Guinea Pigs

[slgsue]

We are planning to expand our family, so far we have myself, hubby, 3 children, 2 dogs and a very entertaining hamster!!!!! The kids are fantastic and take their responsibility in cleaning and feeding Henry the Hamster and walking the dogs seriously bless them.

Well we have today met 2 gorgeous 6 wk old little guinea pig brothers, who we plan to bring home on Saturday!!!!! So excited:D

I have never had lil piggys so need some advice re care, we plan to keep them indoors as our corgi is a very outdoor girl and we want to be on the safe side and get one of those cage runs for the garden.

How often should we clean them out, how much do they eat and how do we keep them entertained?????

Cant wait to bring them home :D

[BankFodder]

how much do they eat and how do we keep them entertained?????

:D

 

Have you got that last bit the right way round?

Guinea pigs

[Undercover-Elsa]

LOL Bankfodder, you are naughty!

 

Guinea pigs are great! You can create obstacle courses for them with tubes and ladders and if you handle them a lot they will follow you around and "chat back" to you when you talk to them.

Make sure they have water at all times, and feed them the proprietory guinea pig mix plus fresh fruit and veg.(apples, carrots, greens).

How often you clean them out really depends on size of hutch, type/depth of bedding etc. Wood shavings with a top layer of straw works well.

More about them here. (No recipes, honest!!!! )

 

 

Have fun!

Elsa x

[slgsue]

If my dear old nan was still here then she would probably have a recipe bless her!!!!! No I like to buy my meat from the supermarket usually chicken or pork hehe.

Thanks for the info, they are the cutest little things and from watching them play together yesterday can imagine they will get up to lots of mischeif, will post a pic when we have them home

[brassed-off-2]

Hi sigsue

welcome to the world of guinea pigs!!

 

Ours keep us entertained for hours...love em.

We have 2 sows (girls ) one has a long curly stawberry blond coat, so needs daily grooming, regular claw cutting, bathing etc..i clean my outdoor hutch once a week, keep them in the run with sunshade on most days through the summer, then keep indoors in the winter and clean weekly, with daily maintenance.

They each have their own personalites, but can definately sense Nan's arrival before she's even put the handbrake on!! (she brings them dandilion leaves - these are their absolute favourite) They are deffinately a pair.My daughter named them Peppa and George after the lovable pigs on kids tv..

Enjoy your new additions....oh and one more thing we bought a book on their care from a well known petshop, it was well worth the investment.

 

bo2

[jackieandwayne]

Oh, someone as daft as me! I adopted four guinea pigs about 8 years ago, and one of them was pregnant! Oh poor thing thought I - then opened the hutch and found 7 adorable little perfectly formed guinea pigs grinning at me one morning! Thought I was doing really well, got a book on them, didn't read the bit about boys being sexually active from three weeks, and low and behold a few weeks later I was over run!

 

Well, I do take my responsibilities seriously so I got my dad out to build a huge secure outdoor peN (walk in size) complete with security lighting to frighten off the fox. GP's are quite hard to sex so until i got the hang of it, many more arrivals came. I used to open up the hutches (yes hutches by now - three giant ones) and blimey there were 5 more!

 

No problem, I loved each and every one of them, eventually got the hang of sexing them, separating them early on, and having the boys neutered and after the arrival of No 53, I think we had cracked the family planning!

 

Those GP's each had a name ( I had to keep a list!) and they had the life of luxury - I used to grow salads all summer just for them! they had a permanent adventure playground, a dining area, a shallow pool, and luxury accommodation. This included heating in the coldest of winters when i would take them up three hot water bottles securely wrapped in thick towels, one for each hutch, at about 11pm at night - somewhere I've got a photo of an icy january morning, where their compound looks just like a lovely old village, with steam coming out the roofs!

 

Yes, they knew the sound of my car, but what got them really shrieking was the sound of the cutlery drawer being opened at teatime! This was the main feeding time, and they knew i chopped up all their luxuries, you know, fresh kale, carrots, celery, apples, strawberries! Spoilt creatures even had their salads washed by me, and put through a salad spinner just so they didn;t get any nasties!

 

Sadly I had to give up the last 15 when I moved, but my friend gave them all a home together and they all lived a happy and contented life. Although the friend moaned about the hotties in the winter!

 

GP's are great to teach children how to care for an animal and if you can have a set up like I had (not 50 plus obviously!) you will be fascinated by studying them living almost how they should - outdoors, secure, and communally. There's nothing so cute as watching them with their babies, on the lawn, mum at the front, babies in the middle, dad at the back, all in a straight line making for the peas and runner beans! And then trying to climb up them!

 

I hope you have fun with your new family members - they are great.

[slgsue]

Well Milky Way and Galaxy (after the chocolate bars - no educational thought went behind this ) have been settling in now for the last week or so, I forgot we had them yesterday and nearly fell back through the door after hearing them squeaking!!!!!!

 

The kids love them but sometimes have to be reminded that they need lots of attention, gets them away from the tv and allows me to catch up on my programmes!!!! I am hoping the lady we got them from was right and they are both males, dont fancy having 50 hehe

[Undercover-Elsa]

You'll soon find out!

Glad you're enjoying them..good think about GP's is they won't be ignored..they'll soon tell the kids when they need attention. I think it's crucial for children to learn to respect and care for animals. It gives them more chance of respecting and caring for other people, and teaches them responsibility.

Have fun!

Elsa x

[Monty2007]

When I was about 10 I was given a Guinea pig for my birthday, a day later it had two babies........... They can be a bit shy but great with children since they don't tend to bite. They also live well with rabbits which we had plenty of.

 

It is a good idea to keep their claws clipped, as with rabbits.

[jackieandwayne]

I always used to get a large bottle of ivomec from the vet - protects against nasties, and also watch for eye ulcers, which can be easily treated with a cream given by the vet. The eye ulcers can be caused by an injury, like bumping into a sharp piece of straw, or, which is quite common in GP's, ingrowing eyelashes. Especially in the babies. After checking with the vet and being shown how to treat the eyelash problem, this is something you can deal with yourself, provided you have the special ointment. And these are also things your kids can learn - how to medicate an animal - the GP PROBABLY won;t bite., and it shows the kid how to be gentle with a small animal. Yes to the nail clipping, but if you have truly outdoor GP's you'll find they hone the claws down naturally.

 

This list, it had to be kept, complete with name, date of birth and photo, as this was the only way I could make sure each little demon got his meds every month! I used to collect them all in a huge lined bread tray and me and the other half used to identify them by their photo, health check them, medicate them and sling them back in! Every fourth Sunday!

 

I love them, and if i get a good sized garden anytime in the future, I will make another colony! Think that's the right words - a colony of cavies?!

[jack1966]

i have three words to say about guinea pigs, 'they are addictive', the most wonderful little pets, i love mine to bits they are spoilt rotten, its so cute when they squeak at you when they know you've got food, and after a while they may even squeak at the rustle of a plastic bag, as they think food is in it.