Advice about Guinea Pigs

[fourcatmom]

I am considering getting my 9yo a guinea pig for Christmas. She has wanted one for a long time. I found several on CL, one is a 3 1/2 week female baby and the other is a month or so old male.

 

Any advice? Personality differences or behaviors between male or female? What is the best age (of the guinea pig) to get?

 

Thanks:001_smile:

[....]

Don't get a male!!! We have a male and a female. The male is a brat. I mean, really a brat. We're actually taking him to a guinea pig rescue place next week to get him neutered. He sprays everywhere and it smells so bad. I changed his bedding twice in the last two days. My 4 yro keeps him in her bedroom and I've had to take him out and just put his cage in the garage. Also, he throws his bedding/poop all over the place. I have to vaccuum around his little habitat every day. :D

 

Also, be aware...they need their bedding changed about every 4 days and it's expensive. :glare: It's 20 bucks for a bag of bedding at Petco and that lasts about 2-3 changes. Woodchips would be a lot cheaper, but they say there's wood dust that's not good for them to breathe in. We even tried Yesterday's News (recycled paper kitty litter), but it made their bedrooms smell like kitty litter. So, the only bedding that's worked for us is the layer of newspaper + shredded paper bedding + a layer of timothy hay.

 

We also found out the hard way - hold them in a towel. They just pee everywhere! :tongue_smilie:

 

As far as an age to take care of the pet, my 10 yro does most of the work, but she needs help when it's time to change the bedding. The 10 yro and 4 yro love the guinea pigs. They bought some kind of harness/leash system so they could take them outside for a walk. They carry them around the house and the guinea pigs often attend our homeschool (they're great listeners). :)

 

If you're looking at rodents, we have a DJ hamster that is much cleaner/less smelly. But, you have to put their cage in a bathroom/extra bedroom at night and close the door. She is sooo loud at night. She runs as fast as she can on her wheel for hours.

[HappyLady]

I had 2 males and they definitely do stink. :D I bathed mine and changed their bedding often, but you'll still smell them so be prepared for that.

 

My 1 little guy used to LOVE to be held and he always let me know when he had to pee by just not wanting to sit. I'd put him in his cage, he'd pee, and then we'd go back to snuggling. :) The other one didn't like to be held for too long, but he still let me do it.

 

My one little guy ended up with anal impaction. I believe only males can get this. Yeah, that was NOT fun. I won't go into detail in case anyone is eating while reading this :lol:, but please do research on it so you're prepared.

 

As much as I loved my guinea pigs they were expensive to keep and had VERY expensive vet bills so I probably would never get another one. When I adopted them they both had respiratory infections and the vets in my area charge a small fortune for small animals.

 

Good luck on your decision!

[....]

My one little guy ended up with anal impaction. I believe only males can get this. Yeah, that was NOT fun. I won't go into detail in case anyone is eating while reading this :lol:, but please do research on it so you're prepared.

 

 

Oh, no! I'm sure that's next on our list! :D

[Zebra]

We have 2 guinea pigs. They are both female. I got one and EVERYONE said I had to get another one or she would be lonely, so we did. They were from the same cage at the pet store, we just got them a few days apart. For awhile they were fine, and then when they became older the bigger one kept harassing the littler one. She would bite her and rip out fur. We had to get separate cages, which was a total pain. I don't believe they need company any more!

 

I will say, they are fairly easy. I buy a big thing of bedding at Walmart for $7 every couple of months. I clean their cage 1x a week. I spray it down with a vinegar and water solution, wipe clean, put down newspaper and bedding. That takes probably 30 minutes a week. I have to check their food, water and hay every day. I probably spend $15+ a month on supplies.

 

One of them always poops on your lap, and the other one can be held for awhile without pooping. When you bring them any sort of treat(veggie) they squeal at you and it's pretty funny. They have very different personalities, which I didn't expect.

 

Anyway, they are some work. But, not as much work as a cat or dog. AND they aren't really as much "fun" as a cat or dog either. They are a good pet for us.

[ChrissySC]

A child size swimming pool is great for them to play. Certainly, get a guinea ball. We had a female - LaLa. She did not stink because we bought pine bedding that was fine shaved. We trained her to use a potty box.

 

OK, I trained the bunny to use a potty box too. I have a thing about training animals to potty. :D I wish I could train the dogs too! Silly Malts. are just too stuborn and spoiled though.

[georgialee]

I would get the baby girl guinea pig! They are such sweet animals, great personalities and lots of fun once they get used to being held. :)

[speedmom4]

We accidentally ended up with 6 guinea pigs at one time. We originally bought my daughter a female and then felt like it needed a companion. We went back to the same pet store and they assured us the piggie they were giving us was another female. They were wrong. DON'T trust pet stores to be able to tell male and females apart. A few months later we had 6 in total.

 

Our male, Big Boy, was the sweetest of the bunch. He had such a great personality. He loved to be held and had such a funny personality.

 

Have fun!

 

Elise in NC

[chepyl]

We got a six month old male. We have had no problems with him. He does not smell amd his bedding needs changed once a week. I bought a bag of brdding at petsmart for $11 and we are going on 3 months with it and it is not half gone. The family we got him from gave us a bag of hay and pellets, and we have not finished that yet. They love grass. We just walk outside amd pick some every few days. You have to give them fruit amd veggies everyday, but they eat so little....a giant bag of carrots has lasted two weeks, and we eat a few of them. Ours loves celery, carrots, and lettuce.

 

My 3 year old loves to snuggle with him. He has peed on me once. He went back to the cshe and has not done it since. They are social and like to be held. You tame them by handling them, so lots of handling is important. They do meed time to run outside of their cage. They can be litter trained, but the poop pellets are no big deal to pick up from a tile floor.

 

Lenny is the cheapest pet we have owned :)

[Journey]

My girls had lots of guinea pigs when they were younger. They are great pets. Much better (in my opinion) that gerbils and hamsters and rabbits. We had both males and females and i can honestly say that our males never stunk or sprayed. One did have the anal impaction "problem" but my older daughter learned how to take care of the situation when it arose and it was fine. They really do smell if you use shavings and the shavings are very messy. We used to buy pellet bedding (we used to use this for our horse's stall). I am not kidding you when I say that we only had to clean their cage (2 pigs in the cage) every 3 weeks. This stuff is great and it doesn't smell at.all. We didn't give our pigs extra hay, just their pellet food and some vegetable or fruit snacks and every one of them lived to ripe old ages. We really, really, really loved having them as pets. In our experience, they were very low maintainence and very low cost to keep. If i had the choice, i would get the younger one (heck, I would get both of them). Also, very, very important.....please, please, please keep them out of the sun....the sun can literally kill them....ask me how i know:sad:

[....]

We used to buy pellet bedding (we used to use this for our horse's stall). I am not kidding you when I say that we only had to clean their cage (2 pigs in the cage) every 3 weeks. This stuff is great and it doesn't smell at.all.

 

What??! What bedding is this? Please, come back and tell me what kind of bedding you used! :D

 

Our male reeks, I'm sorry. I wish he didn't. :tongue_smilie:

[Journey]

the brand name is Woody Pet but there are other brands out there. One is Pestell. Not sure if you have a farm supply store in your area but they are the ones that sell it around here and the best part is the bag is only $5.49 and lasts for about 2-3 months.!

[AngieW in Texas]

We have only had males, but that was by coincidence, not by design.

 

They need LARGE cages. We used the plans at http://www.cavycages.com to build a 2-story cage. It is 4 sections by 2 sections on bottom and 1 section by 2 sections on top. We use a plank as a ramp and have it covered with terrycloth for better traction. We make the upstairs the kitchen section, so all food is up there. It does force exercise.

 

We use a water bowl rather than a water bottle because that's what they had at the rescue where we got the guinea pigs.

 

We use bath towels as bedding and it is MUCH nicer to deal with. Just roll up the towel and take it outside to shake it out. When you have enough piggie towels for a load, run them through the washer. We got our towels at Goodwill, so they weren't expensive. We also relegate our old bath towels to be piggie towels when they start to get holes. We keep the used piggie towels in the garage in an open rubbermaid bin.

 

We actually change out the towels every day, but if the cage wasn't in my dd's bedroom, we'd go several days. The top towel would still need changing every day, but the bottom towel could last a while.

[Ellie]

Our males didn't smell, either.

 

Peruvians (the ones with the very long hair) are the most mellow. Teddies (short scratchy hair) are very cute, but more active. I can't comment on the other varieties. :-)

 

They can eat almost anything. You want just plain pellets for their staple diet (not pellets plus seeds and whatnot), and feel free to give them all your raw veggie and fruit scraps.

 

There are actually guinea pig shows, where the piggies must be purebred and have papers, and they get ribbons and everything. Who knew? :lol: But you'd have to buy your piggie from a breeder, not from PetCo or PetSmart. A couple of our piggies won first places. :)

[celticmom]

Check to make sure the female's father has not been in the cage with her or you could get a two for one if you know what I mean. My mother got a guinea pig from another teacher for her classroom. She said that the father had been "fighting " with the baby. The guinea pig that Mom got grew rapidly and became somewhat fat. One morning Mom came into her classroom and was surprised to see two guinea pigs one large and one small in the cage.

[cdrumm4448]

We've had a female for about two months. We started with the wood shavings, but they're a pain to deal with and get everywhere. Then, we switched to CareFresh. A little better, but rather expensive. Now we use old towels with fleece on top, and it's great. I do change the cage every two days, because Caddie is a slob, but it doesn't smell. Every day we scoop poop, too. She's a great pet;I think I like her the most!