Piggy Cages: Efficiency + Awesomeness
Hello good denizens of guinea_pigs! I know at least one or two of you guys have asked me about my cage, since I tried a new method that has proved to be efficient and about a billion times less disgusting. So I've come to share it with you all in hopes of making cleaning the piggies out NOT your least favorite chore to do!
Picture heavy--Dialup beware!
First of all, let me give some background. My mom's friend is basically a complete genius as far as making things--she made my prom dress (mostly posting to show off my sexy date), the guinea pig cage, and the table it stands on. She's crafty. Anyway, she loves the pigs. She had mice when she was younger, and loves rodents. She's constantly volunteering to help make the cage better. She had an idea to use thick plastic, and we worked from there.
Info on the old cage: your standard 2x3 C&C held together with tape. While my mom's friend did put handles on it, it was the biggest pain in the butt to carry outside, washing it was gross, and poop was getting caught in the tape. Cleaning the cage was disgusting, and I absolutely hated doing it. It was hard work, it was really gross and in your face. In addition to this, when we had the cage on the floor, their pee would soak through the coroplast and was warping my wood floors. This wasn't so much of a problem when we got the table, but it was really nasty.
We basically got a really thick sheet of plastic, similar to a shower curtain, and cut it to fit the cage, and big enough to use to scoop everything together. It keeps their pee from warping the coroplast, and makes cleaning MUCH easier.
So now you have the background... now see my fantastic new cage!
This is the cage (dirty) put together.
The first major difference is that the sides are NOT attached to the bottom of the cage. Lift the sides out and put them aside. (Also, I looked super awkward, so I cropped myself out of most of these, but cropping myself out wouldn't have worked well with this, so you get LOL DONGS)
Walls are gone.
Moving the dirty towels/fleece to the middle.
Roll 'em up with the plastic into a lump as shown.
The fleece and dirty towels are all wrapped up in an easy package to clean. The bottom piece of coroplast stays where it is and basically never moves.
Carry it awkwardly outside. (My dad wandered off so I awkwardly took pictures of myself holding it)
Your rolled up pile of goodness. What next?
Put it inside the garbage bag and remove the plastic sheet. Shake the poop off the fleece, and whatever hay dust etc. that you miss should be vacuumed off. Put the fleece aside to wherever you keep the dirty stuff.
You have the sheet now. Go to some place where you can lay it out flat.
It straightens out pretty well.
Pour vinegar
Use a mop type thing to scrub it down. This is some variation of the Swifter that we had lying around the house. Flip it over and scrub the other side. This should remove any stains and really clean it.
Wash off with the hose or whatever you have on hand. Dry off by hand.
Now we're back at the cage. As you can see, the bottom part of the coroplast is mostly for show.
Lay out the plastic. You initially cut the plastic a few inches larger than the cage, sort of the same as the walls. This allows you to gather them at the sides and lift all the gross stuff up without worrying about spilling it. If your cage walls are 6", add an extra 5" to your plastic. Basically cage wall" - 1". This also keeps it from curling up and your pigs finding it.
Next, put the walls in OVER the plastic. This way the pigs won't ever get to it.
You should have extra plastic on each side, like this.
Add bedding (fleece, Carefresh, whatever), food/water, toys, and pigs. Now you're ready to go!
You can buy this plastic for like $2 at Walmart, I believe. If you can't find just thick sheets of plastic like that, buy a good quality shower curtain or two and cut them. I have three in rotation right now so that things can dry out in between times.
This has made cleaning the cage exponentially easier, and it's much more efficient at getting everything outside and done quicker. I highly recommend you all try it out. Hopefully this is helpful for some of you guys. Enjoy!
Picture heavy--Dialup beware!
First of all, let me give some background. My mom's friend is basically a complete genius as far as making things--she made my prom dress (mostly posting to show off my sexy date), the guinea pig cage, and the table it stands on. She's crafty. Anyway, she loves the pigs. She had mice when she was younger, and loves rodents. She's constantly volunteering to help make the cage better. She had an idea to use thick plastic, and we worked from there.
Info on the old cage: your standard 2x3 C&C held together with tape. While my mom's friend did put handles on it, it was the biggest pain in the butt to carry outside, washing it was gross, and poop was getting caught in the tape. Cleaning the cage was disgusting, and I absolutely hated doing it. It was hard work, it was really gross and in your face. In addition to this, when we had the cage on the floor, their pee would soak through the coroplast and was warping my wood floors. This wasn't so much of a problem when we got the table, but it was really nasty.
We basically got a really thick sheet of plastic, similar to a shower curtain, and cut it to fit the cage, and big enough to use to scoop everything together. It keeps their pee from warping the coroplast, and makes cleaning MUCH easier.
So now you have the background... now see my fantastic new cage!
This is the cage (dirty) put together.
The first major difference is that the sides are NOT attached to the bottom of the cage. Lift the sides out and put them aside. (Also, I looked super awkward, so I cropped myself out of most of these, but cropping myself out wouldn't have worked well with this, so you get LOL DONGS)
Walls are gone.
Moving the dirty towels/fleece to the middle.
Roll 'em up with the plastic into a lump as shown.
The fleece and dirty towels are all wrapped up in an easy package to clean. The bottom piece of coroplast stays where it is and basically never moves.
Carry it awkwardly outside. (My dad wandered off so I awkwardly took pictures of myself holding it)
Your rolled up pile of goodness. What next?
Put it inside the garbage bag and remove the plastic sheet. Shake the poop off the fleece, and whatever hay dust etc. that you miss should be vacuumed off. Put the fleece aside to wherever you keep the dirty stuff.
You have the sheet now. Go to some place where you can lay it out flat.
It straightens out pretty well.
Pour vinegar
Use a mop type thing to scrub it down. This is some variation of the Swifter that we had lying around the house. Flip it over and scrub the other side. This should remove any stains and really clean it.
Wash off with the hose or whatever you have on hand. Dry off by hand.
Now we're back at the cage. As you can see, the bottom part of the coroplast is mostly for show.
Lay out the plastic. You initially cut the plastic a few inches larger than the cage, sort of the same as the walls. This allows you to gather them at the sides and lift all the gross stuff up without worrying about spilling it. If your cage walls are 6", add an extra 5" to your plastic. Basically cage wall" - 1". This also keeps it from curling up and your pigs finding it.
Next, put the walls in OVER the plastic. This way the pigs won't ever get to it.
You should have extra plastic on each side, like this.
Add bedding (fleece, Carefresh, whatever), food/water, toys, and pigs. Now you're ready to go!
You can buy this plastic for like $2 at Walmart, I believe. If you can't find just thick sheets of plastic like that, buy a good quality shower curtain or two and cut them. I have three in rotation right now so that things can dry out in between times.
This has made cleaning the cage exponentially easier, and it's much more efficient at getting everything outside and done quicker. I highly recommend you all try it out. Hopefully this is helpful for some of you guys. Enjoy!