Smart Mommy Pet Stuff

We currently use a combination of fleece bedding and aspen /CareFresh in boxes.  This works the best for us.  When we first got the guinea pigs, we used the aspen/carefresh through the whole cage, but with the cage being so big, you couldn’t just take it out and dump it, you had to shovel it out (or scoop it out).  It was a pain, and used a lot of the bedding.

To do the fleece bedding, I cut up a quilted waterproof mattress pad as the bottom waterproof layer, then I put a towel down, then a piece of fleece cut to the right size.

The idea behind the fleece is that when the guinea pigs pee, (which they do every couple of seconds), the fleece will wick the moisture away to the absorbent towel layer beneath, and the waterproof pad will keep it from going farther down.

The all fleece worked well, but a combination of the two turned out to be the best.

I made coroplast boxes to fit the spaces where they spent most of their time.  One was made for the kitchen area, one under their main hidey spot, and one under the second story kitchen.  Now I can fill the removable boxes with aspen and CareFresh bedding.  This worked like a charm because now the majority of the mess is in the aspen/carefresh bedding, and the boxes can be taken out and dumped, then refilled.  I do think that it keeps the smell down.

Here is a picture of our new pet eating his dinner of baby mouse.  It is so cool.  I had no idea that you could buy the baby mice frozen.  Such convenience.

Ok, I vowed that we would not be getting any more pets.  I think that two dogs and two guinea pigs are plenty of work for the average family.  I guess that I am now eating my words.  We now have a new pet king snake.  It is my favorite type of pet though in that we caught it in forest, and we will set him free right back where we caught him when we are done having him as a pet.

Here he is right after he was caught.

Here he is with my dad holding him.

And here he is in his temporary cage until we get the larger aquarium cleaned out for him.

Guinea pigs are funny little rodents.  They are a lot like little mini cows, except they’re rodents.  They are herd animals, they eat a lot of hay, and they are strictly vegetarian.  Their main protective instinct is to run and hide.

Guinea pigs are pretty big rodents, so they do need space to move around.  They are not climbers like rats and hamsters, so they need flat exercise area rather than vertical climbing space.  They can even have an open top to the cage because they can’t climb the sides.  Their bodies are too big for their tiny little legs.  Their bodies are not flexible either so they don’t run on the little rodent treadmills, and they don’t use the balls.

I made our guinea pig cage out of Cubes and coroplast.  I also made a fully enclosed 2 story one for them outside so that the guinea pigs could safely spend time outside when the weather is nice.  I figured the more time they spent in different places, the less poop there would be in one place.

The recommended size of a cage is 7.5 square feet for one guinea pig, 10.5 square feet for two pigs, and 13 square feet for three guinea pigs.  This gives average dimensions of a cage as 30” x 36” for one pig, 30”x 50” for two pigs, and 30” x 62” for three pigs.

Our cage is 4 cubes long and 2 cubes wide with a ramp up to kitchen/hay food area that is 1 cube by 2 cubes.  Each cube is around 14 inches, so ours is 28” x 56” on the main level.

People are amazed at how big our cage is, but it does give them room to run around, and it doesn’t get as messy as fast when they have more space.  It would be really hard to clean the cage if we used the typical rodent bedding, but we use a  combination of bedding which makes it easier to clean.  It is still work though.  We use waterproof mattress pad, towel and fleece everywhere, with extra removable coroplast boxes in the kitchen, under one of the hideys, and in a back corner.  The removable boxes have aspen bedding and carefresh together.  It is easy to pull out those boxes and dump them and refill them.  The fleece and towels are easy to pull up and throw in the wash with vinegar for sanitizing.  I have an extra set of the fleece and towels so we can wash one set while we put clean ones in the cage.

If I hadn’t made our own guinea pig cage, there is one on Amazon that is close to these cages.  It is Midwest Interactive Guinea Habitat Plus.  It is close to a cubes and coroplast cage, and you can add onto it.  I would have totally gone this route if it had been in existence when we got our guinea pigs.

You can click here to read my original post when we got the guinea pigs.

Our pet rat was named Rosie and she was a great pet.  Of all of the rodent pets, I think that rats are the best.  In my life I have had hamsters, mice, a rat, and guinea pigs.  Rats are the friendliest and want to hang out with their people.  Oddly enough, they are fairly clean too, except that ours had an untreatable sinus infection that made her sneeze blood.  That was the only big problem though, so if your rat is healthy then it isn’t a problem.

Our rat Rosie would get excited when she saw us, and she liked to hang out on my daughter’s shoulder.  She never tried to run away like hamsters do.  When she would get free, she would always come to us if she saw us because she liked to be with her people.

We had her in a cage like this cage and used the aspen shavings with carefresh as her bedding.  If I were to do it over again though, I would get a bigger cage with the different levels like this.

Rats do need attention and stimulation, so having two of the same

sex is best so that they have a friend.  Obviously you don’t want two different sexes or you will have way too many baby rats in too short a time.

They need to have space to run around in and they like to climb.  They can squeeze through small spaces, so their wire cage needs to have small holes.

Rats will eat just about anything, so they are easy to feed.  Rat food is best for their basic food, and they love to have fresh veggies and fruit and other healthy table scraps.  They are omnivorous which means they eat both meat and vegies.

We are an animal loving family.  At one time we had two dogs,two guinea pigs, five frogs, and five fish.  We have also had a pet rat, which is a very sweet pet.  My daughter would love to have a snake, but I think that we have enough to take care of right now, although I do love snakes.  My favorite pets are the ones that we find and keep for a few weeks and then let go, that way it is not a huge time commitment in raising them.  The animals that we have done that with are lady bugs, caterpillar into butterfly, tadpoles into frogs, and a mouse.  The mouse only lasted a couple of days before we set it free in a field because it was not a good pet.  Wild mice are really wild.