Guinea Pig Cage Floor Ideas – Best Flooring Materials for Guinea Pig Cages

Whether you’re building a custom cage or buying a pre-built one, choosing a flooring material for guinea pig cages is an important consideration. You need to know what is safe and what to avoid.

In my opinion, the best flooring materials are solid plastic bases and correx/coroplast. These floors are sturdy enough to support guinea pigs, are easy to clean, and post no health risks to guinea pigs. Other common guinea pig cage floor material options are wood, metal, and concrete.

Guinea Pigs and Chewing

You may be worried when choosing a flooring material that your guinea pigs will chew on it. But in actual fact, guinea pigs aren’t known to be big chewers. They are unlikely to chew on materials that are not good for them.

If a guinea pig is chewing a lot then it could be due to boredom. Proving plenty of hay, chew sticks and other edible toys should stop them chewing things they shouldn’t be.

The size of their cage is also important. A cage that is too small can cause boredom and stress, and a stressed guinea pig is more likely to chew on things they normally wouldn’t.

I’ve written about cage sizes and the benefits of a big cage that you can read here.

Flooring Options for Guinea Pig Cages?

I’m going to cover the most common flooring materials found in guinea pig cages. These materials are solid plastic, coroplast/correx, wood, concrete, and metal.

Plastic Flooring

Plastic cage bottoms are very common in nearly all store-bought and prebuilt cages. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a standard cage that doesn’t have a plastic base. But is plastic flooring good for guinea pigs?

It absolutely is! Plastic flooring is perfectly suitable for guinea pig cages. Plastic cage bases are the standard for good reason as they provide minimal risk to guinea pigs’ health and it doesn’t hurt their feet.

Cage bases made out of plastic are also incredibly easy to clean. The smooth surface prevents poop, pee, and dirt from sticking to it. Using a guinea pig-safe cage cleaner and some cloths or kitchen roll is more than adequate.

A plastic floor can be quite slippery though, so make sure to put down plenty of bedding so your guinea pigs don’t slide all over the place. You should also consider putting down newspaper first, which will make it easier for guinea pigs to walk on.

A Quick Note On Newspaper Flooring

Putting down newspaper on your guinea pigs cage floor is completely safe. Newspaper will make the floor easier for guinea pigs to walk on, and will also help to soak up their urine.

It is understandable that people worry that the ink in newspaper is toxic to guinea pigs, but it quite simply isn’t. Years ago newspaper ink would have been a risk, but the ink used nowadays poses no risk through and isn’t toxic through eating or inhalation.

On top of that, guinea pigs don’t tend to chew and eat newspaper anyway. I put a small amount of newspaper for my guinea pigs in their food area and they never even have so much as a nibble.

Coroplast/Correx Flooring

Coroplast/correx is a type of corrugated plastic that is widely used for guinea pig C&C cage bases. The reason coroplast is so popular for C&C cages is because of how versatile it is.

The second “C” in C&C actually stands for ‘coroplast’.

You can buy sheets of coroplast which can then be cut and scored into any shape you need. This is why it is perfect for custom cages of any shape or size. You can just do so much with it. I’ve had a lot of fun making a cage base, food area and a ramp using coroplast.

As coroplast is plastic it is easily cleanable and sturdy. But the other advantage that it has over fixed plastic flooring is that it can be taken out of the cage for cleaning. You can even take it outside for cleaning if you need to.

The main problem with coroplast cage flooring is that it does require some patience and D.I.Y. My partner and I have spent hours putting together all of the coroplast for our guinea pigs cage. All I can say is that it does take time and patience, but the end result is well worth it.

Another small issue with coroplast is that guinea pigs may chew on it if it is exposed. This isn’t usually a problem however as guinea pigs tend to avoid chewing on plastic. If you have nibbly guinea pigs though you can cover any exposed coroplast with a PVC trim.

Wood Flooring

Wood flooring is rarely used for indoor guinea pig cages but is very commonly found in hutches and outdoor runs.

Store-bought hutches/runs generally use guinea pig safe wood. However, if you are making a custom cage floor there are certain types of wood that can be harmful to guinea pigs, so you need to know which are safe.

Woods That are Safe for Guinea Pigs

Wood made from these types of trees are perfectly safe to use for guinea pig cage flooring:

• Aspen
• Linden
• Basswood
• Poplar
• Kiln-dried white pine
• Pussy willow
• Weeping willow

Avoid These Types of Wood

Soft resinous or aromatic woods or woods that naturally contain harmful substances are not safe. None-safe woods include:

• Air-dried pine
• Cedar
• Eucalyptus
• Redwood
• White willow

You also need to avoid using any wood that has been chemically treated or that have been sprayed with pesticides.

When it comes to cleaning, wood floorings are not the best. It does largely depend on the type of wood but generally, you will find it a lot harder to keep clean than plastic flooring.

For one, urine will soak deep into wood which can be a pain to scrub out. You may also find that it will become badly stained over time. A buildup of mold is another issue with wood flooring, especially with outdoor hutches. Mould is harmful to guinea pigs so you can’t ignore it.

Concrete Flooring

If you are setting up an outside hutch or run you might consider placing it on top of concrete. But you will likely be wondering if concrete flooring is safe for guinea pigs, and is it too rough and hard?

Concrete flooring is suitable for guinea pigs, but should not be used as permanent flooring. Some people like the idea of concrete flooring because they think it will do a good job of keeping their guinea pigs’ nails short. Whilst this is partially true, concrete won’t file down their nails a whole lot so they will still need clipping.

One downside of concrete flooring is that it’s not exactly the most comfortable and can be quite rough. Guinea pigs have footpads that are sensitive to rough flooring, and concrete may cause pain and discomfort to this area. If forced to walk on concrete for too long, guinea pigs may also develop bumblefoot (an extremely painful foot infection).

This can be avoided though if you limit how long your guinea pigs are on concrete for, by having other areas of their enclosure with soft flooring/bedding, or by covering the concrete with soft bedding.

A concrete floor is also going to cause some heating issues. This is because concrete has a high thermal mass. This basically means that it can store a lot of heat but also release heat quickly.

For this reason, it is best not to have concrete flooring exposed to direct sunlight for too long. You should test the temperature of the concrete with your hand before allowing guinea pigs on it. If it is too hot for your hand, it is definitely too hot for your guinea pigs.

It is also a very bad idea to leave guinea pigs outside on concrete overnight without sufficient bedding, as they will freeze.

On the other hand, concrete is completely nibble proof so you won’t have to worry about your guinea pigs chewing and ingesting it.

Metal Flooring

It is very rare to find a guinea pig cage that has metal flooring but they do exist, though mainly in custom-built cages.

Metal flooring is not a recommended material for guinea pig cages. Whilst it is easy to clean, it will create some issues for guinea pigs. One issue is that it won’t offer much grip so guinea pigs will have a hard time walking on it. But the main issue with metal is the way that it conducts and loses heat.

Have you ever noticed that metals seem to heat up very quickly, but without a heat source can be very cold to the touch? This is because metals are good thermal conductors. I won’t get too much into the sciencey stuff, but if you want to know more you can read about it here.

So metal will either be too hot or too cold and as guinea pigs are very temperature sensitive, this is not a good property. You are more likely to find that a metal cage floor will be too cold, which can make guinea pigs ill. Although it could become too hot if hit with sunlight for too long, which could cause heat stroke or even burns in extreme cases.

Either way, I strongly advise avoiding metal cage bases entirely.

Flooring to Avoid at all Costs

There are certain types of flooring that are completely unsuitable for guinea pigs. There are two things you need to consider when choosing a cage floor. Guinea pigs are very temperature sensitive and their feet aren’t as sturdy as with other rodents. So you need to completely avoid:

Wire-Bottom Cages

You will find wire-bottom cages everywhere, but they are simply not suitable for guinea pigs. You shouldn’t have wire flooring in any part of their cage at all. Wire-bottom cages are only suitable for rodents such as rats or chinchillas.

Guinea pigs do not have legs that are as agile or sturdy as other rodents, so a wire-bottom cage is going to cause serious injury to their legs, perhaps even resulting in broken bones.

Guinea pigs are also one of the few rodents to have exposed footpads. They need solid flooring to avoid developing foot infections.

Wet Grass

Letting your guinea pig out on grass is perfectly fine, as is actually a healthy source of food for them. But you need to avoid letting your guinea pigs being out on wet grass at all costs.

Guinea pigs have bodies that are always low to the ground, and wet grass will soak them very quickly. Don’t forget that guinea pigs are very temperature sensitive, so if a guinea pig is on wet grass for too long they can develop hypothermia and even die.