How Big Should a Guinea Pig Cage Be? 5 Big Cage Benefits

DISCLOSURE: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS, MEANING I GET A COMMISSION IF YOU DECIDE TO MAKE A PURCHASE THROUGH MY LINKS, AT NO COST TO YOU. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.

Guinea pigs demand a lot of space if you want to keep them as pets. A common mistake a lot of new owners make is getting one of those “starter” cages, most of which are far too small to keep guinea pigs in. So, how big should a guinea pig cage be?

In short, guinea pigs need as much room as possible. The more room you can give them the better. As a bare minimum, two guinea pigs should be in an area that is no less than 120 cm x 60 cm, or an area of 7200 square centimeters / 7.75 square feet.

Important – Those numbers are the absolute smallest size cage or enclosure you should go for, but if you care at all for your guinea pigs’ health and wellbeing you should go bigger. As big as possible!

I have put this table together for quick reference showing the minimum area you should dedicate to your guinea pigs, depending on how many you have, in square centimeters and square foot.

How Big Should a Guinea Pig Cage be? – Cage size in cm/ft:

Number of Guinea Pigs	Minimum Cage Size (cm²)	Minimum Cage Size (ft²)
One Guinea Pig	7200 cm2²	7.75 (ft²)
Two Guinea Pigs	11520 cm2²	12.4 (ft²)
Three Guinea Pigs	14400 cm2²	15.5 (ft²)
Four Guinea Pigs	18240 cm2²	19.63 (ft²)

Source

For anything more than four guinea pigs, you’re likely going to have to dedicate a large part of a room or an outside hutch with a big run.

So, let’s get on with the six reasons you should give your guinea pigs as much space as possible.

1. Allow Personalities To Shine

Guinea pigs can have a variety of different personality types. Ranging from sweet and timid, to energetic and outgoing.

Of our two guinea pigs, Ken is certainly the more outgoing one. On the other hand, M&M (yes, that is his name) is quite clingy and affectionate, but a lot more timid than Ken.

It is these individual personalities that make guinea pigs such lovely pets, but you will only notice these traits if your guinea pig is happy. The amount of living space they have is a major factor here.

If your guinea pigs have too small an area in which to explore and keep themselves entertained, they will become bored, which will eventually lead to depression and withdrawal.

A large cage is important here because it allows the guinea pig to convey a more wide range of natural behaviors, simply due to being happier.

2. Prevent Stress, Boredom & Depression

Imagine if you had to spend your entire life in a box room. How long do you think it would take before you become miserable and bored to tears? Wouldn’t you yearn for a larger space in which to explore? That is how guinea pigs feel.

Guinea pigs are prone to stress, boredom, and depression if they are not kept busy with plenty of stimulation, and this just can’t happen in a small environment. Guinea pigs love to forage, explore and zoom about. So a larger cage ultimately leads to a happier piggie.

If you notice that your guinea pig is notably less active than usual, this may be a sign that they are feeling depressed. You can make efforts to prevent this by allocating plenty of space for them, and filling (but not overcrowding) this space with things like tunnels and guinea pig toys.

A stressed guinea pig is likely to display acts of irritability and aggression. The signs of stress to look for are:

• Head tossing – A guinea pigs way of saying, “get off me, now”. Our guinea pigs sometimes do this when we stroke them on the head. I tend to apologize and put them down.
• Teeth chattering – The sounds of a particularly annoyed guinea pig. Most guinea pigs will do this occasionally, but if it becomes frequent you should keep an eye on them.
• Teeth-baring – Usually directed at another guinea pig. Be prepared to intervene as this could be the start of a bloody fight. Thankfully, I’ve never seen this in our boys.

If your guinea pigs have enough cage space and plenty of fun distractions, these behaviors will be largely minimal.

This is why I prefer to allow our two boys to stay in their indoor run almost all the time now. Sure, they’re taking up nearly an entire room, but I can tell by the noises they make and their constant ‘popcorning’ how much happier they are for it. Wheek!

3. Room to Exercise Reduces Health Problems

In the wild, guinea pigs are constantly on the move as they are always foraging for food and on the lookout for predators. However, the pet guinea pig doesn’t have these concerns so they won’t be exercising anywhere near as much.

Lack of exercise in guinea pigs can lead to all sorts of problems such as:

• Weight gain and obesity
• Heart disease
• Arthritis
• Diabetes

The risk of these complications and health problems can be greatly reduced if your guinea pig has a big enough cage to run around and explore.

These are several ways in which a large cage will better encourage guinea pigs to exercise:

Room To Maneuver

First and most obvious is that they simply have more floor space to run about. If your guinea pig cage doesn’t have enough space, what space there is will be filled with the essentials like toys, tunnels, and food. There just won’t be enough space for your guinea pig to move around, so they won’t bother.

More Space For Toys

A bigger guinea pig cage means you are also able to fill the cage with more toys and tunnels. Guinea pigs absolutely love tunnels because they make them feel safe. Having more things to explore and discover will encourage your guinea pig to stay active.

I highly recommend that you regularly swap out and add new toys as this will better stimulate those curious guinea pigs.

Curiosity

Perhaps most importantly though, a small cage will seem almost like a shelter to a guinea pig. They won’t feel the need to wander out to forage and explore because they feel like they are trapped in their den, and anything to explore is right in front of them.

Guinea pigs are very curious and like to know what is happening around them, so having more cage space means your guinea pig needs to actively go check out what is on the other side of the cage.

Even if you have provided your guinea pigs with a more than an adequate sized cage, do not neglect the fact that they will need at least three hours of open floor time, daily.

This can be provided by either having a large indoor run, providing you have enough space in your house or with an outdoor run. I wouldn’t recommend letting them loose in your living room as they tend to hide in the most awkward of places and pee and poo.. a lot!

A good run for guinea pigs is a foldable metal playpen. They are easy to set up and pack away and can be set up wherever you like. Click here to check prices on Amazon.

It is so important to do everything you can to encourage your guinea pigs to exercise, and a large-sized cage is a must to achieve this.

Plenty of exercise helps guinea pigs work off any excess energy, so consequently, they are less likely to be stressed and anxious. A happy guinea pig is far less likely to fall out with their cage mates, which brings us onto our next point.

4. Reduces Squabbles

Guinea pigs are social creatures and require companionship. This doesn’t mean that they will get along all the time though, so it won’t always be all squeaks and giggles.

This is where cage size is vitally important. If your guinea pigs are crammed in together they are more likely to have disagreements and may even fight, so what size guinea pig cage you have will largely determine how frequently fights happen.

Everyone has bad mood swings from time to time, including guinea pigs. A living space with plenty of room allows moody pigs enough space to get away from each other while they calm down.

A spacious cage also means your guinea pigs are better distracted and entertained, and allows for regular exercise. This combined reduces bad moods in the first place.

With more space you are able to place multiple food sources throughout their cage. Guinea pigs quarreling and nudging each other at the food bowl is perfectly normal, and is in fact part of their social interaction.

However, sometimes these lunchtime arguments may turn into a more serious fight, particularly if their cage is already too cramped. So the option for a guinea pig to move to another food source will help reduce these squabbles.

Extra Tip:

Guinea pigs will fight for dominance in any new environment they find themselves in. Whenever you fully clean their cage you remove their scent, so when they go back in the cage they treat it as a new environment and have to again decide who the boss is. 

You can alleviate this by leaving some bedding in their cage from before the clean. This bedding will hold their scent so they know they will be going back into an environment where dominance has already been asserted. 

5. Easier Cage Cleaning

It’s no secret that guinea pigs are walking pooping machines. One of our pigs seems to have made it his mission to break some kind of world record for it.

This, of course, means that you will have to clean out your guinea pigs cage frequently. A clean cage is important for guinea pig health. If you don’t clean their cage often enough it can lead to a build-up of bacteria and toxicity. This can cause:

• Respiratory infections – A serious condition that can lead to a life-threatening disease.
• Bumblefoot – An infection that affects the foot pads of guinea pigs. It can be extremely painful and if left untreated may even require limb amputation.

I have to be blunt here; if you aren’t prepared to spend a lot of time cleaning and spot cleaning out your guinea pigs cage, you shouldn’t have one.

Guinea pigs are completely reliant on their owners to clean up after them, so do it often!

There is something you can do though that can reduce how often spot cleans are needed. You guessed it. A bigger cage!

A large cage stops feces and urine from building up quite as quickly, so you can get away with not doing full cage cleans quite as often, so long as you do regular spot cleans.

Some guinea pigs will even choose a separate area to do their business, given they have enough room. Plus, with abundant space, you can put in a litter tray. Although this does require the time and patience to do litter training and not all guinea pigs will take to it.

Best Big Guinea Pig Cage

I first need to warn you to be very careful what guinea pig cage you buy. Too often I have seen pet shops, online shops and other bloggers recommending cages that are just way too small for one guinea pig, let alone two.

The picture above is what to look out for to avoid. We used that cage for about a week when we first got our guinea pigs. We quickly replaced it as they barely had any room and were frequently fighting because of it.

Best Guinea Pig Cage for any Number Of Guinea Pigs

There is only one type of cage I would recommend, and it will be perfect no matter how many guinea pigs you have. The cage I’m talking about is called a C&C cage, which is essentially a DIY cage that is very customizable.

C&C cages (Cubes and Coroplast) are modular cages that you can build to your liking. You build the cage yourself out of square cage panels, connectors, and coroplast sheets. You can add levels, ramps, underneath storage and build it any shape you like.

It doesn’t matter if you have two, three, four or thirty guinea pigs. The beauty of C&C cages is that you can always add more space for your guinea pigs.

Above is the Songmics C&C cage that we got from amazon. It’s a great starter C&C set that comes with 36 panels and is a great size for 2-3 guinea pigs. It’s not normally too expensive either compared to buying the panels separately. You can check the price here on amazon.

Important – Guinea pigs’ feet are not good with wire bottom cages. This is where the second ‘C’ in C&C comes into play. It stands for ‘coroplast’, which are plastic sheets people use to line their cages and cover any wire floors. Click here to check the price of coroplast on amazon.