Is my hutch too small?

[garfieldette]

Hi

I am looking from some advice please, especially from any members that run a rescue.

I have been lurking around the guinea pig rehome site and this forum for a couple of weeks becuase I am looking to offer a forever home for a pair of guinea pigs. I had made initial enquiries with a local rescue and was discussing my hutch set up on email and they have come back and said they will not rehome to me as my hutch is too small.

I bought the biggest commercially available hutch I could, then, wanting to provide more room, had a second complete floor custom built as all the commercially available two storey hutches had ramps even a rabbit would need ropes and pulleys to get up and down! The ramps are as shallow as you can get whilst still going up, built especially shallow for my elderly girl Faith (who passed away at Christmas at 5 1/2 years old and still happily going up and down the ramps no problem). To get the ramps shallow enough there is a ramp up to a half floor (referred to am home as the landing) where guinea pig can have a rest before taking the second ramp up to the top floor. Being a permanently indoor hutch I was able to replace the sides and top with perspex to allow maximum light in. The hutch measures 4ft by 18 inches x 2 storeys.

The rescue are unhappy as it is under 2ft wide but I thought that providing 2 storeys of 4ft length would make up for this. I can get adaptions made to it but cannot add 6inches of width without scrapping the whole set up and starting again.

My question is, will all rescues feel the same way? Have I been housing my prescious girls in an inappropriate set up? I feel horrible at the moment, like I have been abusing my pets. I have been a guinea pig slave for 9 years. The irony being that I am the one that berrates others for not providing big enough cages for their pets. When babysitting a friends gerbils recently I was so incensed by the cage she had them in I went out and bought a new more suitable one! I am the woman pet shops ban as I go around checking on them and telling them off for not providing the correct care.

Any feedback would be gratefully appreciated, please feel free to say if you think my set up is inappropriate, I genuinely want to know.



Beki

 

[lovelygirl]

take a look at

www.guineapigcages.com

I think you will find that most rescues require a minimum of 8 sq ft

 

[nutmeg]

Fot 2 guinea pigs we look for a 4' hutch. Ideally x 2' but as you say, most commercially available ones are only about 18" so are 'usually' acceptable. However, your upstairs more than makes up. I would be happy to rehome two piggies to live in your hutch. xx

 

[happysaz133]

It sounds a fine size for 2 piggies. I think some rescues are causing themselves problems by being too strict sometimes. I think you should maybe go through a private rescue, look for someone wanting to rehome their guinea pigs. Thousands of guinea pigs live in much smaller accomodation than you are offering, yours sounds great! The RSPCA recommends 4ft hutch for pigs.

 

[Furries]

I'm not sure how much space you have in your house, but would you be able to attach a run to the bottom section, which they could have 24/7 access to by leaving the hutch door open? This would increase the space, without having to buy a whole new set-up.

I find the more space you provide piggies, the more exercise and enrichment they get and the easier they are to keep, as you don't need to clean them out as often.