# Shelter Ideas for 2 Nigerians?



## ranch_grl (Sep 20, 2014)

Anyone have pictures of small shelters that would be suitable for 2 Nigerians? I'm thinking one with a 4 ft tall wall in front, and 3 feet tall in the back; is this big enough? Also, how long and deep would it need to be? 

I'm hoping to have room for their hay, minerals, baking soda inside. And how do I design it so that it's easy to clean?

I plan to have a floor in it and have it on skids/blocks of some kind to keep some mud out. 

Sorry for all the questions, I just want to build something that will work well.


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## glndg (Feb 8, 2013)

No photo right now, but depending on your climate, a "dogloo" might be just fine. I have a couple of dogloos. They do like to climb them, even the giant one.

Oh, and I have even stored some hay and supplies in one too.


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## ariella42 (May 22, 2014)

Our house is about 4.5x3.5 feet. We need to expand it before winter, now that we have two 5 month old mini Nubians and an adult mini Nubian, but they all fit in it. Or entire nighttime pen is covered though, so we keep their hay and such outside of the actual house. If you want to keep everything in the shelter, you'll poetically want to male it larger. To help facilitate cleaning we have the roof on hinges so we can prop it up to get in it


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## glndg (Feb 8, 2013)

P.S. Dogloos aren't really the best for long term storage of hay, but they do make nice shelters for a few Nigerians.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

Can you get your hands on some bins...apple bins? I don't know where you're located, but I love them. Cut a hole on one side so they can go in and out. When you need to clean them out, just tip them up and pitchfork the dirty stuff out, very easy. They're probably not big enough for putting minerals and stuff in there, but they work great for a cozy, roomy nigerian dwarf shelter.

Here are some of mine. These are the kidding pens.


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## ariella42 (May 22, 2014)

Here's a photo of ours. It was made from scraps in our basement. I'd rather have a dirt floor in some ways, but our ground is way too wet, so we drilled holes in the bottom piece of wood to help with drainage


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## ranch_grl (Sep 20, 2014)

We came up with a design and are making it 4 feet by 8 feet and 4 feet tall in the front, 3 feet in the back. We're going to add a window/door where I can easily access their hay and minerals and such to replenish. We're going to put hinges on the roof for easy cleaning (still trying to figure that part out). I added a picture of what we have so far, if it worked.


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## 4seasonsfarm (Jan 22, 2014)

That sounds nice!!


Sent from Malory who is awesome!! 14 yo, has goats and a donkey


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## tsmith1499 (Sep 9, 2014)

Depending on where you live, a calf hutch is good for shelter. They are roughly 4'x8'. I am putting mine on top of 2 4x4 pallets covered with plywood with the calf hutch attached to the plywood. Gets them off the ground and dry and the newer calf hutches have provisions for hay racks and water and grain buckets. Just an idea.


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## ranch_grl (Sep 20, 2014)

This is what we came up with


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## Ziegen (Sep 22, 2014)

You design looks great!
For any others that will be looking at this thread later though...

What we have done for ours is just to have an extra large dog house. The one you get from TSC or petsmart: 
http://www.petsmart.com/dog/houses/top-paw-dog-house-zid36-7107/cat-36-catid-100104

Because we wont be going through hay that quickly, we are juts going to get one at a time from the co-op, so storage isn't an issue for us. We plan on eventually getting a little storage shed / barn for a few bales of hay and our other yard equipment anyways though.


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## fuzyjack (Jan 10, 2014)

We acually have two Nigerians also! We use a nice shed and we have a fence built around it! It seems to work great!


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## Alex_K (Jun 10, 2014)

I have two Nigerians and this is going to be their first winter. So far they've been sleeping in my dogs dogloo. But today I started building a small shelter. 
The materials I used:

Two wooden pallets: free
Eight 2x3 from lowes: $2.46 each
A box of nails: $4.95

I had some scrap wood and leftover shingles that I'm gonna put on the roof tomorrow.

Here's what it looks like so far:




















Oh and I attached a hay feeder to the side (another pallet with a lid basically) - that way they can get to the hay from inside and outside.

The only thing that's left is to come up with a front wall - I want it to be removable so I can clean the shelter out easily. Probably gonna use some more pallets.

Alex / Delaware


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## tsmith1499 (Sep 9, 2014)

Nice re-purposing of materials. I try and do the same thing when it's prudent. The only thing you might want to do is make your shelter at least 2 pallets deep. That way they can get away from the wind. I like the hay feeder deal.


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## ranch_grl (Sep 20, 2014)

It looks great! I was hoping to repurpose pallets, but couldn't get enough of them in time. Our goat house cost more than I'd like to admit to build :/ I did use a laundry basket as a hay feeder. Our goats seem to really enjoy their house


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## Alex_K (Jun 10, 2014)

ranch_grl said:


> I did use a laundry basket as a hay feeder.


That's brilliant!!

Alex / Delaware


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## tsmith1499 (Sep 9, 2014)

We were lucky. A dairy farmer we know had a bunch of old calf hutches that had a few cracks in them and he was going to throw them away. We got 2 of them in pretty good shape.


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