• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

New Guinea Pig Advice

Suzanne

Mama Doe
I brought a guinea pig home from Kirkby yesterday. He's a lovely long hair chap. At the moment he's in my buns holiday hutch at my parents house and he was out in the run on the grass yesterday. My patio door is getting fixed on weds so i can bring him back to my house. I had piggies when I was little but tbh I know nothing about piggy care:oops: I've been doing some reseach but I have a few questions.

I need to get him some some new housing but there's so much to choose from that I really don't know what to get. Any advice, he will be outside.

Food - I picked up some Excel nuggets for him, are they good and how much should he have a day? What sort of veggies are ok for them? Obviously plenty of hay.

Are they clean like bunnies - pooping and peeing in the same place? What should I put on the floor of the hutch?

He's alone at the moment but I know that they like company so could I introduce another male?

Any advice welcome :D
 
Well done on giving this little one a home.
But where are the pictures? :shock::roll::)

They can eat pretty much the same veg/fruit as a rabbit does.

No they don't tend to poop and wee in the same spot in fact they're quite messy. :) We put newspaper on the floor of the hutch and then we've just changed over to finacard with cross shredded paper on top of that.
My own guineas have hay in the bedding area, but the rescues are housed differently so have it in hay racks.
Guinea pigs like lots of hidey holes so boxes, pigloos, tunnels etc.
I don't tend to feed excel pellets as I found they left an oily residue in the bottom of the bowl but I know a lot of people get on ok with them, guinea pigs do like to pick at food all day so need more in the bowl than a rabbit would.

As for a friend as he's a male you have a number of choices, a neutered female, neuter him wait the required time and then find a female or a baby male of no more than 8 weeks.

Enjoy him they make such fantastic pets.:D
 
My lot had double hutches.Had to put wood against the sides though so they didn,t fall off the ramp.
They are now in a playhouse with attached run:D

Piggies are very dirty and will wee and poo everywhere and anywhere:roll::roll:
Although having said that mine tend to go in their plastic cat baskets now.
I use towels and fleeces in the floor of their house and megazorb in the baskets.

Piggies need food down all the time,i just top their dish up daily.I also use the dust free hay.

Piggies need Vit c,some add it to their water but if they get enough in their diet it should be fine.

Mine love greens,celery,green pepper,tomatoes,cucumber,carrot,banana,strawberry,broccoli,melon,grapes,herbs and bagged salad(no iceberg),rocket and spinach.
They are such lovely creatures:love::love:
You can introduce him to a young male:D
 
I don't tend to feed excel pellets as I found they left an oily residue in the bottom of the bowl but I know a lot of people get on ok with them, guinea pigs do like to pick at food all day so need more in the bowl than a rabbit would.

What food would you recommend?

I will get some pics today. He doesn't have a name yet either so need to think of one.
 
I love piggies. I'd love to see piccies too. I'm a member of the Guinea Pig Forum even though I don't have any. There is some really good advice on there and lots of piccies of housing.
 
Congratulations! Guinea pigs are adorable animals! :love: I have 3 piggies who are turning 3 this year and 2 that are turning 2. Over the years I have done a lot of reading and learning and love them to bits.

My girl Ella, is also a long haired pig. Long haired pigs require daily brushing and regular trimming. I tend to cut Ella's hair so it stays up off the ground - that way it avoids it dragging and knotting. She is also my only piggie that requires a wash. She has a full body wash about every 3 months and I give her a bottom wash (the area that tends to get the messiest) as is needed.

I would actually advise you try to keep him inside. They don't do well with cold conditions (in comparison to buns which can cope a bit better because they develop that thicker coat) and likewise hot conditions (can get heat stroke, I have seen it happy to someone else's pig and it is not fun). It is also easier to monitor them. I believe they are even more fragile than rabbits (my personal opinion) and can fall ill easily and quickly. Anyway, just my opinion and if you do choose to keep him inside I can show you some pictures of my set up. Otherwise I believe that the same size requirements apply - I tend to follow the table on this page as a general guide; http://www.guineapigcages.com/

For pellets, I feed Oxbows Cavy Cuisine. It is up to you which one you choose but as pellets in general are the least important in a guinea pigs diet, they only need around 1/8th of a cup per pig per day. Veggies are one of THE most essential things in a piggies diet. This is because they can not make their own vitamin c and so are prone to scurvy. I would avoid adding the vitamin c drops to their water - they tend to make the water taste funny and deter the piggies from drinking it. The vitamin c also disintegrates quickly in the sunlight. So - the best way to get them the vitamin c they need is through a wide range of vegetables. I tend to base these on a leafy salad (all lettuces are ok except for ice berg lettuce which causes diarrheao) and then add things like capsicum (REALLY good for vitamin c), carrots, cucumber, cherry tomatoes. Other veggies like bok choy, parsley, mint, basil, celery etc are also rotated through to provide viarety. They also need plentiful amounts of hay (in unlimited quantities) - this is to keep their teeth nice and trim.

Guinea pigs are MESSY! :lol: You will learn that very very quickly. They poop LOTS and wherever and whenever they want!! :lol: They do however tend to poop the most where they eat. As a result I have a "kitchen area" which consists of a pan (with sides) about 75cmx36cm. In this area I use kitty litter made 100% from recycled paper products. I have a hayrack with hay, pellet bowl and water bottle in this area. I spot clean it daily, removing the soiled litter and replacing it with fresh.

In the main area of their cage I use fleece and towels. It works really well! The fleece wicks their urine through to the absorbent layer underneath (towels). It lasts a week between cleans, and I just sweep up the poops daily.

You can definitely introduce him to a male. All the myths you hear about males fighting etc is wrong. They do tend to require more space as they tend to be more dominate, and they also tend to require multiples of everything (multiple drink bottles, food bowls, hidey holes etc) but they can get along perfectly fine. I have read of cases where there are 10+ boys living happily together. Just introduce them in a nuetral area, and then once you can tell whether or not they will get along ok (give them a few hours to work out who's boss) they can go into a freshly cleaned cage. It is important that the cage is cleaned beforehand so as to remove all previous scents.

Hopefully that helps some! And congrats again on your little boy!
 
lovely

Our piggies have always been outdoor piggies, but the hutch is in a sheltered place, and we drape a fleece-backed tarpaulin over the top in really bitter weather.

I personally don't like the set-ups with a run underneath, because the hutch is then out on the lawn or patio and exposed whatever the weather. We have a separate run, so we get more control all ropund over where things are located in different conditions.

We are careful not to put the pigs in the run until the dew has dried off - they are very prone to catching colds, and they go downhill health-wise VERY quickly. We also take them back to the hutch before the evening dew.

Our pigs love their little trips to and fro, and have fussies along the way. We have a wicker basket, and they hop in at one end, and hop out at the other - so sweet. Clay plant pots make lovely piggy shelters in the run - they have one each, and again look very sweet!

Enjoy.
 
Aw congrats! :D x

I use the Oxbow pellets too as it's Timothy hay based not Alfalfa based.

Poo-wise one things you can try is to put a 'litter tray' of some sort underneath a hay rack as pigs like to eat and poo at the same time! :lol:

This is my 'litter tray' for my piggies (they live indoors with fleece bedding):

P1050009.jpg


....I don't use that hay rack anymore as it's not safe - this is their current hay rack.... made out of a grid with Correx at the sides....

P1060011.jpg


P1050996.jpg


I have heard that a lot of people recommend the new bedding 'Bed 'O Linum' (on offer at the Hay Experts and Animal Magic Supplies at the minute) to keep smells down etc. I plan to try this for their litter tray - they have cardboard squares at the moment.

Look forward to pigtures! x
 
Last edited:
Figured I might as well post these anyway, just in case they are of use to you.

This is part of the fleece area for 2 of my pigs -

039.jpg


Fleece area for the cage that houses the other 3 pigs -

035.jpg


022.jpg


The hay rack (they love climbing in it) - it is made using a bent grid

214.jpg


You can see most of the kitchen area in this picture

072-1.jpg



The whole cage with doors open

070.jpg
 
Last edited:
Back
Top