Finally got my OH to agree to a pair of gorgeous male Piggies, they are coming to live with us in a couple of weeks. I was ideally looking at an outdoor cage on our deck by the back door with a large run on our lawn. I would love an indoor cage so they are close by for lots of cuddles, but the petshop said they would need one 100cm wide.
I have just had one delivered and its bloody huge, there is no way on earth my OH will be ok with it. The only place it could fit is at the otherside of the woodburner alcove which is really warm, any ideas please?
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Small pets
2 Brand new Guinea Pigs, help please?
14 replies
nickdrakeslovechild · 20/02/2016 17:27
OP posts:
70isaLimitNotaTarget ·
20/02/2016 18:57
Okay saddle up there nickdrake and prepare for the ride. Congratulations on your new piggies .
Cracks knuckles:
100cm is 3'3" is not big enough for two boars. I don't believe anything Petshops tell me about cages.
The reason most boars end up out on their ears at 6 months is they squabble and the main reason they squabble is lack of space.
Look online, they all recommend 4'x2' as a minimum for 2 hogs (as babies you can get away with less but do you really want to spend out further ££ on a grown up cage? )
C&C might be a better option, grids that you can assemble to make a cage the size you want according to sace and you can be inventive with the shape. ( Look on C&C cages)
They don't cope with extremes of heat or cold (and certainly not going from one to the other) damp and draughts.
They are messy (the hay gets everywhere) noisy chatty little things. Boars I think are cuddlier than sows I have (ex breeding Rescues)
If you want them outside in the garden there are loads of hutches, again biggest is best. I prefer one level but my pigs are lardy adults. You can get waterproof thermal covers.
Maybe have an indoor foldable run to come in and play.
We use a rabbit run from Bunny Business, pegged into the grass. It's high enough to give them all round protection and they don't dig , but obviously they need protected from foxes, cats , magpies (oh yes)
My three sleep inside in winter, we have an old 4x2 cage that I bought for our original boars, we kept it in the dining room but it was a pain, kept tripping over it.
So they had a series of C&C runs but we've gone back to the 4x2 at night. It's literally for sleeping in. (I have two sows and a neutered boar now)
FTR- your DH will be judgey about the hogs. Mine tuts over the hay, the fridge being full of veg, the amount of litter waste they produce (and I'm sure he's 
at the attention they get 
) But he's good at texting me "Do the pigs need any veg, I'm in asda"
You need to have someone on board to care for them if you're ill (OH) or away on holiday
My pigs won't be going out full time till Easter but they have a Pighouse (glorified wooden playhouse) . Could you get a shed / do you have a shed? You can adapt them for piggies.
It's too early IMO for them to be out full time especially piglets, so, yes they'd need to be inside for now.
You've got some time to peruse before your babies arrive.Lots of threads on here. .
FernieB ·
20/02/2016 21:22
Ignore your OH - he's wrong
. My DH was not happy at the idea of any pet but I've noticed that he always goes to say 'goodbye' to them when he leaves for work. Ours are permanently indoor boys in a large cage in the utility. Run round the kitchen in winter and mow the lawn in summer
70isaLimitNotaTarget ·
20/02/2016 22:46
Start collecting your newspapers and ask your NDNs to save theirs. (I aquire some from supermarkets and if I go on the tube I hoover them up at the end of the day . I go up Larndan once a month late night , and fill a bag. Cue 
looks but meh they get thrown away at the end)
There are lots of Pig Food threads and Don't Feed This threads.
Guinea pigs can get tubby . Actually I've seen very few thin guineas, I'm sure they exsist but I've only ever had one slim piggie who was a 'Surprise' when we got a pg sow. She was tiny.
They do need excercise and will popcorn and run if it suits them. Most of their excercise involves rootling around for food and eating hay. They can get porky eating veg
Boars especially can get a bit saggy when they get older. We had one that had a sort of impaction , he could pooh but sometimes his droppings were huge ( size of a Fererro Rocher) he could pooh them out but there was something odd going on. He did normal ones too.
Find the name of a vet who has an interest in guineas, they are "Exotic"
Make sure your pigs can't trap each other. One will be Alpha, you don't want to run the risk of the other one being bullied. Our boars rarely slept in the same sleeping area. They shared a haybox but different corners.
Our haybox has two doors and there's enough space in each door for two pigs to pass each other by.
They love food understatement.
They are prey animals and never lose this. Even though we've had the sows for a year and a half , the boar ten months, they always scarper when we lift their hidey boxes. In a way it's a game to them. We catch them , cuddle them, feed them. But it never changes.
In fact the first 'sign' that one of my pigs is ill is if they're just 'sitting' there, gently rocking.
FernieB ·
20/02/2016 23:54
Echo everything 70 has said. You will need a lot of newspaper - broadsheet is best as it spreads out further and makes it easier to roll up and throw away. They love nothing more than to pee all over a freshly cleaned out cage. They need almost daily cleaning out
. On the plus side they will 'help' with your garden by mowing lawns and enthusiastically pruning any plants within reach of their run (my lavender had no flowers last year after I inadvertently put their run too close to it).
If you check your vets website, it usually says what specialities and pets each vet has - usually a good indication of how 'exotic' savvy they are. Not all vets are great with small pets. I've been very lucky with mine.
They will need the option of separate hidey holes. Also if it's two youngish males you're getting, you may have to watch them go through the terrible teens when they can bicker a lot to establish dominance. It can be worrying to watch but they usually work through it okay. Boars may always bicker a bit and a bit of posturing is normal. That's really why they need the space to stay away from each other if they want. My first boar pair would rarely even look at other unless one of them was removed for cuddles and then the other would go madly looking for him. My current pair (one of the originals and a younger one) are much closer and will eat out of the same bowl and sleep in the same box.
Finally, when they arrive it is absolutely compulsory to post 'pigtures' on here as we all need to see them. Then of course, they'll need their MN names!
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