When choosing a hamster you need to check that its ears are erect and that it has eyes which are nice and bright. There should be no evidence of new or old cuts, and pick up the hamster to see if it bites. You should be able to pick up the hamster and stroke it without it biting.

The ideal age of the hamsters should be between four to eight weeks old when you get them. Handle them with care and if you pick them up they will be scared so they will try to jump out of your hands. Best practice is to handle them near to the base of their cage so there will be no injuries.

At Ideas-4-Pets, we have a range of hamster products for your new pet hamster which includes hamster cages and hamster bedding.

Hamsters do not smell if you keep their hamster cages clean. Change their hamster bedding once a week and throw away old hamster food.

While replacing your hamster’s bedding. take time to rinse out his water bottle and replace with clean fresh water.

A hamster will love you to save the tubes from the middle of your toilet rolls as the make wonderful hiding places.

We at Ideas-4-Pets are happy to show you our hamster products to keep your pet hamster fit and happy, including toys and exercise apparatus.

Guinea pigs are well known as a social animal and they survive better in groups, so buying two is better than one.

This is great if you have more than one child. On the plus side looking after two guinea pigs is just as easy as looking after one, but just one guinea pig can become lonely.

One thing to remember is to make sure you have a male and female or you may be risking the fact two females or two males may not get along as they mature.

Guinea pigs are kept in hutches or guinea pig cages indoors or outdoors depending on the space you have.

At Ideas-4-Pets there is a wide selection of guinea pig cages to suit your taste. The guinea pig cages are designed to allow plenty of room for your guinea pig or guinea pigs to run and jump around.

There are high and low cages on our website and if you have a space where you can invest in a high guinea pig cage, it is better for your pet.

One important factor to consider is the floor of the cage as your new pet has sensitive feet and a mesh floor will result in your pet having injured feet. A smooth floor will be more comfortable and less stressful for you as their owner.

At Ideas-4-Pets we have trained staff who can help with advice and information on the wide range of guinea pig cages and guinea pig pet products suitable for your new pet.

Happy campers

Ideas4Pets offer you a wide selection of guinea pig cages to suit your every piggy need. The first thing to make sure of in guinea pig cages is that the size is adequate. You need to offer your guinea pig enough room to roam around and be comfortable. Cooping it up in a too small space is a cruel and unfair act towards your beloved pet. It is also a good idea to invest in a relatively high cage as guineas like to jump and are escape artists.

The floors of guinea pig cages are another important factor to look at. These little critters have very sensitive feet which mean that wire and mesh flooring is a definite no-no.

This type of floor can easily cause your pig discomfort and even injury. Opt for a smooth and solid floor for the cage. Design is important in guinea pig cages; you need to choose a design that is likely to stimulate your pet. Choosing cages that include more than one level, ledges and other accessories is a great idea.

These cute and adorable pets are a far cry from their sewer dwelling cousins and deserve to be pampered with lots of guinea pig products. At Ideas4Pets we strive to bring you the very best quality guinea pig products to spoil your pet with and keep him healthy, happy and safe.

Pampered pigs

The first thing you need to do when you have or are getting a guinea pig is to make sure it has an adequate home. At Ideas4Pets, we have a wide range of different housing available for your guinea pig. You can choose from indoor and outdoor hutches and cages or even one of each for a bit of variety. We have hutches available ranging from cosy to extra large.

Other guinea pig products you need to invest in include food and water containers, a small pet carrier and cage or hutch bedding to make your new friend comfy. You may also want to invest in an exercise run or pen so that your guinea pig can get some exercise outside its hutch or cage. We have a variety of play and exercise pens and runs ranging from small to very large.

These are ideal for when you or the children want to play with your guinea pig outside. Our guinea pig products offer you top quality and value for money when investing in a furry friend’s happiness.

ideas-4-pets have an excellent range of rabbit hutches on offer. There are rabbit hutch that have a rabbit run underneath so that your rabbit has a place to sleep and a place to play. Some of the rabbit hutches are on legs and others go straight to the floor so that you can put them straight on to the grass in the summer.

If you have more than one rabbit, there are rabbit hutches which has two sleeping areas and there are really big rabbit hutches that can suit up to 4 or 5 medium rabbits, giving them plenty of space to hop around.

Rabbits love to exercise so the more room you can give your rabbit the better. A rabbit hutch can never be too big, but they can be too small and all too often we hear of rabbits that are left on their own in small hutches with no company because the children have “grown out of them”

Rabbits can live for many years and crave the company of other rabbits or of their owners. They love to play in rabbit runs or in the garden and need to have toys to play with – a tube to hide in, an overturned plant pot to explore, a ball to throw about.

Be inventive with your rabbit’s playthings and make sure that he has plenty of clean, fresh water and good quality food in his rabbit hutch. These lovely little creatures are intelligent and need to be stimulated and handled regularly.

Make sure the rabbit hutch you purchase is good quality, make sure it is sturdy and will be warm and draught free in winter, make sure there are no leaks in the roof and that you have an adequate hutch cover to protect the hutch and your rabbit during the bad weather. And very importantly, make sure that the rabbit hutch is big enough for rabbit to stand on his hind legs easily and that it is approx. 3 times the length of your rabbit when he is stretched out.

If your garden is not rabbit safe, then purchase a rabbit run for your rabbit to hop and play in and you will be rewarded by having a rabbit who is happy and healthy and will be a companion to you for many years.

Did you know that the rabbit hutch or the guinea pig hutch that you choose should be at least 3 times the length of the animal and give them enough room to stand on their hind legs? The rabbit hutch (or guinea pig hutch) should allow the animal to sleep in an enclose, dark area and also have access to a light, play area.

Rabbits and guinea pigs love to run around and play and rabbits will kick their legs out when out of the rabbit hutch. They must have room to do this and if the rabbit hutch does not allow this, then they should have daily access to a rabbit run. Time in the rabbit run should be supervised as both guinea pigs and rabbits are prey to cats and foxes.

The rabbit hutch or guinea pig hutch should be cleaned at least twice a week and disinfected at least monthly. This is important as a dirty hutch can lead to infestation of flies and maggots and these can cause untold misery, especially to rabbits.

Rabbits also need regular grooming to keep their fur in tip-top condition and both pets need easy access to fresh, clean water and good quality food.

In winter, the rabbit hutch or guinea pig hutch needs to be sheltered and should be free of draughts – imagine being left outside in the cold and damp in a draughty hutch – not a pleasant thought. A rabbit hutch cover is a good buy as this stops the wind and rain from blowing into the hutch and causing discomfort to your rabbit or guinea pig.

In summer, your rabbit or guinea pig will need lots of exercise in the fresh air but will also require some sort of shelter in the rabbit run so that they can shelter from the sun or a sudden rain shower. Some rabbit runs have a covered area which is ideal.

Most of all, your rabbit or guinea pig will need lots of love and attention as they are both extremely sociable creatures and in the wild will live in family groups. As pets, they often lose this closeness to creatures of their own kind and rely on their owners to give them the friendship and companionship they need. Play with them often and handle them as much as possible as this will strengthen the bond between you and your pet.

Remember that a well cared for pet is a happy pet and will give you unconditional love for many years.

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When Rabbits urinate into the top layer corner of any rabbit hutch it will run down below into the run area. No hutch that we are aware of will fully seal and stop this from happening. The same is true of a guinea pig hutch.

We recommend that it is better not use sawdust with rabbits as it irritates their eyes. The best way is to line the floor of the rabbit hutch with layers of newspaper which will soak up urine. The newspaper sheets should be changed regularly to stop the rabbit hutch from smelling and the paper from getting too wet and soggy. The bedding chamber where your rabbit or guinea pig will sleep, should be lined with newspaper – let the newspaper run up the sides and corners as well as the base of the hutch. One top of the newspaper lay hay or soft straw (the ‘dust extracted’ variety is best and is available at all good pet shops)

As a guideline, use about 6 layers of ‘broadsheet’ newspaper crossed in both directions so tat it runs up all the side walls, then add the hay which holds everything in place but remember to change it every few days.

The added benefit of using newspaper this way is that when cleaning out the hutch, the whole lot can be rolled into a bundle around the old bedding hay. This way you can pick up any droppings as well so cleaning becomes much easier. In fact, this can all be done in about 1 minute.

We would also recommend that the rabbit has a rabbit run for during the day in good weather, not forgetting to offer him some shade of course. This gives gives the rabbit access to grass and clover etc. and allows him to pee and poo in the garden rather than always in his hutch.

We were recently told by a vet that there are never any ‘ill’ rabbits, they are either ‘very well’ or ‘very dead’ but never poorly! ( ..her words) …. this is usually because owners feed them incorrectly. She recommended it’s best to keep them to a quality supplemented pellet food diet with maybe half an apple and half a carrot per day and stick to that.

She also advised not to keep changing their diet as it upsets their stomach. Surprisingly she informed us that lettuce is very bad as it gives them diarrhoea, so our advise is to avoid it. She also suggested that rabbits should have access to an open bowl of water as well as the inverted bottles as they tend to like a good ‘slurp’ as well as drinking from the bottles.

This is also the time when a lot of those people realise that the rabbit hutch or the guinea pig hutch has seen better days and is making the garden look a mess – not to mention the fact that poor Bunny or Guinea pig is living in a broken down hovel !!

There are so many lovely rabbit hutches and guinea pig hutches for sale at the moment, why not treat your pet to a new one?

Rabbit hutches are meant to be a forever home for your rabbit so it is worth investing in a good quality one which will not only look good, but will provide your pet with a warm, comfortable home which is what we all want isn’t it?

The best rabbit hutches are those that provide the rabbit or guinea pig with the most room. People don’t realise how cruel it is to put a rabbit or a guinea pig in a small hutch. Rabbits love to have space to sit on their hind legs and stretch, they love to be able to hop around and kick their legs and the same is true of a guinea pig. A good-sized rabbit hutch will give your rabbit this freedom he loves and a hutch with a rabbit run attached is even better if you don’t have a separate run or an enclosed garden.

Before purchasing a rabbit hutch make sure you know the size you require – 4 times the length of your rabbit and high enough for your rabbit to stand on his hind legs without touching the top is a good guide. A guinea pig does not need one as big as a rabbit, but the bigger you can get the better as both rabbits and guinea pigs cannot have a hutch that is “too big”. The hutch should also have a warm, covered sleeping area and a play area for your rabbit to look out. As mentioned before, try and either get a hutch with an under-run or purchase a good sized rabbit run so that your rabbit or guinea pig can get the exercise they need in a safe environment.

What better time to look for a new rabbit hutch than late spring/early summer – your rabbit or guinea pig will soon settle into his new home and will love it in winter when the draughts and cold have disappeared with the old home !!

You can purchase rabbit hutches in all types of shapes and sizes – although you should always try and purchase the largest you can afford as it is cruel to keep a rabbit in a small hutch that he cannot stand up on his hind legs in or run around and kick his legs in.

There are the basic rabbit hutches with a sleeping compartment at one end and a run area at the other. These are usually on legs to prevent rising damp and reduce draughts and are also at a suitable height for humans to be able to get into them. It is useful to buy a rabbit hutch or guinea pig hutch with a hinged lid so that cleaning it out is easy.

There are double hutches which are like the one mentioned above but are specially made for keeping 2 rabbits or 2 guinea pigs. These often have a ramp between the two hutches so that the 2 pets can socialise with each other but the ramp can be sealed off if you have two pets that fight. There are even hutches for 3 pets, again of a similar type to those mentioned previously.

The rabbit hutches and guinea pig hutches with a run attached are a great idea, especially those with a long run as both rabbits and guinea pigs are active little creatures who like nothing better than having a good run around. A happy healthy pet is one who has lots of exercise as well as lots of love and attention.

If you are able to spend lots of time with your rabbit or guinea pig you should also consider investing in a separate rabbit run (used for guinea pigs as well) as this allows even more space for racing around. But you should always be around to watch your pet if he’s in a pen to protect him from the local cat or even foxes.

Whatever hutch you choose, go for a good quality built one with no sharp edges, predator proof wire if possible and made from good quality timber. Remember that rabbits and guinea pigs feel the cold just as we do and a poorly built, draughty hutch made from plywood will not provide your pet with an adequate or comfortable home. Remember that your pet deserves to be cared for properly, from his hutch to his food and will also need lots of quality time spent either with little friends of his own ilk (other rabbits or guinea pigs) or with you, his owner.

One last thing, your pet should always have a clean, hygienic hutch to live in and should always have access to good quality food and clean, fresh water daily.

A well looked after pet is a happy, healthy pet !!

Keeping their rabbit hutches or guinea pig hutches pristine clean can help to prevent this happening and brushing your small pet regularly will also help tremendously.

Guinea pigs can sometimes suffer from mites which are a nuisance and an irritant for your pet. If this happens to your guinea pig we suggest you purchase a special treatment from your vet which will get rid of these quickly. Sometimes the only way to apply this treatment is to give your guinea pig a bath but bathing is not normally recommended as a way of keeping them clean.

However, Guinea pigs love to be brushed using using either a comb or a brush. A soft brush like a babies brush are less likely to cause damage to your guinea pig’s delicate skin. Long haired varieties of guinea pigs will require daily grooming in order to keep them in tip-top condition and prevent matting but the short haired varieties will require much less grooming and weekly brushing should suffice.

Rabbits rarely need bathing but like guinea pigs, they do enjoy being brushed and in particular along their backs. Rabbits are like cats and will spend time grooming themselves as they like to be clean. One thing to check for though is that they do not ingest too much dead hair when licking their fur. This can make them extremely ill as the ingested hair forms a hairball which blocks the stomach. Did you know that unlike other animals, a rabbit cannot vomit so the consequences can be dire. Keep an eye on your rabbit’s grooming habits, especially when he is moulting or nesting.

Moulting generally takes place over a period of a few days or weeks and varies from rabbit to rabbit. To help prevent ingestion of vast amounts of hair, pull the loose hair out gently with your fingers. It will be sitting on top of his coat in small clumps so will not hurt your rabbit when you do this.

If your rabbit’s hair does get matted (which can happen with the long haired breeds) it is not adviseable to use scissors to remove it because your rabbit’s skin is paper thin and can very easily be damaged.

Remember, keeping your rabbit hutch or guinea pig hutch clean will definitely prevent your pet from getting dirty with faeces or stale food and a clean rabbit hutch is also much more hygienic for your pet and for you.