Building a Guinea Pig Pen

Pen 1 & 2 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. 

Fudge's New Habitat

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. 

An Introduction to Tink, Queen of the Herd

Tink, Our Queen of the Herd

 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.

Introduction to Loki

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.