside of the playhouse:
guineapigs012-1.jpg


I'll get a photo of the inside of the playhouse and I'll find out how big it is tomorrow
 
Sorry for the long post and bad photo, that was taken last year when it was used for storage, it's since been cleared out and is now empty, also the photos not very clear sorry about that :)
 
Ummm so you have two groups...one females, one males....and are you going to use two hutches as a base so they can access the floor?

Perhaps you could use chicken wire/ a piece of long wood to seperate the shed into two so both groups could have access to the floor?

I use the boys hutch as a base, and they have access to the shed floor all the time, day and night.

I dont use woodshavings on the floor, and I'd stongly suggest buying some B+Q value range self adhesive tiles, you can get them in pink, blue, black and white:
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9956797

^ you will need around 4-5 packs and I know this can seem expensive (around £20) to set up but you will save so much on woodshavings over the course of a year and time cleaning. The tiles don't soak up the pee, but are 'squishy' tiles so super soft for piggies feet and it takes me 10 mins to brush up the poops and scrub the pee off the tiles. :)

I then put all the boys toys on the floor and use the hutch as a food/hay/bed base.

For cooling and heating the shed, my OH cut two square holes in the top of our shed and covered it with mesh for the summer months (so air can circulate the shed), and for the winter we cover this up with insulation so it didnt blow a gale!

I also insulated the hutch in the winter with loft insulation so it was super warm in the hutch area, but they still had access to the floor. Perhaps you could replace the top window on the playhouse with chicken wire for the summer and just cover it up in the winter?

Good luck! :)
 
Thank you :) I am going to get some of the tiles I think, it seems a lot easier than woodshavings. At the moment I have 2 sows that live together, and I also have 2 boars that live seperatley because they fight. I think for now at least I'm going to keep the boys outside because they can have an attatched 6ft run each so they can have more space, but in the winter I will probably move them somewhere else. I would split the shed but it wouldn't leave very much space, and I tried to divide it last winter but Barry broke through it and had a fight with Roy whilst I was at school and it scared me so I took the divider out and they just took it in turns to go out. I was going to keep the shed just for the two girls, and then keep the boys seperatley somewhere else, I was thinking of putting the boys hutches in the garage during the winter and outside in the summer, but keeping the girls in the shed all year round, I'd really like to have a large group of girls, and I was thinking as the shed is bigger than a hutch, I might be able to have 4 girls in there maybe. I really like seeing groups of animals together so I might do that in the future.
 
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I've just been out to measure the shed and its 8ft x 6ft, do you think that would be big enough for a few more sows? I'll take some photos of the inside of the shed
 
Sorry for more rubbish photos but I hope it shows the size of the shed. At the moment it is used for storing the guinea-pigs and rabbits things but that will all be moved.

002.jpg


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Wow - looks like a massive space! I'd think four or more sows would be very happy in there. My hutches (custom made to my weird dimensions) are about half the size of your shed and I have 2 in one (hoping to add a 3rd rather grumpy lady) and 4 in the other and they're all very content. My boys live seperate in a smaller hutch away from the girls too and it's a good setup.

Like others have said with the shed my advice would be perhaps lino the floor for easier cleaning and mesh over any windows and if you could fashion perhaps another mesh door to cover the top half of the stable door so you can open it and leave it open without any cats etc being able to get in.
 
I'm looking at getting an 8x6 for my herd! It'll give me space to be able to build some hutches into it and keep my herd and have space for more should I fall in love with any. I went to look at an 8x6 before and they're huge!

8x6 will house 4 and then some! I'm looking at having at least 8 in mine (maybe more depending on how pig crazy I go and how pig crazy my mum and dad will let me go!). And I can build hutches up too, big 6ft hutches if I end up with separate pairs. I'm literally going to go nuts... :D

You need about 15 sq foot for 4 guinea pigs. 6x6 (if that's how you do the home with space for storage like I want to do) will house about 8, maybe more depending on how you set it up! Obviously they all need to get on, but it'll house at least 8 on the floor, more if you were to build hutches into it and use a separate outdoor run for those! That's a lot of piggie space!
 
It looks great and really big.

With my shed, I took out the perspex windows and put mesh over them, but in the winter and at night put the perspex back in, so if you could find someway of doing that it'd be cool. Or at least just taking out the windows for the summer, to keep it cool.

Would they be safe with the stable door open, or would there be any chance of cats getting in? Or even foxes or dogs would be a possibility, even during the day sometimes foxes can be around.

It seems like a great idea though. I think in the winter, you'd probably put the boys back in the shed in their hutches would you? Just to keep them sheltered. I think even with their hutches in there, there'd be loads of floor space for your girls (and even more girls if you wanted). Or you could think of making shelves to put your boys' hutches on if the shed is strong enough.

Even if the boys' hutches are about 4'X2', they'd take up 8'X2' space and there'd still be 8'X4' space which is plenty for your girls :)
 
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