Moving Questions.

[SarahWonderland]

Hello Everyone.
I have a few questions.....
So I am moving this weekend (apartment to house YAY!) so a few questions.
1. How will my piggies react to the move? Some links to other threads are fine as answers as well
2. I will be putting them into store bought cages for the actual car drive (less than 15mins away) will that be fine? 4 in 1 cage, 2 in another and 1 in their vet carrier?
3. How long should we wait to make sure the lawn is okay before allowing them onto it?
4. They will be in their own room now, will they be okay? What is other people experience with piggie bed rooms?
Thats all the questions I have at this point...
Thank You in advance!

 

[Danielle Smith]

How exciting for you! I've recently also moved with guinea pigs so here's my experience...

Your pigs might be a little quieter and more skittish after the move; try to keep some soiled bedding or fleece to put in their cages so it quite literally smells like home. Moving into a new environment might also bring out some dominance behaviours as the hierarchy re-settles (even if the cage setup is identical, silly pigs) ; don't worry, ride it out with lots of scatterfeeding veggies and piles of hay.

From what I remember, transferring pigs in cages can be dangerous because they have too much room to move around. Would it be possible to transfer them two at a time in the vet carrier? I'm sure someone else might have some ideas.

I'd wait for at least 2 rains and 4 mows of the grass until you let them on the grass, just to make sure any nasties or weedkiller residue is gone.

They will be absolutely fine in their own room. My pigs moved from being in my study right next to me to their own bedroom as well. While they do miss my company a little, they don't seem to mind the quiet and it means that hay mess is theoretically limited to a single room rather than the whole house. If you have the space, it might be worth having permanent piggy floortime set up in the pigroom so you can easily get a group out whenever; @Wiebke's setup is an excellent example of this. I definitely recommend having a comfy armchair or sofa in the pigroom for laptime or even just to sit and watch!

 

[Wiebke]

Hello Everyone.
I have a few questions.....
So I am moving this weekend (apartment to house YAY!) so a few questions.
1. How will my piggies react to the move? Some links to other threads are fine as answers as well
2. I will be putting them into store bought cages for the actual car drive (less than 15mins away) will that be fine? 4 in 1 cage, 2 in another and 1 in their vet carrier?
3. How long should we wait to make sure the lawn is okay before allowing them onto it?
4. They will be in their own room now, will they be okay? What is other people experience with piggie bed rooms?
Thats all the questions I have at this point...
Thank You in advance!

Here are our travel tips: Travelling with guinea pigs

To make the settling in easier wipe the new cage with some soiled bedding or use soiled bedding/unwashed hideys at first to help settle them in and make them feel more at home; guinea pigs have a much stronger sense of smell and they identify their territory by scent marking.
Any move to a new environment or cage can trigger a re-establishment of the hierarchy (dominance dispute). Having their own room is fine and no issue.

 

[SarahWonderland]

Thank You so much!
I'll make sure to change bedding friday so it smells like home on Sunday (move day). The grass shouldn't be too hard with all the rain we are experiencing at the moment haha a permanent piggy playpen is defiantly in the cards and cage extenisons (YaY!).
I hope this move doesn't upset my boars jeffery and sonic (cage mates).
Guess we will see.
Thank You both

 

[Danielle Smith]

I hope your move goes okay, fingers and paws crossed for you that everything goes smoothly!

 

[SarahWonderland]

Hello Everyone!
Fantastic news the pigs have settled perfectly fine! The girls are even popcorning more and doing more zoomies!
They got lofts for their cages with the move and seem to be loving it!
Thank You for all the advice it truly helped!