Finding that first family pet is not always easy given the number of available options and the preferences of your loved ones. Still, if you’re just looking for a good starter pet that everyone in your family can easily care for, choosing a guinea pig is a wise choice.
Compared to other common household pets, guinea pigs are very low-maintenance so even your kids can pitch in when it comes to caring for them.
The fact that guinea pigs are easy to care for is not the only reason why you should consider them as a good starting pet.
You should also take an interest in them because they’re highly sociable and playful animals. It won’t take long before you fall head over heels for your pet guinea pig.
Are you now more intrigued by the prospect of caring for a guinea pig together with your family? Before you make a final decision about getting a guinea pig, you should take the time to learn more about your housing options.
Find out if you can use a bin cage for guinea pig or if you have to choose a different form of shelter.
Should You Use A Bin Cage For A Guinea Pig?
Guinea pigs need a home of their own if you want them to feel completely comfortable inside your place of residence. In an attempt to save some money, you may decide to keep your new pet in a makeshift bin cage.
Although it may seem like a bin cage will work just fine for guinea pigs, the reality is very different. Most bin cages lack the space and ventilation necessary to keep guinea pigs comfortable so you should avoid using them.
Giving your guinea pig as much space as possible is crucial because they need that extra room to stay in shape and stay occupied.
Unlike other pets that you may consider keeping in cages, guinea pigs don’t like to climb or jump around so you have to give them a big cage to explore.
At a minimum, the shelter should measure at least 7.5 square feet for one guinea pig, but if you’re caring for two, bump the size up to 10.5 square feet.
Bin cages are also not ideal for guinea pigs because they do not provide adequate ventilation. Guinea pigs urinate several times over the course of a day and the odors from their urine need to escape their shelter somehow.
Those fumes will not be ventilated properly by the bin cage because it has solid walls, so that means the fumes will just linger in there for an extended period of time.
Are Bin Cages A Good Option For Guinea Pigs?
A bin cage may initially seem like a good choice of housing for your pet guinea pig, but as we’ve already discussed, that is simply not the case.
Bin cages lack the size and ventilation necessary to comfortably adequate guinea pigs so avoid using them in this scenario. Since using a bin cage to house your guinea pig is not an option, what exactly would be a good form of shelter for your furry friend?
Instead of keeping your pet guinea pig in a bin cage, you should look to use a C&C cage.
For those who may be unaware, C&C cages are forms of shelter made from cube grids and a corrugated plastic material known as coroplast.
C&C cages are great for guinea pigs because they are often very large and their sides are open so the fumes from your pet’s urine can escape easily.
You should also consider using a C&C cage to house your pet guinea pig because it is easily customizable. Once you bring the C&C cage home, you can tweak it in ways that will allow it to fit better into the room you’ve chosen for your pet guinea pig.
Adding a lid and changing the bedding for the C&C cage may also be necessary, but those are easy fixes to make. When it comes to choosing long-term shelter for your pet guinea pig, you should go with a C&C cage.
Can You Use A Plastic Bin Cage For A Guinea Pig?
As pet owners, we are always wary about the items we put around our animal companions because we’re concerned about the potential impact they could have.
Plastic, in particular, does not seem like an ideal material to use for pets. The truth is that the presence of plastic in your guinea pig’s shelter is not that much of an issue.
The real problem has more to do with the design of the bin cage because it simply does not work for guinea pigs.
We’ve already touched on this previously, but bin cages are not suitable for guinea pigs because they tend to be on the small side.
A standard-sized bin is already insufficient for a single guinea pig. Now, remember that guinea pigs are at their happiest when they can share their shelter with at least one more companion and you can see why bin cages are just not good for them.
A bin cage is not the only type of shelter that you should avoid using if you are caring for a guinea pig. Empty aquariums may be suitable for some pets, but they will not work for guinea pigs because they present the same issues that bin cages do.
You should also be careful when looking at pet store cages because many of them were not designed with housing guinea pigs in mind. Once again, the best shelter for a guinea pig is still a C&C cage.
Conclusion
A guinea pig is a great pick if you want a starter pet that everyone in your family can care for, but you need to be careful when selecting their housing. Do not choose a bin cage for your guinea pig because it lacks the qualities they need from a form of shelter. The best form of shelter you can get for your new pet guinea pig is a C&C cage that has been properly customized to suit their needs.
