Ramps in Cages and Hutches

[sport_billy]

1 Guinea pigs are not natural climbers
2 Aspects to consider
- Steepness
- Material
- Sides
3 Ramp types
- Wooden ramps
- Correx and guttering ramps
- Commercially available ramps
4 Reducing the steepness
5 Ramp tunnels


This thread has been made by @Veggies Galore I would like to thank her for her amazing work on this. @Kallasia made the original but due to photos unavailable we have to withdraw it sadly


1 Guinea pigs are not natural climbers
Adding a second storey to your pigs’ pen can be a great way to add some extra enrichment .
However, please bear in mind the following

• Guinea pigs are not naturally climbers - some will adapt to using a ramp if they feel safe – but others may never be happy using them.
• Adding a 2nd storey may increase space – but it does not increase floor size – in fact, the base of the ramp can take away from the amount of floor space available. Floor space that is important as this is where your guineas exercise. Please make sure your guineas still have the amount of floor space recommended in our cage size guide. Cage Size Guide

2 Aspects to consider
Steepness
Guinea pigs don’t like steep ramps – they won’t go mountaineering up a ramp that is like a cliff face. Be wary of ready-made ramps that are “suitable for rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, degus etc etc” because they are almost always far too steep for piggies.

As a general rule of thumb, for every 5cm up you need to go 16cm out.

So, for example, for a second storey that is 36cm (or one c&c grid) high, the ramp should be at least 120cm long.

Is your ramp adequately supported and fixed in place? If the ramp bounces up and down when the piggies are halfway up or down they will not feel stable and secure.

Some simple ways of making ramps less steep are discussed later in this thread.


Material
Piggies have very delicate feet. They should never be housed on rough surfaces or mesh/wire floors and the same goes for their ramps. If it’s painful for them to go up/down then they will not use it.


Consider using a fleece covering or a strip of carpet – so they can get grip and the surface is soft on their feet.


Sides
Adding sides and/or tunnels is a great way of making your ramp safer. There are several ways of doing this… which will be explained later in this thread .


Mobility
The final thing to consider is whether your piggies are fit and healthy enough to use a ramp. If they have mobility issues a second storey might just never work for them.

 

[sport_billy]

3 Ramp types

Wooden ramps
Many members have purchased a 2 tier hutch to discover that their guineas won’t use the ramp .

If the ramp hasn’t got sides, it is worth adding some as your guineas will feel safer on a ramp that has sides .

Sometimes , it is adequate to glue some pieces of plywood – or thin kiln dried pine.







Pictures courtesy of @Dindypig

If the sides feel woobly just being glued. You may want use screws to secure the sides on.

@Veggies Galore “we found the simplest way to secure the sides to our ramp was to glue wood strips on the base and then screw the sides onto the wood strips”.

 

[sport_billy]

Correx and guttering ramps

Another solution is to create a new ramp from correx or guttering

Here is an example of a Correx ramp used in a hutch



picture courtesy of @Mother Hubbard

Tim'll Fix It

and a guttering ramp for a C&C cage



picture courtesy of @Gimz


Guttering ramp



picture courtesy of @BossHogg

 

[sport_billy]

Correx Ramp

@Swissgreys “ We have the standard correx ramp that is supplied by C&C cages in the UK.

It is 70cm long, and the sides are 6.5cm high.

The whole ramp is made of 4mm correx, with binder clips along the side rails, wire reinforcement underneath, and a grippy corrugated surface on the main ramp area.



It attaches to the loft area with cable ties.



When they were younger all 4 of my piggies would fly up and down this ramp with ease, but Ruby has now decided that she can only go up, and then will remain 'trapped' in the loft until someone lifts her down. For this reason Ruby and Lucy only have a single level cage, but Eddi and Oreo have a loft which they love.



They both quite happily use ramp multiple times a day (and night). “

 

[sport_billy]

Commercially available ramps

A search on an internet search engine or marketplace site will produce a host of commercially available ramps


Here is a picture of a set up using commercially available wooden ramps.


Picture courtesy of @piggieminder

Fixing ramps to C&C grids

Cable ties have already been mentioned



picture courtesy of @Swissgreys


Another alternative are hooks



picture courtesy of @Claire W

 

[sport_billy]

5 Reducing steepness of ramp

A simple way of reducing the steepness of a ramp is to pop something underneath the bottom end (maybe a small block of wood).

If you have a C&C set up, you may want to consider making you upper level ½ grid height .

Here is an example of a ½ height loft where the ramps have been made of bent C&C grids.



picture courtesy of @Veggies Galore

@anyar.dris provided this photo below of the ramp being placed onto a wooden house



Here is an advice thread on how to bend C&C grids
How do you bend a C&C grid...

 

[sport_billy]

Ramp Tunnels

Ramp tunnels are a great way to encourage your guinea to feel safer using their ramp.

At the time of writing this, there is only one company that makes commercially available ramp tunnels … C and E Cosies .

Ramp tunnels can be used with C&C ramps and hutch ramps



picture courtesy of @Veggies Galore

You could have a go at making you own – if you do you will need to make sure you have some way to ensure the tunnel opening stay open …. And a way to fix the tunnel to your ramp. Cand E cosies use velcro straps for securing their ramp tunnels.



picture courtesy of @Claire W

.. or you could use a plastic tunnel if it can be securely fixed




picture courtesy of @Sophie B