About Us
Introduction
We are Dave, Elaine (and 4 kids) and are a UK based family who love guinea pigs, rabbits, hedgehogs and most other small furries. We have been involved with small animals for over 20yrs having kept many guinea pigs and miniature lop rabbits, including exhibiting them, as well as running a hugely popular small animal holiday boarding in South West England. Our philosophy when opening the animal boarding was for it to be like a Premier Inn. Great rooms at affordable prices. Too many businesses were charging a small fortune and we didn't think this was right for the average family. We wanted to provide hard working families with superb quality facilities (we had a very large custom built shed), spacious hutches and top notch care from our vast knowledge. It's through this passion, that we decided to diversify from looking after small animals to providing quality products for them.
Whilst still operating the animal boarding "hotel", as many of our customers called it, Elaine started making snuggle sacks, tunnels and then the hugely popular Zorb® based fleece cage liners under the brand CandE Cosies. This was back in 2012/13 and she was the first person in the UK to use Zorb® in all of her fleece liners because she wanted to provide people with the best. This philosophy continues with us both today and in 2021 Cage Creations made an appearance onto the UK market. So, as you can see, we have dedicated a lot of our lives already to the fabulous furry potatoes and other furry creatures. This is why we want to help others maximise their enjoyment by providing their beloved pets/family members with spacious cages and quality accessories but all at affordable prices.
OK, so that was maybe a long introduction but you get the idea, we love animals and we want to provide people with quality and affordability. So let's go back a little bit.
The Start
As mentioned, Cage Creations was started by Dave and Elaine and, in case you were wondering, we are the sister company to CandE Cosies. CandE Cosies was created by Elaine in 2012/13 and she has been making high quality fleece cage liners, snuggle sacks, tunnels, hammocks, hides and much more. We researched fabrics to use inside the liners and came across Zorb® which is designed for reusable nappies. So, we contacted the manufacturers and developed a wonderful relationship with them and started importing large quantities of this fantastic fabric.
Since those early days, CandE Cosies has grown purely on reputation and recommendation with no advertising. Yes that's right, no advertising! That shows just how well received the fleece cage liners and other accessories have been. Word of mouth is all that was needed and as of the start of 2021 Elaine now employees 2 other women such is the workload. They were both hit by redundancy due to the pandemic with one being a single mum and the other being a sort of single mum, she has a very beautiful husky 😂Two hard working young women who needed help and we were happy to offer them employment and helped develop their sewing and designing skills.
On to 2016
Fast forward to approximately 2016 and Dave, that's me, and Elaine decided to research C&C cages. After all, Elaine was making the liners and accessories for these cages so why not look into supplying them as well? We spent a lot of time researching availability in the UK, suppliers and developing our own ideas. Then, not totally unexpectedly, in 2017 we had a little arrival of our own (👼) and so held off making the commitment necessary to setup this new venture. It was a good decision because we were sleep deprived zombies! 🧟♂️🧟♀️ Many dirty nappies later ...
2020 was upon us.
So it's now 2020/21 and we started looking into providing C&C Cages again. We know and love guinea pigs so much that we just had to pursue a business that involved them even more. What else were we meant to do? Like many of you, we are slaves to guinea pigs 😂 We knew we were providing top quality cage liners, tunnels, hammocks, hides and beds at fantastic prices. Now we wanted this philosophy to continue with cages and had no hesitation with continuing down the C&C route. We researched what was available, who else was supplying them in the UK and what could we do to change the marketplace. We thought the answer was simple and could be broken down into the following:
- Keep everything simple. Simple packaging. Simple literature. Simple website. Simple helps keep prices low.
- Provide products not found in the UK or are totally unique to us.
- Give great advice and educate people on how best to house their new family members. No tiny cages allowed!
- Ensure prices were at affordable levels. We were concerned at the apparent profits some companies were/are making.
- Be the best. It might take time to prove this, but we WILL get there.
Our knowledge and love for the furry potatoes allows us to give all our customers great advice and as we build our brand and provide more of you with quality cages, correx bases, kitchens etc then we will expand our ranges and provide you all with some of our knowledge along the way,
Well, now you know why we are here and what we can provide you and your guinea pigs. So take a look around, get in touch if you need to and we look forward to getting your orders dispatched soon.
Regards
Dave and Elaine