the palace....

Oreo and Fluffy have grown at what seems like an exponential rate since we got them this spring! They were living in a little tiny cage from the pet store that we thought would be big enough for at least their first year or so. Nope, they could barely walk across the cage without bumping into something, it was so teeny!

We built them this roomy palace right before the kids and I left for Alaska, but I just recently finished the top floor. We got the idea online....who knew there was such a huge community of guinea pig people out there! Derick insisted on it being two stories, which makes it a bit trickier to clean, but they really do love running up and down their ramp! (I think he was reverting back to his fort building days as a kid, he was totally into it!)

The kids still do the daily maintenance on their own, they alternate days. We bought a cheap shopvac that makes the poop scooping much easier. They just vacuum it all up and change the water and food and give them more hay. Then once a week we take out the fleece and the absorbent layers underneath throw them in the washing machine (which is right next to the cage). The fleece is all blankets from the thrift store and underneath are old towels and some super absorbent microfiber shop towels from Costco. All in all, we think the piggies are loving their new home. Scale-wise, I think they're home is probably 10 times bigger than our home! :)