Anyone Have The Oxbow Play Yard Cage?

[The_Zu]

Hello! My husband and I are looking at potentially getting our own Guinea Pigs this Christmas. I first got the idea while browsing the SPCA and discovering they have several small animals that need loving homes! Thought they only dealt with cats and dogs. I've never had guinea pigs before, but found this site and read everything I could on them. I still have a few questions.

Weather we can have guinea pigs will depend on a lot... We have a no pet policy in our basement suite and we would need approval from the landlords first. I'm hoping they are okay with guinea pigs as they are caged when we are away so can't cause property damage or destruction like cats and dogs can, and they aren't loud enough for them to hear upstairs. My husband also has mild allergies to cats and dogs (but has still owned them in the past). I don't know if he has guinea pig allergies, and if he does, if they can be handled by frequent cage cleaning and hand washing (its how he managed his cat allergy with a cat).

I've learned that the typical cages pet stores sell aren't good enough! But, while browsing, I came across this cage and was wondering what experienced Guinea Pig owners thought of it? Look at all the pictures please!

Oxbow Play Yard Small Pet Habitat

I love that it's a cage, but is also able to open up to an extended play area so its huge on space! I assume it would need a few adjustments, like covering the wire door/ramp when its open to the play yard so the piggies don't hurt their feet. Might it also need better ramps for getting out of the cage as they aren't natural climbers?

I know the cage might be too small, but I would get it to be open with the play area 90% of the time. It would give thrm plebty of space when we are working! I just like the idea that we are also able to close it off to the smaller cage when needed, like say when we have company for dinner and need the extra space, or when we have to clean the floors. This would only force the guinea pigs into the smaller cage for a max of two hours once a week. It would also let me wheel them into another room when I needed to vacuum as to not frighten them. I would buy several fleece and sew them to size to use as bedding in both cage and play area so I could swap and wash frequently.

Anyone have this cage? Thoughts?

 

[span]

It's lovely that you've thought about it, and great you want to adopt! Hopefully the landlord will be ok, my landlord said anything in a cage was fine, anything else (rabbits included!) wouldn't be allowed.

In my opinion, even with the play area extension, the 'small' cage is too small, but I think the large would just about be alright for a pair of guineas. Then if you needed to leave them in the cage for longer than a couple of hours, they would still have a reasonable space.

You're right, you would need to cover the wire bar 'ramp', but I think with would be easy, if it was me, I'd cable tie some MDF or something solid on top and then made a fleece 'sock' to slip over it, then you could remove it again when closing the cage up.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but to me it looks like there is a gap under the ramp, between the leg and the base of the cage that a determined guinea pig could probably escape through (I have a boar who would be out of that in seconds!) so you may need to modify it further to make it completely secure. Maybe if you didn't have the play pen in a circle and had it as a rectangle or at the very least with the first panels secured fully along the ramp? I hope that makes sense, I can picture it in my head but I'm not sure if you can!

Hope it all works out for you, guineas are wonderful animals

 

[The_Zu]

Thank you! I didn't say but we would have gone for the larger size of the two sizes anyway Good thoughts in how to modify it as well, only thing I'm curious about is how much is too steep for Guinea pigs to climb?

 

[sport_billy]

Hi Welcome to the forum lovely to have you here.

Some piggies wont use ramps..... We have encountered this. It does look a little steep too and to be honest it is so small for two piggies without the run space. My advice would be to go for a standard 120cm cage, I think you guys work in inches? so 47 inches x 24 inches something like that

Here is a site that sells C&C which are fab cages C&C Cages

Saw this in Walmart Guinea Habitat™ | Walmart.ca Looks the right size according to questions below

 

[span]

That would be a good size then!

It depends on the age (and personality) of the guinea. One of my boys could probably manage a vertical ramp, he's so energetic haha. I would say the shallower the better, but It's just a judgement call really, if they struggle with it, you could pop some folded fleece under it to bring it up a bit.