Does anyone's guinea-pigs live in a shed?

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Alicia

Alicia

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By in a shed, I mean not in hutches in the shed but just running around on the floor kind of thing. I was looking on another forum for ideas on what hutch to get for the big group of sows I hope to eventually have, and someone suggested I clear out my shed and just let them run around the floor in there (with bedding of course) I don't like my sows to be on woodshavings because it makes their feet go bright red and sore so I have them on vetbed and the moment but I can't buy enough vetbed to put on the shed floor so I thought I'd try fleece, because it's must cheaper and I can get it easily. I wasn't sure what to do about them being in the run (normally every morning I just open their hutch door and they can go in and out of the run and hutch as they please) but I thought the shed is quite big, so they could stay in there in the day with the top part of the stable door open (with a mesh bit so cats and things couldn't get in) and then I'd put them in the run when I get back from school, so they'd still have 6 hours in the run. What do you think of this, does it sound OK? I just think it will be cheaper than buying a hutch and bigger than any hutch could be anyway so my girls would have lots of space. Now I just need to get Mum to agree :)) But the guinea-pigs live in the shed in the winter anyway so I hope it won't be a problem them being in there all year round. Do your guinea-pigs live in a shed? If they do can you please post a photo of them in the shed just so I can get an idea of how it will work?
 
This is the shed I was thinking of putting them in (I need to clean it out though)
guineapigs.jpg
 
Hi, I read your other post about your mom not wanting you to put them in the shed. That's sad, but do you think it'd be better to wait to get a big group of sows until a later time, when your mom won't be able to say anything about it? How does she feel about your idea to get more guinea pigs?

It's so annoying when parents won't support our crazy love of animals, isn't it?
 
Some of mine are in a shed but they're in hutches. Your set up sounds fine, but you'd need a lot of fleece to cover an entire area of shed. What about keeping them on newspaper with a layer of hay? I'm not sure what other people with shed piggies keep them on, to be honest. You'd also need a fly screen during the summer (flies just LOVE a smelly piggy shed) they have these in the pound shop at the moment, they are fantastic and make such a difference. Just bear in mind sheds can get very hot so I've got mine on frozen water bottles too.
 
Hi Alicia

My girls live in my old wendy house :)) I cleared it out completely and hubby and i stapled a tarpualin to the floor (cheaper than lino or cushioned flooring). They have always been on wood shavings so they are on top of the tarpaulin. We then put their two storey wooden hutch in. Top doors obviously stay locked but we removed the mesh form the bottom and hubby built a ramp up to the lower level (not that they were impressed with it they just jump in and out so we ended up taking it out :))) We also put in some wooden greenhouse staging (open shelves) to store their food etc on.
They have pieces of drainpipe for tubes, wooden garden edging and houses.
Most of all they love the space especially on wet days. They have a run for dry days which is completely seperate from the shed/wendy house.
We have 2 wire panels to fit in the doorway as we also have a stable door.
I will take some pics for you and post later.

Lorraine
 
Piccies as promised :)

Here's my wendy house/shed. Board on bottom wire panel normally helps to stop too much of the shavings ending up in the garden. I had just been in and out cleaning hence the mess!
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On windy days I have the bottom door closed
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The hutch stays like this, so the girls can come and go as they please
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Greenhouse staging (notice hubbys socks?, they stop the water bottles freezing in winter!) A small block of wood and cable tie secures water bottle to leg of staging. Garden log roll to left, filled with hay.
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Garden log roll house, and drainpipe (oops forgot to wash it!)
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Floorspace
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Run for dry days
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The pipes and houses are moved out to the run when the girls go out, they were not impressed when I stole some to put back in the shed so I could take the piccies, ha ha
 
Thanks for all these pics dyzni. Thought I'd see if there are any posts about converting sheds and yours is just what I wanted!

I'm thinking of converting mine and you've given me ideas for how to do it. Cheers!
 
My herd lives in a shed too. There is a two story hutch inside the shed for them to snuggle up in however they have the free range of the whole space. I floored mine with linoleum which makes it blissfully easy to clean!
 
i can't really afford a shed, and my mom didn't want more, so i've cheated :)) my piggies have a 6ftx8.5ft walk in run, all meshed in, with a patio floor and a 6ft gate. there are hutches in that area, along with tubes and houses. like an out in the open version of Dyzni's shed. when i have a bit more money, i'll be adding a proper roof (currently just tarpaulin to fight off light rain (they get shut in hutch with covers during heavy rain)). and then in winter, i'm just going to put two fence panels up, to enclose the entire area like a shed :p
 
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