Improvising a cage and making the base warmer

[Jen_blue]

hello,

I hope someone here can advise. I am improvising a cage at the moment until I can afford to buy grids to make a CC cage. So for the time being I am housing them in what would normally be a run - they have had it a week now and are MUCH happier and so am I as I have been so worried - they didnt "sing" for days. It is 57" square and I have a divider of wire cooling trays down the middle.

However, there is no base in the cage so I bought a nylon base sheet thingy on which I have placed newspapers and then 2 towels - its not ideal but I only had one fleece thing which I washed today as it was covered. I couldnt not wash it any longer and I couldnt get to town today, hopefully I will be able to tommorrow to get some more (well hopefully anyway as I am snowed in). For the past 2 days they have had fleece on newspaper which has been damp as you can imagine. I was also thinking this afternoon that the laminate gets very cold on my feet so I am concerned that they will be cold too. I cant afford to heat the house all the time so between 8.30 am until around 4.30 the heating is off which means it gets very chilly in the house.

Plus it took me an hour to tidy and clean the cage out this evening - hence why I am here so late. I am unsure whether I should be putting hay into there hidyholes to help them to keep warm - I have only been giving them eating hay in the racks with very little for them to lie on as they love to snuggle and eat at the same time.

Thanks for any advice - I really want them to be comfortable.

 

[pigpig479]

hello,

I hope someone here can advise. I am improvising a cage at the moment until I can afford to buy grids to make a CC cage. So for the time being I am housing them in what would normally be a run - they have had it a week now and are MUCH happier and so am I as I have been so worried - they didnt "sing" for days. It is 57" square and I have a divider of wire cooling trays down the middle.

However, there is no base in the cage so I bought a nylon base sheet thingy on which I have placed newspapers and then 2 towels - its not ideal but I only had one fleece thing which I washed today as it was covered. I couldnt not wash it any longer and I couldnt get to town today, hopefully I will be able to tommorrow to get some more (well hopefully anyway as I am snowed in). For the past 2 days they have had fleece on newspaper which has been damp as you can imagine. I was also thinking this afternoon that the laminate gets very cold on my feet so I am concerned that they will be cold too. I cant afford to heat the house all the time so between 8.30 am until around 4.30 the heating is off which means it gets very chilly in the house.

Plus it took me an hour to tidy and clean the cage out this evening - hence why I am here so late. I am unsure whether I should be putting hay into there hidyholes to help them to keep warm - I have only been giving them eating hay in the racks with very little for them to lie on as they love to snuggle and eat at the same time.

Thanks for any advice - I really want them to be comfortable.

Maybe, an electric heater(make sure the heater bit is cover and not exposed) And leave that on, but if your going to take that, then be extremly carefull(i probably don't need to tell you this but still!).

Maybe leave lots of hidy holes, tubes, pigloos, and lots of warm coating!

 

[elle100]

I would put as much hay down as you can, or part fill some of their favourite hideys as they can burrow in under the hay to help keep them warm. You could try putting some old towels down under the fleece and newspaper, or even an old sheet, anything to insulate it further.

 

[happycath]

Newspaper is a great insulator so a thick layer of that on the base is a good starting point. Followed by towels and fleece, as you said.
I have found that my boys enjoy getting snuggled into a fleecey tent to keep warm at the moment, do you have any small odds and ends of fleece or towels that you could use? They just need pegging in a couple of places with a flap to keep the warmth in!
Heres a couple of pics of what I mean...

This one is more of a play tent for their floor time, but I thought the 'pegged-to-a-string' construction might help if you don't have grids!

I hope that helps.
Good luck, I hope you aren't snowed in too much longer
x

 

[pigpig479]

Newspaper is a great insulator so a thick layer of that on the base is a good starting point. Followed by towels and fleece, as you said.
I have found that my boys enjoy getting snuggled into a fleecey tent to keep warm at the moment, do you have any small odds and ends of fleece or towels that you could use? They just need pegging in a couple of places with a flap to keep the warmth in!
Heres a couple of pics of what I mean...

This one is more of a play tent for their floor time, but I thought the 'pegged-to-a-string' construction might help if you don't have grids!

I hope that helps.
Good luck, I hope you aren't snowed in too much longer
x

Noce idea!

 

[Little Piggles]

My girls are currently living in what would normally be their outdoor pen too and it sounds like we've got very similar set ups.

My girls are living on towels, puppy pads then fleece which sits directly on our laminate flooring. The base fabric together is about an inch thick and is actually quite toasty

Our girls have a fleece 'tent' just like happycath has suggested which they can snuggle under. I use a folded fleece which is fastened to the bars with bulldog clips. Underneath the 'tent' they have vetbed to snuggle in and keep cosy.

Another thing you may want to try is a cardboard box stuffed full of hay. It can be a bit messy but my three love it! Dinner and a bed in one, yoou can't beat that! The box I had had a hole at each end (as we'd only just introduced the three of them and I didn't want Pixel getting cornered anywhere) and I put a piece of kitchen roll underneath to catch some of the stray hay.

 

[Jen_blue]

My girls are currently living in what would normally be their outdoor pen too and it sounds like we've got very similar set ups.

My girls are living on towels, puppy pads then fleece which sits directly on our laminate flooring. The base fabric together is about an inch thick and is actually quite toasty

Our girls have a fleece 'tent' just like happycath has suggested which they can snuggle under. I use a folded fleece which is fastened to the bars with bulldog clips. Underneath the 'tent' they have vetbed to snuggle in and keep cosy.

Another thing you may want to try is a cardboard box stuffed full of hay. It can be a bit messy but my three love it! Dinner and a bed in one, yoou can't beat that! The box I had had a hole at each end (as we'd only just introduced the three of them and I didn't want Pixel getting cornered anywhere) and I put a piece of kitchen roll underneath to catch some of the stray hay.

You are right, we have exactly the same outdoor run, mine was £23.99 from my local pet shop. Its only until I can get together some money to buy a CC cage but its far far better than the 4 ft cage they had previously.

Its a pity my two cant manage to get along as then they could snuggle up together plus things would take up less room so I could get them a dog bed to sit in. I have bought a load of fleece together today and I will start designing and building tommorrow.

The GP in the second picture looks a lot like one of mine - Augustus

I will try and put some pics into another message as the ones I have already on photobucket are really old now.

Jen

 

[Jen_blue]

Newspaper is a great insulator so a thick layer of that on the base is a good starting point. Followed by towels and fleece, as you said.
I have found that my boys enjoy getting snuggled into a fleecey tent to keep warm at the moment, do you have any small odds and ends of fleece or towels that you could use? They just need pegging in a couple of places with a flap to keep the warmth in!
Heres a couple of pics of what I mean...

This one is more of a play tent for their floor time, but I thought the 'pegged-to-a-string' construction might help if you don't have grids!

I hope that helps.
Good luck, I hope you aren't snowed in too much longer
x

Thanks for this - excellent idea!

 

[Jen_blue]

Maybe, an electric heater(make sure the heater bit is cover and not exposed) And leave that on, but if your going to take that, then be extremly carefull(i probably don't need to tell you this but still!).

Maybe leave lots of hidy holes, tubes, pigloos, and lots of warm coating!

I don't think I could do the heater idea - I would be worried sick that they had got too warm (with the door closed etc it would get very dry) or something could wrong on the heater and the room/house would set on fire.

I am working on the hideyholes, I managed to procure a finished with a large finished with ice cream tub and a cardboard box which I am going to see what I can do with.

Jen

 

[Lisajazz]

Hey Jen - great to have you on board!

Your set up is fine for now. As for warmth you can fill the hidey with soft bedding hay. I have one guinea bedded on that. You can also give them fleece beds that they snuggle down into. I also have a couple of igloos with nothing in - they pick whatever they prefer.

I would also be a bit iffy about the electric heater.

When are you hoping to get a C&C. If you have a costco by you you can join for £20 and get the grids for about £9 a pack. 2 of them and you have a huge cage.

I'd love to see some photos of your pigs!

 

[happycath]

Love your big tent Little Piggies!
My boys have usually preferred to be alone when sleeping, but strangely, having reintroduced the fleecey tents after not using them for a while they are suddenly sleeping together! Its lovely to see I thought something must be wrong the first time I got up and realised they were fast asleep under the same tent!
I'm sure your set up will be fine for the time being with plenty of insulation between the floor and the piggies
x

 

[Little Piggles]

Thanks I thought they may like it as Pippa loves to dig her way under anything she can get under rolleyes

p.s. the piggie in the second pic, like Augustus, is Willow

Good luck getting sorted Jen_blue, I'm sure your pigs will be just fine in the pen

 

[Jen_blue]

Thanks everyone for the brillant advice, I spent all yesterday having a Sew day and these are what I created for each of the piggies.

These are also some pics of my babies

Jen

 

[flintstones]

Love this picture, I hope you don't mind me posting it here

 

[Ange17]

Love your snuggley beds and cute piggies

I have my 7 piggies in an insulated garage with thermostat heaters. They have off floor bedrooms over their C&C runs, I have covered the outside of the top row of 'bedrooms' with bubble wrap. They also have a full C&C cube of hay for each group.

As your are worried about the coldness of the laminate flooring bubble wrap would insulate under the whole run, under the plastic sheet at the bottom.

I have been a bit worried about mine as they are not indoors as such but have been checking regulary and they have been out in their runs playing and not exactly huddled together for warmth. If I brought them in they would have to been in much smaller cages so as they seem happy where they are they are still out.

Hope this helps