A month ago, I finally took ownership of my very own Guinea Pig! Two more cute cuddle muffins were quickly added over the following two weeks. Wanting to provide proper care, I knew I had to procure plenty of piggy paraphernalia. And last week, the crown jewel of their habitat arrived: a balcony!
2x4 C&C cage with 2x1 C&C balcony.
When I can, I like to support my local pet shop where I bought my Guinea Pigs. The pet shop is a private business that's been around here for decades; it's not a big chain corporate retail place. And they really care about quality pet supplies and support.
But otherwise, I have been enjoying an online place called GuineaDad. That's where I ordered the 2x4 C&C cage for my piggies. It's quite large for two piglets, but I have three, and they'll be full-sized adults next year. The minimum recommended space is 2x5.
So I'm happy to say the extra 2x1 space arrived in the form of a second story, a balcony! It included a ramp too. It's a simple C&C cage expansion for the frame, with coroplast as the base. I love it, and more important, so do the piggies!
At first, the piggies were not interested in walking up the ramp. So I placed some treats on it to coax them, which helped a little. I also just picked up one piggy and put him on top. He was happy to quickly claim ownership of his new space!
The real "trick" that helped the piggies make the climb up and down the ramp was the addition of a custom cardboard tunnel, courtesy of my 11-year old, to which I later embellished with window cut-outs and connector flaps. Once that inclined tunnel was in place, the piggies readily took to it. They feel safe in tunnels and love to use them. Now the piggies have zero problem zooming up and down the ramp, even without the tunnel.
Bon-Bon, Truffles, and Butters in their balcony.
The balcony gives the three Guinea Pigs just enough space to feel comfortable and have room to zoom around. The ramp provides a bit of exercise too, helping them be healthy.
It's also convenient when it's cage cleaning time. To clean the first floor, I simply get the piggies to move "upstairs" and then I block the ramp temporarily. When done, I do the reverse. The piglets race downstairs to check out their fresh house, then I block the ramp again to clean the balcony.
I'm super happy with the entire setup. The piggies are happy too. What more could I want? Well, besides maybe getting a fourth Guinea Pig in the future, I'm planning to expand further with a second balcony on the other end! That will create a total of 2x6 space for three G-pigs! For now, though, I'm settling with what we have since it's all that's needed.
Thanks for following along! I know my blog has mainly been about computing and gaming, so I'm just gonna call the Guinea Pig adventures a side-quest for now.