Indoor Guinea Pig Enclosure

Time: 1 hour.

Cost: Very cheap.

My new piggy, inherited from a Chinese friend who discovered to his dismay that his piggy was giving him asthma, has grown a taste for freedom. Perhaps putting him in piece of oversized tupperware with walls less than 15cm high was....shortsighted. To say the least.

Thinking this would be oaky was based on the fact that the other two guinea pigs I previously owned were complete couch potatoes, would never climb out, or if put outside, would go home.

But this pig is made of more adventurous stuff. And she particularly enjoys entrenching in that hardest to reach part under my couch, maybe coming out if carrot is offered, but always leaving a dozen magic beans for me to collect with the 2 metre tweezers and a spatula, while I say shameful words.

So after another night of extracting the pig after he broke out again, I decided to go Alcatraz on her.

I had some leftover pieces of panel, very thin, 5mm thick pieces of unlaminated wooden board. They appeared to have a thin layer of a darker wood bonded to another texture of low quality pine.

One of the initial pieces was 2 m x 50 cm, plenty for this job.

Altogether, you will need:

• Drill with 5mm bit
• Hacksaw
• Zip ties
• Solid core copper wire with black insulation
• Square pliers

Measuring the outside lengths of the piggy's plastic tub, I figured 2x 46 cm, and 2x 70cm would be forgiving. I could always go smaller if I screwed up....

Next, I drilled three holes on each side of the wood, for a total of nine.

Two would sit below the line of the plastic tub, and four more above, all out of reach of the pig.

Loosely attached zip-ties were put in each hole.

Next, the lengths of panel are super easy to attach together.

Once three sides are attached, the fourth is not attached - to be able to clean the tub, store the panels, or rearrange the panels into a laager, we leave the fourth side loose.

To temporarily hold the fourth side together, we make wire clips.

First, bend a section 90 degrees.

Then by hand, make bend it into a half circle or oval shape.

Bend another 90 degree section. The result should be a flat line with a... hill? Hump? Bump? (See photo 3)

Now bend the flat lines together, and you have a simple clamp.

Done.

A lightweight, easy to take apart, easy to expand piggy enclosure!

You can even make a laager in a corner of your house.

The pig hopped looked around, and went home out of boredom.

Oh well. I thought it was pretty snazzy...