Keeping Piggies In My Small Flat?

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harveythecavy

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Hi everyone,

Prospective guinea pig owner here. I've convinced my husband that it would be a good idea to get a couple of guinea pigs seeing as we both work from home and have been wanting to get a pet for ages. I've been doing lots of reading, made a budget, etc but I'd like opinions from experienced piggy owners about our potential set-up.

We live in a small flat with no garden but have space in our living room for a 2x3 C&C cage. I know this is on the small side for two guinea pigs but we also have a very long and thin hallway which they can run around (roughly 20 sq feet). The hallway has oiled wooden floors with painted wooden skirting boards and no wires to chew. We'd like to put rugs down over the wooden flooring but nothing's decided in that area yet.

Does this seem like a good set up? We watch a lot of loud TV in the evening so I'm a bit worried we'll disturb them but there's nowhere else in the flat we could put a cage. On the plus side, we don't actually have a TV but use a projector and they'd be behind the screen so wouldn't be faced with bright lights.

Thanks for your help/advice!
 
Hello there. Welcome to the forum. I live in a tiny studio flat and got rid of furniture to allow my cage which is 8 by 3. 2 by 3 is too small as 2 by 4 is the bare minimum for two guinea pigs. Guinea pigs would adapt to the TV so that would not be a problem. I have no garden either and found Bobtails rescue were fine with that when I adopted my neutered boar.
 
I thought 3x2 was the absolute bare minimum but 4x2 was recommended.
 
2x4 is the minimum for two piggies, could you possibly move a couch or something to make room? Your hallway would make a wonderful floor time area for your guinea pigs. They will most likely adapt to the TV easily, as long as it isn't blaring!
Feel free to properly introduce yourself in the "Introduce Yourself" forum.
 
Davey-cavy said:
I thought 3x2 was the absolute bare minimum but 4x2 was recommended.
Click to expand...

I'd heard that too . However, I wouldn't want to keep 2 guinea pigs in a 3 x2 . I suppose the advantage of a C&C is at least you have the option to expand.
 
A 3x2 C&C cage is actually pretty much the same ground space as a 2x4 ft tradional cage (just a touch larger in fact) and just at the minimum of the RSPCA recommendation. Would it be possible to construct a double storey C&C cage if you are pushed for space?

My piggies live in the living room and are pretty much ignoring the tv.

I would also recommend to either look at a pair of sows or a neutered boar/sow couple if you can't afford more ground space rather than two boars. To avoid the risk of ending up with an unplanned pregnancy or unexpected health issues, I would strongly recommend to use one of our recommended rescues, most will rehome to an indoors home. Where are you located?

We have got a recommended good standard piggy savvy rescue locator on the top bar. You can add your location by clicking on your username on the top bar, then go to personal details and scroll down to location, so we can give you local recomemndation where possible straight away; this all the more as conditions vary enormously for our members from all over the world!
 
Hi all,

Thanks so much for your responses!

PiggieOwner, I am definitely sold on the C&C cages (both for practical and aesthetic reasons) - I've been browsing that thread (which is fab by the way) but thanks anyway for linking to it. Wiebke, I could add a loft to a 2x3 C&C cage, or possibly make room for a 2x4. Do you think a 2x3 C&C with a 1x2 loft plus the hallway would be sufficient for two sows or a neutered boar/sow couple? I'll have to have a think about whether we have space for a 2x4 cage because our living room layout is a bit weird. My building used to be a Victorian factory. Unfortunately, our other rooms are way too small for any size cage.

So, just to clarify - would the piggies be happy to have a run around on the wooden/carpeted floors? Or would I have to lay something down first? Sorry if that's a silly question. Thanks a lot again for your help - I'm so glad to have found this forum!
 
I would go with the 2 by 4 as floor space is what counts with guinea pigs. Piggies tend to not like wooden floors as they are slippery but you could put newspaper down.
 
My 5 piggies are quite happy running round on my kitchen floor which is slippery. I always make sure here's somewhere comfy if they want to settle down.
 
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