Newbie Advice Ferplast Vs Little Friends

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HelenB

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Hi everyone!

I'm a newbie in the research part of my Guinea pig journey ha ha! This forum is fab!
So I'm planning on having 2 female piggies who will be living indoors. I've looked really carefully at all of the options for housing them and it's a choice between the ferplast 120 or the same sized Little Friends.

I really like the look of the side door arrangement on the ferplast but the Little Friends works out a titchy bit bigger but with a tiny side door.

Any advice from anyone using these cages would be really appreciated.
Thanks!
 
Don't take my word for it cause I'm new too and I will be the first to admit that I'm not very good when it comes to measurements but I looked at those cages online and they both look tiny - too small (in my opinion) for 2 adult piggies. Like I said though wait for some other replies cause there are lots of great people on here with much more knowledge than me and I spent around £300 on various cages and hutches before I settled on making a c&c cage which I ordered through someone called sara at guinea pig paradise, I really wish I had taken a bit more time and thought before diving in, first off I got someone to make me an absolutely massive hutch, don't get me wrong its lovely but its so big it takes a good 2 hours to clean and its too cold for me to be outside (let alone the pigs!) coming up for winter! I then ordered a Midwest thinking it would be lovely to have them indoors but then had lots of advice that it was too small and eventually decided on the c&c cage. Do some research and have a look around and weigh up the options first
 
Welcome :)

They do look small online, but 120cm is a good size for two guins.

From my experience, I would get one with a complete side that opens, so I would go with the Ferplast. I once got a cage with a small opening and had to take the hole top off any time I wanted to pick them up. It's also easier to feed them as well, as you don't have to twist your arm at a funny angle haha. I got mine from eBay, but Zooplus do them too for half the price of the high street if you haven't looked there.

I started with a shop bought cage but moved to C&C as well, although sometimes I wish I still had a shop bought cage as I could use it to transport them and it would be easier to put them in boarding. There's pros and cons for both shop bought and C&C, as long as they have at least 120cm of space, it just depends on what is right for you and your household.

I bet you can't wait to get them, looking forward to seeing pics :yahoo:
 
Thanks span! We're all super excited. This forum is so good, I've found loads of advice already. I had two girlies a long time ago but it's been good to read up again!

I've had a really good look at all of the housing options. I really like the look of the c and c setups, but I don't think it would work for us. We need a lid because we have a dog and also an autistic son. I need them to be secure. I also want something that can be portable. I think that both the ferplast and little friends I've been looking at are about the same as a 4 x 2 c and c. I certainly have no intention on buying anything that's going to be too small. They will also be having daily free ranging time in the kitchen.

I was thinking that the ferplast with the larger side door would be more practical. Better for daily spot cleaning, catching and feeding etc. Will go and have a look to see if there's a ferplast 140.

Thanks!
 
I tried to find a cage bigger than 120cm (I had two giant boys!) and that's what pushed me to C&C, because the jump price wise from 120cm to 150cm was more than double - well, at least anything I could find was!

With a dog, an enclosed cage is definitely a good idea. And I would say a C&C cage's biggest downfall is that you can't just pick it up and move it to the other side of the room!

Good luck, sounds like your future guins will have a lovely home :)
 
I bought a ferplast casita 120 and would say it has good and bad points. The good - has an ok side door for the piggies to come out and for you to reach in, but not wide enough to grab a scuttling piggie who doesn't want to be picked up (pigloos and fleece hidies are good helpers in that regard). With the door I'd probably put a little greece or something on the mechanism as the sliding metal can be a little tight when you first buy it and the scraping noise of opening it scares little skittish piggies!

The real bonus is the top opening of the entire cage. I have actually taken off my cage top opening door altogether as the piggies can't jump out. It makes for an easy cage to clean or to pick up your piggies as you can lean over and get access to the whole thing. Full side opening cages are great because you will be interacting with them at their level, but they aren't always the easiest to clean in the back corners or pick up piggies in the far corners from the side opening. An open top is great as you don't have to crouch down on knees to reach in and can also easily access any part of the cage. However you are leaning over the top and not at piggie level, so it might take a little longer for skittish piggies to get used to you at that height. Not been an issue for me as my piggies love to nosey around my hands at cage cleaning time - they know new hay is on the way!

Other good things - water bottle and clasp secure are fine and work well - better than the attach a stout wire ones you get from the pet shops. Negatives - the plastic ramp / hidie home is pretty naff - something which is true of most of the commercial plastic cages really. The ramp itself is non-existent and steep - young or much older piggies might have a difficulty getting up to the platform. Also the area under it for the home has such a small entrance that it is a bit tight for two bigger piggies to come and go. Plus it creates such a dark corner area that your piggies will hide in there and you won't be able to see them at all. And it's difficult to get them out from there safely to pick them up. But if you ditch the ramp and put in your own hidie places for them then most of the negatives of this cage are taken away!

If you want something that is easy to clean at 120 size, but more portable than a C&C cage setup then you'll be good with this. I bought mine from Zooplus who had it cheaper than anywhere else. Hope that helps.
 
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Thanks Gimz. I've ordered the ferplast 120, like the casita but with a flatter top I think? Should be arriving today hopefully. I'll investigate some alternative hidie homes then, thanks for that.
 
i had the littlefurryfriends 140 cage it was really good size and value at only 69 pound but i will admit the doors wernt as good as i hoped so ferpalst probably is better but i prefer hutches now anway but I'm sure your piggies will like the 120 could always ugrade in future if u wanted to too :)
 
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