Found this…

Another one! This one is worse. I think it is very interesting to see how some parts they had spot on (making sure the water is clean, using a heavy food bowl, providing sticks but not toys) while others they had totally wrong (cage size, they say that guinea pigs ‘don’t play’ but the closest thing they do to playing (popcorning) would have been prevented by the cage size, so they may have actually genuinely not known they do that!)
 

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It’s awful to look back on what was thought of as correct cage sizing now. My guinea pigs had roomy 4ft hutches back in the late 60’s (I know that’s wasn’t big now) but I do remember having a hamster in what must have been a very small cage. Times change and things move on but there seems to be more and more abandoned animals now so not much has really improved and pet shops/online sites like ebay are still selling rubbish cages. It’s also this “buy and chuck” attitude with some people that really needs to stop
 
@Pantalaimon , this is completely unrelated but reading through some old posts I was curious about whether you got either the hayzee hay holder or the cozi creations version?
 
And all that straw for bedding. It must have been a nightmare to live on.
 
fluffysal said:
@Pantalaimon , this is completely unrelated but reading through some old posts I was curious about whether you got either the hayzee hay holder or the cozi creations version?
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I have the Hayzee one, I didn’t even know there was another one!
I have still not decided whether I like it or not.
 
I was looking at it last night and due to the enormous postage charges I googled it and an old thread came up. There is (was?) A similar item by cozi creationz on a Facebook shop in the UK. I won't use social media so I can't look.
When the boys get their penthouse back I want them to have a good sized hay/potty area on both floors.
 
fluffysal said:
I was looking at it last night and due to the enormous postage charges I googled it and an old thread came up. There is (was?) A similar item by cozi creationz on a Facebook shop in the UK. I won't use social media so I can't look.
When the boys get their penthouse back I want them to have a good sized hay/potty area on both floors.
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I brought the Cozi creations hay keeper for holidays- due to various factors, we haven’t used it yet- but it looks good & strong. Would you like me to take a picture of it later?

Just helping derail this thread, sorry.
 
fluffysal said:
I was looking at it last night and due to the enormous postage charges I googled it and an old thread came up. There is (was?) A similar item by cozi creationz on a Facebook shop in the UK. I won't use social media so I can't look.
When the boys get their penthouse back I want them to have a good sized hay/potty area on both floors.
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I have found that it didn’t fit the 1x2 area I had set out for it, it sits slack in some places and tight in others. I have managed to get it in a reasonable position now and am avoiding moving it!
The other issues I have are more with my guinea pigs (one specific one) than the product!😆
One of mine forces his way down the side and uses the corner as a toilet, it’s then disgusting because it’s trapped against the side of the Hayzee. I have mostly stopped the behaviour now by rolling the fleece up in front of it and pegging the Hayzee to the correx. This same pig has chewed holes in it on the side where he likes to push through as well as in the bottom when I took too long with putting the liner and hay back in after cleaning.

Not the best pictures but you can sort of see it. I line mine with towels inside pillowcases (all bought really cheap from charity shops), as these are absorbent and easy to wash as the hay doesn’t stick to them.
 

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Pantalaimon said:
A picture I took of a page in a very old animal care book, still in use at an animal care college!
It is so funny (in a slightly sad sort of way) that it’s hard to see how someone could have written the caption seriously!
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Ca. 50 years ago, when this this cage came first onto the market it was actually extremely spacious and light considering the hamster cage boxes or tiny hutches most piggies and rabbits were kept in; far too many as singles and with harldy any space to move around. Breeder boxes were (and sadly still are in some cases a foot square).

This cage is sadly still officially considered adequate minimal space for two guinea pigs on the Continent. (50 cm x100 cm). For the time it was written, this was really the forefront of welfare. :( :( :(

I've grown up with piggies in that time... It may look like the stone ages to us now but we have come a long way since then!

But it is also worth remembering that those guinea pigs were not less loved or had any less joy of life, which still did find its way. It was just a very, very different time in which we knew so very little about guinea pigs as a species and their needs - or even thought about it. It was a time when most people were still thinking that 7 years was the average length of a dog's life but in which quite a few piggies lived longer than that. And it is worth keeping in mind that we are still on the same journey; what we are doing now may be considered inadequate by future generations; certainly the currentreckless overproduction and the throw-away culture of pets around the world will be seen as deeply wrong and utterly respectless.
 
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Wiebke said:
Ca. 50 years ago, when this this cage came first onto the market it was actually extremely spacious and light considering the hamster cage boxes or tiny hutches most piggies and rabbits were kept in; far too many as singles and with harldy any space to move around. Breeder boxes were (and sadly still are in some cases a foot square).

This cage is sadly still officially considered adequate minimal space for two guinea pigs on the Continent. (50 cm x100 cm). For the time it was written, this was really the forefront of welfare. :( :( :(

I've grown up with piggies in that time... It may look like the stone ages to us now but we have come a long way since then!

But it is also worth remembering that those guinea pigs were not less loved or had any less joy of life, which still did find its way. It was just a very, very different time in which we knew so very little about guinea pigs as a species nd their needs - or even thought about it. It was a time when most people were still thinking that 7 years was the average length of a dog's life but in which quite a few piggies lived longer than that.
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I absolutely agree that these pigs were no less loved. I have a relative who kept a single guinea pig in a small hutch in the 1950s and it lived for 7-9 years. The guinea pig was absolutely adored, the needs of the animals was just entirely unknown!
The thing is, that people who had positive experiences keeping animals in those conditions then, now can’t see why the guidelines are so different.
I even see it with my own animals. I was bought a rabbit as a child, my parents took pet shop advice and the rabbits lived in what I now know to be horrendous conditions. Of course at the time I knew nothing different and had no access to any better information, I still feel guilty about it today though. (And this was in the last 20 years!)
 
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