A wonderful hobby for children and for adults is keeping guinea pigs. And because of this guinea pigs are becoming an extremely popular pet. However if you’re now considering buying your first piggy you do need to first spend some time thinking about the guinea pig hutch you will house him in.

You can keep guinea pigs indoors or outdoors though if keeping him in a guinea pig cage outdoors you should know that guinea pigs can suffer from extreme heat and cold and can die. And there’s a few things that you should know first.

There are plenty of guinea pig cages available on the Internet or in pet shops, though in the vast majority of cases they are way too small, and will be much too cramped for your new favourite pet. The reason most people buy a guinea pig hutch which is too small is that the smallest cages are the cheapest. So it’s important to make an effort to ensure that your pet is housed in a cage that is sufficiently spacious.

Some people overcome the problem of cost by making their own guinea pig hutch, and if you are able to do so this is a fine way of housing your favourite pet in a spacious house that will do an optimum job. It is quite possible to build housing that is entirely adequate and which is very low cost if you source your own materials, including second-hand materials, and build it yourself.

But even if you provide your guinea pig with a nice large hutch he will still need some entertainment, and the best way to provide entertainment is to provide a companion. But you also need to understand which sexes go together successfully and which do not.

If you put 2 males together you can have fighting, and if you put a male with a female you’ll end up with lots of baby guinea pigs unless you desex one of them, or unless you separate them which defeats the whole purpose. The best combination is to buy 2 young females and house them together.

You should provide them with hay in their hutch, as well as playthings such as plastic pipes and small boxes with openings so that they can run in and out. They also need something to chew on as they chew to reduce the length of their teeth and if you don’t provide something for this purpose they will chew on something anyway, probably the hutch.

There’s no doubt that a guinea pig makes a fine pet but it is important to spend some time thinking about where you will house him, or them, and what type of guinea pig hutch you will provide. Make sure it is large with plenty of playthings, and know what sexes you will buy before you go ahead.