Are they bored?

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Racheylcg

I just have a normal, average hutch for my two sows. All it has in it is a bridge and a toy carrot. It also has a sleeping compartment. We're all out during the week, so surely they get very bored. When I'm home I try to give them as much attention as possible. But I sat watching their hutch for ten minutes earllier, and it seemed like 10 minutes at my grandma's house :). They just sleep and eat. Are they boredor even depressed?
 
thats all my pigs do is sleep and eat maybe do a few laps of the pen but mostly just sleep and eat
 
I just got to say ...i love the grandma comment ...made me smile ( from experience lol )
 
I know, it was just the sound of the clock ticking and no one talking....it drove me crazy in the end and I just had to leave :D
 
when i let my boy out he popcorns and wheeks but then just lies there and munches grass no wonder hes got a big booty ;D

hes a lazy little critter :smitten:
 
I found tunnels make quite a difference. They love them. Its so funny when two try to enter at seperate ends at the same time, meet in the middle and you just see these bums trying to shuffle out backwards! :D

Also, cardboard houses with two or more doors cut into them - not only will they push the house around in the whole cage, and have great fun entering one door going back in through the other, they also have something to do - my piggies always "extend" the doors, they half eat the house after a day!

Also, hanging things like cucumber on a string that is going from one wall of the hutch to the other - so that they have to stretch and struggle a bit to get to their food. gives them some excercise, not just sitting around lazy all day eating.
 
I agree that tubes are good, its hard with my boys as i have them in a nero cage, but my girls have a third of my big shed as thier cage so i cant fit all sorts of toys in for them inc fiddle stix, 2 tubes, grassy balls, a big wooden house, hay ravck which i just the set-up of a few times a week to make it more interesting.
 
I'm going to B&Q tonight to get some really hard small pipes that they can run through (I've checked on the internet and these are safe for cavies). They wont fit in my cage but I'm msure my piggies will like them in their run and pen :)
 
Tunnels, jingly balls, toilet roll tubes filled with hay....the wooden things that dangle from the top of the cage (they are about £2 from wilkos if anyone knows the things i mean?)

As long as they are getting run time, I think they are generally quite granny-esque animals ;D ;D ;D
 
PerfectPiggies said:
As long as they are getting run time, I think they are generally quite granny-esque animals ;D ;D ;D
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Brilliant summarisation, PP! ;D

My two are okay, the younger one loves a little jingly ball (which was marketed for rabbits) and a thing called a 'Kabob' which sounds a bit like PerfectPiggies what was talking about; it hangs from the roof of the cage/hutch and has wooden chews and a bell. They are indoor pigs, and are lazy most of the morning/afternoon, perking up teatime onwards. They get the run of the hallway for about 3/4 of an hour at that time, Pigpig likes to run up and down the stairs, Cobweb is too fat to bother and generally just sits there whilst I fuss over him. They have chubes, and get the empty kitchen rolls and plenty of hay to chew on and they've never shown any signs of stress or boredom. I think as long as they have each other's company (my two chat a fair bit -who knows what they're talking about!) I think they will be fine. :)
 
About those tubes - I always use those drainpipes aswell, and while you can do great tunnel-systems for the runs:

vorlagepipe.jpg


you can most definitely use them in a standard petshop cage aswell...

I used one long piece and a slightly angled one in a 120x60 petshop cage on this picture:

kaefig.jpg


If you have next to the wall of the cage it doesnt get in the way (so it could also be used in hutches that dont have much space) and yet provides some entertainment for the piggies.
 
hows u make the little bed out of the tea towel? how did u hang it in the cage? ive been trying to come up with something like that for my piggies.

i also have my piggies in a nero cage, but i swap around what tunnels, toys etc are in there enery day so they have something different in there every day. seems to have kept my two happy when they want to play. but as others said my piggies sleep loads too
 
piggies like to eat, sleep and hide!
So youve got the napping sorted O0 how about making them work for their food, it will keep them occupied and be a good way to enrich their lives.
Skewers are very good and dont take up much space as they hang at the side of the cage or on the front of a hutch door (the wire bit)
I found just putting their veg in a bowl it was gone in minutes!
Hanging balls are also good or willow balls stuffed with hay, the willow is edible so safe to leave it in their cage.

Hiding also encourages play between two pigs as they zip in and out of hidey holes, tubes, paper bags, cardboard boxes etc..

You dont have to spend much to enrich their environment a cardboard box or plastic pipe will make a difference!

Have a look at my site www.pamperedpiggies.co.uk there are lots of toy ideas in the shop area- not that you have to buy anything it may just give you ideas of things you already have which you can adapt for you piggies! ;)
 
Abnoba said:
Its so funny when two try to enter at seperate ends at the same time, meet in the middle and you just see these bums trying to shuffle out backwards! :D
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HAHA that made me chuckle !
I guess they get :tickedoff: ticked off 'coz one wants to get through so does the other !
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