Cheekypigs
Teenage Guinea Pig
So I saw online people with hay bags for their guinea pigs which hang against the side of the cage and have two holes to get the hay out. The kid said "Those look like a pair of underpants!' and I had an Idea. I enjoy sewing, and I have a very childish sense of humour, as you can see from the pictures below.
The Hay Knickers were originally meant as a way to keep hay contained to make cleanup easier, but in the end, the pigs enjoy their piles of hay too much, plus I feel a layer of hay keeps everything smelling fresher. However, the Hay Knickers are tremendously popular, far more than I could have imagined. When hanging up they are a fun way to eat hay, and a useful backup store of clean hay for when they have a hungry night and need to eat EVERYTHING (I came down one day to find the floor of the cage denuded and the hay knickers empty, although I had given them extra just before going to bed).
But it's when the knickers are unhooked and put on the ground that the real fun begins. You can climb on them! You can roll them around! You can climb in one leg hole and out the other, or out through the top! You can ram your body in and roll about with just your feet sticking out! And most importantly, you can scent mark them and fight over who is Lord of the Knickers!
Seriously, these are so beloved that one day I put them in the playpen, and when Fuzzable found them he SCREAMED with excitement, and both pigs dived into them at once so that there were noses and bums sticking out in every direction! I wish I had had my camera at that moment, it was one of the funniest things I've seen them do so far.
If you make a pair of knickers for your guinea pigs, do make sure that the leg holes are comfortably big enough for your pigs to pass through with room to spare. I made this mistake at first, thinking small leg holes would discourage them from climbing in. Think again. They got themselves stuck inside twice before I had to confiscate their knickers for alterations (the photo of Popchop falling off the hammock with his head in the knickers captures the start of one of these incidents).
Hope this gives you some fun ideas! I was thinking a similar toy would be a hay cushion with a hole in each corner. Maybe for bigger groups of pigs.
The Hay Knickers were originally meant as a way to keep hay contained to make cleanup easier, but in the end, the pigs enjoy their piles of hay too much, plus I feel a layer of hay keeps everything smelling fresher. However, the Hay Knickers are tremendously popular, far more than I could have imagined. When hanging up they are a fun way to eat hay, and a useful backup store of clean hay for when they have a hungry night and need to eat EVERYTHING (I came down one day to find the floor of the cage denuded and the hay knickers empty, although I had given them extra just before going to bed).
But it's when the knickers are unhooked and put on the ground that the real fun begins. You can climb on them! You can roll them around! You can climb in one leg hole and out the other, or out through the top! You can ram your body in and roll about with just your feet sticking out! And most importantly, you can scent mark them and fight over who is Lord of the Knickers!
Seriously, these are so beloved that one day I put them in the playpen, and when Fuzzable found them he SCREAMED with excitement, and both pigs dived into them at once so that there were noses and bums sticking out in every direction! I wish I had had my camera at that moment, it was one of the funniest things I've seen them do so far.
If you make a pair of knickers for your guinea pigs, do make sure that the leg holes are comfortably big enough for your pigs to pass through with room to spare. I made this mistake at first, thinking small leg holes would discourage them from climbing in. Think again. They got themselves stuck inside twice before I had to confiscate their knickers for alterations (the photo of Popchop falling off the hammock with his head in the knickers captures the start of one of these incidents).
Hope this gives you some fun ideas! I was thinking a similar toy would be a hay cushion with a hole in each corner. Maybe for bigger groups of pigs.
Sounds like your boys love the hay knickers too. Could be a children’s book like “The Queens knickers”!
maybe I should do that!
