Each little animal has a different idea of a happy home. Since your little friend will be spending most of his time at home, creating a happy, healthy and appropriate living environment is vital. When building houses for animals like guinea pigs, hamsters, and gerbils, it’s also important to keep in mind that bigger is better.
For the guinea pig in your family, the home environment or cage should be optimally sized at 28 inches long by 24 inches wide by 14 inches high. If you plan to add to your guinea pig family or already have a large family, the best practice is to increase the surface area by at least two square feet. Although hamsters and gerbils can live in smaller spaces, they will like the larger cage.
Remember, these types of animals are burrowers and appreciate a good floor plan. By providing plenty of bedding and a cardboard or wooden “house” inside the cage, and tunnels to crawl through and platforms to climb on, you can offer a very natural living environment. A very important element to keep in mind is never to house these small animals in a cage with a wire bottom. Your feet can get caught in the wire mesh, which could result in broken limbs.
Another useful item that may be out there is large aquariums. These can be used as cages, but be aware that they are more difficult to thoroughly clean and provide little to no air circulation, which is a problem. For this reason, most owners prefer a traditional wire cage.
An excellent beading material can be aspen wood chips or materials like corn on the cob or walnut shell for a gerbil cage or any small animal home. Great edible material for gerbil cages, hamster houses and other small animal environments may be timothy hay, which is possibly the best: it is an essential food source. Your pet will tunnel through it, make “nests” to sleep in and play with. Basic straw is efficiently inadequate and does not absorb urine and the tough stems can cause serious injury.
For rabbits: a cage is a safe haven. Even if you’re willing to let your rabbit roam freely around the house, a cage is a necessary item. This can serve as an area for garbage and will serve as a safe haven for guests and a place to rest. The rabbit cage should be about four times the size of your pet rabbit, and larger if you are confined most of the day. Rabbits are also pretty good at litter training, so solid flooring is perfect and they’re pretty easy to keep clean. An important thing to remember is that rabbit cages, gerbil cages, and most small animal homes contain wire bottoms that cause serious foot sores. An easy remedy is to cover the bottoms with a piece of wood, grass or sisal mat.
When considering safe and more importantly absorbent material for bedding, remember that your rabbit can nibble on it. Since rabbit urine also has a strong odor, opt for a material that absorbs and manages the odor. Organic or paper-based sands and granules are recommended instead of clay or clumping sands.
