Cagetopia Independence Day!
Celebrate Independence Day Wheekend in this simple yet enriching cage experience for your guinea pigs. With just a couple of simple additions you can give your guinea pigs a new spot to hang out on and under. And with the drop-down wall, you can sit on the floor and better hang out with your piggies!
Piggy Platform
With primarily two Quarter Round Grids and a Ramp, you can recreate this versatile and engaging piggy platform.
- It allows for great visibility for you while still providing them with a sense of security and privacy.
- The half-height ramp is safe without extra walls needed.
- You can place it anywhere along the circumference of the Quarter Round Grid that works for you.
- When you put it in the middle, you give your piggies a little tunnel to run around and explore for more fun.
- The under-platform area is a good hidey spot for them
- The under-platform area is not too deep so it's easy access for cleaning.
Win/win/win!
DROP-DOWN or SWING-OPEN WALL
Either of these options provide great access to your piggies, especially if you might be sitting or playing on the floor. It's an improved reach for younger folks or if you are sitting down.
Which way to go?
- Do you have loft?
If you have LOFT, especially a wide offset loft, the Drop-Down wall provides much more strength to your structure. - Complex Structure?
If your cage has tension applied on the grids with any special additions, it's generally better to use the Drop-Down walls as the lower part of the wall provides continuous strength. - Need ramp access?
Do you want to cut down the wall for ramp access? If so, the Swing-Open door would allow you to cut the coro wall down if that is your intent.
Dropdown Grid Wall
Would you like to sit on the floor and be able to comfortably reach in and access your cage and piggies? Now you can. This functionality makes grids a better solution than acrylic windows.
All you need are 2 Short Half Grids for the bottom, 2 Tall Half Grids for the top, and a Wide Mini Grid.
Recreate this cage with our easy shopping guides below
Please note, prices are base prices. Adding features and options can increase an items' price. You can build all or parts of this creative cage setup, so we've listed the components by section for this cage setup.
For the LARGE CAGE & optional STAND & BINS:
For the PIGGY PLATFORM
Make sure to LINE the LOWER Quarter-Round Grid with Coroplast to act as a floor and then cover with fleece!
For the DROP-DOWN WALL
For the SWING-OPEN DOORS
For the CAGE EXTRAS
Piggy Platform Structure
We don't currently have an exact coro cut-out for this platform yet (coming next month), but it's super simple. You can trace the Quarter Round Grid on any firm, cut-able material you might have. Even Cardboard would work as they pretty much are not going to potty on this platform. Then you cover this with fleece for them. You can cut it with some short walls on the straight ends or just make it flat.
All you need to keep them from pottying out the corner walls are some simple squares of fleece cut out and clipped to the grid walls.
Use 2 12"x9" OR 1 24"x9" rectangle(s) of fleece to "line" the back cage wall. You can attach the fleece by using 2 of the 1.25" Hinges cut in half along the connecting 'hinge' to have 4 single clasps (make sure any excess plastic from the "hinge" is trimmed).
We overlapped the two pieces of fleece in the back corner by 1 grid to prevent any debris falling to the floor. To secure the fleece to the grid wall (2 clasps per wall or 1 for overlap) count up 4-5 grid squares from the bottom of the Platform and drape the fleece over the grid. Then push clasp teeth down over the fleece and the grid. Complete by tucking the fleece lining under the fleece padding for the floor of the Platform. Easy to remove and wash when needed and keeps the floor space behind the Piggy Platform clean.
More images coming soon.
Making our Cagetopia No-Sew Fleece Items
We'll have more instructions and patterns for this coming soon. But in the meantime, here is a guide.
To create our D.I.Y. fleece covers for the Piggy Platform (both top and bottom covers are the created the same way) you'll need 4 pieces of fleece and sharp scissors (we recommend fabric scissors). Begin by cutting the 4 pieces of fleece to the shape of the Quarter-Round Grid plus an extra 1.5" on all sides. Pair and line up the pieces up to create a top and bottom, make sure they're as aligned as possible!
You can use fabric clips or clothes pins, whatever you have on hand to hold them together. Along the perimeter of the fleece make a 1" cut into the fabric every 1"-1.5" along the fabric. The wider the space between cuts, the larger the fringe and knots will be.
All these cuts will "pair up", top piece of fringe to bottom piece of fringe, to be knotted together to create the fringe along the perimeter of the fleece lining. Be sure to add a coro or plastic or cardboard liner to act as the floor of the Quarter-Round Grid! Otherwise they could to fall through or get caught the square grids!