Guinea Pigs In Another Room

[sarah298]

Hi all, I think Ive mentioned a few times we have 2 male guinea pigs and 2 female rabbits living indoors. The rabbits have access to the whole house except the kitchen and the guinea pigs have a run in the front room and have floor time when someone is home until we go to bed.

Long story short, because of the younger rabbits behaviour, we are now going to be converting our spare bedroom into a rabbit room and letting them have the run of the house when they can be supervised. The rabbits can use the stairs so that I'm not worried about them being 'shut upstairs' (i will be replacing the door with a gate etc so they can see me in the morning before work).

I'm debating putting the guinea pigs up there too, to make cleaning out easier. However I'm worried they will feel shut off from us as they have always lived in the front room? Also you could say they've done nothing wrong.

My question is, to those of you who have guinea pigs in rooms other than your living room/ your bedroom, how does it work for bonding and floor time?

I was thinking if I moved them all upstairs I would bring the guinea pigs downstairs when I'm home to have human company and interaction rather than just sitting upstairs with them for a couple hours a day etc.

 

[Guineapigfeet]

My girls live in the spare room (they are supposed to live in the pig-shed but it's not insulated enough yet.) They come into my dining room at weekends and free roam from Friday eve to Sunday eve.

To be honest I'm quite a hands off owner. I don't spend hours every day with them, partly because I don't have hours a day to spare! I go up to see them multiple times a day to spot clean and chat to them and I'll give Chewie and BB a stroke when I hand feed them. Rey I'll try to stroke maybe a couple of times a week but it still freaks her out a bit and if I do it too often she stops taking food from me!

Whilst they pretty comfortable running around our feet down stairs and flopping under the table, and squeezing when we go into the kitchen, I don't think they 'miss me' or anything like that when they're upstairs - they're quite happy with their own company but they certainly appreciate getting new hay / carrots / flower heads etc!

 

[sarah298]

Thanks for your reply . My partner lives away so it is just me most of the time and I generally don't pick them up as they aren't keen on it but I sit on the floor and feed them and speak to them etc like you. I just leave them to it and they generally only come up and speak to me when I have food or hay!

I like the idea of having free roam at the weekends, maybe that's something I could do. Do they have a cage or just huts and things downstairs or is it just hay, food, water etc?

They would get a bigger cage upstairs but I just worry about them being lonely

 

[Guineapigfeet]

When they're downstairs they have a 'pop-up' fabric play pen from zooplus where they get shut in at night and if we have to go out. Their water, hides and hay are all in there, though a surprising amount of hay doesn't stay in there! They also have their carry box with hay in so they can go in there too.
They love running under and behind the curtains and around all the table and chair legs. I'm very lucky that mine don't pee on the carpet - they always go back into the pen or carry box which is great. They have chewed the walls though!

 

[flowerfairy]

My guinea pigs are in the dining room. I love being able to visit them multiple times a day (I work from home) and chat to them. They arent keen on being picked up but love to be fed and to have floor time (a four x two c and c style run on the floor).

It sounds like a great idea having a guinea pig room with special human/floor time when it suits you. I would love to have my rabbits indoors!

 

[sarah298]

I get home between 2 and 3pm each day and would be happy to bring them downstairs in a travel box (I trained them with playtime/ bedtime before and they would get in the box!) each day if it would be better as they are used to interaction everyday else free roaming at weekend or when I have a day off the following day. But they would have a run upstairs which they would be in when I'm out and overnight.

My partner is happy for them to stay downstairs and just enclose the rabbits in the spare bedroom but I'm just not sure if it would be easier/ better for them to be upstairs