Hay Trays, Hoppers, And C&c Cage!

[Flamestriker]

Hello everyone!

I am in the middle of a deep clean of the C&C cage, whilst the piggies are running around in their pen for the weekend.

I fancy a change, and instead of using the green dog bed for a hay tray, I am going to go for hay hoppers.

The dog bed is currently in the pen, and it does a pretty good job of keeping the hay in one place, apart from piggies grabbing pieces and running away with them. The issue is, it is quite big and there is a lot of waste. Without it in the C&C cage, there is more space.

Here are pics, one showing the hay tray in the pen, and another showing hay hoppers.

Does anyone else use hay hoppers in their C&C cage? Are the grids too far from the base of the Correx for the piggies to get at the hay?

 

[Pawz]

I use hoppers but find I need to put down some extra fleece pee pads below them.

 

[Flamestriker]

I'm going to use puppy pads under the hoppers to gauge urine output as I change the puppy pads in the green hay tray every two days.

Now with a bit more room in the C&C cage I am going to look for new toys as enrichment is important...ones the piggies cannot poo and pee in!

 

[Kylie80]

I have hoppers but i dont use them as l can never figure out how to use them, feel like a complete loser admitting that but it's the truth lol. I just have a ferplast like cage though and it came with two (not helpful for you I know but I like to chat with you guys . I can see how they would take up less room though.

 

[Pawz]

I have hoppers but i dont use them as l can never figure out how to use them, feel like a complete loser admitting that but it's the truth lol. I just have a ferplast like cage though and it came with two (not helpful for you I know but I like to chat with you guys . I can see how they would take up less room though.

There are commonly 2 types of hopper, solid or mesh.

The solid ones like in @Flamestriker 's pictures go on the outside of the cage and the guinea pigs/rabbits pull the hay through the cage bars.
The solid design reduces the spill on the outside of the cage as the hay shifts about.

The mesh ones are the same shape but a grid design (think a c&c grid folded in half) and are typically hung on the inside of the cage for the animals to pull hay directly from. Mesh would also be far too messy to hang on the outside!

 

[flowerfairy]

The mesh ones can be a risk. Legs getting caught for example.

I use a grow bag tray for my hay. Its great. Like the hoppers they look really tidy.

 

[Louise's Zoo]

I have hoppers in my cages and will be using them when I switch to C&C. I