Guinea Pigs

[5knights3maidens]

We bought a guinea pig a few weeks ago. He died yesterday. Dh took dd to another pet store and they said the gp should have had vit. C in its water and alfalfa block. We bought another one. I know they can eat raw vegetables and we have food. Anything else I need to know? I would like to get another one...they are really nice animals. The first one was very beautiful. The kids (even dh) were really sad he died. He would snuggle on the floor with ds when he played board games. Thanks for any other info. you can give me. :001_smile:

[EarleneW]

We have 4 and love them! We put a pinch of tang powder in their water for the vitamin C and change it every other day or so. Ours also eat a TON of the Timothy Hay along with their food.

[dancer67]

We have owned GP for a long time now.

 

Make sure their bedding is NOT cedar, it will make them sick. The best bedding, is actually stove pellets.

 

Give them chew sticks all the time.

 

Give them a handful of hay once a day.

 

Do not buy the cheap food and your GP will get plenty of vitamin C from that.

 

Get them an igloo.

 

Make sure the cage is BIG.

 

Give them some fresh washed carrots, or lettuce a few times a week.

 

LOT AND LOTS of water.

 

Pick them up ALOT, they are social animals.

 

We have two GP right now, and they are sweethearts. They love to be petted and picked up, they squeek alot, and purr.

 

Make sure you also have them groomed, nails trimmed.

 

Let me know if you have any questions :D

[Jenileigh]

This is the best place I found information. There is even a feeding schedule of which veggies they can have. You do need to learn which veggies they can have and how much. Like they can only have 1 baby carrot a day because it builds too much sugar in their system and makes alot of salty substance in their urine. Read around, I was able to print a color schedule (follow the links at the top of the page and read around the forum. Excellent!)

 

http://www.guineapigcages.com/index.htm

[Hedgehogs4]

don't know if you know this, but do not use wood chips in their cage for their bedding (pine, cedar, etc.). There is a chemical that is in the cedar which is corrosive to their respiratory systems and eventually can kill them.

 

Do give them vitamin supplements and a salt lick. I had guinea pigs growing up. I love them. My dd (when she was 2-3) called them "piggy-pigs" and so now that is what we call them. :001_smile:

[Denisemomof4]

We have owned GP for a long time now.

 

Make sure their bedding is NOT cedar, it will make them sick. The best bedding, is actually stove pellets.

 

Give them chew sticks all the time.

 

Give them a handful of hay once a day.

 

Do not buy the cheap food and your GP will get plenty of vitamin C from that.

 

Get them an igloo.

 

Make sure the cage is BIG.

 

Give them some fresh washed carrots, or lettuce a few times a week.

 

LOT AND LOTS of water.

 

Pick them up ALOT, they are social animals.

 

We have two GP right now, and they are sweethearts. They love to be petted and picked up, they squeek alot, and purr.

 

Make sure you also have them groomed, nails trimmed.

 

Let me know if you have any questions :D

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

 

We give half an orange for 2 pigs each day. We almost lost one but I did a lot of online research and realized that the poor thing was dying a slow death. I can't remember what she had, but it was due to vitamin C deficiency. We sprinkled ground up vit. C over the orange for awhile until all her symptoms were gone.

 

I try to give fresh veggies daily, but do your reading. They can't eat all kinds. If I remember right, spinach is a No-No.

[gaillardia]

I heard some piggy experts talking about do's and don't's at the 4H Fair. They said no alfalfa, I think they said eventually it will cause problems in the organs. Timothy hay is better. We had piggys and at the time didn't know that about alfalfa. We bought our pigs discount, pet store was going out of business...when I picked one up to put it in the box it felt heavy and plump, picked up the other, skinny and light. One was pregnant, she had FOUR, and pigs are born jumping, squeaking and ready to run.

[hornblower]

Don't forget to take your cavy to the vet if s/he is not looking well.

 

You need to find a vet who has experience in cavvies. If you contact local cavy clubs or rescues, they'll know who the good vets are.

 

 

They can get parasitic and bacterial infections which can be treated with medications. They might also require surgery for tumors etc.

 

The link someone posted above http://www.guineapigcages.com/index.htm is excellent.

 

This is another good website with lots of info on care

http://www.cavyspirit.com/

 

On this site they say:

"Buying a Pig in Pet Store

Do you have any idea how many people come to our rescue with stories of unknowingly buying sick guinea pigs from pet stores only to have them die a week later? Quite a few. You should ALWAYS check the shelters and rescues first."

[rafiki]

.

[5knights3maidens]

Thank you so much for all the replies. We will get the Timothy hay when we can get out. I hope I'm not allergic to it. When I get near hay I start sneezing and can't breath. (asthma attack). We are using recycled bedding .... I hope that is ok. Thanks!!

[Journey]

We too have had pigs for several years and do not give them Vitamin C in their water. We don't even give them hay all that much and they have all done fine. In fact, they have lived beyond the expected guinea pig lifespan. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, clean water and a clean cage (pellet bedding which you don't have to change as much as shavings) and they are good to go! They definately need an igloo though. These are the best little pets and I recommend them to everyone who asks what they should get for their kids. GP's are SO much better IMO than rabbits, gerbils or hamsters!

[cougarmom4]

Sorry to hear your little piggy died.

We are new piggie owners...it's been about three weeks now. We bought them off a local craigslist type of market. The websites listed previously are great references. We ended up making one of the cavy cages--it ended up costing around $30 total and is 9 square feet. We just use cardboard shoeboxes for little caves for them--they love to hide in them.

 

I was a little worried when I saw this about the vitamin C. I haven't found the vitamin C tablets yet that I've seen recommended online, so ours haven't been getting any lately. (Although previous owners didn't do much for them...so surely their life here is an improvement!). They do have pellets w/vit C daily. Also we keep them with a supply of fresh timothy hay, fresh water, and they get a cup of fresh veggies daily. (lettuce, cilantro, parsley, carrots...they didn't like peppers or tomatoes). Due to my concern of vitamin c, we've given them an orange wedge here and there, but perhaps that's not enough.

 

We are using towels & fleece as bedding...I didn't like finding shavings all over the place. Has anyone here had experience with both and would you be willing to share your opinion?

 

I do have to say that these two little piggies poop much more than I ever would have imagined. I don't even like my kids to take them out because they poop every time we've got them out...yuck. I am so not an animal person, so this is a stretch for me, for sure! The poop scooping is done daily by the kiddos though...

[i.love.lucy]

We've had our piggie for over a year. He's very nice, but still skittish. My dd likes to sit him on a towel on her desk when she does school.

 

We built one of those cages from guineapigcages.com and it's been great. Ours is divided up, 2/3 is fleece, and 1/3 is shavings. We made the separate spaces with the corrugated plastic like from the website. He mostly poops in the shavings which is also where his hay and food and "salad" is. His igloo, balls, tunnel, etc is all on the fleece. Most of the time he's snoozing in the corner under a ledge as they are quite skittish little creatures.

 

Ours has Timothy hay, good quality pellets with the vit C added (so we don't supplement), sometimes store bought treats that have raisins and nuts, and he gets a big salad every day: romaine lettuce, carrots, apple slices, green bell pepper, celery (w/the strings removed), cucumber. He LOVES cantaloupe, that's a big treat for him. He doesn't like oranges, zuccini, tomatoes, and most other fruits. We usually just try something we're having and if he doesn't like it that's fine.

 

I wouldn't continue to buy from pet stores. Try to adopt from craigslist or someplace like that. There are even rescue organizations.

 

Good luck. They are sweet little pets!

[AngieW in Texas]

We used shavings and water bottles with our previous guinea pigs. The shavings built up stink quite rapidly. The cage was a pain to clean out. The water bottles constantly dripped onto the shavings so that we had to clean the cage 2x/week. We had to refill the water bottle 2x/day. We tried many different brands, sizes, and placements of water bottles, but never found any way to stop them from leaking. We fed hay occasionally, bought pellets from the grocery store, and fed lots of fruit and vegetable scraps. Our pet store piggies all lived 4 years. Our one piggie that we got from a friend whose "male" guinea pig had babies lived for 6 years.

 

We were piggie-less for several years while we explored the world of hamsters. But the life-span of hamsters is very short, so we went back to guinea pigs.

 

This time we built one of the cages shown on http://www.cavycages.com . We use a water bowl rather than a water bottle. The bowl is much easier to keep clean and doesn't get the bedding all wet. The rescue we got our piggies from used only water bowls. We started off using shavings, but it was very expensive with the large cage size and was a pain to keep clean. Now we use bath towels. I got some bath sheets from Goodwill for $5 each and had a bunch of smaller bath towels that had been used for the dog. We change out the towels every day. It's very quick and easy to roll up the towels, shake them out outside, and throw them in a box until the next time I do a load of piggie towels. When they were little, we used each towel for 2-3 days, but now that they're bigger, the towels start to stink by the 2nd day, so we go ahead and change them out every day. We bought a hay rack (about $3) and keep it loaded with hay. They eat Oxbow pellets. We feed them celery and carrots every day. They also get any apple, pear, strawberry, or other fruit/vegetable cores/scraps that are left over.

 

We have never done any type of vitamin supplementation or salt lick.

[zootle]

A big cage is a really good thing. We built one from instructions online. It was great. Sometimes a piggie needs another piggie friend, but you need to be careful of the sex because some will fight. You can do an online search to find out all that you ever want to know about guinea pigs.

Cindy

[Mad Jenny Flint]

parsley is the no-no.

[mama2cntrykids]

No now I'm interested. How big of a cage do they need? We have a standard (I think 15 gal) fish tank, but I suspect that won't be big enough. We have a very small house (1100 sq. ft. with 6 of us living here, plus two dogs--one big, one little). So, cage size is important to us. It would probably be kept in my 9 y/o and almost 7y/o ds' room. The 9 y/o is very responsible, but I would help with the care. Thanks for any help!

[myfatherslily]

This is an interesting thread for me right now! Our cousins' dog just had puppies, which are going to be very irresistible! But I don't want a dog! So I was trying to think of some other pet to get instead. A 25 cent fish in a cheap bowl doesn't sound like a bad idea;) But the kids keep telling me they want a guinea pig. I had a few as a teen and they ARE cute!

 

Do any of you with little ones have a hard time keeping the guinea pigs safe? I'm concerned that my boys might try to hold it sweetly and accidentally hurt it.

 

Margarete/5knights3maidens, I'm sorry your first guinea pig died! I once special ordered a very cute curly-haired baby gp. I had her only 3 weeks until she got a cold and died:( I was very sad! She was so cute! My other 3 did well though, and I hope your new one does well for you.

 

This time we built one of the cages shown on http://www.cavycages.com.

These cages look awesome!! Okay, I officially want a guinea pig just so I can put it in a cage like this! This is what I always wanted for mine in the past!!

[hornblower]

How big of a cage do they need? We have a standard (I think 15 gal) fish tank, but I suspect that won't be big enough.

 

fish tank is nowhere near big enough & poor ventilation is a huge problem

 

check out the link previously posted

http://guineapigcages.com/

 

minimum of 7.5 sq feet for 1-2 piggies + lots of floor time/grass time in good weather (you can make or buy little playpens for them)

[Cindy in the NH Woods]

Good replies here! Forgive me if I repeat anything already said.

 

We have owned guinea pigs for several years. Our oldest boar will be seven this summer if he lives until then. :)

 

Here are a few things we have learned over the years:

 

A reputable breeder usually has good stock, and cool breeds. Our pigs are Peruvian, with really long hair. So cute!

 

If a pig sneezes or has any nasal discharge at all, I would not purchase that animal.

 

Use a high quality feed like Blue Seal or Cavy Cuisine pellets. Have Timothy or Meadow hay available. Provide plenty of fresh greens (romaine, parsley, cantaloupe, apple, cucumber, dandelion, plantain and other summer grasses that do not have pesticides sprayed on them... no onions, tomatoes, or potatoes). With a varied diet, we did not have to add vitamin C to the water.

 

Check your piggies over head-to-toe frequently. We actually lost a piggie because some long hair had wrapped around a toe, cut off the circulation, and then became infected. Talk about feeling horribly guilty when this happened!

 

Older boars can get impacted hineys. Squishing out piggie poops on a daily basis is a smelly, gross job. Our females don't have this problem.

 

Watch the heat~ guinea pigs can die quickly of heat exhaustion in very warm temperatures. They will need to be kept somewhere cool in the heat like a basement when it is hot, or in an area with availability of some air conditioning.

 

Just a few thoughts! GP's are sweet little guys.

 

Blessings,

Cindy

[5knights3maidens]

Thank you again!

[Wee Pip]

those that use fleece or blanket linings - how do you keep the lining down? I tried this once and it was a disaster! The pig slipped around on the lining, causing the lining to fold up, and then the piggie went poo/pee on the floor of the cage. So how do you keep the lining under the piggie? Also, when mixing bedding with lining, I found that the bedding shifted onto the fleece, and this was a huge mess (bedding was stuck on the fleece and could not be separated - this was after 1 day). I was so frustrated that I gave up fleece altogether. Others make it sound so great, I want it to work too! Any tips to make it work, or is this what you have to deal with?

[Pongo]

I love our piggy Manny,here is his living quarters. We add no Vit. C. About 1/2 a cup of fresh veggies twice a day, Timothy Hay, fresh water and Cavy Cuisine Pellets.

We follow this recommendation for diet.

Grass, between a handful to several handfuls, more in the warmer months

Green pepper, 1/8 to 1/4 of whole pepper

Romaine lettuce, one or two large leaves, sometimes more

Tomato, wedge of large tomato or small Roma tomato

Carrot (baby), one small

Occasional vegetables:

Broccoli leaves (tiny) and peeled broccoli stem

Chinese Cabbage (pak-choi), one leaf

Corn silks and husks when in season

Parsley, one or more sprigs

Forages like chickweed, dandelions, and young clover

Fruit (a couple fruits per day from this list):

Apple, thin wedge, no seeds

Apricot, dried, a couple raisin-sized pieces

Banana, 1/4" round slice

Blueberries, several

Cantaloupe, 1"X 2"piece with washed rind

Grapes or Raisins (not both), one or two

Orange, one slice

Strawberries

Watermelon, 1" X 2" piece with washed rind

[5knights3maidens]

We have our new guinea pig, Spencer. (his pic. is on my blog) We took him to the vet because he started getting sick. He got his shot, drops for eyes, and meds. in his ear. He is doing great!! We all love having him (including dh!!). Thanks for all your help! :D

[Remudamom]

We have owned GP for a long time now.

 

Make sure their bedding is NOT cedar, it will make them sick. The best bedding, is actually stove pellets.

 

Give them chew sticks all the time.

 

Give them a handful of hay once a day.

 

Do not buy the cheap food and your GP will get plenty of vitamin C from that.

 

Get them an igloo.

 

Make sure the cage is BIG.

 

Give them some fresh washed carrots, or lettuce a few times a week.

 

LOT AND LOTS of water.

 

Pick them up ALOT, they are social animals.

 

We have two GP right now, and they are sweethearts. They love to be petted and picked up, they squeek alot, and purr.

 

Make sure you also have them groomed, nails trimmed.

 

Let me know if you have any questions :D

 

For Pete's sake, now I want one. Wanna trade for a horse? Lot of the same care???

[hornblower]

For Pete's sake, now I want one. Wanna trade for a horse? Lot of the same care???

 

I wanna see you picking up your horse a lot.

Also their igloo.

 

:tongue_smilie:

[Sahamamama]

No advice, because you've gotten good guidance. Just a cute little thought...

 

My nephew is almost 15 years old, as gangly as a string bean, and his hair hangs in his eyes. He usually answers all adult questions with a muttered grunt, but he lights up like a Christmas tree with his guinea pigs. It's so endearing, to me, his old aunt, to see that boy snuggle with those furry critters. He is so tender, and it makes you realize he has a truly good heart. It's a bit hard on me, though. I can remember him when he was little, snuggling with me! Those skinny boy arms wrapped around my neck, his warm whisper in my ear. :crying: Where does the time go? Now he hangs out with friends and snuggles guinea pigs! :lol:

 

Enjoy your cavies. They are wonderful little pets. We pet-sat for my nephew last summer, and my daughters still talk about their cousin's guinea pigs! :D

[cougarmom4]

those that use fleece or blanket linings - how do you keep the lining down? I tried this once and it was a disaster! The pig slipped around on the lining, causing the lining to fold up, and then the piggie went poo/pee on the floor of the cage. So how do you keep the lining under the piggie? Also, when mixing bedding with lining, I found that the bedding shifted onto the fleece, and this was a huge mess (bedding was stuck on the fleece and could not be separated - this was after 1 day). I was so frustrated that I gave up fleece altogether. Others make it sound so great, I want it to work too! Any tips to make it work, or is this what you have to deal with?

 

Yeah, we had a problem with the fleece coming up, too. At first, we used large paper clips (the kind with the black attachment on them) to clip the fleece to the sides of the cage. One day I went down to see the piggies and couldn't find one of them--he had gotten under the fleece in one corner, ran around & wasn't able to get out. Kinda funny, but I didn't want it to happen again.

 

I measured the fleece so that it fit the floor of the cage with 1-2 inches extra all around. Then I cut strips of fabric that were 10 inches wide and as long as each side of the cage. For example, our cage is 38 inches square...so I cut the fleece to be 40X40 (to allow for sewing seams & a little extra) and four strips of old fabric to be 40x10. Then I sewed each strip onto each side of the fleece; then sewed the corner edges up together...so I had a type of fitted sheet, if you can visualize it. The sides of our cage bottom are 8 inches tall--we lay several towels down on the bottom and put the fleece on top, with the fabric edges tucked over the sides. Fleece stays in place, piggies can't get underneath...so I guess it works.

 

Now then...it gets dirty pretty fast--even with the kids scooping piggy poop everyday. Right now we have two sets of fleece/towels and we just change it weekly w/daily scooping. I've read that people have been able to 'train' the piggies to use a litter box type of thing, but I'm not sure how to make it happen. What I think we're going to try is to make an area where we put down a hand towel, have the hay, water & pellets in this area...and hope that they do all of their pooping there. Then we'd just change the hand towel every single day. I just very much dislike how much poop there is!

[Mergath]

No advice for you on the piggies. However...

 

If you continue to have problems, you might want to consider trying a couple rats, if you aren't especially averse to them. They're highly intelligent, super clean, friendly and snuggly, and, erm, somewhat hardier than guinea pigs. I had rats off and on for most of my life, and I adored them.