Those big sparkletts looking self waterers like the Petmate Le Bistro Waterer worked well for us for a while.  I kept one outside, but had to refill it every other day.  The biggest one could last almost a week.

Being outside though meant that it grew algae inside of it quite efficiently.

Another solution that is pretty good is the dog fountain thing like the Petmate Deluxe Fresh Flow Pet Fountain .  It has an electric pump and the water flows through a filter to keep it fresh.  The big one has a big reservoir.  We keep this inside, and I like it because it can go longer between cleanings due to the filter.  Our dogs are the sloppiest drinkers with floppy jowels.  Their water gets gross fast, but with the flowing filtered water, it takes longer before it needs a full cleaning.  The big one can last a full day before needing refilling.  So far, this is my favorite watering solution.

I have also tried a motion sensitive dog waterer called the Water Dog Automatic Pet Fountain that pours out water when the dogs come up to it.  I thought that this would be the final solution, but we have some personal problems with it.  One of our dogs is afraid of it, so she won’t even try to drink from it.  She is not a fan of getting water on her skin.  Our other dog absolutely loves water.  Another problem is that it has to be on all the time, so our hose is hooked up to a double spout, and the hose leaks if the water is left on all the time.  Bummer.  The waterer does not leak, just our hose.

I now have a drip line with a sprayer attached and pointed into a bowl.  That way the bowl fills up every time the sprinklers come on.  The bowl stays full during the summer when the sprinklers come on frequently.  During the winter though, when we aren’t watering as much, I have to go out and fill it up.

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 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 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 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.