Member Gallery: C&C cages/homemade cages

[Wiebke]

This is my 2 and a half storey enclosure with 6 square meters that I built out of an old wardrobe and some things that I had laying around, I only really bout the plexiglas and some screws from the diy store.

It has only been in use since Friday with my newly adopted trio of Knäckebrot, Pfannkuchen (nee Tickle) and Reiswaffel (nee Plexi).

I have already swapped the straw bedding out for soft wood shavings as it turns out I was highly allergic to it and am making plans to improve the enclosure already as I cleaned it today and found that I had to take loads of it apart with my drill.

The windows will be going into a hinged drop down frame, as at the moment I have to unscrew each individually, the ramps will be hinged so that I can tilt them up to clean underneath and the bottom fence will be hinged at all corners so that I can remove it in one piece. At the moment it is all screwed together and it was a nightmare to clean under.

There is some ambient lighting installed in the form of led Strips which is controlled via my smart home system which adjusts the daytime light levels according to the weather outside.

I will also be installing an infrared heating panel on the ceiling above the enclosure for the winter. Even with them being in my living room, we live in an old poorly insulated house and it is not uncommon for the temperatures to drop to - 25°C in winter.

The room is also air conditioned to maintain a comfortable 18°C during the day, again controlled via the smart home system.

It's painted in a non toxic water based paint (which was ridiculously expensive) but it's totally safe for them and has no offgassing to worry about.

All 3 happily use all of the ramps and the enrichment gets swapped out daily. At the moment there is a toilet roll tube filled with Pea Flakes.

It looks wonderful.

Please make sure that there is plenty of hay and water on the two lower levels; including a place where your piggies can sleep and burrow in soft hay. Hay and fresh dog-pee free grass make over three quarters of the daily food intake so it is good to have it in more than one place with any group.
My current group of six mostly older sows (and their young neutered 'husboar') has got hay in three trays in different corners of their cage. Being able to sleep and burrow in hay is a major and important enrichment.
I am just making sure here and adding this advice for anybody who would like to plan something similar.

 

[Meerschweinchen_Blackforest]

It looks wonderful.

Please make sure that there is plenty of hay and water on the two lower levels; including a place where your piggies can sleep and burrow in soft hay. Hay and fresh dog-pee free grass make over three quarters of the daily food intake so it is good to have it in more than one place with any group.
My current group of six mostly older sows (and their young neutered 'husboar') has got hay in three trays in different corners of their cage. Being able to sleep and burrow in hay is a major and important enrichment.
I am just making sure here and adding this advice for anybody who would like to plan something similar.

Thanks for the advice. There are bottles and bowls of water out of sight in the photos and I've just added another "Heu-Haufen" (hay heap). There's about a kilo of hay in there at the moment.

 

[cinnamonsmom]

This is my new cage upgrade!
It’s a c&c cage, with 14x14 grids and coroplast.

The main floor is 6 x 2.5 grids. It features LED lighting for the darker corner since I lack bright windows, several washable houses, and a 1x2 grid eating tray with a fabric hay rack and carefresh bedding.

There are two upper floors. One is 2x3 grids and the other is 1x2 grids. They are linked with a “piggy walkway” which is 0.5 x4 grids. The larger upper floor has another eating area as well as some more hidey houses.

I made my own fleece bedding, just sewed custom sized pieces of fleece together with U-Haul pads (cheap washable blankets made of recycled denim) in between. Cleaning is so much easier - every 2-3 days I roll up the fleece, shake it out off my back porch, and wash.

 

[Meerschweinchen_Blackforest]

This is my new cage upgrade!
It’s a c&c cage, with 14x14 grids and coroplast.

The main floor is 6 x 2.5 grids. It features LED lighting for the darker corner since I lack bright windows, several washable houses, and a 1x2 grid eating tray with a fabric hay rack and carefresh bedding.

There are two upper floors. One is 2x3 grids and the other is 1x2 grids. They are linked with a “piggy walkway” which is 0.5 x4 grids. The larger upper floor has another eating area as well as some more hidey houses.

I made my own fleece bedding, just sewed custom sized pieces of fleece together with U-Haul pads (cheap washable blankets made of recycled denim) in between. Cleaning is so much easier - every 2-3 days I roll up the fleece, shake it out off my back porch, and wash.

That looks amazing, there's so much room for activities

 

[Emmyyy]

Hello! This is the cage we built, it’s an 8x2 with 2 boys living in it so it’s huge for them but it gives them space for if they fight or what not and they will be living in this now for the rest of their lives, we have no plans in changing it. (if you have the space for a big cage I would definitely recommend, we only have to spot clean areas because it’s so large so cleaning is very easy)

The c&c cage is from Kavee which are 2 4x2 cages with lofts that we put together, we built a stand out of wood and some old ikea storage units.

We have a hay bag from kozy creations that takes up a 2x2 area on one side (would definitely recommend it helps keep majority of the poos and wees in that area) and a loft in the other side.

(It doesn’t usually look this clean but we just got back from a holiday and the place the pigs are stopping at isn’t open today so we are collecting them tomorrow so the pigs are yet to cause havoc, I also went for a blue theme because I thought it would be fun but the mats are a random selection from different places so it’s usually more cluttered looking).

 

[ManxLisa]

This is Rosie and Nuts, a recently bonded pair. They both lost their friends in recent weeks.
They live in a 4x3 Kavee c&c.
Their hay pile is sectioned off in 2x1 in a hay keeper. They love to just dive in and get lost in it!

 

[piggylover2010]

Hi everyone
This is my shed that i converted for my herd of 9 piggies!
there are currently 2 5x3 c and c cages but i will eventually have 1 5x2 and one 5x4 once my baby boys are grown up and they can move in with daddy. (one of the cages is the ‘maternity cage’!
it is a bit messy in there but i cleaned all the storage shelves after these photos were taken!
I also put a photo of the mesh gates that i made so that we can keep the doors open during the day, but the only animals in the area are my pet pugs as in the uk there arent really any birds of prey, no foxes as we live in the city and we know that none of our neighbours own cats!

 

[Grand Guinea Pigs]

Hi there,

no foxes as we live in the city

I live in a city and there are foxes around in the suburbs, just a word of caution.

once my baby boys are grown up and they can move in with daddy.

Boar trios rarely work out, I would seriously steer clear of trying for a trio. They end up disastrously more times than not.

Thread 'A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars'

May 5, 2019

1 Common myths and misconceptions
2 The different ages (including teenage)
- Important biological facts
- The formative 'School Weeks' (3 weeks - ca. 4 months)
- The Teenage Months (ca. 4-14 months)
- The Adult Years (ca. 15 months - ca. 4-5 years)
- The Golden Age (ca. 4-5 years until end of life)
3 What do boars need? (List of boar dos and don'ts)
- Space, space and more space!
- Respecting the hierarchy
- The 'one for each...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Behaviour, Bonds and Species Understanding

• 

We love to see pigtures! Do you have a thread for your piggies yet?