How to Make a Hay Rack for a Guinea Pig Cage

Guinea pigs need fresh hay every day. Many guinea pig owners choose to attach a hay rack to the side of the cage, to keep it off the floor. While pet stores usually sell small hay racks or spinners, they tend to be expensive and don't hold a lot of hay. But you can make your own larger hay rack for a fraction of the cost of buying one. This is easiest if you've also built your own cage.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Shelf basket or other small wire basket
• Zip ties

How to Make a Hay Rack from a Wire Storage Grid

1. Take one storage cube grid. If you've used them to build your own cage, you should have a few extra grids left over.

2. Lay the grid on the floor with the welded cross wires on the bottom. (If you look at the grid, you'll see that the wires are welded on one side of the frame.) This is important because if the cross wires are on top, the grid will crack when you try to bend it.

3. 
   A properly bent grid.

   With shoes on, step firmly on one end of the grid while slowly pulling up on the other end to bend it. Bend it until you have a U-shaped grid.

4. Use zip ties to attach the bent grid to the cage wall. Fill your new hay rack with hay.

How to Make a Hay Rack if You Don't Have Wire Grids

5. 

   Go shopping in hardware stores or dollar stores for a shelf basket or other small wire basket that you can attach to the side of your cage. Often, you can find these for under $1.00.

6. Use zip ties to attach the basket to your cage. Fill your new hay rack with hay.

Tips & Warnings

• One of the unfortunate things about a hay rack is that it's easy for hay to spill out of the cage and onto the floor. To prevent this, attach a piece of coroplast to the back of the hay rack to keep hay from spilling out.
• If you use fleece for bedding, consider placing the hay rack above a litter box so the guinea pigs won't get as much hay on the fleece.

Resources

• Guinea Pig Cages

[GPRescuer]

on 6/30/2008 A cheaper alternative, and one far less likely to have sharp edges that could hurt a guinea pig, is a simple plastic basket for the kitchen or desk. It can be attached to any cage using cable ties or binder clips.

You can usually find 4x6-inch or 5x8-inch baskets, about 2-3 inches deep, at any drug or discount store. They're easily washable and won't rust.

One such option are these rectangular plastic baskets (bundled 4 for a dollar):

http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100499&navAction=jump&navCount=1&skuid=sku2438614&id=prod2439136