Looking to create the perfect guinea pig cage but don’t have $500 to spend at the pet store? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Did you know that not only is it significantly cheaper to create your own guinea pig cage but most DIY’ed cages are actually far better for your guinea pigs? It’s true!
In this article, we’ve compiled a list of every single essential you’ll need to build your own cage and all of the things you’ll need to put inside of it.
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Materials for the Cage Itself
Use grids to create a CnC Cage, 2×4, 3×4, 2×5, etc. Read our C&C Cage guide to learn how to assemble these grids into a cage!
Use a picnic blanket as a budget-friendly alternative to a choroplast bottom. The bottom is waterproof so it will protect the table or floor you place the cage on.
On top of the picnic blanket, lay down an absorbent layer like old towels, absorbant bath mats, u-haul, or a moving blanket. If you’re going to purchase something rather than reusing, we’d recommend opting for towels that are at least 30 inches wide, as most C&C cages are about 29 inches wide. Otherwise, the Facebook marketplace is a great place to find used towels for free!
On top of the towels, place a fleece blanket. We find that flat fleece works better than plush fleece and cleans better. You can generally find many options for $4 at Walmart.
You’ll need something to hold hay within the cage and we find that the cleanest option is a hanging fabric hay feeder.
You’ll need some type of bowl to hold food pellets, we recommend a wide and heavy ceramic bowl.
Though you can use a bowl for water, we recommend a glass bottle as it stays much cleaner.
You’ll need a few guinea pig hideouts, we recommend having two per pig. We prefer fleece hideouts because you can just throw them in the laundry (with fragerance-free detergent!). You can also use cardboard boxes as hideys, just cut off the flaps so it’s basically a bottomless box, then cut one or two holes as entrances and discard the box when it gets smelly.
Lastly, you’ll want a couple of toys, but what good would a budget-friendly guide be if we had you buy expensive toys? Most paper products make great chew toys, our favorites being toilet paper rolls and crumpling butcher paper into a ball. Or, you can repurpose items into a slightly more elevated toy! Here are a few of our videos on making your own DIY toys for guinea pigs!
Congrats! You now have the necessary supplies to set up the perfect cage!
Don’t forget to check out our guide on how to put together those grids to create your C&C Cage!
