You will need to line the cage with bedding. Pls refer to my bedding sub-page for more info. Its recommended to make the bedding at least 3 to 4 cm thick 'cos cavies tend to dig. The problem with plastic bottom cages is that cavies will be sitting in bedding which is full of their pee & poop. I have personally tried newspapers, shredded aspen shavings, aspen shavings & kiln dried pine pellets. They all had different disadvantages (more in bedding sub-page) but the common disadvantage they shared was poor mositure absorbancy & poor odour control.

The cage will stink after only a day & the bedding either did not absorb the pee at all, or it absorbed but was damp so my cavies were lying on damp bedding. This is bad 'cos not only is it unhygienic, but it can cause skin irritation too. During cold weather, your cavy may even catch cold from lying on damp bedding. Also, they frequently stepped all over their own poop.

It was because of these problems that I decided not to use a plastic bottom cage with bedding. I was looking for a way to keep my cavies dry & away from their poop. My friend Melissa recommended a wire bottom cage. Pls proceed to the next section for more info on it.

Many fear wire bottoms cages 'cos they say cavies can break their legs walking on non-solid bottoms. They also claim such cages result in a foot problem called Bumblefoot. Peter Gurney (UK cavy expert) has this to say about Bumblefoot:

"As far as I know, no person or veterinary authority has ever got the the bottom of this very common problem in guinea pigs. When it was first noticed in laboratory animals the commonly held theory was that it was because the they were housed in cages with wire mesh flooring. In mine and most people's experience there is no correlation between it's prevalencein guinea pigs and the type of housing they live in.

It could be related to fungal infestation. Though we have no scientific or research data to base this claim upon, our experience in treating many guinea pigs with generalised fungal problems certainly points this way. If the patients happen to also have Bumblefoot, in a very high percentage of them the swelling is greatly reduced and in quite a few the feet return to normal after they have been put on a course of Griseofulvin.

Occasionally a swollen foot could be the result of minor injury which has become infected and a small abscess may have formed. However, Bumble foot in one foot is relatively rare. Though this condition looks extremely painful, and in it's early stages it causes some animals to hobble, they seems to settle down and cope with it without any other effect on their health. I once read that it could spread up the leg and cripple the animal but now, in my eleventh year of living with these animals and seeing many cases of Bumblefoot, I am still waiting for the first 'Zimmer frame' case or a fatality that I could positively say resulted from Bumblefoot."

So its obvious wire bottom cages DO NOT cause bumblefoot. As for the fear of broken legs, this can be greatly reduced by using this method my friend Melissa taught me. Use rubber mats with holes to cover the wire bottom. These mats (pictured below) can be found in DIY shops. These mats have holes ranging from 1 cm in diameter to wider. If the holes are 1.5 cm or smaller, it is fine. Any larger and the holes are too large & thus unsuitable.

The whole idea is that the rubber mat provides a safer flooring since the holes are 1.5 cm wide or smaller. If wire bottom cages are used without these mats, the gap between the metal bars can be as wide as 2 cm & chances of cavy feet being broken are higher. If you decide to use a wire bottom cage, you MUST use these rubber mats. Line the entire wire bottom with these mats. Chances are that you'll have to buy several pieces to form a huge piece & then trim the huge piece to size.

Wire bottom cages come with a removable plastic tray but chances are the tray will not cover the entire bottom of the cage. Hence you might end up with pee & poop that "overshoots" the tray & ends up on the floor. To prevent this, put lots of newspapers below the entire cage. Make sure the paper exceeds the cage by at least 5 cm or else it'll not be able to "catch" the pee & poop that overshoots. Below is a picture of my former cage with the newspapers below & around it. I know it looks messy but it sure is better than finding your floor pull of pee & poop!

Anyway, let's continue the story from the plastic bottom section! Melissa recommended using a wire bottom cage with rubber mat. The pee & poop will fall into the removable tray & they would then be dry & clean. However what sounds good in theory may not work in pratise. After a month, I noticed all 3 cavies' stomaches & rear legs were very brown & dirty. I didn't understand why this was the case. After all the pee & poop drops below into the tray. So why were they getting dirty still? This continued for a long time before one day I discovered the reason.

The rubber mat tended to "keep" pee. You see, as cavies pee there's no way that stream or jet of pee will go nicely through the holes everytime. Sometimes it will splash against the surface of the mats. And the pee remains there. So when my cavies walk all over it & lie on it, they get dirty. So using a wire bottom cage didn't solve my problem. One fine day I was at Joy Doggy petshop & came across a plastic bottom cage with a grid. Yup, more on it in the next section.

On to my story again! So I saw this cage & felt that since plastic is more "smooth" than rubber, less pee should remain on the grid. So I bought the cage to try. Didn't work too well. The same problem occurred. When they peed, sometimes the pee will splash on the grid's surface. I had to keep wiping the pee off. Naturally I can't do it all day, so the same problem occurred as with the wire bottom cage. Their stomaches & rear legs were dirty within a month.

It was getting so frustrating! These cages are meant to keep them dry but they're still getting wet. Then one day I discovered a new bedding called Breeder's Choice Cat Litter. Its pelleted recycled newspaper bedding (more info about it in my bedding sub-page). I don't know what prompted me to take this risk (after all it could've failed again) but I decided to use it.

But my cage had the grid. No way I can use bedding. That's when I hatched the idea of covering the grid. So off I went to Popular Bookshop to buy a piece of Coroplast (they call it corrugated plastic board). I bought a piece about 98 x 48 cm & it costed me about $7. Coroplast is excellent 'cos its waterproof & can be washed if dirty. I guess you can buy a piece of acrylic instead but it costs more.

So I placed the Coroplast on the grid, thus covering the holes (as pictured above). I ordered a 13.3 kg bag of Breeder's Choice & used about 1/4 bag to ensure the layer of bedding was about 4 cm thick. A big cage needs lots of bedding you know! The cavies took to the bedding well & were soon snoring on it. Well, at least they like it! Now came the big question. How does it work?

Fortunately, it worked like a charm! Out of all the beddings I've used, BC is the best! You can find more info about it on my bedding sub-page but basically it kept my cavies dry. I know it sounds ironic. The 2 cages with holes that are supposed to keep them dry, failed & they got dirty within a month. Using BC however, kept them dry. This stuff absorbs the pee & holds it in so well that even if you squeeze a dark grey pellet (dark grey means its wet), no liquid drips out.

Its been almost 2 months & the furballs are still clean as ever. Different people will probably have different experiences with bedding & cages. For me, I have found the perfect solution. So if you ask me, I'd say get a plastic bottom cage & use BC bedding. Or if you have a plastic bottom cage with grid like mine, just cover the grid & use BC bedding.

The cage pictured below is also not too great. At first glance it may seem okay however, notice that the opening is at the top & not at the side. This is bad 'cos cavies tend to struggle when you take them out of the cage & also when you return them to the cage. If the opening is at the top, if the cavy manages to squirm free from your hands, its gonna be quite a long drop for it & it may get injured. Wherelse if the opening is at the side of the cage, the distance if the cavy should fall is less.

Never ever use hamster or gerbil cages because they cater to rodents who are significantly smaller than cavies, so size will be a problem. Some cavies have been known to be the size of a large tennis shoe! Some of these cages will come with toys like hamster wheels or ladders & stuff for hamsters to climb. While I'm on the topic of toys, allow me to deviate a little.

Be very selective when choosing toys for cavies. Most toys you see are for hamsters or gerbils. These are all bad for cavies because cavies are less active than hamsters. Cavies have been known to break legs on the hamster wheel. Being a little more clumsy than hamsters, cavies have also been known to fall off hamster ramps & get injured. Choose only "guinea pig safe" toys. If unsure, don't get it! A toilet roll is a cheap & safe toy & when your cavy chews it, it is also wearing down its teeth. However if your cavy is small & can get stuck in the toilet roll, I suggest you cut it along one length so that if your cavy gets stuck, it is less difficult to free itself. Some toilet rolls has dried glue on them & needless to say, those are not suitable.

A smooth stone or two will also give them something to discover. Mine uses the stone as a pillow! Corn on the cob if dry can be kept in the cage for up till 3 days. They chew on it to wear their teeth down & seem to enjoy rolling it around. Ok deviation over, so now let's go back to talking about cages.

Cages with multiple floors like the one in this picture below are not suitable. Notice how steep the ramp is. Cavies are not very agile animals so don't ask for trouble by giving them such obstacles, even if the ramp is gentle. Besides, notice the ramp has gaps in them. It'll be a disaster if their feet go through those gaps. Ramps are a big no no regardless of whether the ramps have gaps or not! So nothing fancy, just a single floor cage.

Besides the few housings I mentioned above, other unsuitable housings include styrofoam, plastic & cardboard boxes. Anyone with half a brain would know that these are ridiculous choices for housing but you do have a handful of morons using them! Just stick to a cage (wire or plastic bottom) of reasonable size & you'll be fine.

Its not as if we have winter in Singapore so no matter how cold it is, you should never cover the entire cage! Half the cage in cold weather is fine but at all other times, covering a quarter of the cage should suffice. Having said that, if the area you choose has no direct wind at all, then you can forego the cloth.

With regards to what is used to cover the cage, I feel old bedsheets are the best. They are large enough & if your cavies somehow manage to chew on it, its not as harmful. Someone who posted on my discussion board suspected his cavy died from chewing the plastic shower curtain he used to cover the cage. That's tragic & hence to avoid such accidents, I advice you to use linen. Bedsheets, giant towels, etc. Just avoid things which cavies can chew, swallow & possibly die from such as plastic shower curtains, plastic book wrappers, etc.

Another hut is "Superpet Link N' Lodge Timber House" (pictured above) which is sold at Planet Pets. This one is slightly smaller than Bunny & can be taken apart. So you can assemble the hut inside the cage. Good if your door is small. However it has a painted roof & the sides are varnished. If your cavies love to chew, this hut is a bad idea. But if they seldom chew, then I guess you're quite safe. You can actually join several of them to form a really long house but I doubt your cage can accommodate such a long house!

The medium sized one costs about $28 & can house 2 adult cavies if they're lying perpendicularly. "Superpet Link N' Lodge Timber House" also comes in small size but I don't recommend it 'cos its really small & I think can house only 1 baby cavy! If your cavies love to climb or jump, this house is also not suitable 'cos it has a flat roof, making it easy to get up on. The Bunny brand hut has an inverted V shape roof, so no way anyone can get on that! The Superpet roof is not nailed on so you can either glue it on with the provided glue or leave it alone. I prefer to leave it alone so I can remove it & reach the occupants in case of emergencies.

Lastly, the 2 openings at the front of "Superpet Link N' Lodge Timber House" are too small for adult cavies so you may have to do what I did, which was to saw off some parts of the front to make a large opening (see picture above). Make sure you sandpaper after that to remove splinters.

Please make sure your cage is big enough before you introduce a hut. The picture below is a good example. The cage is not very big to begin with & with a hut inside, there is even less space for running. Personally I recommend putting a hut in only if your cage is 2 feet X 2 feet or larger. If given a choice between a hut or more room to run, I think your cavy would rather have more space.

In the past when I used a smaller cage, leaving the hut in the whole day meant less space to run. So I'd place the hut in only at night since it tends to be colder. First thing in the morning the hut comes out so they have more space to run. So this way they get to enjoy the hut at night & also get to enjoy more space during the day. But now with this huge cage, I can leave the hut in there forever & they still have space to run.

An alternative to the hut or house would be a man-made log like the one pictured below. The one in the picture is made from poly resin & I don't know if its dangerous if cavies chewed it & smallow the poly resin pieces. Hence if I want to get a log, I'd rather play safe & get one made from wood. I believe Superpet sells those but I don't have a picture yet.

Besides the hut/house & log, there's another alternative called the "nest" (pictured below). However I DO NOT recommend nests. This is 'cos the frame or bodywork of the nest is actually wires. The natural fibres cover these wires but there's a possibility that the wires may be exposed especially if your cavies start chewing the fibres. Once the wires get exposed the danger of your cavy getting injured by the exposed wire is very high. So I strongly advise against using nests unless one day they develop nests without wires.

Something closer to the "log" would be Superpet Fiddle Sticks. I have a pic of that below & as you can see, it is almost similar to the poly resin log featured above. However this one is natural so its fine if your cavies decide to chew it. If you have enough space & enough Fiddle Sticks, you can construct quite an amazing maze full of hide outs!

Another possible "house" is an igloo (pictured below). I have yet to see these being sold in Singapore. However these are not practical. Firstly the opening is usually too small & needs to be cut open. The second problem is heat. Singapore's weather is hot & humid & you can imagine how warm & stuffy it can get in the igloo. That is why I don't recommend it, should it be available here one day.

Superpet Hog Hollow is another hide-away however I don't really recommend it. Its diameter is 3.5 inches which is large enough for most cavies to crawl through. However it is a log & may roll about. I don't know if its dangerous but I don't like the idea of a cavy crawling about in a log which is rolling around. I imagine the poor thing will be rather scared & also giddy!