Moving from outdoor to indoor?

[PottyForPiggies]

When I move house soon and move in with my boyfriend, I am strongly considering moving my guinea pigs from outdoor hutches to indoor ones. The past winter has been very harsh and I never want them to have to go through that again. I will likely be keeping the outdoor ones so that when it is nice in summer they have the option, but I would love some advice.

C&C cages might possibly be an option, but it all depends on space. I have 2 pairs of pigs, 2 boys who do occasionally get a bit argumentative over food, and 1 girl who is in the market for another female partner, very docile and close companions. Obviously keeping them seperately, but I know very little about indoor hutches as my pigs have always been outdoors.

Any advice on beddings, hutch size etc would be greatly appreciated

 

[sport_billy]

I beleive the recommended minimum cage size is 4ft x 2ft for 2 piggies - Lots of members on here do C&C cages and it's something we're looking into doing for our pair our girls when we finally move house (Anyone want to buy a house btw... )
Megan our single girlie will probably stay in her ferplast cage as she is quite happy in there (she lives on her own as she has various special needs)

Ferplast cages 120 and 140 are good cage's for a pair of piggies, it's very important that they get run time also in the house, runs can be made with the C&C grids joined together with cable ties, we use this and they can be folded up easily after use.

The thing I enjoy about having the girls in the C&C run as opposed to a traditional cage is I feel I can interact with them more, no lid has the advantage to be able to get in and pet them etc, spot clean easier...

Good website to have a look at is http://www.guineapigcages.com/ has lots of info on C&C

There are lots of reviews of bedding types here http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=53208

We currently use woodshavings for Cookie & Treacle and fleece for Megan.
There are pro's and cons for all types, it's finding one that suits your piggies and you...

Hope this helps

 

[Bekki]

Paint your hutch and bring it in doors :-) I have a thread in the housing section where I turned an outdoors scruffy hutch into an indoors reasonable looking hutch for less than £20!

 

[sport_billy]

Paint your hutch and bring it in doors :-) I have a thread in the housing section where I turned an outdoors scruffy hutch into an indoors reasonable looking hutch for less than £20!

Wow! I'll have to have a look at that, very cool....

EDIT - Just watched you video bekki, it looks fab. Cookie looked up when your piggies made a noise

 

[PottyForPiggies]

Paint your hutch and bring it in doors :-) I have a thread in the housing section where I turned an outdoors scruffy hutch into an indoors reasonable looking hutch for less than £20!

This would definitely have been the easier option, however the boys' hutch is getting on 12 years old now and therefore is definitely worse for wear - good enough to cope but not ideal for the future.

I currently use woodshavings for all my piggies and they seem absolutely fine with it, although I hear that fleeces are very very good for piggies and keep them happy!

I would also love to interact with my piggies more; as although we have cuddle time, they really are not happy about being picked up and will run for their lives. I have to chase Treacle round until she's in a corner where I can get her, but she's so calm once she's there! So maybe C&C would be a better option for them :{ It's all so confusing!

With regards to an indoor run, I've been looking at this:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PLAYPEN-INDOOR-OUTDOOR-HAMSTERS-GUINEA-PIG-PET-CAGE-RUN-/310374941270?_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D5%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6565579495559870084 or something similar: does anyone have any experience with things like this?

 

[Floydie]

You can get these runs from P@H also but in coloured grids, you can lock 2 together to make a large run .

 

[PottyForPiggies]

I didn't know that, every time I've been and looked I've never found any I know my former housemate used to have one, but I've never been lucky enough to find one.
So I think I'm definitely going to look into Ferplast and/or C&C cages. It'd be nice to have a greater level of interaction with my piggles