What Size C&c Cage For Different Numbers Of Piggies

[PiggySmitten]

Having tried to find a good guide on this and failed, I thought it might be useful for those who are thinking about building a c&c cage to have a quick guide to appropriate size depending on numbers of guinea pigs who will be homed there.

Other basic info which is relevant:

Grid size does seem to vary very slightly depending on where you get it from. They seem to be between 35x35cm and 38x38cm.

You can of course build lots of different layouts using c&c but the width of most correx available (there are the odd larger supplies available) means that it fits nicely into a 2x something grid arrangement (eg 2x4, 2x5 etc) without needing overlapping or joining and so giving you best peace of mind on waterproofing.

Also on the layout point, lofts are great entertainment for many piggies (not all will go up a ramp) but my understanding is you can't count the floor area of the loft when you are working out whether you have enough floor space for your number of piggies.

So a key thing missing from this guide that I'd really like some help from someone in the know as to what is appropriate is what size is for how many guinea pigs for the standard size layouts:

2x3
2x4
2x5
2x6
2x7

From what I can gather, the group size of piggies cared for by forum members seems to be anything between 2 and 10 piggies in the main - although some have more. So it would be useful to have c&c dimension guidelines up to about 10 if we can.

Can anyone help me please? If there's a thread covering this already, that will do me fine if you can post the link to it!

 

[lissie]

There a guide here:
http://www.guineapigcages.com/

2x3 : 1 pig
2x4 : 2 pigs
2x5 : 3 pigs
2x6 : 4 pigs

Add one more 1x2 grid for each additional pig.

It also depends on how the pigs get along. Some do require more space than the recommended size.

Also note that the grids are 14 inches, not 12 inches, so 2x4 is not 8 sq.ft. It's about 10.5 sq.ft.

 

[Briony_S]

I'd say that the above works well for girlies, however with boars I would say bigger is better my group of four girls are very close and will soon be moving into a 2x6, however I plan on moving 2 boars into a 2x6 to limit fall outs!

One of my married couples is in shop bought 120 cage and quite happy but will be upgrading them to a 2x3 which is wider and is bigger than the minimum requirement for adopting from rescue. They will be housed next to another couple (with a solid divider) so effectively sharing a level on my new multistory c and c. Eventually though I hope to upgrade them again once I have rehomed some of my rescues and they'll have a 2x6 level per couple!

 

[Shelby]

Ooh this is really helpful I'm hoping to build my 3 girls a c&c toward the end of the year as their current cage is getting too small for them. I was essentially wanting to build them a 2x6 but in and L shape and was worried it wouldn't be appropriate but looking at this it will be plenty enough.

 

[Maisy and Poppy]

2x3 is 1-2 max guinea pig
2x4 is 2-3 max guinea pigs
2x5 is 3-4 max guinea pigs
2x6 is 4-5 max guinea pigs
2x7 is 5-6 max guinea pigs
I hope this is useful!