Do your guinea pigs use lofts/second story?

[Autonerd]

Hi all -- I'm a newbie to both the forums and guinea pigs so please be gentle.

We just adopted two male GPs from a family who got bored with them. They're currently in a Living World cage and they do like coming up on top of the shelter to eat (we keep the hay there as well). I'm planning a C&C cage and we're space-limited. I know a second floor* doesn't count towards square footage; I'm thinking it's an easy add-on anyway, and wondering how many guinea pigs actually use it.

My plan (thus far) is to fold the coroplast over on one side to form an enclosed hideaway (they seem to like being able to retreat from the dog's prying eyes), and I'll have food atop that since it's what they're used to. I could also do a loft on the far side as a second get-away space, and that'd be on the end away from the wall. What I'm wondering is -- those of you who have lofts, do your guinea pigs actually use them?

Also -- for the ramps, can I use coroplast with some sort of anti-skid tape like this:

3M Safety-Walk 2 in. x 5 yds. Gray Home and Recreation Tread-7647NA - The Home Depot

...or would that be too rough on their feet?

TIA
Aaron

* Since this is a UK-based site, I suppose i should call it the first floor...

 

[Piggies&buns]

My set up is that they live in my shed and run around the shed floor. They have a two storey hutch in the shed as well. i put up a loft in the shed part of their space and they only used it for about a week and then didn’t set foot up there again so I took it down. They are more than happy to use the upstairs level of their hutch though. The ramp up to the loft area has that kind of non-slip product on it but they didn’t seem to like the feel of it. They are fine to use the hutch ramp though which is covered with a piece of vetbed which is very soft but offers them plenty of grip. They seem much happier with that than they were with the non slip ramp

 

[Fantasimo]

I had two lofts on my c&c, one for sleeping and one for eating so they could use the base to zoom around. I ended up taking the sleeping loft down as they didn’t use it, but the kitchen loft is a huge success. It’s also handy for keeping the hay and food in a separate area and away from the fleece liners in the bottom. Mind you, I had to put them up there a couple of times before they got the hang of it

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

* Since this is a UK-based site, I suppose i should call it the first floor...

Or sell it a bit harder, call it a penthouse ...
I didn't have a loft on my C&C, but my 3 are now in a 2 level hutch. They weren't keen on using the ramp up/down until I put a cloth tunnel up it, which has a soft but less slippy base.

 

[Katsycakes]

We have a loft in our c&c and our piggies absolutely love it, their favourite place to be. I had to take it off for a week or two while I replaced the liners for it and once they got it back they couldn’t stop popcorning up there.

 

[anyar.dris]

Yes, my 3 piggies do. They sleep upstairs at night, their own choice. Surprisingly, even all my past piggies slept upstairs at night too. All of them treat the 2nd floor as their main bedroom. My setup is a 2-floor hutch with an attached 4x2 C&C, and they are free range in our living room.



Here they are at the moment.

 

[rp1993]

We have a little loft on our C&C we pile hay up there and have a fleece forest they love it! Our ramp is made of Ben grids and some correx then we drape a bath mat over the top And they use under the ramp as a hidey too!

 

[Sweet Potato]

My boys love their loft but only if there's hay up there because they don't like coming up and down the ramp every time they want a nibble. they also love it because they can spy on the fridge from up there and I usually put their cosy stuff up there to make it like a bedroom.

 

[Autonerd]

Thanks all! @anyar.dris that is some guinea pig condo you have there. I'm jealous. It's bigger than my apartment (and if it were here in LA the rent would undoubtedly be higher).

 

[anyar.dris]

Thanks all! @anyar.dris that is some guinea pig condo you have there. I'm jealous. It's bigger than my apartment (and if it were here in LA the rent would undoubtedly be higher).

We don't really have a big house. We live in a 2 bedroom bungalow and our living room isn't really big. But we made sure that the piggies would have a big enough area to live in and at the same time we have enough space to move around.

We redesigned our living room while on lockdown in April and we've thrown (well put in recycle) all the furniture we never really use, like a folding dining table and chairs (hubby and I prefer to eat our food sitting on the sofa in front of the tv ), computer table, and replaced a lot of the storage/cabinets to just smaller ones. We also changed the carpet to vinyl floor so it's easier to clean the piggy mess. Beside the fish tank (you can see from the photos below) is another guinea pig area. They really have a big space for them here to make their lives better. They take over our space though.

 

[Autonerd]

That is awesome. We're a little limited by the GIANT dining room table my wife bought a while back (not that I'm complaining, my love, if you are reading this, you know I love the table). We can't go right on the floor because of the dogs, and every wall is lined with bookshelves. We think we have a decent-sized slot between the dining room table and the hutch... best we can do for now! We are trying to figure out how we can get them out every day and create a pig-safe space for them to run around in the living room (without canine interference).

Thank you for the Boar Facts!