New Project

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WaldoMcBaldo

WaldoMcBaldo

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Hello all

First time poster here and someone new to the world of Guinea Pigs. My fiance and I recently moved into our first home and we've been lucky enough to be able to buy something with a huge garden. We have a garage, two sheds and even a stable at the bottom of the garden! The garage has been turned into a workshop, complete with project motorbike, one shed is garden storage and the stable is currently full of hedge cuttings. That left what to do with the other shed...

A friend of ours recently had 4 Guineas from a rescue local to us, the rescue is crammed to bursting and us being a pair of soft-touches we decided to turn the second shed into a Guinea Pig mansion!


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The ultimate idea is this - An all year 'round environment that's secure and safe enough to provide the Guineas access to the outside run and their side of the shed 24/7. Access will be through a tube or something similar built into the side of the shed leading into the run. The run is a wooden frame and will be covered by welded mesh (Stronger and smoother than chicken wire) on all sides including the base which will hopefully make it fox-proof (and Bengal cat proof!). The side closest the hedge on the run will be boarded over due to a lot of ivy growth. Inside the shed I've built the floor up with chipboard around an inch from the existing shed floor, topped it with roofing felt and this will be topped with a rubber matting to provide a dry, insulated floor. I'll also build a nest box sort of thing and ramps up to a platform by the windows just to give a little more floor space. The shed has been re-roofed and new windows put in, all holes and gaps have been sealed with silicone sealant to help stop draughts. The other side of the shed will be used as food (in sealed boxes) and hay storage and also provide us a dry area for cleaning out when the weather is bad.

Really what I want to know is what am I missing? Are there any obvious flaws in the plan that other more experienced owners can see? Everything is still all under construction with no timetable for getting the pigs in there, so there's plenty of time for alteration and changes.

Thanks in advance and hello to all!
 
Hi and welcome to the forums :D

That looks awesome :)

Mine are indoor guinea's so I've no clue about having them outdoors. I think someone like @PiggyOwner could tell you if your missing anything, I believe she also has her guinea's in a shed along with one of our forum admins @BossHogg

I'm sure others will come and share their opinions/advice :D
 
Hello and welcome to the forum! Looks like this is going to be great, can't wait to see it progress! :D
 
Hello and welcome,

Wow what a lovely idea and it sounds like it is going to be fabulous. :nod:

Unfortunately my piggies are also inside so I cannot give any advice but like Kerrie74 said others will be along who should be able to help.

Would love to hear how you are progressing and to see pigtures once you get your little rescue piggies. :luv:
 
Welcome to the forum . Are you happy to add you location to your porfile ? It's very helpful to know what county you are in.

What a fantastic idea - a piggy palace !

Two things spring to mind with what you have described so far ...

The run - I agree it needs to be safe and fox proof . However, a mesh base is not good for guinea pig feet. My guinea pigs love grass time - but, personally, I do not let my guinea pigs out in a run unless someone is at home to keep an eye on them - just in case. If you want your guinea pigs to have 24/7 access to this run , I would look at getting rid of the mesh base and putting it on concrete or paving slabs. The problem then is - you'll be wanting anther run out on grass to give them some grass time !

I notice you have sealed up the windows in your shed - be careful - it may get a bit hot in summer.
 
Keeping it fox proof is a problem, If they're hungry enough and defterminted enough they'll get into anything. They can dig a hole big enough to get through very quickly!
Bit different but when I was at college the foxes always use to get into the chicken coop, in the end we had to dig chicken mesh (or some sort of mesh) down into the soil. They did keep trying to dig down but obviously we had dug it down far enough so they couldn't achieve it over night and someone would see in the morning and fill it in.

The runs looks great but id make sure they're was a few layers of mesh, not just one. Especially if they'll be in it unsupervised.
 
PiggyOwner said:
Welcome to the forum . Are you happy to add you location to your porfile ? It's very helpful to know what county you are in

What a fantastic idea - a piggy palace !

Two things spring to mind with what you have described so far ...

The run - I agree it needs to be safe and fox proof . However, a mesh base is not good for guinea pig feet. My guinea pigs love grass time - but, personally, I do not let my guinea pigs out in a run unless someone is at home to keep an eye on them - just in case. If you want your guinea pigs to have 24/7 access to this run , I would look at getting rid of the mesh base and putting it on concrete or paving slabs. The problem then is - you'll be wanting anther run out on grass to give them some grass time !

I notice you have sealed up the windows in your shed - be careful - it may get a bit hot in summer.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I only signed up last night, not had chance to sort a profile yet. We're in Derbyshire

I had the same worry with the mesh base which is one of the reasons I went for weldmesh - no sharp edges - it will also be stapled into the grass so they'd be walking more on grass than mesh. The other idea would be to lift the turf, run mesh underneath and re-lay the turf on top. This would stop them being in direct contact with the mesh, but still stop anything that tried to dig underneath. Maybe I could get away with meshing the floor if I dug mesh into a trench that went below floor level for maybe a foot or so? I don't know.

As for the summer heat, this is where the run comes in as they can go outside if it's too warm. I'll provide shady areas in the run too.
 
WaldoMcBaldo said:
Sorry, I only signed up last night, not had chance to sort a profile yet. We're in Derbyshire

I had the same worry with the mesh base which is one of the reasons I went for weldmesh - no sharp edges - it will also be stapled into the grass so they'd be walking more on grass than mesh. The other idea would be to lift the turf, run mesh underneath and re-lay the turf on top. This would stop them being in direct contact with the mesh, but still stop anything that tried to dig underneath. Maybe I could get away with meshing the floor if I dug mesh into a trench that went below floor level for maybe a foot or so? I don't know.

As for the summer heat, this is where the run comes in as they can go outside if it's too warm. I'll provide shady areas in the run too.
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Tht sounds like a lot of work - Whatevr you do - I wouldn't let them walk on mesh - even if the edges are not sharp. If you are happy to dig a trench - that'td be solution.



Welcome to the forum -- and well done for rescuing some guinea pigs.
 
Kerrie74 said:
Hi and welcome to the forums :D

That looks awesome :)

Mine are indoor guinea's so I've no clue about having them outdoors. I think someone like @PiggyOwner could tell you if your missing anything, I believe she also has her guinea's in a shed along with one of our forum admins @BossHogg

I'm sure others will come and share their opinions/advice :D
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum. :tu: I've put power into my shed so I have heating and lighting, you cant beat cleaning them out in the winter in the light and warm when its dark, raining and blowing a gale outside. ;)
 
BossHogg said:
Welcome to the forum. :tu: I've put power into my shed so I have heating and lighting, you cant beat cleaning them out in the winter in the light and warm when its dark, raining and blowing a gale outside. ;)
Click to expand...

I've run a set of solar lights around the shed so I'll have light when the evenings start to draw in.
 
:D It sounds like you have covered all bases (including the run!) . You are going to have some warm, safe and very happy piggies!
 
Well I've managed to make a little more progress in between heavy downpours, The right side of the run is now boarded off to prevent any ingestion of ivy or privet, I've put the flooring down in the shed as well. I used a thick pond liner in the end which has worked quite well when stretched and secured with batons along all sides. I've also found a section of old water feature at work, which with a little alteration will provide a mini rainwater pool once it's dug into the ground in the run. It's small enough that it won't prevent drowning problems but large enough to catch rainwater for them to drink alongside the water that will be in the shed drinker. I had this idea due to a rabbit we used to have that refused to drink tap water!

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Most of the rest of the work is now painting and meshing, which has been made difficult with the recent weather. Never mind eh?
 
Sounds like it will be wonderful :)
I do like the idea of laying the turf back over the mesh.
My only suggestion is that, nice as it sounds, 24/7 access isn't always good in that when it's wet the pigs shouldn't be out on the grass. It sounds idyllic letting them have that kind of freedom, but damp grass can lead to problems.
I have noticed with mine that it's good to be able to move the run around the garden to get the nicest bits of grass, and because of all the poops that pile up on the grass :) I wonder if you may end up having a thread-bare bit of lawn with barely a blade in sight once they've had a week or two to chomp, plus piles of poop which may or may not be easy to clean out.
I do think you will end up having to limit their access though due to weather.
I love what you are doing though, and the space they'll have is really good.
 
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