Upstairs? Downstairs? (but not my lady's chamber, obviously)

[Lorcan]

So, I've been thinking. It's a long time since I've lived in a house (12 and 1/2 years to be precise), and now I'm getting guinea pigs I'm torn on where to put them.

My pros for a downstairs home -

1. There'll be different people coming in and out. I know it's different for everyone but I've always found having them in a place where they'll see and hear more people on even a semi-regular basis, can help a lot when it comes to feeding and handling. I make sure they're not more disturbed, like they're not paraded around to different people when they're still settling, nobody's forced to come out of a safe spot or a hidey or anything, they just hear talking, see people, etc. Hopefully that makes sense.
2. There's better natural light downstairs in the living room, partly because the window's set lower in the wall.

However, cons -

1. The way the place is laid out, if they're downstairs there's a very good chance they'd have to deal with smells in the kitchen. Strong smells, etc. Not so much smoke or whatever from cooking, because there's a cooker hood and a window and the doors *do* close so even if there was smoke from cooking it could be dissipated before I leave the kitchen, but herbs, spices, strong food smells, that's harder to get rid of.
2. It's single glazing in all the windows. That means the house will be harder to heat. Now I'm good with the cold, it doesn't bother me so much as some, but for them, I'd be a bit paranoid I wasn't keeping them warm enough.
3. I may not actually spend a lot of time downstairs. I'll need a while to be sure of that, but I'm planning on having all the crafting stuff in the spare bedroom although that could change easily. I may end up leaving it downstairs just to have an excuse not to spend all day upstairs. Also, I won't be smoking in the house now that I have my own front door again, and it's obviously easier to walk outside and smoke if I'm already downstairs.

Then, to upstairs!

Pros -

1. It'll probably be warmer. Heat rises, so the downstairs is likely to end up cooler than the upstairs.
2. No strong food smells to worry about.
3. It would be quieter, although I'm not exactly a noisy person anyway. Half the time my neighbours don't even know I'm in the building unless they see me personally, so quietness isn't a problem anyway really.

Cons -

1. I'm not convinced there's the room. I know, right, it's a house and it has two bedrooms, how can it not have the room? Well, I was gonna sleep in the smaller bedroom. It's not large by any means, I think I could get the bed in there and maybe the chest of drawers. The desk and PC are already going into the larger bedroom, so I can't sit on the PC and keep myself awake all night. But I'm not convinced there's a cage big enough for a pair of boars (which is what I'm hoping for) in there too.
2. I don't want to put them in the larger bedroom on the very slight chance I do ever have visitors. I can sleep with a riot going on in the background but I don't know that they could. I also feel like it could be a bit of a shock to the system for the pigs too, so much peace and quiet and then a strange human crashes your pad.
3. It's harder for socialisation. They're not likely to really meet anyone else. Again I don't mean that they should be handled by half of Rochdale, but seeing and hearing different people helped Comet dramatically. And by extension Blitzen, because he followed what Comet was doing. And while Comet never liked being picked up, he was comfortable enough to be handled by everyone except the evil, evil vet. I just feel like those socialisation opportunities were important and if they're upstairs they're gonna miss out on that.

So, I know everyone has different views about socialisation and how to do it. It's not like I have any children around me that I need to keep the pigs safe from. But I'm torn, because I feel like they'd be better off downstairs in the long run, once they've originally settled down, and it would be easier for me to feed them there. And maybe just keep the doors closed as much as possible, though I don't cook a lot anyway. So if anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them?

And now I've put off the packing for long enough today, lol.

 

[Siikibam]

I would keep them downstairs. I know you said it would be colder at night. Oil filled radiator, snuggle pads, blankets covering the cage, fleece hides, cardboard boxes stuffed with hay. With regards smells, I wouldn’t worry if you can close a door. When mine were inside, they were in the dining room wishing is next to the kitchen. The dining and kitchen is open plan and they were separated from the kitchen by a wall (and the fridge on the other side)! We used herbs and spices to cook and they were absolutely fine with it. You’ve got a door to close which is a bonus.

That seems to be the solution if you feel you don’t have enough space for a big cage upstairs. You could always move them once they’re settled, if you think they’d be better off upstairs.

 

[Lorcan]

I would keep them downstairs. I know you said it would be colder at night. Oil filled radiator, snuggle pads, blankets covering the cage, fleece hides, cardboard boxes stuffed with hay. With regards smells, I wouldn’t worry if you can close a door. When mine were inside, they were in the dining room wishing is next to the kitchen. The dining and kitchen is open plan and they were separated from the kitchen by a wall (and the fridge on the other side)! We used herbs and spices to cook and they were absolutely fine with it. You’ve got a door to close which is a bonus.

That seems to be the solution if you feel you don’t have enough space for a big cage upstairs. You could always move them once they’re settled, if you think they’d be better off upstairs.

Tbh that's what I was thinking. But I wasn't sure if I was just saying that because it'd be better for me, y'know? This is the living room:



You can see the doors to the kitchen there, what you can't see is the kind of alcove under the stairs. There's the tv cabinet, a sofa, and very possibly a sewing desk to go in there atm, but since I can't remember where the plugs are I'll have to look at it properly on Friday. But I don't need both those kitchen doors to be able to open, so that gives me a bit extra space to tinker with.

It's not a big house, it's about the size of your standard 2 up 2 down (it isn't one, though).

 

[h.h.lovecraft]

From everything you wrote, I would try downstairs first. The smell thing really isn't much of a problem, especially since you have the door. The warmth issue would be easy to deal with. We used to keep our house very cold at night to save money, but since getting the piggies we have turned the heater up at night. It's not a massive cost though considering guinea pigs don't need it especially warm. Plus there are plenty of other cheap and easy things you can do to keep some warmth in. I understand the space concern, my living space is very small and I had to adjust/compromise quite a bit to fit a proper piggy cage and all their accessories. They bring me so much joy everyday though, I do not regret it at all that they take up a big portion of my living room.

In terms of socialization, I have noticed that they get braver and braver with every stranger who visits my home, so I think there is truth to what you are saying. I also get to talk to them and interact with them all day long since they are in my main sitting area and I couldn't imagine it any other way, I think it has helped our bond immensely.

 

[Lorcan]

In terms of socialization, I have noticed that they get braver and braver with every stranger who visits my home, so I think there is truth to what you are saying. I also get to talk to them and interact with them all day long since they are in my main sitting area and I couldn't imagine it any other way, I think it has helped our bond immensely.

Comet and Blitzen had been out of their hideys when I was around for a while when I had a couple of regular visitors over, and halfway through the appointment they decided to have a funny half hour. Excited squealing, a lot of chasing, failed attempts at popcorning, impromptu zoomies, the whole lot, and I remember them asking me, horrified, "Are they okay? Is this normal?" and I was like , welcome to my night time routine lol. But I doubt they'd have done it if they weren't comfortable with other people being there and that would never have happened in my room.

I still need to look at cages actually. I think I'm going to end up with something maybe 3.5' x 3.5', it'd be big enough and should still leave room to manoeuvre around the cage comfortably, with no risk of falling over .

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

I live in an appartement so I can't say anything about upstairs or downstairs, but when I first moved into my appartement, I put the TV + sofa and the dining table, I've inherited from my grandma into the living room and the second room was my 'study' + piggy room. At first, I spent most of my time in the study and hardly any time in the living room.
But I do like to watch tv in the evening and with the work load at the office getting bigger and bigger, I started to watch tv more and read less. So I put the dining table into the kitchen (a tight fit) and moved the piggies into the living room.

I prefer my piggies living in the room I spend most of my time in when at home.
Or the other way round, you'll probably spend most time in the room, the piggies live in.

 

[Lorcan]

I live in an appartement so I can't say anything about upstairs or downstairs, but when I first moved into my appartement, I put the TV + sofa and the dining table, I've inherited from my grandma into the living room and the second room was my 'study' + piggy room. At first, I spent most of my time in the study and hardly any time in the living room.
But I do like to watch tv in the evening and with the work load at the office getting bigger and bigger, I started to watch tv more and read less. So I put the dining table into the kitchen (a tight fit) and moved the piggies into the living room.

I prefer my piggies living in the room I spend most of my time in when at home.
Or the other way round, you'll probably spend most time in the room, the piggies live in.

For the longest time in my last flat I slept on the sofa in the living room, because it's where the guinea pigs were, and the sofa was big enough it wasn't uncomfortable. The noise didn't bother me. Not unless I got up to use the toilet in the middle of the night and walked into the hay bag by accident, because hey a plastic bag crinkled! That was a long night, lol.

I just like letting them enjoy everyday life around me, heh. I feel like I'm missing out if they're not nearby to rumble angrily at me because the keys made noises.

 

[piggieminder]

There may be other things to take into consideration you won't really know until you live there. Things like -
Where and when does the sun come in - the sun warms our kitchen even on very cold winter days, with the door open to the living room where the piggies are I don't need heating. In the summer the kitchen gets very hot, we draw the kitchen curtains and keep the door into the living room closed to keep it cooler. This house is drafty so I have grid high corex along the side of the cages that would get any draft. Caspy is in front of the unused fireplace (where normal people would have a coffee table!) so he has grid high corex along that side, I cover his cage with a blanket at night. You will work it all out, you have common sense on your side! Those piggies are going to be very lucky to find you.
Maybe you could have a play pen once the piggies are settled, if you are going to spend a few hours in the room where they are not you could move them to be with you. When I only had 2 piggies and I was doing craft work upstairs I made a pen from spare C&C grids and a big sheet of plastic, I took them up with me so we could chat while I worked. Now I have too many piggies I lug all my stuff downstairs so I can work and watch them. I have a hand crank machine so there's no loud noise.
Mine don't take any notice of cooking smells, they react excitedly to being close to the fridge and the back door though. After all humans only open those doors to bring them food!
Good luck with the move. Exciting times for you.

 

[Lorcan]

I have no back door @piggieminder, maybe I should count myself lucky I used to have one of those pop-up tent playpens, although they're rather a pain to get to collapse again.

My plan at the minute, which is liable to change the minute I set foot through the door on Friday, is to have the sofa in that space under the stairs. The tv and tv cabinet can go in that space between the fireplace and the front wall, and then there's a coffee table (I forgot about that one) that I might actually stick on the wall in front of the radiator. I know, I know, why would I do that? Well, atm my computer is hooked up to the tv and using it as part of a dual monitor setup. However, having spoken with Sky, and getting my internet account moved to the new address, the fibre connection I have here is unavailable there. That means the speeds will be awful and wifi would be woeful. So, plan B. Desk goes upstairs and can stay up there, tv goes downstairs, and I can move the tower up and down stairs as I see fit. It's not heavy, and the exercise will do me good Therefore the coffee table now has second life as a stool, except more comfortable and fits my wide backside better

I don't want them next to a radiator because I feel like it's just...not a good idea? But if I put everything else around the edges that leaves the space in the middle, which is how I ended up with them at my last place. The entire living room rearranged to have two Midwest cages in a square in the middle of the room, so Comet could enjoy being the centre of attention ALL THE TIME. And again it's the same thing. They don't have to come out, I can place blankets over the top of half the cage so they can feel safe, and if they do want to come out there's no pressure, we just let them do their thing. At least they're cute when they're behaving like toddlers on a sugar high and interrupting the important appointments.

 

[Terri Jones]

So, I've been thinking. It's a long time since I've lived in a house (12 and 1/2 years to be precise), and now I'm getting guinea pigs I'm torn on where to put them.

My pros for a downstairs home -

1. There'll be different people coming in and out. I know it's different for everyone but I've always found having them in a place where they'll see and hear more people on even a semi-regular basis, can help a lot when it comes to feeding and handling. I make sure they're not more disturbed, like they're not paraded around to different people when they're still settling, nobody's forced to come out of a safe spot or a hidey or anything, they just hear talking, see people, etc. Hopefully that makes sense.
2. There's better natural light downstairs in the living room, partly because the window's set lower in the wall.

However, cons -

1. The way the place is laid out, if they're downstairs there's a very good chance they'd have to deal with smells in the kitchen. Strong smells, etc. Not so much smoke or whatever from cooking, because there's a cooker hood and a window and the doors *do* close so even if there was smoke from cooking it could be dissipated before I leave the kitchen, but herbs, spices, strong food smells, that's harder to get rid of.
2. It's single glazing in all the windows. That means the house will be harder to heat. Now I'm good with the cold, it doesn't bother me so much as some, but for them, I'd be a bit paranoid I wasn't keeping them warm enough.
3. I may not actually spend a lot of time downstairs. I'll need a while to be sure of that, but I'm planning on having all the crafting stuff in the spare bedroom although that could change easily. I may end up leaving it downstairs just to have an excuse not to spend all day upstairs. Also, I won't be smoking in the house now that I have my own front door again, and it's obviously easier to walk outside and smoke if I'm already downstairs.

Then, to upstairs!

Pros -

1. It'll probably be warmer. Heat rises, so the downstairs is likely to end up cooler than the upstairs.
2. No strong food smells to worry about.
3. It would be quieter, although I'm not exactly a noisy person anyway. Half the time my neighbours don't even know I'm in the building unless they see me personally, so quietness isn't a problem anyway really.

Cons -

1. I'm not convinced there's the room. I know, right, it's a house and it has two bedrooms, how can it not have the room? Well, I was gonna sleep in the smaller bedroom. It's not large by any means, I think I could get the bed in there and maybe the chest of drawers. The desk and PC are already going into the larger bedroom, so I can't sit on the PC and keep myself awake all night. But I'm not convinced there's a cage big enough for a pair of boars (which is what I'm hoping for) in there too.
2. I don't want to put them in the larger bedroom on the very slight chance I do ever have visitors. I can sleep with a riot going on in the background but I don't know that they could. I also feel like it could be a bit of a shock to the system for the pigs too, so much peace and quiet and then a strange human crashes your pad.
3. It's harder for socialisation. They're not likely to really meet anyone else. Again I don't mean that they should be handled by half of Rochdale, but seeing and hearing different people helped Comet dramatically. And by extension Blitzen, because he followed what Comet was doing. And while Comet never liked being picked up, he was comfortable enough to be handled by everyone except the evil, evil vet. I just feel like those socialisation opportunities were important and if they're upstairs they're gonna miss out on that.

So, I know everyone has different views about socialisation and how to do it. It's not like I have any children around me that I need to keep the pigs safe from. But I'm torn, because I feel like they'd be better off downstairs in the long run, once they've originally settled down, and it would be easier for me to feed them there. And maybe just keep the doors closed as much as possible, though I don't cook a lot anyway. So if anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them?

And now I've put off the packing for long enough today, lol.

I live in a very small sheltered housing bungalow with my Cockapoo Jess - and my Guinea Pig - McGregor. I don't have an upstairs to consider but when I first rescued Mcgregor, he arrived in the usual sized cage which fitted perfectly on one counter top in the kitchen. A few weeks passed and I felt he was isolated as I spend very little time in the kitchen. So, I bought a metal puppy cage and made room for him in my (already overcrowded with knitting machines) living room and he not only has more space to run now, he seems so much perkier - with a dog and a human close by all day. I bought him a fur lined tent to sleep in, for when the heating goes off and I put a small wooden 'fence' around the bottom outside of the cage to keep any draughts off him. (He has to live alone because he bullied all the other guinea pigs he originally lived with.)