Piggies Hate Their New Loft Extension!

Status
Not open for further replies.
GinaG

GinaG

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
142
Reaction score
126
Points
285
Location
Chester, UK
I have 2 sows in a C&C 2x4 and just upgraded their 2x1 loft to a 2x2, I was really pleased with how much more space it seemed to give them, though getting underneath to clean is difficult! Anyway, the girls seem to hate it! They huddled together, downstairs, seemingly petrified, I left all their usual bedding upstairs to it would have smelt of them and felt the same, only wider...I thought the more space, the better?! Has anyone else had this problem?
 
I don't think I've ever had this problem. Are they bad with changes? You could try leaving it for a few days to see if they adjust - if they don't you could try reverting it to its original size and see how they react. Maybe they feel as if something predatory is looking over them.
 
I used to put Chester upstairs so he had to come down, he got the message eventually.
Other thing is sprinkle food up the ramp & into the loft. They don't hate the loft it's just new to them, the only thing that may stop them is if your ramp is to steep, then they won't feel secure, so they won't go up.
 
Some piggies just will not climb ramps no matter how much you encourage them to do so. I had to remove a loft from one of my cages for that reason. How steep is the ramp? Is it a covered ramp with raised sides? Sometimes if you can make it less steep and cover it (e.g. Put a tunnel onto it) they will use it.
 
Spike and Peanut took a few days to use their ramp when we first built their loft, now they use it more than the rest of the cage. My new babies love the half height shelf in their new C & C in fact willow is watching me from there as I type this. They don't have a ramp yet, these two are leapers they jump on and off their log tunnels so they have one of those infront of the shelf so they can do mountain lion impersonations. Trouble with piggies is they are all different, you can never guess what they will do.
 
I don't think it's the ramp cos that has stayed the same, including the angle of it, I've literally just extended upstairs by 1 grid to make it a 2x2, I suppose the downstairs is more dark, but I thought they'd like that, cosy?!
 
I would leave it a while. Perhaps put a tunnel from the light side of the cage to the dark side. They may enter the tunnel not thinking about where it leads, and then be quite happy to be in the dark bit. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top