custom cage

[charlotle]

hi all,
new to the forum so if I muck anything up please forgive me!
my (two) guinea pigs currently live in the dining room in two cages pushed together, but this year I'm cleaning out the garage and will be able to move them into there, so I want to make them a nice new enclosure.
I was planning an open top style, more like a "fence", as the garage is secure my dog won't be able to get to them.
I have a basic plan in place, just wanted to check in with some other and more experienced owners that my research is correct!
I'm planning 2feet by 6feet, about 1foot high, the "fence" made from kiln dried poplar wood that hasn't been treated in any way.
for the bedding, newspaper underneath fleece (they're on woodshavings right now but the cost is starting to get to me!) and then of course they'll have houses, tubes, things to play with etc.
they aren't fussed about having more than one floor so I was just going to leave it at that.
as a general outline can you see anything wrong?
thanks

 

[Piggies&buns]

Sounds fine size wise.
The only thing I can see as an issue is the bedding. Newspaper gets very wet very quickly and doesn’t absorb the way you ideally need it to when using fleece - the newspaper will get wet and won’t hold the moisture away from the fleece, so it could leach back up into the fleece, meaning wet fleece. You need something more absorbent that’ll take the moisture out and keep it away from the fleece - something like puppy pads (you can get washable ones so as to minimise the disposal needs and cost of disposable).

Your location in the world may make a difference, but can you keep them warm enough in the garage? For example, I know my garage gets very cold (often colder than outside for some reason!) and is always dark so it wouldn’t be an ideal permanent home for my piggies.

 

[charlotle]

Sounds fine size wise.
The only thing I can see as an issue is the bedding. Newspaper gets very wet very quickly and doesn’t absorb the way you ideally need it to when using fleece - the newspaper will get wet and won’t hold the moisture away from the fleece, so it could leach back up into the fleece, meaning wet fleece. You need something more absorbent that’ll take the moisture out and keep it away from the fleece - something like puppy pads (you can get washable ones so as to minimise the disposal needs and cost of disposable).

Your location in the world may make a difference, but can you keep them warm enough in the garage? For example, I know my garage gets very cold (often colder than outside for some reason!) and is always dark so it wouldn’t be an ideal permanent home for my piggies.

Thanks for the reply!
I wasn't aware of reusable puppy pads! The reason I'd gone for newspaper over puppy pads was for the cost and disposal issues so that would be great, thanks for letting me know about them.
The garage was formerly my dad's den - so it has heating connected to the rest of the house and a light with a smart bulb so it can be put on a timer
Thanks for the advice

 

[Hannah_xx]

I was going to ask if it was warm and light enough in the garage and it sounds like it is!
I do use newspaper under my fleece and I feel it works fine for me, infact the newspaper is barely wet when I change it. Only in some of the corners where they’ve moved the fleece. But then I do do a full clean out about every 5 days and my fleece is quite thick.
look forward to seeing your creation