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Feebee loves to spend her floor time exploring and running laps
Your guinea pigs are built to move. Whether it’s running to hide in a pigloo or jumping and squeaking for treats, guinea pigs need adequate exercise and mental stimulation for optimum health and happiness.
And floor time is the perfect way to give your guinea pig just what he or she craves: a time for fun and discovery.
What Is Floor Time?
Floor time is a scheduled hour each day when a guinea pig gets to roam free of the confines of its cage in a danger-free area in its Human’s house. Floor time areas are replete with hideys, food, and water. This daily event is the perfect time to introduce new activities and exciting places to explore while giving your cavy the routine and exercise it needs.
The main objective of floor time is exercise. While a guinea pig keeper should be performing weekly health checks and regular maintenance tasks (along with snuggle-time and frequent daily interaction), it is no substitute for the exercise and stimulation afforded by floor time. Unlike snuggle time, floor time enables your pig to explore and learn, and to develop his or her own curiosity away from its everyday environment.
Because guinea pigs thrive on consistency and schedule, The Humans provide the HappyCavy with floor time every day for about 45 minutes. During this time, each guinea pigs is taken to a pig-proof sun-room: a well-list and danger-free section of the Humans’ home.
How to Host Floor Time for Your Guinea Pigs
The guinea pigs hide while they await the delivery of floor-time water and hay
Ideally, floor time should be conducted each day at the same hour or at least once every other day. Remember: The smaller your guinea pig’s cage, the more frequent and longer your guinea pig’s floor time should be!
Guinea Pig Cage Size Requirements
A single adult should have 76 x 91cm in unobstructed cage space. Two guinea pigs should have 76 x 127cm. Learn more about cage size requirements here.
Floor time is best done in a well-light and well-ventilated (but not drafty) part of your house; try to pick a spot with low noise levels and low foot traffic. Some guinea pig keepers prefer to use dining rooms or spare bedrooms. Others like hallways or utility rooms.
Whatever the location, make sure all members of your household know that floor time is in progress. Ask each Human to keep noise levels to a minimum and to be respectful of the pigs’ special space.
How Often To Host Floor Time
Your guinea pig should be getting exercise daily. At least one hour is optimal for each floor time session.
Whether your schedule allow you to provide floor time each day or once every other day, it’s important to pick a set hour and stick with it. Your pigs will love you for planning ahead to give them the extra care and attention they need to stay happy and healthy!
Preparing for Floor Time
Cage grids, hideys, fleece, and other supplies for floor time
For most guinea pig Humans, a recommended Floor Time Supply Kit may include:
- Cage grids and Zip ties, used to enclose a floor time space and/or block hazards
- Fleece or other fabric to cover floor
- Non-slip netting mats (for smooth floors) or absorbant material (for carpeted floors)
- Food bowl, water bottle, fresh hay
- 1 hidey per each guinea pig, plus 1 extra (e.g., 2 pigs = 3 hideys)
While your floor time supply list may vary, the focus remains the same: fun, exercise, and interaction. So here are a few things every cavy keepers needs to consider when preparing your guinea pig’s floor time area:
#1. Guinea Pig Proofing
Floor vents are common house-hold guinea pig hazard
The Humans are fortunate to have a large, dedicated floor-time room in their house. But for many others, floor time is generally set-up in shared living quarters: living-rooms, hallways, etc.
If you’re hosting floor time in a shared living space, take a moment to think about what items in the floor time room will need to be “piggy-proofed”.
Will you need to…?
- Remove all obstacles such as chairs or other furniture which you don’t want your guinea pig hiding under?
- Close any doors or exits to the room?
- Block any potential traps like vents, small holes, or tight gaps between objects and the wall (like at the back of the refrigerator)?
- Remove or cover any sharp corners on furniture or floor moulding or trim?
- Unplug and remove any electrical cords? Cover any electrical outlets?
- Remove any house plants that are poisonous to guinea pigs? (Remember, if in doubt, take it out!)
#2. Floor Time Bedding
The floor of the HappyCavy play room is linoleum, so The Humans don’t have to really worry about wee stains or cavy accidents (which WILL happen); the linoleum makes it easy to clean up afterward. But guinea pigs don’t like linoleum very much. And who can blame them? It’s impossible to walk on if you’re a little, chubby pig with slippery tootsies.
So The Humans approach floor time bedding with a “cloak and cover” approach. First, they lay down a few mats cut from non-slip netting.
Non slip fabric mat (link)
On top of the anti-slip mats are placed two large pieces of fleece. The anti-slip mats prevent the fleece from shifting on the floor, giving the guinea pigs a comfortable and safe way to run and explore their floor time environment.
Then several outdoor patio stones are placed on top of the ends of each corner of the fleece. Doing so prevents tunneling and burrowing, a favorite of Hammy and Buttercup.
If you aren’t using a linoleum surface for floor time, you can protect flooring from getting dirty by laying down bath mats, newspaper, or absorbent bed padding.
Now that the bedding is set-up, it’s time to…
#3. Enclose the Floor Time Area
Cage grids, pre-fastened with ZIP-ties, are arranged around the fleece area
The Humans prefer to use a large enclosure for HappyCavy floor time. The enclosure is constructed with cage grids (the same grids used in cubes and coroplast guinea pig cages) that are zip-tied together to create a wall barrier.
1 gallon water jug used to secure grids to the wall
Water jugs are then used to hold the grid barrier tight against the wall. (Fortunately, the HappyCavy are neither professional escape artists nor eager to leave their pampered lifestyle. Your security method should adapt to the cleverness and ingenuity of your cavy.)
By the way, Dot needs her own separate floor-time area, thus the use of 2 distinct sections in the photo above. Dot is the pickiest of piggies!
#4. Floor Time Accessories
A naturally private cavy, Dot isn’t particularly fond of the pigarazzi
Any HappyCavy will tell you: Floor time is never complete without food, water, pellets, and hideys!
As you already know, your guinea pig wants (and needs!) to eat constantly. So bring in the food bowl, give them their water bottle, and rustle up a box of hay or two. Guinea pigs will work up an appetite no matter what they’re doing; floor time is no exception.
Along with food, hideys are a must. Especially for shy guinea pigs like Dot.
The general rule is that you should provide one hidey per guinea pig, plus one extra. Hidey areas can be anything from plastic pigloos, wooden hutches, to large empty cardboard boxes. Hideys provide safe, comforting environments for your guinea pig to explore its play time area. Accidently drop something? Your guinea pig runs into its hidey. Don’t take that comfort away from them, give them a place they can escape to.
Then on to the fun stuff: Paper towel rolls, ping pong balls, chew blocks, burrowing tunnels. Get creative with floor-time, just remember that the objective is to give your guinea pig room to exercise. So keep the guinea pig toys to a minimum and stick with one or two that your guinea might like. Even better: Change the kinds of toys you use. The newness will keep your cavy guessing!
Floor Time Fun!
Hammy is happiest during floor time!
Now that your play time room is secured, your enclosure is set-up, food and water are available, and hideys are in place, your pig is ready to party!
When giving your guinea pig floor time, don’t just let them at it and go about your Human business! Sit next to your guinea pigs, talk to them, watch their behavior and how their little personalities grow and change. You may be surprised what a little time and observation will teach you about your fuzzy friends!
Floor time is also a great chance to help new guinea pigs acclimate to their Forever Home. The more time you spend with your guinea pig — speaking softly, feeding treats, watching and being there — the faster he or she will get used to the sounds, smells, and sights of their new environment.
New Guinea Pigs & Floor Time
Understand that guinea pigs new to floor time may choose to stay in their hidey places the entire time; this is especially true of new guinea pigs. But that’s OK! Just understand that they’ll need some “hands-off” to adjust, and the reward is that your guinea pig may learn to trust you and realize that you’re just there to help.
Conclusion: Creative Ideas for Floor Time?
Floor time is an important part of your guinea pig’s daily routine. It provides space and time for your guinea pig to grow strong physically and mentally, and for you to build a closer and stronger bond with your guinea pig.
So what are you doing for floor time? Is there a favorite room of your house you use? What works for you?
And do you have any creative idea for floor time? Inquiring pigs want to know! Please share them below!
My boys currently have large pig “pens”. I usually don’t have to worry about room to run for them but they do get floor time with the family while we watch tv in the living room. One little guy (Dog) snuggles up to me while I sit on the floor.
Hi, just trying to do this for the first time for my guinea pigs. They’ve just gotten used to their hutch – will this stress them out?
As long as you’re providing floor-time on a consistent schedule, they should adjust with relative ease. Plus they’ll love you for it!
Thank you!
I’ve been told I should be picking them up, even if they’re nervous and hiding. Is that the right thing to do or should I let them hide throughout it?
No problem 🙂
It all really comes down to keeping everything consistent. Most cavies want to hide and run and play during floor time. Some are more affectionate than others.
When your guinea pig get used to floor time each day at a certain hour, they will anticipate the “pick up” before and after, and often times oblige (or scurry away for a bit then wait for the “gentle lift”). Use these 2 opportunities to get in a little extra snuggle time, usually for as long as your piggy can handle 🙂
My guinea pigs are lazy when we have floor time. What could help them with that? Also their are two of them, (sofie&oreo) and they are both girls.
You could try throwing some dark greens around the playtime area to see if that gets them to explore. Adding new toys and hidey areas always helps, too — anything from a new pigloo to a large cardboard box should do the trick.
Also, you could try to get them to wheek and stretch when you give them a few treats during floor time. Sometimes you just have to get their “engines” going before they get comfortable.
I have one spot in my house that I can do floor time, but I can’t seem to ever keep the pee from slipping through the fleece. Even towels won’t stop it from hitting the floor. What can I do? My pigs are afraid of everything and I’ll stay out for hours waiting for them and they’ll just stay in their hidey hut. I’ve offered treats, carrots, and even let them gnaw on cardboard. Nothing will get them out, so floor time seems pointless.
Hi, Lanie! Some Humans have had luck using Guinea Pig Absorbent Cage Liners or PiggyBedSpreads to prevent wee-leakage. Also, you should wash it a few times to see if it wicks. If not, you may need to try a more “wick-able” type of fleece.
About the floor time – if you can get them on the floor at the same time each day, play with them, interact and feed them some treats, I guarantee you’ll see more of them throughout the day in the near future. That’s part of the point of floor time, to get them on a schedule and acclimate them to your household 🙂
My guinea pigs love floor time. They run around popcorning like crazy. However i don’t have many things they can play with. Please can i have some ideas for home-made toys.
How about a Fleece Forest: http://www.calicavycollective.com/2013/01/diy-guinea-pig-toy-fleece-forest.html 🙂
Shoulds great fun!! But i dont have a C &C grid
I have a whole sheet of plywood under my guinea pig dresser (a mini dresser for storage with the cage on top) and during play time I put an old toy fence that was apparently meant for a stable around the perimeter and throw in a cardboard maze meant for rabbits that I rebuild everyday. It follows the natural habitat of piggies and it’s a consistently safe feeling playing space, which is great as their cage itself is a relatively peopled zone since they usually like to be part of the family at all times. The fleece is a good idea though, I want to try it now!
Great post! I’m thinking about using my linoleum-covered bathroom floor for floor time. The only potential hazard I see is the floor heat vent. What do you use to cover your heat vents? Thanks!
Thank you! 😀 While we don’t have any floor vents in the area of our play area, our Humans would place a piece of coroplast above it with two jugs of water on top so it can’t be moved. This could be placed on top of the floor time fleece to serve as a “no-go zone”.
This, of course, would only work if the climate control is turned “off” 🙂 Otherwise, we have no idea how we would work around a vent. That’s a very good question 🙂 We would probably just avoid it all together and get clever to think of a different place for floor time!
You could make a cube and put it over the vent. Air can still co e out but Piggy can’t get to close.
An even better idea 🙂
Thanks for sharing your tips on hosting floor time. It was good that you mentioned to take it slow with piggies that are new to floor time.
Guinea Pigs are naturally fearful and will hide, especially when given larger open spaces to play in. Once they get used to it though, nothing will stop them!
gonna try this! my pig doesnt really like to be picked up? how can i make her sweeter and nicer? i love her and wish she loved me more!!
help please! I handle my guinea pigs every day, but it has got so cold recently, I didn’t want to bring them in (they have an outdoor hutch) as they would regulate their temperature and then get cold again when I put them back. So I haven’t handled them for about a week now, and I’m not sure if I should continue? Also, they have recently started digging small holes in their hutch, I am worried about them escaping! Anyone know why or how to help? Thank you, much appreciated!
Hello, I had never even seen a real guinea pig before 2 weeks ago, when i was introduced to Marble, the most adorable little guy you’ve ever seen. My cousin adopted him for his 2 little girls, and I fell in love with him immediately. I can’t wait to adopt my own. I’m very grateful to have found your sight, and i will be checking in frequently while im preparing to get my own HappyCavy 🙂 thank you
Ok well I have two girls. One is shy while the other is all about exploring.
But my main issue is wether I should start floor time with them? I live between two houses and my mom isnt really an animal person so I mainly take care of them. I dont want to stress them out. Any ideas?
I will be getting a C&C cage in August, but untill then they have a relativly small size cage.
Hi, Madelina! Definitely start floor time, but indoors is preferable over outdoors. Outdoor floor times are all dependent on weather and if you able to have a secure enough place for them to play (with a roof if outdoors). Getting a C&C cage is a great idea, and having regular floor times now will help them get their exercise as they are in a small cage. Anytime is the right time for floor time! 😀
Thank you so much!
These are my girls.
What a couple of cuties! *wheek wheek!*
Thank you.
One is 8 months and the other is two months
Guinea pigs don’t do well living outside. Get them a nice INDOOR home!
@gogreengal actually guinea pigs are fine outside. They were domesticated from WILD animals which means they used to live happily outdoors and on their own. I also know a few people who keep their guinea pigs freerome in their garden and one is a vet so she would know what she is talking about. I would know if my guinea pigs were cold or unwell outside and they are fine, I do look after them and make sure they have all the things they need. They wouldn’t like an indoor hutch anyway, being in confined spaces makes them anxious and they don’t get along. They are fine right where they are so please don’t tell me they ‘can’t cope with being outdoors’ because they can.
Hi. Thank you for all this information regarding guinea pig floor time. I tried to give my guinea pig Ginny some floortime, however my guinea pig doesn’t seem to like it at all. It is her first time, and I’ve only had her for like a week. But she’s grooming in front of me and she is confident in front of me. I can’t get her another guinea pig because of the space, although I know that it’s better with two guinea pigs or more. I put tons of fun stuff in there and a lot of hay. When I tried to take her out, she immediately went back to her cage and started chewing on the bars. So I let her in and now she won’t come back. Please help me asap!!
It’ll take more than one floor-time to help. It’ll take consistency, plus keeping a regular guinea pigcare schedule. Keep on giving floor time, and spending time with her
You also want to make sure your cage is large enough. Bar chewing can be a sign that their home is too small: http://guineapigcages.com/
Mine love floor time, it has really benefitted them as their confidence is growing. Here’s my usual set up
, does it look OK?
That looks great! I would take out a few items from the floor-time area, though, so they have room to run and exercise if they want 🙂 Good job!
Thank you, I will remove some toys. They run around anyway to be honest, thanks for the advice 🙂
Hey HappyCavy! I love hosting floor time for my two boys Porkchop and Hershey, I have a spot in my room, that’s free of piggy dangers, and is about 10 by 5 I seal it off with a playpen gate that the piggies can feel secure in, I throw in some toys, I place down some pigloos, and they LOVE they’re hideaway, a cardboard box with some hide holes and Cavy-Safe decorations. They love-love-LOVE there egg carton hay holder, I also enjoy hanging a toilet paper role from the roof of there cage and sticking timothy hay in there and tightening it with a piece of string, they love it! For floor time there’s one thing I’m worried about, I’ve been doing floor time with my new piggy Hershey, since I UN-quarantined him about a month ago, he’s a little skiddish about the pen gate, he hides in a pigloo or the hideaway for the majority of floor-time, is this normal? Thanks!
Hey HappyCavy! I just wanted to confirm that bars on the bottom of the cage can hurt piggy feet right??? My parents were saying that we could do a grid so all the poo falls into the bottom and that makes cleaning easier, but I heard somewhere that grids on the bottom of cages can cause leg problems, back problems, and even cause amputations!!! :O
They are not safe right??? Thanks! Hershey says hi! Porky would say it too, but he’s too busy snoozing. (He’s the old man of the two)
Guinea pigs do love to hide, it’s true! Sometimes it can take them a bit to get comfortable in floor time. 🙂 But when you say “pen gate”, if it’s a gridded gate that they use to enter and exit their cage, it may hurt their feet to walk on it. You may want to think about laying cardboard down on the gate so they can safely cross it, and prevent their feet from hurting 🙂
Yes, you are right! Guinea pigs shouldn’t be house in cages with grates at the bottom. Doing so can cause bumblefoot to form on a guinea pig’s feet, among other things. Nose bumps and fuzzy nuzzles to Hershey and Porky, if he isn’t snoozing 😀
Great guide! Hoping to use it for my piggir once he gets out of his pigloo. He’s new to the house so I’m thinking of just letting him stay in his cage for a week to get use to everything.
Hi HappyCavy. I’m a new piggy mom of 2 baby girls, Blondie and Brownie, that I received 2 days ago. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and research so I can be the best piggy mom possible and you guys have been extremely informative. I’ve done 2 floor times with my girls so far, an hour last night and then 30 minutes this morning while I cleaned their cage and refilled everything, however, I’m wondering if it’s too soon for that considering that they’re still skittish. Brownie starts to grind her teeth when I go to take her out of the cage and put her in the pen. Should I suspend floor time until they’re more comfortable?
Hi, KeriAnn! So happy to hear you’re researching all you can to give Blondie and Brownie the best life possible! *wheek!!* I think your idea is spot on — I would suspend floor time until they’ve had a few weeks to a month to acclimate. After that, they will still be skittish, but they should be adjusted enough to be able to enjoy floor time rather than dread it. 🙂
Thank you so much. You guys are awesome!
Great ideas, both of you! Thank you! ☺ 💖 😍 xo Jennifer
Hi Happy Cavy friends. Popeye, Whimsy and I (Brutus) just got a new human family. So far they are cool humans they added a third cage to our set up so we each have our own cage but can still visit each other. We were hoping you could tell our human mom if cement blocks would work in the floor time area. She’s gonna let us have floor time in a couple weeks after we get use to every one. And we will get to run in an 8 foot by 10 foot room. We want to give her ideas about what would be fun for us to play, explore, learn and exercise. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Hi, Brutus and friends! 🙂 I’m so happy that your humans will be giving you floor time! Will your human be using the cement blocks to keep the floortime “walls” secure? If so, cement blocks should be OK, as long as there is no danger that you will get hurt if you try to climb on them. Also, your humans should make sure that none of you like to nibble on them, as that can lead to cracked teeth. This is why our humans use empty 1-gallon milk jugs filled with water to keep the cage walls secure. If your human wants to use the cement blocks for an interesting texture for you to play on and around, I’d recommend using something more like stone pavers like that can be found at home improvement stores.
Hope this helps! Best of luck on your new adventures!! 😀
Thank you Happycavy, mom was going to let us run around and through and over but will take your advice. She is going to fence off the bricks (she uses the room for her granddaughter and the bricks support her bed). She will get us different textured paving stones to play on. I think we are going to be very happy with our new humans.
Brutus.
Hello Cavy world! I’m a mom to a 4yr old boy who’s a papa to two piggy pig pigs and I’ve been doing any and all types of research to make sure my pigs are happy and healthy in their new home. now we’ve held them and pet them but they’re still nervous around us and I really would love to do floor time but I dot have a HUGE free space for them to roam and I have a lot of stuff in my house (furniture, boxes, toys etc.) also I’m afraid if I put them in the area I designated for them they will run away in to a crevasse or under the fridge and won’t come out. Will they run from us if I give them an free space to roam about ? please help
Hi, Dasia! We don’t recommend that people let them roam free. Some long-time cavy caretakers are comfortable doing this, because they have carefully made their house “guinea pig friendly” by covering any escape routes, laying covers over vents and removing any objects that guinea pigs can hurt themselves with. But we wouldn’t do that ourselves — we’d be too nervous that we’d step on them or they would get hurt. A huge space isn’t needed for floor time, even just a slightly larger area than their current cage will work. The idea is to give them a different space to explore. You can even lay with them on the floor and observe where they go if you can’t make your house fully “guinea pig friendly”. 🙂
We have two girls, Roxy and Boo, they’re about 10 months old, and we don’t put anywhere for them to really hide in our living room (easily blocked off, but large and fun to do laps on!). We have the coffee table (very large, very dark underneath) and they love doing 8’s around the legs.
We’ve found that bringing their litter box out and putting some fresh hay in daily keeps them potty-trained, and we tend to hide little bits of lettuce or orange peppers (their favorite right now!) all over for them to scavenge out. Keeping the treats and the scavenger hunts going seems to cut back on gnawing where they shouldn’t be gnawing.
My little guy hates me, ok so story is I bought 3 pigs and they got sick, 1 survived so I got it a friend and they both became really skittish even though my first pig used to love me, a couple of months ago my little guy died so now I have one, a really small cage and my pig hates me. I try floor time, I give him veggies and hay all the time he always has water and his shavings are clean but he is so hard to catch and scratches me whenever he can.
what can i do about my pig hes become so feral