Should I get my guinea pig a c&c cage?

Broadly speaking I would say yes - get a c+c.

I have used various types of cages, for various types of animal, and for me the c+c wins hands down.

The price and ease of the materials depends on where you live. In the USA people have managed to get all the grids and coroplast for as little as $30. Here in the UK the stuff is much more expensive. So long as you live in America a c+c cage will almost certainly work out much cheaper than store bought cage.

The vast majority of commercial cages are totally unsuitable for guinea pigs. There are very few that meet the minimum space requirement for even a single pig - many are less than half the recommended size. While there are one or two cages that meet the minimum requirements for one or two pigs - they are the biggest available. Anyone wanting to properly house three or more pigs together would have no choice but to build their own.

Cage size is really important - keeping animals in too small cages causes a wide variety of health and welfare problems - inc obesity, muscular-skeletal disorders, increased heart rate and blood pressure, increased cortisol (stress hormone), reduced immune response, abnormal behaviour, and even reduced lifespan!

Some commercial cages also have other problems - such as grid / perforated floors which are aversive and dangerous, totally enclosed which gives poor ventilation, have unsafe upper levels with too-steep ramps, etc.

If you did manage to find a pet store cage that was large enough and safe, it would probably be far more expensive than a c+c.

Commercial hutches usually come in bigger sizes than indoor cages, but then you have the problem of a wood floor. This will absorb urine, is difficult to keep clean and impossible to disinfect (so it harbours bad odours and bacteria). I would suggest to anyone using a hutch to cover the floor in some sort of plastic (eg coroplast or lino) for hygene reasons.

If you don't have other pets like dogs or cats to worry about, then an open top c+c is also really good for access. They make it really easy to clean out, pet and handle your pigs etc.

Because they are home made, they are also really flexible. Again, depending in where you live you can get either normal or mesh grids - some even in different colours. Coroplast comes in a wide range of colours. You can make the cage any size or shape you like - rectangle, square or L-shaped, basic one level or with upper levels and haylofts, etc. You can even overlap the grids to make the cage exactly fit the space you have.

Of course, if you want to make your own cage it doesn't have to be a c+c. My first home made pen was a basic style rabbit run - a wooden frame with mesh walls. Even so, this is much more difficult than making a c+c, as you need to be so careful about measuring everything, have the tools and the skills to cut and join the wood, etc. You could also buy a decent sized rabbit run, and just use coroplast or lino for the floor - but again, it is usually cheaper to make your own.

All in all, I would say c+c cages are the best I have ever used and I won't be going back to commercial cages any time soon. They are better for me (nice, easy to clean, flexible etc) and much better for my pigs (safe, hygienic, spacious). I say go for it - you won't regret it!

Its up to you and no one else! a c&c cage is just one option, I have a large rabbit cage I got from a website which is big enough for my piggies who get a LOT of out of cage exercise time every day. The storage cubes are quite expensive here in the UK I got some second hand ones on ebay to make a playpen with and they still cost quite a lot.

I work at a pet supply store and I don't know what a c&c cage is. Be more specific.