Pongo Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Strange request but this is what my 11 year old has been asking for. I know nothing about either one..lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandellie4 Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 We have the two most wonderful guinea pigs we picked up from the local animal shelter (they were littermates and were so sweet together that we didn't want to take just one of them). I never realized there were so many guinea pigs at the shelter. Apparently, a lot of people get them for their children, but take the animals to the shelter when their children tire of them. All but one of the ones we saw -- abyssinian (sp?), Peruvian, short hair, even baby guinea pigs -- were very well socialized. We tried a small-animal rescue first, but there were too many hoops to jump through. I know they are protecting the animals, but we're a good home so we tried the shelter. If you're interested, you may want to try Petfinder online to get an idea of guinea pigs available in your area. ...Can't really address the other question, though! :-) Sandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 24, 2009 Author Share Posted October 24, 2009 If you're interested, you may want to try Petfinder online to get an idea of guinea pigs available in your area. ...Can't really address the other question, though! :-) Sandy Thanks! I'm off to pet finder!:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladydusk Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 I really like my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. Freeze the bowl, add ice cream mixture, churn 30 minutes, freeze. Easy and good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 24, 2009 Author Share Posted October 24, 2009 LOL I just noticd how I spelled Guinea.....too funny...:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 We have a pair of guinea pigs that we got from a rescue about an hour away. Ours were 3 weeks and 4 weeks old. The males had managed to break into the female pen and most of females ended up pregnant. We made a cage like what you'll see at http://www.cavycages.com . We have had guinea pigs before, but we just had a standard cage. Our current piggies are much happier with their large cage. It's 4 panels by 2 panels on the bottom floor and 1 panel by 2 panels on the top. We always put their food on the top, so they go up and down the ramp all day long for exercise. We use bath towels instead of litter. We also use a water bowl instead of a water bottle. They used water bowls at the rescue. I have found the water bowls much less of a hassle to deal with than water bottles. You just have to make sure to use a tip-proof bowl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedClams Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 I really like my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. Freeze the bowl, add ice cream mixture, churn 30 minutes, freeze. Easy and good. :iagree: That's the one we have. My only advice would be to transfer the new ice cream into a freezer container - lest your ice cream making be put on hold until you eat everything in the bowl. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwjx2khsmj Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 We discovered, after getting our guinea pig, that allergies can be a major issue. That may be why so many are sent to shelters. If you have someone in the home with anykind of dust/dander allergy you might want to "borrow" a guinea pig from a friend to see how y'all react. We loved our pig. For the cage we used a giant size clear plastic tote. Easy access for the kids, easy to clean, easy to move and inexpensive. Our ice cream maker is a Cuisinart. We've enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandellie4 Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 LOL I just noticd how I spelled Guinea.....too funny...:) :lol: No worries -- shelters don't give spelling tests! Sandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 We have the two most wonderful guinea pigs we picked up from the local animal shelter (they were littermates and were so sweet together that we didn't want to take just one of them). I never realized there were so many guinea pigs at the shelter. Apparently, a lot of people get them for their children, but take the animals to the shelter when their children tire of them. All but one of the ones we saw -- abyssinian (sp?), Peruvian, short hair, even baby guinea pigs -- were very well socialized. We tried a small-animal rescue first, but there were too many hoops to jump through. I know they are protecting the animals, but we're a good home so we tried the shelter. If you're interested, you may want to try Petfinder online to get an idea of guinea pigs available in your area. ...Can't really address the other question, though! :-) Sandy We pick up the boys on Saturday from a shelter, Lenny and Squiggy...lol What do you use for bedding? My kids are in the garage making a three level Guinea house. I am a little weary about the smell but, my dd is really responsible and has promised to keep it clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 We use bath towels instead of litter. We also use a water bowl instead of a water bottle. They used water bowls at the rescue. I have found the water bowls much less of a hassle to deal with than water bottles. You just have to make sure to use a tip-proof bowl. This may sound silly, do they poop all over the place or in one area? Where did you put the towels? How frequently did you have to change them? Lastly, did it smell less than litter?:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 :lol: No worries -- shelters don't give spelling tests! Sandy Thank goodness, I was wondering why I couldn't find any guinea pigs in our area with that spelling.....it's good I don't home school;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 :iagree: That's the one we have. My only advice would be to transfer the new ice cream into a freezer container - lest your ice cream making be put on hold until you eat everything in the bowl. :) I just bought it, thanks for the tip:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 (edited) I really like my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. Freeze the bowl, add ice cream mixture, churn 30 minutes, freeze. Easy and good. :iagree: That is what we have also. Quick and easy. Do not buy guinea pigs from the pet shop is my only advice. Our home raised or rescued piggies were always much happier and healthier. We had long haired and they are adorable but for an 11 year old might be more trouble than she is able or willing to put into them because they have to be brushed and washed (especially around their bottoms). We always used litter for ours and sometimes my daughter wasn't good about changing it and it still smelled fine. They are pretty good about wetting in one spot but the solids kind of go everywhere in our experience. Often we would just scoop out and replace the wet parts. The lack of smell was one reason we chose guinea pigs. Edited October 26, 2009 by jcooperetc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cougarmom4 Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 This may sound silly, do they poop all over the place or in one area? Where did you put the towels? How frequently did you have to change them? Lastly, did it smell less than litter?:) I'm also interested in learning more about using towels instead of litter...that sounds SO much easier to change! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evergreen State Sue Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 (edited) We rescued a piggy almost 3 weeks ago from a family who didn't have the time to spend and kept her in a small cage. We built one of those cages previously linked to and I know she is happier with the extra room. For the bedding we are using about 3 layers of towels and then fleece on the top. You have to prewash the fleece about 3 times before you first use it. You want to be sure it can wick the urine through the fleece and to the towels. It is so much easier to clean up the poos and they do poo a lot! Everything washed up so nicely the first time we changed out the bedding. I can't imagine a piggy being in any other bedding now just thinking about all the poos they walk and sleep near. It seems so much healthier. Edited October 26, 2009 by Evergreen State Sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 This may sound silly, do they poop all over the place or in one area? Where did you put the towels? How frequently did you have to change them? Lastly, did it smell less than litter?:) It sounds like I have almost the same cage setup as Angie. I use towels on the bottom level and CareFresh litter on the top, but will be switching to all towels next time I change the cage. I need to change the towels every 2-3 days. I've got girl piggies, and the towels last about 3 days before I notice an oder. With my previous piggie, I used pine shavings, and with my high school piggie I used cedar. The recommendation now is to not use cedar. I'm sure it's a complete fluke, but the last bag of pine shavings we bought had something wrong with them. Since I wrote this post and threw out the pine shavings, we've had 4 happy, healthy hamsters and 2 happy, healthy piggies. I don't think it was the pine shavings, rather something that was in the shavings. I mention it only because it was so sad and puzzling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 Those who use towels/fleece, how do you care for those when you "change" them? I have tried leaving a cloth diaper in the cage for them to snuggle into, but it was messy as bedding and poo sticked to it, I can't picture the entire thing being cloth. Do you just shake the poo into a big trashcan then wash? How many guinea pig sets of bedding do you have? Do you wash the towels immediately or wait until you have a decent size load? How do you prevent them from smelling in the meanwhile? Do you wash in hot water? I sent the rescue Lady almost all the same questions. She just answered me. She says cleans the poo off the fleece daily and washes the bedding weekly. Before washing she shakes off the poo outside in case there are any left she takes the fleece and towels and washes them with laundry detergent and adds 1/2 cup of white vinegar in hot water, line dries them and they smell fresh, no urine smell. She has 2 sets of bedding and washes on a small load cycle. She said she is saving $200-$300 a year on bedding for just one cage of two piggies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 Even if I used the most expensive, Care Fresh, I wouldn't come close to that for two pigs! I pay $6 for a huge compressed bag and when we had 2 pigs it lasted about 6 weeks. Thanks for sharing the details though, ds wants the pig in his room, but with his allergies I've been hesitant, this may work. I think she meant for her Guinea rescue instead of per cage? My dd is so excited, honestly I am a little nervous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 For our 2-level cage, we have a bath sheet on the bottom layer and a small bath towel on the top layer. When we first got the piggies, one set of towels (one on top and one on bottom) lasted 3-4 days. We just took the towels outside each morning (after carefully rolling them into the middle so all the poop stayed inside) and shook them out, then put them back in the cage. Now that they're full-grown, they need new towels every day. When there isn't any danger of rain in the forecast, we leave the towels in a heap on the patio (after shaking them out) until I have 3 days' worth. Then I wash the load. Our piggies also have a night-time cage because my 11yo is a very light sleeper and couldn't sleep with the sounds the piggies made in her room. The night-time cage is an under-the-bed storage box that is in the bathroom. It's the perfect size for a small bath towel. We take care of the towels every time we transfer the piggies from one cage to another. At first we only had 4 big towels and 8 small ones (all old towels that we've had forever). When we went on vacation for 11 days, I had to buy more of the big towels so the neighbor who was taking care of them could change the towels every 2 days. She still had to shake out the towels every day, but changed to a new one every 2nd day. If the cage wasn't in my dd's bedroom, we could go with changing out the towels every 2nd day (but would still have to shake them out every day). Since she's hyper-sensitive to smell, they have to be changed every night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 Thanks, I am fine with changing it daily, I am hyper sensitive to smell. We are almost done building the cage. It's 3 levels with stairs to each level. We put a litter box in the corner of the first level, lined it with newspaper, then added a small layer of yesterdays news and hay on top. in the corner of the litter box is the ceramic bowl we will put pellets in. The rest of that area are towels and fleece. The second floor is also towels and fleece with a hammock (placed low) and the third level has soft towels with a hidey house. It's been fun building the cage..I hope the rest works out:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audrey Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 Any rec's for Ginny Pigs and Ice Cream makers? I would recommend preslicing the guinea pigs or the ice cream maker might clog up on you. :biggrinjester: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clitomsou Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 LOL! I chuckled when I saw it, but then wondered if maybe it was a new toy on the market like those hamsters they came out with that act like real ones. We tried a small-animal rescue first, but there were too many hoops to jump through. I know they are protecting the animals, but we're a good home so we tried the shelter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.love.lucy Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 I'm going to try to attach a couple of pics. Never done that! Please excuse my messy floor! We've had Harry since last Christmas and just now built him his nice new large cage. He seems to really like it. It has an upstairs but as it is it's not removable and so DH wants to build it a little differently so for now it's a single level. ETA: it's in our school room so he's able to be with us all day and doesn't get lonely in my dd's room. It's not recommended to have them isolated in a child's room unless they are in there a lot. We saw a video on YouTube with this design and liked it. It has a "kitchen" area where the majority of poops and pees are because he does that a lot while he eats. The empty bowl is for his salad (romaine lettuce, celery, apples, carrots, green peppers, cantaloupe, etc). We don't really smell him at all. We have been considering getting him a friend, but the more research I do I am not so sure. They will mark their territory apparently and this is a VERY bad smell, and they will fight, and they will even "violate" eachother, if you catch my drift. Not sure I am ready for my kids to witness this quite yet. ;) Do those of you with more than one have this problem? Harry is super sweet and gentle, maybe still a little shy. I don't want to rock all our worlds too much by adding another piggie. He's about 18 mo old so should be through adolescence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 The last time we had two guinea pigs, they did fight a lot. One of them beat up the other several times. He was mean and generally unpleasant until the nice guinea pig died at 4.5yo (age at which every guinea pig we've purchased from a pet store has always died). The mean guinea pig suddenly became very nice when his companion died and was a great pet until he died at 6.5yo (got him as a baby from a friend whose 2 male guinea pigs turned out to be a breeding pair). This time our two guinea pigs have been together from the very start. We got both of them from a guinea pig rescue about 45 minutes away. They were 3wo and 4wo when we got them. We haven't seen any signs of fighting. They go in their giant igloo together and coo a lot. Most of their pee seems to happen upstairs where their food and water is and downstairs inside the igloo. Their poo is all over the place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 This was the best site I found for teaching us to take care of our "pig pigs". They need much more space than you generally find them sold with, please check out this link. Our 2 are 5 years old and we love them. They are cuddly, sweet, talkative and an all around perfect pet. We stopped using the expensive bedding and now buy a bale of timothy hay every month. We line the bottom with newspaper and then thickly layer the hay. Daily we put more hay in a fresh layer plus a big hunk for them to play in, hide in and nibble on and we change it once a week. Just roll up the newspaper with all the hay pop it in a trash bag, hose it out with soap and water and re-do! It saves a fortune, the good bedding is really expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EarleneW Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 We just got 2 males and we love them! We got the 1st one a couple weeks ago from a petstore. We got the 2nd one a week later from the same store-though the 1st one is about 8 weeks older. They are good friends and both so very sweet. I never even thought to look at a shelter, I didn't even realize they hd them there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 I would recommend preslicing the guinea pigs or the ice cream maker might clog up on you. :biggrinjester: HA,HA, :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evergreen State Sue Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 Those who use towels/fleece, how do you care for those when you "change" them? I have tried leaving a cloth diaper in the cage for them to snuggle into, but it was messy as bedding and poo sticked to it, I can't picture the entire thing being cloth. Do you just shake the poo into a big trashcan then wash? How many guinea pig sets of bedding do you have? Do you wash the towels immediately or wait until you have a decent size load? How do you prevent them from smelling in the meanwhile? Do you wash in hot water? We have two sets of towels and fleece coverings. We sweep up the poops daily and put in the garbage (sometimes several times a day because it bothers me to see them and I don't want her to step in them). We change the bedding about every 5 days. We remove the fleece and shake it outside to get any hay, hair or poos off of it. We use enough towels to make 2-3 layers of towels with the fleece on top. All the bedding then goes in the washer on hot water with fragrant free detergent and about 1/2 cup of white vinegar. Then in the dryer. No smell. No stains. Everything came out clean. While we're changing the bedding, the piggy goes into the cage she came with until we can make her new bed up. The size of our cage doesn't exactly fit the towels we have so it is a bit of a puzzle to fold towels to get 2-3 layers to fit. We actually bought two more pieces of fleece that were on sale with a winter pattern. It will be fun to change out her bedding for the seasons. We recently went to an exotic pets vet for our piggy and told him what we were using. He said his favorite bedding is towels. Definitely wood chips with a smell are bad for their lungs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest huumingh Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 I would recommend preslicing the guinea pigs or the ice cream maker might clog up on you. :biggrinjester: I starting to like this forum. Now if Tiger Woods can say out of trouble maybe I will get some work done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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