Renovating Guinea pig hutch

[Charzard03]

Hai, well some of you may know that I help out with a lady who rescues and rehomes piggies. Well on the way home from school today I noticed that someone had dumped a large guinea pig/rabbit hutch with a load of equiptment by the side of the road (the dustbin men had refused to take it) I went over to it worried that there was a pig or something in it, luckly there wasnt. It looked okay except it was missing part of the felt on the roof and the floor was missing, after finishing building my boys hutch I decided I wanted something to work on and the pigs at the rescue place would benefit from another hutch, so I carried it home with me, when I got it home I noticed it was in worse shape than I thought but I'm still going to try and fix it up (I dont like to waste things) I'm wandering how you guys would go about it, I'm keeping it the opposite end of the garden from my pigs just in case it has any parisites or stuff on it, tommorow I'm going to spray the inside with a pet-safe disinfectant and then leave it overnight to dry. I think I'm going to line the inside with a ground mat or shower curtain and staple that on so no more water can soak into the wood, I will also replace the felt and fit on a new floor. I will also sterilise the water bottle and food bowl and use it for my pigs. Do any of you have any other ideas?
Its a nice hutch but in bad shape and I dont want it going to waste, when some pigs can benefit from it.

 

[Furries]

Do you have any photos? It would be easier for us to offer suggestions if we can see what it looks like.

I'd give it a good going over with diluted bleach, as I'm not sure how well the disinfectant would work on something that you don't know anything about; the previous occupants may have died from some horrible disease. I normally hate bleach, but used it on a secondhand hutch I got for free for the bunnies to have inside their run.

 

[nutmeg]

Jeyes Fluid is excellent for cleaning manky hutches. It kills all sorts of fungal/mould type stuff. Downside is, it stinks like a public toilet for a while til dry. xx

 

[daleksarah]

well done you for saving the hutch I'm sure it wont be that hard to fix up, definately bleach the inside and rinse it out.it shouldnt be too hard to fit a bit of felt on it. you could get some of those stick on floor tiles for the bottom- you can get packs of them in £land.I'm thinking of getting some for my rabbits cage ive seen someone on here use them

 

[Charzard03]

Thanks for the help guys, Furries - I cant get pictures up straight away but I can take some and put them up in a weeks time when I go down to the photographers to get the pics put on a disk :3
I think I will go over it with diluted bleach instead then, how many parts bleach to water would you recomend?
I need to stay behind at school for art catchup tommorow and it gets dark at 5:00pm now so I wont be able to work on it tommorow but at the weekends will probably be when I start work on it :3
How do I wash it down with bleach? I thought of using a bowl with a green meanie in it and using that to wash it down, do you think that would workout okay? and how do I rinse it out of the wood afterwards?
And those tiles sound cool, I heared theres a £land opening up near me soon so i'll catch a bus over there sometime :3
The walls inside the hutch arent looking to welcoming, would it be okay if I used some wall paint and painted it when I'm done with renovating it? I would leave it to air several days before bringing it to the rescue and putting pigs in there, I will definately be painting the outside because it looks a mess.

 

[Gaile]

I use pond liner on the top of my hutches......and lino/squares inside the hutch...good luck!

 

[Charzard03]

ooh pond liner sounds a good idea but I dont have any, I have plenty of felt though, plus the pigs at the centre are kept in a shed so I'm just wanting to make it look nice as its not going to get wet anyway ^_^
Thanks :3

 

[Charzard03]

It seems this is not going ahead anymore
I went to start work on it today and the wood seems all rotten through, I dont think I can save it, I have taken off the chickenwire and made a drinking rack for my piggies and sterilised the drinks bottle but the rest of the hutch couldnt be saved, its a shame really. It was a nice hutch too, but I'm going to start from scratch and still make one for the centre when I get some decent wood.