Guinea Pigs!!!!!!

[Waynos_Face]

Hiyaaaa,

So, not really PC related although i did watch the episode of Southpark on my PC that inspired all this.

I shall explain, couple of weeks ago i was watching Southpark and they had an episode that was taking the mick out of Cloverfield and the happening, its called the startling.

Anyway they have real guinea pigs in it dressed up in costumes, as guinea-bees, guinea rabbits,
a guinea-saurus rex and even a guinea-pirate.

My missus was overcome with how cute they are and has arranged to pickup 2 baby guinea pigs tonight.

So this morning i have hastily cable-tied some planks of wood i had left over from the wooden flooring together, put some gym mats underneath as i don't use them to assemble a temporary home.

So my question, i need a big double hutch for them but don't want to pay more than £100 for it, ebay is out the question as cancelled my account due to thieves, grrrrr.

The Guinea pigs are gonna live in the spare room next to the house bunny, they can't live with it as she is 5 now and gets quite aggressive with other animals as her husband died last year. We once left the window open and next doors cat came in, a full grown cat, it jumped in dustys (our rabbit) run and well dusty kind of took it apart. i awoke to find a poor mutilated kitty by our front door, fortunately blood wipes off wooden flooring quite well.

The upside to getting guinea Pigs is that i get to name them, i have come up with;

Sir Squeeksalot & Grand Master Squeak.

Any help is much appreciated as they will need a nice house sooner rather than later.

 

[TriplexDread]

Could you not get down to B&Q and build one mate?

 

[Ian]

Love the names

Not sure if it's any use, but Pets at Home have quite a few hutches under £100 :

http://www.petsathome.com/find/cate...category-is-6C+Cages/category-is-6C03+Hutches

Poor cat

 

[Anon_F]

Or try a local pet shop?

Oh & in the Far East they eat them too!

 

[Madxgraphics]

Sir Squeeksalot & Grand Master Squeak.

I thought you would have gone for something like nVidia and coolmaster or something like that....

Think i'm a bit sic, started to get excited at the blood bit...
Yeah try B&Q I think they do actually sell pet hutches in there...Or try your local pet shop..

 

[Waynos_Face]

Could you not get down to B&Q and build one mate?

I didn't think of that, i might need a proper bloke to advise me though, just had a look through me tools, i have a jigsaw, tenon saw, orbital sander and a hammer, i didn't have any tools before i did the wooden flooring a couple of months ago, oh and my dads drill that i haven't returned yet.

But seriously i didn't know wood was so cheap, i could probably build a giant one for £40, i doubt it would look very good though.

So what kind of materials can i use for guinea pigs, i'm guessing but untreated wood is surely a must?

Am looking at the B&Q site, can i use hardboard or chipboard for the floors and then cut some proper planks of wood for a cabin effect on the sides and back.

Actually thinking about it, i should be able to do it, will speak to the missus as she likes things to look proper.

Some of those hutches on the pets at home are nice, exspensive but they look good.

Yeah so any suggestions on materials please.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Link to the costumes site.

http://cuddlycavies.homestead.com/costumes.html

You have to order from the USA but its only $5 postage.. Probably take a while.

 

[floppybootstomp]

When I was (sort of) happily married we kept Guinea Pigs in our back garden, best pets I've ever owned. They're affectionate, intelligent, cute and non agressive.

I built a run in our back garden and also built the hutch. I stood the hutch on bricks and made a small ramp up to the arched doorway. The roof lifted off for cleaning and the entrance had a sliding door to lock them in for the night, as protection against foxes. I made the hutch from 18mm marine ply with a front window covered in chicken wire and a cordoned off sleeping area.

The run also had a hinged lid and it was all made from 40mm x 40mm sawn treated with preservative (non toxic) and chicken wire.

I also had a small chicken wire enclosure that I could move around to different points and let them munch the grass, I didn't need to mow the lawn very often.

One thing that you best get used to is that the flooring will need changing often, at least every two days and preferably every day. I used to use layers of newspaper to soak up the wee wee and straw for bedding. Compressed shredded paper is also ok.

If you don't clean regularly they will walk around with sodden belly fur, be liable to disease and stink to high heaven.

They also need a bath now and again, into the kitchen sink with them...

Ours used to breed and about once every six weeks we'd sell three or four babies to the local pet shop.

The breeding and the appearance of babies, of course, kept my three entertained.

Anyhows, good luck, they're good pets. Final note, don't forget their care when you go on holiday.

 

[Madxgraphics]

But seriously i didn't know wood was so cheap, i could probably build a giant one for £40, i doubt it would look very good though.

So what kind of materials can i use for guinea pigs, i'm guessing but untreated wood is surely a must?



Yeah so any suggestions on materials please.

T
If you're going to build your own one, which isn't that hard really..Treated timber is better, For the flooring i'd us Marine ply...Remember Guinea Pigs pee a fair bit and chip board would just get wet...
Yeah you could build one for £50,...
Found this site Cheeap as chips on there...

 

[Waynos_Face]

Okay cheers guys, i spoke to the missus she finishes school today (teacher) and she likes the idea of us building one, have been pricing up wood on B&Q, is about £30.

So i should get MDF instead of chipboard then??? Or will any hard wood be okay.

Will take me camera and shoot some photos if anyones interested.

 

[Madxgraphics]

the missus she finishes school today (teacher)

So i should get MDF instead of chipboard then??? Or will any hard wood be okay.

.

Think I nearly swallowed me tongue when I read that fiirst bit....lol....MDF is gonna be expensive...I'd go for marine ply for the base, and treat timber for the rest....Did you look at the link I sent you..? That should give you a fair idea..Or just google hutch plans...

 

[Waynos_Face]

Yeah cheers MadX, i read the link, is tempting to get one from them as they are cheap but i'm gonna make one now.

So i now have 3 projects for Xmas, 1) the hutch, 2) i'm only just leak testing my Water-cooling for my PC before it goes in, and 3) the Xbox 360 i got for free is getting water-cooling as well, as i have a lot spare, i was gonna give it away on here (i have a PS3) but no-one chipped in any bits, so it will probably go to my nephew as his parents are a bit skint after daddy got made redundant, will update the other threads when i'm done.

At B&Q for the panel sizes i need the Chipboard is £7.02 and MDF is £10.06.

I couldn't find any Marine Ply on the site.

Yeah a sort of design in mind, its gonna be a double hutch, but the bunny has to live downstairs and the guinea pigs upstairs, the pigs have a ramp down into a run/pen and being as the bunny is on the ground floor it needs no ram to use its own pen, they will have a separate run/pen each.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Okay cheers guys, i spoke to the missus she finishes school today (teacher) and she likes the idea of us building one, have been pricing up wood on B&Q, is about £30.

So i should get MDF instead of chipboard then??? Or will any hard wood be okay.

Will take me camera and shoot some photos if anyones interested.

Neither chipboard or MDF is suitable, best choice is marine ply. 12mm will be ok if it's for indoors.

You have to think that it's regularly going to get wet from wee wee.

B & Q is not the only supplier on the planet, try an independent woodyard or Wickes.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Progress report? Pix?

 

[Waynos_Face]

Sorry will get right on it, i would have thought that having nearly a month off work over xmas would give me lots of free time but the girlfiend has had doing all sorts of crappy chores and DIY.

The hutch i built is a bit wonky but its the first time i've really used wood, i went with conti-board as the floor for the pigs and its only held on by 1 panel pin so i can pull the pin out and wipe the conti-board down, it doesn't move as the top tier of the hutch holds it in place.

I am amazed at how much they eat, i guess thats why there are called pigs, and the giant amounts of wee and poo.

On the pictures the black and white one is Grand Master Squeaks and the Golden one is Sir Squeaks Alot, Grand Master Squeaks is very fond of biting me and seems to be the dominant pig out of the two. Althoug when i open the hutch Sir Squeaks Alot will openly come and wait for you to pick her up and give her a cuddle, she sings as well which i read is pretty rare.

So enough chattering, on with the show.

Old hutch is just some wooden flooring i had left over, cable tied together with Gym mats underneath and some hay and newspaper, they were there for 3 days whilst i built the new Hutch.

Am resizing the photos so will add some more in a bit.

Oh and the house bunny Dusty lives underneath the pigs.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Some Pigs,

Apologies for the crappy shooting of the photographs, as you can imagine i always manage to miss tops of heads as well.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Just so Dusty isn't left out, here she is, 10 1\2lb of pure bunny.

As mentioned since the death of her husband (Galaxy) she is a bit of a nutter, she's killed a cat, knocked out my mates ferret and will openly growl at my girlfiend when she cleans her out.

When i get her out to play she's fine with me but charges the missus and has eaten 4 pairs of her shoes.

Oh and she is partial to coco pops.

 

[ChristopherP]

I love guinea pigs, they are my favourite animal

 

[Taffycat]

Aww, they really are very cute, I love their intelligent little faces. Crikey! Dusty bunny sounds quite a handful.. you didn't let her watch "The Curse of the Were Rabbit" did you?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Hey! Thanks, WF, for taking the time out to take and post pix. I, for one, enjoyed those