How to care for a g.pig

[cloudcandy]

This is Moo my sister's 1 year old guinea pig,they brought him from a petstore and he had been sharing his space witha rabbit(big no no?) they also brought him on his own.This is how he live's atm,I'm trying to convince my sister and mum that she should have some more space so she can do more exercise etc

IMG_4942 by sweetheart-roland, on Flickr

IMG_4941 by sweetheart-roland, on Flickr

[JessLough]

Yah, the guinea pig needs much more space than that. Make sure he gets fresh veggies daily, too...

[cloudcandy]

Yeah I thought so,any inventive and cheap ideas for creating a better enviroment?

[AllieMackie]

Yup

Cubes and Coroplast (metric)

Best, easiest way to build an awesome piggie cage. Cheap, effective and room to be creative!

They have to have a bunch of room to run, and no, they shouldn't share their space with rabbits.

[JessLough]

Cubes and coroplast?

How to Make a C&C Cage

..damnit Allie

[cloudcandy]

Thankings you!I'm going to nag my mum to buy some stuff for christmas and help my sister (she's 12) turn her room into a more g.pig friendly area.Hopefully look online to find some cheap ideas

[Kat09Tails]

I raised cavies and the like for a great many years. That cage is fine - solid floor, plenty of ventilation. Looks actually like a pretty good prefab pig cage for a single piggie.

You could... just as a radical idea keep the perfectly adequate cage he's in and simply make him an outdoor run where he could eat some grass and run around more on nice weather days.

Otherwise if you really think he needs more exercise you could just take him out of the cage and let him run around the room.

*btw* pigs and rabbits do share spaces just fine so long as the bunny or cavy isn't aggressive. Some bunnies like to ear nibble on g pigs.

[CaliTerp07]

We always had our piggies in similar sized cages. To be honest, when they were in their cage they just sat in their hay box and didn't move. Then we'd take them out for a few hours a day to run around outside (in a covered pen) if it was nice out, or to sit in our laps to watch a movie, etc.

I've heard that a tiny child's wading pool makes a decent piggy exercise pen. Waterproof (for potty), easy to deflate and store, and since pigs can't jump or climb, the sides don't have to be high.

[cloudcandy]

Thanks all,I think why I feel she should have a bigger cage would be so she could have more of a run around.My sister takes her out of the cage for maybe an hour every two days,but they don't have a garden,she just blocks off part of the house and lets Moo run around,I thought maybe if she had a permanent run attached to her cage then she could decide what she does more?

[Kat09Tails]

Originally Posted by cloudcandy

Thanks all,I think why I feel she should have a bigger cage would be so she could have more of a run around.My sister takes her out of the cage for maybe an hour every two days,but they don't have a garden,she just blocks off part of the house and lets Moo run around,I thought maybe if she had a permanent run attached to her cage then she could decide what she does more?

If that's what you want to do that's cool, more space isn't a bad thing. I just wanted you to know it's not really required with the cage he's got. The cage he's in looks bigger than most of the single boar cages I had when I raised cavies.

When I was in my hayday about 15 years ago I had 15x15 foot pens for my girls and 4x8 foot pens for my babies and modulars for my single boars which I later went to double occupancies with. They always seemed so much happier in groups or pairs.