Guinea pigs love to play with all kind of toys. They also need hard things to chew on to wear down their teeth, which makes chew toys important for them to have.
The 12 DIY chew toys we’ll be talking about are:
- Hanging toys
- Stuffed socks
- Hay balls
- Hay tubes
- Chew trees
- Treat socks
- Treat hanging toys
- Cardboard tube hide-houses
- Letter chews
- Hide house chews
- Chew lines
Of course, there are many cute and colorful chews made for guinea pigs and other small pets that you can buy at pet stores, but these are often more expensive than if you just make them yourself.
Chew toys for guinea pigs don’t have to be super fancy or look excellent, and you don’t need to be really good at crafts to make DIY toys that are perfectly suitable guinea pigs.
Before we talk about how to make guinea pig chew toys, we will talk about the materials you will need to make them. Most importantly, we will talk about the safety of the materials.
You can make all of these toys with:
- Wood
- Cardboard
- Glue
- Spring clip hooks
- Socks
- Small pet bedding
- Brown cardboard tubes
- Treats
- Rubber bands
- String or twine
- Brown paper bags
Make sure that the wood you use is not cedar or pine wood and make sure it’s untreated. Make sure that the glue you use is non-toxic.
Now let’s make those toys!
1. Hanging toys
A hanging toy is just a toy that is made to hang on the roof or wall of a guinea pig cage. They are very simple to make.
You will need some type of safe, untreated wood, cardboard, non-toxic glue and a spring clip hook (available on Amazon) to hang it in the cage.
Step 1. Glue the wood and cardboard together the way you would like.
Step 2. Attach the hook to it by punching or cutting a hole in to the toy; then open the hook, slide it into the hole and hang it in the cage.
This is an excellent toy to make.
2. Stuffed Socks
A stuffed sock is another very easy chew toy to make.
Step 1. Wash an old sock or buy a new sock.
Step 2. Fill it with some clean bedding and tie the opening into a knot.
There you have it, a stuffed sock. Guinea pigs often will love to chew on and play with it. To make this toy even more enjoyable, hide treats underneath it so that they will have to move the sock out of the way to get their food.
3. Hay balls
A hay ball is just what it sounds like, a ball filled with hay. To make this toy, you will need a toilet paper or paper towel roll and some hay—obviously.
Step 1. Cut the cardboard tube into smaller tubes.
Step 2. Put one small tube into another one to make the ball.
Step 3. Stuff it with hay. You can also stuff it with vegetables to make a veggie ball.
Guinea pigs love hay and a hay ball is just an amazing toy for them. It is also very easy to make.
4. Hay tubes
To make a hay tube, you will need a cardboard tube and hay.
Step 1. Put some hay inside of a cardboard tube
Step 2. Give it to the piggies!
5. Chew Trees
A chew tree is a cute decoration for a guinea pig cage and is fairly easy to make. To make this toy, you will need a cardboard tube, craft sticks, scissors and non-toxic glue.
Step 1. Cut several holes into the cardboard tube and glue the craft sticks into the holes.
Step 2. Once the glue is dry, you can hang vegetables or other foods on the craft stick “branches” to make the tree more interesting and enjoyable for the guinea pigs.
6. Treat socks
A treat sock, which is somewhat like stuffed sock; just stuffed with food instead of bedding, is very simple to make.
To make one, you will need a clean sock, a pair of scissors, and treats, hay is a great choice because it helps to wear down the guinea pig’s teeth, but of course, there are other treat opinions, such as vegetables.
Step 1. Stuff the sock with treats.
Step 2. Tie off the opening; then cut several small slits into the sock.
Step 3. Set it in the cage.
Your guinea pigs will probably love the treat sock because it has food inside of it. If you want to make it even more fun for them, hide a few pieces of their favorite treats in with the hay or whatever kind of food you filled the sock with for them to find.
7. Treat hanging toys
This toy is almost exactly like the other hanging toy I mentioned earlier just instead of wood and cardboard, there are treats hanging on the end.
This is an excellent toy to give to your guinea pigs if they don’t seem very interested in the other hanging toy I mentioned earlier.
In order to make this toy, you will need treats (make sure that the treats are crunchy and can wear down their teeth); a strong string and a spring clip hook (optional).
Step 1. Get a few treats, and tie them together tightly with the string so that they are hard for your guinea pigs to get out.
Step 2. If using a spring clip hook, tie the ends of the string together and use the hook to clip the toy onto the cage. (You can also just tie the toy onto the cage).
Also, make sure that your guinea pigs don’t eat too many of the treats though because many treats that can wear down their teeth also have sugar in them.
8. Cardboard tube hide houses
This hideout resembles a willow bridge hide house and is a relatively simple toy to make.
You will need several rubber bands and either six toilet paper rolls or three paper towel rolls cut in half (you can also use more than this to make a bigger house).
Step 1. Stretch out one rubber band, and make it into a figure eight shape, then put one cardboard tube in each hole—make sure that the rubber band is moderately tight around the tubes.
Step 2. Repeat once.
Step 3. Make another figure eight with a rubber band; then attach one end to a tube that wasn’t attached to another one yet, and the other to one to a tube that was attached to another one.
Step 4. Repeat this for the other side.
Step 5. To connect both halves of the hide house to each other, make another figure eight and attach the two top tubes to each other.
Your guinea pigs will love to throw it around, chew on it and hide in it.
9. Letter chews
Letter chews are super easy toys to make. To make them, you will need craft sticks and non-toxic glue.
Just glue the craft sticks together so that they make letters; you can even make the chews spell your guinea pigs name!
Guinea pigs love to chew on and play with them. Hide food behind a few letters to make them more fun and interesting to play with.
10. Hide house chews
A hide house chew is a hide out with a curtain that is made out of chewable materiel. Because of this, it is not only a hideout, but also a fun chew toy for guinea pigs. To make one you will need a cardboard box, a brown paper bag and some non-toxic glue—you can also use tape, but that may not work as well.
Step 1. Set up the cardboard box with the opening on the side.
Step 2. Cut the paper bag into strips and then glue or tape them onto the opening (or openings) of the box.
Step 3. Once the glue is dry (if you used glue), put the box in the guinea pigs’ cage or play area.
For guinea pigs, this is fun to chew, hide in and play in.
11. Chew lines
A chew line is a type of hanging toy, where each end is attached to two sides of the cage. Instead of it going up and down like the other hanging toys I’ve mentioned, it goes side to side.
To make this toy, you will need some string or twine as well as some wood blocks and/or treats that wear down their teeth, make sure there are holes that go through them so you can hang them on the string.
Step 1. Cut a length of string or twine.
Step 2. String the blocks and treats onto it.
Step 3. Tie each end onto something, such as the side of the cage.
It’s a nice decoration for their cage or play area and isn’t too difficult to make.
I hope you enjoyed learning about how to make simple DIY chew toys for guinea pigs!
