Mouprise.com

Guinea pig cages: the most important element in cleaning guinea pig cages

One of the most important factors in ensuring that your guinea pig’s cage is easy to clean is, ironically, also one of the most overlooked criteria in cage selection. If you want to be sure that the next cage you buy will be easy to clean and maintain, be sure to read on.

When we buy a cage for our guinea pigs, we consider many factors: size, color, durability, attractiveness, etc. These factors vary depending on our individual tastes and needs. But the bottom line is: we want to be sure that the cage we choose is not just good for the pig. but also good for pet owner.

To make cage cleaning an easy task, it is absolutely essential that your cage is equipped with large openings. If your cage is equipped with small openings, you will start to have problems before you even begin the cage cleaning process.

Before you begin cleaning, you will need to remove the pigs from their cage and move them to another area. If you’ve ever tried to get a guinea pig through a small opening, you’ll realize how difficult it is. To easily pick up your guinea pig, you need to use both hands to guide or funnel the pig into your body, where you can gently capture it.

If you have a small opening, you won’t be able to use both hands. Instead, you’ll have to learn to execute something I call the “scramble and grab” technique. In other words, the pig will crawl around the cage as you try to implement the one-handed grip. This is not an easy task and even after obtaining Okay In that, it may still require several tries to capture your pig(s).

Now it’s time to clean the bedding in his cage. If you have a small, standard pet store cage; you will simply disconnect the top of the wire from the plastic tray and dump the small amount of litter into a waste container. Some pet store cages have lids that lift up to create a very large opening. Others have a very small door on the side. Either way, cleanup isn’t a problem because removing the top essentially creates a large opening for you to work in.

However, we strongly recommend that you do not put your cavy in a small pet store cage because it is too small to provide a healthy living environment for your pig. Therefore, it does not meet the win-win criteria mentioned above. In other words, it’s good for your (easy to clean), but bad for your pig (unhealthy living conditions).

In recent years, largely due to the Internet, people have become more informed about the humane and healthy living conditions of guinea pigs, with many acknowledging that standard pet store cages are woefully inadequate in terms of requirements Of space. While they may have been economically feasible in the past to house laboratory guinea pig test subjects, they do not provide ample space for our beloved family pets.

Because of this, people have turned to C&C cages (cubes and Coroplast) as a much healthier alternative, and this is great for pigs. However, many of these C&C designs are equipped with small doors (approximately one square foot). Once again our win-win criteria are violated. This type of cage is good for the pig, but bad for human owners.

A large cage, like a C&C cage, can hold up to 25 pounds. of bedding You can imagine how long it can take to shed 25 lbs. of dirty bedding through a small opening. Then you need to clean the entire bottom with vinegar and water and replace 25 lbs. bedding – again, all through that little opening.

A great solution is to get a cage with a large opening. Full sided cages are available that fold down like the tailgate of a pickup truck and can make cleaning the cage easier. very much faster, easier and less frustrating. The bedding can be easily lifted. And the large opening offers easy access for cleaning. Alternatively, the entire Coroplast container can be slid out through the large opening for very easy cleaning. And finally, putting on fresh bedding is a piece of cake. No more endlessly shoveling small amounts through a small opening. The bedding can be poured directly from the bag.

Large openings are a factor most of us rarely consider when selecting a new guinea pig cage. However, this situation must change if we want to save hours of time and frustration in our cage cleaning routines. Be sure to click the link in the resource box below to see several examples of wide opening C&C cages.