self-cleaning guinea pig cage

Question
Hi Pat,

I was doing some browsing online and found a website for a self-cleaning guinea pig cage. I am going to attach the website to this message so maybe you can check it out. I wanted to get an expert's opinion on this cage style- there are definitley some things about it that make me nervous- like there are no walls...but if you read the "how it works" section, most of these non-traditional designs are explained. I have 3 guinea pigs- would this work for me?  Just curious what your opinion might be.  http://www.weepweep.com/index.htm

Thanks!

Answer
I did check it out.  Very interesting concept, however you know that old saying, "If it sounds too good to be true it probably is."  I think that's the case here. It would appear that as long as your pigs sat in the house with their butts hanging out the house would stay clean because the urine and poops would run down the sloping sides.

My question is "where does the urine and poo go?"  Someone still has to clean it up somewhere, it doesn't just dissipate and disappear. It rolls down the sloping walls and hopefully makes it all the way down. I doubt it. I think some of them are still going to get stuck on the sides somewhere.

The sloping sides seem to limit the area where the pigs can move and exercise, don't you think? I doubt if they're going to run up the slope and into the house every time they have to go. I have a couple of pigs that will use just one corner of their cage. Very considerate. The rest just dump it wherever they happen to be, and that could be in their feed dish!

I have a bit of issue about the pigs always being on a hard surface rather than on shavings. When dishwashers were invented we all thought we'd never have to wash dishes again. The reality is that the dishwasher simply puts off having to put the dishes away right away.  We can hide them for awhile in the dishwasher, after we've rinsed them all off to start with.

To be honest Ashley, as much as we'd all like a 'self cleaning cage' there just really isn't any such thing. It's a terrific idea but it's about as possible (in my opinion) as a bed that makes itself!

Of course I could be completely wrong, so if you want to try it by all means take lots of pictures and tell me I was wrong. (just don't spend too much on the idea)