My name is Carol and my pets have taken over my blog. Currently in our household we have 5 hamsters, 4 Guinea Pigs and 2 Tortoises. In the past I have Kept Rats and Gerbils too. This is just a little blog to follow their lives in pictures, videos and their own little tales. Also to give advise and habitat tips and guides and any other advice as we go along on our pet journey together.
Last Summer I undertook the challenge of making a proper indoor guinea pig pen for our two girls (Peanut Butter) Oreo & (Princess) Tink (Tinkerbell, the Diva). Below is a step by step guide on how this was done. I did it in two parts as it was quite a big job.
Unfortunately I am unhappy at the size of pen 2 so I will be expanding on this soon. I will however post pen 2 up as the whole design was made to suit easy expansion so there will be a pen 2 expansion guide later as well.
The cost of this cage was absolutely zero as it was all re-used wood form an old wardrobe, aquarium sealer was left over from a previous project and screws were there already too.
What tools did I need to make this cage?
Drill, sander, Aquarium silicon to seal the pen, Screwdriver, hammer, screws, PVA Glue to help strengthen the joints, dowels to help strengthen the base and back joint. and the following:
The above was Pen 1, made specifically to fill with hay and keep the hay inside the pen as much as possible.
Step 1: Cut the base (measurements are 50 cm depth x 100 cm Length.
Step 2; Cut out the back (46cm x 100cm
Step 3: cut out the two side panels and label A and B 44.5cm x 48.5 cm each (this accounts for the thickness of the base and back of the pen.
Step 4 take side panel B (the closest to where pen B is going to be) and cut a large arch so as the guinea pigs can get back and forth form pen 2
Step 5: cut a front panel out (depending on wood thickness – this is 15mm each) 97cm long x 20 cm high
Step 6: Cut a panel for the roof of the cage approx. 15 cm x 98.5cm
Step 7: Line up the side panels with the front and top panels and mark a diagonal line to match and line up with each one. keep it as flush as possible. (I did calculate the measure for mine, but I don’t have the precise calculations and measurements to hand anymore and this is a good way of measuring it as well.
Here are some photos of the process as it moves along:
Pen 1
Pen 2
Once it was all screwed together, I used aquarium sealer around the inside edges to stop water leakage. I then put cup hooks into the top front of each side panel and hung a wire mesh panel on it to help the piggy’s feel more secure as they were not keen on the openness of the pen.
Viola! Pen 1 complete. If, however, you make this with a non-veneered wood you will have to find a nontoxic way of sealing the wood surface. this was all made form an old wardrobe, so it was veneered MDF. Easy to cut and work with and completely waterproof on the surface. I also added ‘feet’ to the pen to raise it off the floor allowing air to circulate under the pen.
Pen 1 with temporary attachment
I hope this helps and is clear enough, if however, you have any questions please feel free to use the comments below to ask. Pen 2 will be uploaded shortly. The best thing about this method of building was that I could keep the original pen attached to this pen until I had time to build the second pen.
So we all decided that Fudge seemed a bit bored in his Hamster Heaven (HH). He had taken to constantly seeping and hardly getting up through the night to play. Myself and my fiancé were getting a bit worried about him so we thought it would be a good idea to build him a bigger habitat to live in and oh boy is it bigger ! Fudge has gone from his HH which gives him 4.3 square feet to his DIY habitat which gives him 6.2 square feet of roaming floor space. He had a good investigate of this space and seems to have found himself a beautiful dark little corner to sleep in, the HH was to bright and he always ended up sleeping in the light as he didn't seem to like any other house we put in there for him.
I have put this guide up to show that it doesn't have to cost a fortune to make your own cage as this only cost me £25 for extra wood for the mesh cover and supports, the mesh and hinges and handles. I also bought face masks as I was sawing MDF veneered wood and safety goggles as I was using a Jigsaw.
Fudges new habitat started off as a plain old TV unit
Firstly I took the top off of the unit so as I could add hinged lids and a mesh lid later, and also let me remove the two dividers inside the unit.
I took one the dividers and cut an arch into it using the Jigsaw and re-attached about a cm further away from its original place as I needed to fit 3 detolf shelves in the large gap.
I then cut and attached some old table legs to help hold the glass in place from the exterior of the cage
I then added the 3 detolf shelves in the front and some support wood on the inside (top and bottom) to hold it. I used aquarium sealer to seal the shelves together and to the sides of the wood.
I cut two pieces of wood from an old wardrobe and added the handles (about £2.00 each) this is the first cost in the building of this cage as I had old wood and screws spare from old furniture and previous cage builds.
I then attached a hinge to each lid (should have been 2 but I mis-judged the weight of each lid. these where about £3.50 for 2 hinges. (There is a mesh covered hole in the top, please ignore as this was not part of the design - It was the last piece of wood suitable for a lid ha ha).
I added a support beam to the outside of the habitat to help support the weight of lid number 2 and made a wire mesh lid for the end lid
I then added a mesh window in the hideaway section to let air get in. the mesh and the wood used to make the mesh totalled to around £15 altogether
I would recommend adding the shelf before putting the glass in but I did it the hard way Ha ha. Add wood shavings/aspen, and hay, and of course, toys.
I hope this helps anyone wanting to build their own habitat for their Hamsters but am more than happy to answer any questions.
Meet our Sow, Tink. She is the Alpha in our herd of three female Guinea Pigs. Her personality is one of a queen in charge of her flock. Until October she held (mostly) alpha status against Oreo, her sister. Every 14 days or so, we would hear her rumble stomping around the pen challenging, well nothing really, as Oreo would be lying in her hidey just trying to chill whilst Tink pranced around the cage looking like the hulk. Oreo, for the most part accepted this (unless she was in heat) in which case Oreo would run up to Tink, try and mate with her and then run away. Tink really was the aggressor when it came to dominance between the two, never letting Oreo forget that she was the boss.
When it came to us humans however, Tink could not stand us, she was happy to have floor time if we opened the gate and let them walk out of their own free will but piggie cuddles where out of the question. She wheeked and squirked, moaned and complained when we tried to give her hugs. At times I am sure I heard her say "Put me down you stupid human, I am in charge and have better things to be doing than sitting on your lap... put me down!"
We all still love her as she has that adorable little squirrel face or if you catch her standing sideways she looks totally like a little mini sheep. She is also very caring towards her herd, although we never noticed at first as there were only two of them. When Oreo was on medication for her eye injury we actually caught Tink trying to clean her eye which was very sweet. Although we had to try and stop her from licking the eye drops out of Oreos' eye, it did still show a different side to Tinks' personality.
We did notice however, that upon adding a third piggy girl her personality has changed somewhat. We did keep the new addition in a separate habitat for a while. The two set ups were close together but Tink and the new addition seemed to be getting very stressed. Belle, the new addition, would constantly stand in the corner on her hay wheeking and trying to see the girls. Tink would constantly stand on the other side wheeking back and trying to see Belle. When Tink and Oreo got out for floor time, Tink would run over and try and chew through the bars. It was almost like watching her trying to jailbreak Belle out of her pen. Belle copied Tink and started chewing the bars from inside the cage and it was just heartbreaking to see. After one week of quarantine, instead of the two which is recommended, we decided to move them all in together. (There will be a separate post about how we did this as we did not just put her in with the others immediately).
Once Belle had joined the herd, Tink changed dramatically, she took on a very maternal role, cleaning the new baby (13 weeks old) and following her around for the first few days. Once, when Oreo played too rough with Belle, and Belle wheeked, Tink came rushing over and blocked Oreos path to Belle sniffing at her to make sure she was OK. Tink also does not challenge Oreo much any more. She still rumble struts when she is in heat but it is not nearly as bad as it was before. The other night, Belle let out a loud wheek for no apparent reason, and both, Tink and Oreo came running out of the hay pen to check on her. I checked her too and she was not hurt.
The Girls living in harmony
As for us humans, Tink has let me pet her in the pen several times now without running away or giving us 'that look of disgust' and I also got to hold her for around 10 minutes before she started squirking indignantly at me. This is a miracle, truly it is.
We are still learning lots about our little herd and their different roles and personalities. We have had Tink and Oreo since 26th October 2017, they were one years old, around the 12th September this year and up until we added Belle to the herd we thought we did know them. This change has been amazing to watch in both of them. They all seem a little more calm and settled.
I will be discussing all our pets personalities over the next month as they are all so different. In the meantime I will leave you with Tink, Oreo and Belle saying goodbye for now.
Loki is a male Russian Dwarf Hamster with a Campbell dominant gene. He is around 9 month old and weighs 41g. His weight fluctuates from 45g to 40g over monthly weigh ins so we don't worry too much about this. Loki came to us as a rescue with his ex cage mate, Odin, from someone who couldn't spend as much time with them as they had originally intended. Originally, the two boys had been housed together, as many experienced hamster owners know, this rarely ends happily.
Loki had been attacked by Odin and ended up needing antibiotic cream for his stomach. The owner had separated them and Odin had flourished, Loki had not however, he had become highly anxious and bit frequently. It was when the two were separated that the owner realised how time consuming it was to give quality time to each of the two hamsters. We took them both and got them both Savic Hamster heavens as the pet shop had sold the previous owner cages that were too small for them. Loki became very territorial at first, biting anyone that put their hand in the cage, hissing at them and basically looking terrified. We spent a lot of time getting to know him and trying to gain his trust.
We really do have a soft spot for Loki as he is our own little special needs boy. When we first got him we noticed that he was forever falling off his little ledge in the Hamster Heaven and he had major problems climbing up a plastic ramp in the cage. We had three Russian dwarfs in the same set up at the time and he just could not seem to have the strength in his back legs to push him up the ramp like the other two (Gizmo & Odin). We noticed also that when he stood on his back legs he fell backwards and if he was standing up to grab the bars of the cage he missed and tumbled through the gap onto the cage floor. We were using a Savic Hamster Heaven so the fall was not from a great height but still enough to concern us.
We have since come to the conclusion that his back legs are slightly underdeveloped or that he received nerve damage from his fight with his brother. He is also extremely short sighted, even more so than a hamster normally is. Loki does not see your hand coming from either side so it frightens him severely if your hand suddenly appears from nowhere and he still isn't good at climbing up ramps so we have used wooden platforms and ladders for him to climb around on and this works well for him.
Loki also hordes everything, when we clean him out we can fill a cereal bowl with the food he has stored in several different places around his cage, we think this is due to his cage sharing days with Odin. He still occasionally hisses if he is doesn't expect you to be in his cage but we always talk to him as we enter his domain now to let him know we are there, on the occasion he has been sleeping and not heard us he will hiss or nip at our hands. So far he has not drawn blood and the nips are more of a warning than a danger. We love our special little boy though, he constantly makes us chuckle with his hyper antics and his cute little face makes us smile every day. I have made a short compilation of videos to show Loki's first birthday with us.
Guinea pigs are rodents (gnawing animals) and they are also known as Cavia porcellus, or Cavies for short. I prefer piggies as it is short, cute and to the point for our girls. Guinea pigs are social animals and must live in pairs as a minimum but are better if kept in herds of 3 or more. They can live between 5 and 9 years with some even living to the grand old age of 11 years old in the right conditions.
Good pets for children?
Guinea pigs are not the best pets for children due to the workload and the full time commitment it takes to keep them clean and healthy. It is a misconception that guinea pigs are great pets for children as they are very skittish creatures who tend to scream (WHEEK) and runaway when you try to pick them up. This can deter children from continuing to create a bond with them and even scare some younger children.
A guinea pigs digestive system
Hay, dry food mix and vegetables are a daily part of a guinea pigs diet and without Hay the guinea pig will fall ill within 24 hours. The number one rule of keeping guinea pigs is that it has unlimited access to hay at all times and a cup of vegetables each per day. (You will note that in the following section I made an actual hay pen in which I cleaned and filled this with hay daily). A herd of three guinea pigs can, and do, poop more than a shovel full every day if healthy. Guinea pigs cannot digest food fully the first time around so they eat their own faeces and continue to digest the food this way. The faeces we clean up are poops which hold no more nutritional value to the guinea pigs. Guinea pigs urinate a lot throughout the day too which is why they need a well ventilated living enclosure and cleaned out daily. Too much calcium in their diet can cause problems with this. If you happen to be cleaning out your Guinea pig habitat and find crusted patches of white chalky substance, then you need to cut down the calcium in their diet. This chalky substance can build up inside the bladder and is known as sludge, it can cause severe bladder problems if the calcium levels are not lowered and kept under control. Obviously clean water must be available at all times too, you must always have at least two water bottles as there can be problems when the girls go into heat which will be discussed later.
Foods high in calcium that should be given in smaller but regular doses are as follows:
Spinach
Parsley
Kale
Foods that can be fed daily are as follows
Romaine lettuce
Little gem Lettuce
Green/ yellow peppers
small amount of spinach/Kale/parsley
Coriander
Other foods you can feed once weekly
Carrot (high in sugar)
Red pepper (High in sugar)
broccoli (too much can cause bloat)
cauliflower (too much can cause bloat)
popcorn (no flavourings just plain popped corn) as a treat
These are just very basic guidelines as there are many foods you can feed your guinea pigs to keep their diet interesting but there are also foods you cannot feed them at all (nothing in the onion family can be given to any rodent).
Oreo and Tink in there second enclosure
The enclosure I built for them
Living conditions
There are guidelines on the internet for living space required for various numbers of Guinea pigs. When we had two guinea pigs we originally followed the 10 square foot rule the above enclosure was 12 square foot as there were three Guinea Pigs. I noticed however that all three girls spent all there time in the hay pen (where the water bottles are) so I gave up and bought a c&c enclosure raised off of the floor. This actually gives them around 9 square feet but they run around like mad pop-corning and zooming around. They have also become slightly tamer allowing us to pick them up with much less fuss than [previously. I of course plan to extend the size of the c & c enclosure as I feel it is the height of the enclosure rather than the size that has caused this positive change but for now they are active and happy. they are starting to become more confident with floor time and hopefully at some point I would like to add a little ramp that they can walk up and down themselves so as they can have freedom to come and go when we are in to supervise them.
2 x 4 c & c enclosure for our girls.
They love it more than the old enclosure
Issues with Sows
Tink, Queen of the herd
Sows can go into heat once every 14 days and it can get loud and frustrating for both the guinea pigs and the humans. There are a few things you may notice when a Sow is in heat. She will tend to walk slowly and all puffed up (almost like a bull dog swaying side to side) and growl at the other girls as she does this, this is called rumble strutting. In our house the Alpha sow does this regularly, she is re-affirming her status with Oreo and Belle. before Belle came along she was much worse, blocking Oreo form the water bottle and the food pellet bowl too. Oreo however is much funnier when she is in season, (I am almost sure it is revenge for Tinks grumpiness), Oreo runs up to Tink (never Belle) and mounts her before running away. Tink looks very indignant at this. Oreo does not block bottles or food but does tend to block Belle into her house at times so we have to stay aware of the girls mood and whether they are in season or not. Belle, the youngest girl, tries to challenge Tink when she is in season and this causes both Tink and Oreo to barricade her into her house and keep her away form Tink during her season. I some ways Belle helped to calm Tink down when in season but in others she makes it harder for herself when she is in season. so there you have it, no one girl has the same personality, and none go into heat and act the same, it is chaos. It can get quite rowdy and the girls will often head but each-other out of the way so really not great pets for young children to deal with without adult supervision.
Cost of Keeping Guinea pigs
This section is the real eye opener as keeping guinea pigs is actually really much more expensive than people expect it to be. I will do this in list format as it is really the easiest way to put the cost or regular needs together I will then add on the irregular costs. These are UK costs only.
Hay x 4 bags 5.49 per bag = 21.96 per month
Food Pellets x 1 bag = 4.99 per month
Vegetables x 30/31 bags per month (average of - 1.29 each) = 39.99
Fitch bedding (if using) £22 per month (or can use fleece and wash)
NB: DO NOT USE WOOD SHAVINGS AS PINE IN THIS IS DANGEROUS TO ALL RODENT RESPIRATORY SYSTEMS
Total cost monthly = 66.94/88.94
Other costs involve
vet bills for injuries/illness (minimum cost for us so far is just under £100)
claws clipped every 3 months x 3 = £45
annual check ups x 3 = £135
Total yearly cost for our girls to date =£1118.28
Oreo, after her eye had been healed
Belle, Oreo and Tink
Conclusion
Now I am not trying to deter anyone form getting guinea pigs as pets, but I am trying to raise awareness of their complexities and the financial costs and also the life time commitment you need to give these little creatures. Guinea pigs can live up to 8/9 years old and they are prey animals that live with high levels of anxiety. They cannot cope very well with being passed from owner to owner as this wears them down and causes high levels of stress, illness, and early death. I understand there are situations where it could become very difficult to keep pets where there lives would not be enriched anymore due to health or financial changes, however the reason I see everywhere for the re-homing of most rodents is that it was bought for the child and the child has lost interest now. Ultimately, the responsibility of all children and animals in the household lie with the adults in the house. I really want people to know what they are committing to when buying guinea pigs. I will be the first to admit I had no idea it took so much work and money to give them a good life. I will also admit that it is extremely rewarding when they let you give them hugs, I call them my 'Therapets' (not all of them give hugs though). If you can commit to all of the above, the issues between sows (Boars too, although I have no personal experience with boars), the living space required, the cost needed, the time spent cleaning there enclosures every day for up to 8/9 years. All of this for the price of a hug (when your guinea pig will let you) then go for it. If however, you have any doubts at all, please look at something that takes a little less time, has a little less complexity and less financial commitments.
This last few weeks have bee total chaos in the MacLean Household but in a good way, a productive way. First of all I have bee diligently building a new habitat for Tyr, our Roborovski. This takes up the whole kitchen, so there have been a couple of take out nights for tea whilst I have been sawing and sanding, drilling and sanding some more. As well as this I had to make an additional, temporary home for a new female Guinea Pig. Belle is our newest member and was adopted from Pets at home. We try to adopt or rescue our pets now instead of buying them form new stock. Building 2 cages in the same space is a bit hectic but this is what I came up with.
Belles temporary cage that we put next to Oreo and Tink
As there are 3 Guinea Pigs now, we can officially call them a herd. We kept the new addition, Belle, in quarantine for around a week (some owners advised two). The reason we introduced her into the pen early was that she was chewing the bars on her own pen constantly trying to get to them. Also when they had floor time, Tink, the alpha was constantly trying to jail break her by chewing the bars on the outside of her pen too. They were constantly wheeking at each other too which caused more bar chewing. We felt that it was better for all of them if we added her to the herd earlier rather than stress them all out and make them ill.
Belle, not so small now
All of the Guinea Pigs were getting stressed as they all wanted to be together and when we allowed them floor time together Tink instantly took on a mothering role, cleaning and licking her. When she panicked and ran to a corner, Oreo immediately covered her to stop us picking her up. It was really clear we would not have a problem adding Belle to the original pen and hutch. We are new to Herds and Guinea pig politics but they were pretty clear about wanting Belle in with them, and Belle was pretty clear about wanting to be with them. So they are all now in the original hutch and pen that I build for Tink and Oreo.
Queen Tink - Herd Alpha
Tink has taken on the role of Alpha with dignity and grace and as long as Oreo still gets her hugs she is happy to share her home with Belle.
Belle is really quite tame compared to Tink and Oreo at her age and all is well within our little happy, wheeky, herd of Guinea Pigs.
So it has been an eventful week but with many happy little popcorn's and wheeks, and of-course, I did get my hamster habitat built too, which will be updated here soon.
I had always wanted a little Roborovski but Tyr's arrival was unplanned, I had been taking Oreo, our guinea pig to the vets as she had something wrong with her eye. On that day I came out the Vet really upset as it had been more serious than we had thought (All turned out to be fine in the end, but on this day we did not know this).
Our Vets is actually inside the pet-store so its easy to buy supplies when you visit or make an appointment when you go to the store for supplies. The pet-store also has an adoption centre in it where various little animals can be adopted. When I managed to calm down enough to head out for a taxi home with Oreo in her carry case, I thought I would cheer myself up by going over to look at the adoption centre. I always love to see all the cute little rodents they have available. This was not my best plan.
I walked over and seen a little Roborovski (I cannot for the life of me remember what his name was in the adoption centre but I changed it as soon as I got home). Now I read his little card beside his cage and had a look inside, not expecting to see anything as Roborovski Hamsters are very timid and tend to hide a lot, but there he was. His little head appeared from a pile of bedding and he looked in my direction before getting up and coming over to the glass front of the cage. It was love at first sight.
Tyrs Habitat (110cm x 40cm)
I had a spare starter (hospital) cage in the house and but had an idea on how to build him a large habitat since I had already done this for Gizmo, my Russian Dwarf, so I adopted him there and then with Oreo in her own carry case. He had several different names over 2 or 3 days before I settled on Tyr. Later that week we adopted two other Russian Dwarf Hamsters called Loki and Odin so Tyr seemed to fit. (One day I will post up how I built his habitat).
Tyr weighs around 37 grams and was 1 year old in April 2019, he was four month old when I adopted him. He is still very timid but this month he has started running up to the doors in his habitat to see me when I talk to him (he still runs away when I open the doors though). If I move very slowly he will now stand beside my hand and eat or put his two front paws on my fingers so as he can take a treat form my hand. Very occasionally he will sit on my hand to eat a treat but this is all very much on his terms. He has never bitten me and is very good natured. His personality is that of a very timid hamster but now and again you get to see his bravery when he attacks his whimzee treat ha ha.
So this is my introduction to Tyr, he was my comfort baby when I was feeling sad, he always manages to make me smile and he is so very cute. He was only in his starter cage for a week while I built him his forever habitat which you can see above. I hope one day I will be able to handle Tyr a bit more but I am aware that Roborovski's are very skittish and timid and I am lucky he comes as close to me as he does.
