Set up of new home!

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

sweetpepper

Joined
Nov 23, 2011
Messages
21
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Gilfach Goch
Hi all - I'm new here and want to pick your brains! I'm really hoping to get a pair of piggies from Suzy in a few weeks time (I'm looking after my mum who's just had an operation at the moment so don't have the time to pay proper attention to new pets until after Christmas) - I'm very excited as is my daughter but I really want to do things properly.

I've been doing my research (this forum has already been really helpful!) and I've decided I want to go down the fleece route so I'm sorting out some fleece blankets at the moment. A couple of the questions I want to ask are:

1) what do you put under the fleece - some people have said incontinence pads, others puppy pads, are these one and the same thing and does that make the floor of the cage lumpy or am I being thick?! (and are they washable?)

2) I have a Ferplast 120 and I'm thinking of taking out the plastic shelf which is down the one end because I don't really think it's big enough to use as a "hide and snuggle" area - I'm thinking of getting either an igloo or a fleece lined hideaway - what have you found works best?

3) I've seen that some people have said that vinegar works as a natural cleaning solution for guinea pigs - I used a weak solution of zoflora for my rabbits, would this be problematic for pigs or not?

4) I know that guinea pigs can't produce their own vitamin C - I've read that it's pointless to give vitamin c in water and that piggy feed should provide all that they need - is that true or do I need to get seperate vitamin C for them? And, if so, in what format is best?

I think that's all(!) - so sorry for asking so much questions! I really want to get it right to make it as smooth a transition for the piggies as possible and I possibly over-worry unfortunately!

Oh, just for a close, my local Pets at Home are having a special event at the moment - "Pet of the Month". They've basically isolated 2 gorgeous little pigs and literally made them part of a sales pitch of a cage and what items you need to take care of them, suspended on a table in the middle of the store where anyone can take a poke at them! I was in there the other day with my daughter, some kids came in and literally screamed in the face of these poor little things and they made some horrible noises! My daughter was horrified and started to get very upset - how I didn't open up that cage and smuggle the poor little things out I don't know! Mind you, any horrible person could have done exactly the same thing and done terrible things to them - there was no lock, no nothing to ensure their safety! I came away feeling very, very sick.
 
Hi there. I put towels under my fleece. I find they do a good job. I prefer wooden cabins to the pigloos. They are made from wood and the piggies can gnaw on them. They can also climb the top too. I just used to use a pet cleaning spray when I had a cage. Many swear by the vinegar.

I buy vitamin C tablets from hayexperts online. I crush one and put it on a slice of cucumber for each piggy. Since I have given vitamin C tablets my piggies rarely sneeze.

It is very sad to hear about those poor piggies being treated that way. Yet another example of pet shops who do not care for their animals. :(
 
1) what do you put under the fleece
I use a layer of towel and then under that i use newspaper, this way i can brush the poo of the fleece onto the newspaper and then pick the newspaper all up together and put in the bin works well for me :)

2) I have a Ferplast 100 (very small i know upgrading to C&C soon!) i keep the shelf in because i've been told that although it's not much running up and down the little ramp is good for exercise, in the past i've hung flannels or stuck them to the bottom of the shelf to make almost a tent with just a little hole so they can have the back of the cage to hide in 'cause thats where they sleep the most, also i even aded another shelf with a paper sorting tray just to give them somewhere new to exploor and as another food area :)

3) I'm not entirely sure, but my mums a cleaner and uses products that are as eco friendly as possible and she recomends a soloution of vinegar and water for everything and always has a bottle handle as you can make it up in an old spray bottle and just keep it like that :)

4) My piggies had vitamin C in there water and i found it made them drink less as it gives it a taste that not all piggies like so your right with that, just giving them veggies should give them the right amount of vitamin c, theres no need for supplements i posted a thread a while ago now asking about this and everyone told me just to give them veggies, theres a sticky somewhere about veggies with the most vitamin c and goodness in them too if you need some ideas :)

Hope that helps :)
 
sweetpepper said:
Hi all - I'm new here and want to pick your brains! I'm really hoping to get a pair of piggies from Suzy in a few weeks time (I'm looking after my mum who's just had an operation at the moment so don't have the time to pay proper attention to new pets until after Christmas) - I'm very excited as is my daughter but I really want to do things properly.

I've been doing my research (this forum has already been really helpful!) and I've decided I want to go down the fleece route so I'm sorting out some fleece blankets at the moment. A couple of the questions I want to ask are:

1) what do you put under the fleece - some people have said incontinence pads, others puppy pads, are these one and the same thing and does that make the floor of the cage lumpy or am I being thick?! (and are they washable?)

2) I have a Ferplast 120 and I'm thinking of taking out the plastic shelf which is down the one end because I don't really think it's big enough to use as a "hide and snuggle" area - I'm thinking of getting either an igloo or a fleece lined hideaway - what have you found works best?

3) I've seen that some people have said that vinegar works as a natural cleaning solution for guinea pigs - I used a weak solution of zoflora for my rabbits, would this be problematic for pigs or not?

4) I know that guinea pigs can't produce their own vitamin C - I've read that it's pointless to give vitamin c in water and that piggy feed should provide all that they need - is that true or do I need to get seperate vitamin C for them? And, if so, in what format is best?

I think that's all(!) - so sorry for asking so much questions! I really want to get it right to make it as smooth a transition for the piggies as possible and I possibly over-worry unfortunately!

Oh, just for a close, my local Pets at Home are having a special event at the moment - "Pet of the Month". They've basically isolated 2 gorgeous little pigs and literally made them part of a sales pitch of a cage and what items you need to take care of them, suspended on a table in the middle of the store where anyone can take a poke at them! I was in there the other day with my daughter, some kids came in and literally screamed in the face of these poor little things and they made some horrible noises! My daughter was horrified and started to get very upset - how I didn't open up that cage and smuggle the poor little things out I don't know! Mind you, any horrible person could have done exactly the same thing and done terrible things to them - there was no lock, no nothing to ensure their safety! I came away feeling very, very sick.
Click to expand...

First things first, Hello and welcome to the forum. Its a wonderful place. :)

1) you have a few choices of what to put under the fleece. As you can see different people use different things and you will get lots of opinions. Personally, I have made up my own cage liners. These consist of a fleece top, then matress protector, (both the fleece and the matress protector are washable) then underneath that i have pampers disposable baby changing mats (these are basically identical to puppy pads, are fairly similarly priced, i just like the smell better and my dog tried to eat the puppy pads - from the cupboard, dont worry she was nowhere near the piggies) These are not washable and you have to throw them away after use.
Incontenience pads are washable however I'm not sure how others use them. :)

2) With my piggies, I always try to find what they like best. I had a wooden house in there for them, as well as a nice cosey house, they only used the cosey house so i stopped using the wooden one. :) I gues i dont sleep in a wooden bed either... :)) However obviously fabric houses need washing with the cage liners.
I have made myself some houses big enough for 2 piggies using babies sleeping bags *you know the ones that go over their shoulders and there are just like a sack?* Theres a thread on that that i could find if you are interested. (just ask)

3) not sure about the vinegar. I use baby wipes *sensitive ones ofcourse* to wipe round the cage every clean out, then disinfect fully after that, although i would be interested to know about the vinegar. :)

4) Your correct, giving it in the water means you cannot control the intake and it puts some piggies off drinking. With piggies, they need a set amound of pellet food (unlimited untill they stop growing at 6-9 months, then about a handfull) They also need unlimited hay at all times, but they do need 1 cup of fruit and veg per day each. There is a sticky in our food section called guinea pig shopping list that tells you all the kinds of good and bad veg. These veg are where the piggies get the essential vitamin C from. :)

HTH
 
1. I've used towels under fleece before and they're pretty absorbant, but i've only done it temporarily as a hospital cage so not sure how practical it is in the long run.

2. I don't like those plastic shelves either, but we use loads of different things as hidey-holes - log arches are popular with ours, as are snuggly cosy-sack type things, toddler step stools, tunnels and chubes. There are loads of options (and fairly cheap ones too)

3. Plain white vinegar is awesome! Especially for cleaning off any hard white limescaley calcium deposits that can build up on the base of the cage. You can use it diluted or neat for the stubborn bits, and just give it a rinse afterwards.

4. I've never tried the vitamin C supplements. Mine get a complete food and a selection of fresh veggies, and that seems to work for my boys! :))

Jo x

PS. The P@H near me is doing the same offer at the moment, as well as a discount if you buy three pigs at the same time. Bad times :(
 
Connie said:
First things first, Hello and welcome to the forum. Its a wonderful place. :)

1) you have a few choices of what to put under the fleece. As you can see different people use different things and you will get lots of opinions. Personally, I have made up my own cage liners. These consist of a fleece top, then matress protector, (both the fleece and the matress protector are washable) then underneath that i have pampers disposable baby changing mats (these are basically identical to puppy pads, are fairly similarly priced, i just like the smell better and my dog tried to eat the puppy pads - from the cupboard, dont worry she was nowhere near the piggies) These are not washable and you have to throw them away after use.
Incontenience pads are washable however I'm not sure how others use them. :)

2) With my piggies, I always try to find what they like best. I had a wooden house in there for them, as well as a nice cosey house, they only used the cosey house so i stopped using the wooden one. :) I gues i dont sleep in a wooden bed either... :)) However obviously fabric houses need washing with the cage liners.
I have made myself some houses big enough for 2 piggies using babies sleeping bags *you know the ones that go over their shoulders and there are just like a sack?* Theres a thread on that that i could find if you are interested. (just ask)

3) not sure about the vinegar. I use baby wipes *sensitive ones ofcourse* to wipe round the cage every clean out, then disinfect fully after that, although i would be interested to know about the vinegar. :)

4) Your correct, giving it in the water means you cannot control the intake and it puts some piggies off drinking. With piggies, they need a set amound of pellet food (unlimited untill they stop growing at 6-9 months, then about a handfull) They also need unlimited hay at all times, but they do need 1 cup of fruit and veg per day each. There is a sticky in our food section called guinea pig shopping list that tells you all the kinds of good and bad veg. These veg are where the piggies get the essential vitamin C from. :)

HTH
Click to expand...

Hi Connie - many thanks for your advice. I would definately be interested in making a hidey hole out of baby sleeping bags as I have quite a few that my son has grown out of which would certainly make things cheaper for me!

Thanks again x
 
sweetpepper said:
Hi Connie - many thanks for your advice. I would definately be interested in making a hidey hole out of baby sleeping bags as I have quite a few that my son has grown out of which would certainly make things cheaper for me!

Thanks again x
Click to expand...

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=77392

The top picture on this thread shows the house i am refering too.

I used the sleeping bag by cutting it in to two pieces, *a back piece and a front piece* I then cut off the shoulder pieces, So i had 2 large peices, the back and front of the suit, then 4 small popper pieces.

The back and front pieces, need to have the top 1/3 cut off then *measure the longest side and divide that by 3, then the top 1/3 cut off*. Disgaurd the top 3rd for the moment, you will need that later.

The pieces you should have in front of you are the two largest we have cut so far. These need to be sew together along one of the longest sides, to make them one big piece. this big piece then needs to have two doors cut out *shown on photo* then be sewn into a tunnel shape.

The top thirds that you had chopped off before can become the ends *stopping it being a tunnel and turning it into a house*

The popper tops can become what supports the house against the side of the cage. Also shown in the picture.

I know thats a complicated expanation. :/ I hope it makes sense, but hopefully the picture will also explain alot. Maybe you will come up with a better way of making them than me anyway. :D

One thing i will say is that the floor of the house will need a little piece of fleece and towel *or fleece and some other absorbant thingy* on it. I change this floor piece every other day so they are never sat on anything soggy, however the house just gets washed every 4 days when the rest of the cage liner gets done. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top