I'm thinking of getting guinea pigs. Please educate me!

[Smudggle]

As title said, something I'd like to do. I've never had any pets before so I'm treading carefully here. I have multiple DC (who are all sensible and caring) aged between 8yrs to teenager.

I literally know nothing. Can someone enlighten me on living arrangements, potential vet bills, seasons (indoor or outdoor), vaccinations, food, costs etc.

I won't be buying any for another 6 months or so. I want to feel confident first!

We are a very loving family and any we get will be utterly worshipped, that I can guarantee

I don't know if it's been mentioned but they eat their poo yes but they do it so covertly

They have to shovel as much food into their faces as they can then they go off to pooh-eat so they can properly digest . You rarely see this first pooh (its soft and green) you'll see loads of the proper losenge poohs which really don't smell. Out of all the pets , piggies have the least offensive waste..

We have 2 boars, they are brothers and have always been together. They are very well bonded and get on brilliantly. They have just one food bowl and one hidey house which is big enough for them both but they share and take turns - seriously.
They are very social and really look out for each other.
You will become their slave. For such little creatures they eat loads and loads. They will soon learn the noises they come to associate with food eg the fridge opening, the rustling of a packet etc. In our house they go crazy squeaking and popcorning when I open the curtains in the morning near their hutch as they know that means breakfast is coming soon.
Ours live indoors in a 2 storey hutch. Guinea pigs are not natural climbers and had to be taught to use their ladder and have it carpeted for better grip!
Ours were very nervous when they first arrived and had been roughly handled in a previous home. It has taken a long time to get them to a point where they will sit, relax and have a cuddle.
I cut their claws regularly myself aided by their favourite food. It’s no problem now, they tolerate it well.
As for vets bills. One of mine recently had an eye and nose infection. A couple of appointments and antibiotics cost about £40. Pigs are classed as exotic pets so you might find your local Vet doesn’t see many or know too much about them. If they get really ill you may need an exotics specialist.
They are the most lovely animals. Really gentle and friendly. They do have individual personalities if you take the time to get to know them.
They need a lot of cleaning out though (we use fleece for ease), lots of handling, lots of food (especially hay) and as much space as you can give them.

OP it might be worth asking for this to be moved over to small pets.

If you are anywhere near Sussex Google Pooh and Piglet rescue. An amazing lady called Pauline has loads and loads of piggies needing homing. She also helps you with ongoing issues. She can diagnose minor issues and did some tooth trimming for us. Also if one of your piggies dies she will try and bond it with another (usually baby) We had about 6 from her over the years but be warned, as your children get older they may lose interest and you will end up with all the work!

I agree with the lots of poo and wee thing. Ways to manage =

• Always have a couple of old hand towels kept for the purpose of covering your lap when sitting with your pigs. They'll ALWAYS do a sneaky little wee or poo while relaxing there if you don't !

• Don't use hay as a base layer in the cage at all if you can help it. Hay smells awful very quickly if it gets weed on. And it will get weed on. Avoid news paper for the same reason. Keep the pigs on a thick (inch at least) layer of clean sawdust and give their hay feed in a little manger or hanging ball up well off the floor of the cage.

• clean them out every other day. Just get into a quick routine of trapping the open edge of a black sack under the edge of the cage and dust panning the main bulk of sawdust straight out. They'll all shove up one end while you do one end and all shove down the other while you do that one. Takes hardly any time. No need to take everyone out right then. Have your sawdust in something which works for you easily when it comes to bringing it to the cage and scooping/clawing it out. Proper deep clean (all sawdust and everything out and a swill out of the cage corners) every couple of months. They won't smell if you stick to this.

• Use open bottom things for them to go in when on the lawn or in their cage. A poster up-thread said they use a pipe as a hidey hole for the piggies when they are outside. Trouble with something like that is - once again - the poo/wee thing - they'll soil whatever they happen to be sitting in at the time, so any solid bottomed shelter will get mucky fast and have to be cleaned. We used to buy the big plastic domes with an entrance hole which sit on the grass with an open bottom. We would make sure they got moved about every day or two. Meant the pigs weren't standing or laying in their own mess when they wanted to run in and hide. The bigger pigs used to shove them round the lawn themselves actually, while inside. Looked very funny having a coloured plastic dome occasionally trundle across the lawn on it's own

The poo eating thing - iirc pigs produce two types of poo. One is normal fairly solid poos, which they just leave alone, and the other is a very soft pellet which they eat straight from the bum! Sorry for TMI.

They do it really bloody fast though. Quite discreet. Like lightening they pop their heads under their tums and come up again chewing .... and you just know what they've been doing

We currently have 4 guinea pigs. We all absolutely love them and wouldn’t be without them. They can successfully live indoors or outdoors - as long as you have space. Ours are inside overnight and during winter and we also have a 2 storey hutch and large run on grass outside. We use fleece in the inside hutches - you can get them made to measure on eBay, and shredded paper outside. Sawdust isn’t that good for them. Fleece is also easy for a quick daily sweep up of poop. To keep them healthy make sure they always have access to hay to eat, then pellets daily and odd bits of veg. Ours squeal at us like mad when we open the fridge! They are quite efficient as they eat things that would otherwise be discarded - like carrot peelings, herb and veg stalks etc. They don’t do well with extremes of temperature - with heat possibly more of an issue than cold. But they are pretty hardy with no vaccinations required. Over the 8 pigs we have had we have had 3 x £70 and 1 x £35 vet bills. It can be expensive if they need an op - but we have never needed to do that. Their life is a constant round of eating, pooping and napping - with a fair bit of chatting thrown in. I work from home a lot and they are great company. They sit on our laps in the evening and are very cuddly. Lots of handling pays off, but they love piggie company too. Enjoy!

Lots of replies! Thanks k you everyone, I've read everyone's advice and taken it all onboard. We're going for quite a lengthy holiday this Summer (travelling) so any pigs certainly won't be with us until after that time, even if that means waiting until next Spring.

I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities of having a pet Never had any before, even when we were kids, so for me, it's a huge step.

Thanks again everyone

Oh something I know a little about :)

They can be such big characters for something so small. Mine used to squeak when I opened the fridge!

Most of the care info has been posted so I'll do the morbid bit. I had 2 piggies for 4 /5 years. Then got rescues to buddy them up each time one died. I've had deaths through kidney stones, tumours and old age. Vets bills are £100 for an x-ray, medicine isn't cheap either. But it's worth it. They are very good pets for children as they don't run away too quickly! Also be prepared for clipping their nails which can be a challenge if you're new to it. Try watching a few videos and get one person to wrap it in a towel with a paw sticking out, whilst distracting the piggy with a carrot whilst the other one clips the nails

Get thee to the Small Furry board!

70 et al will tell you all you need. Pigs are the best!

I tried to take my pigs camping

Couldn't get them in in the end. Neighbour's kids earned a tenner each to have them.

They poop everywhere. We spent $1350 on vet bills for a pig who died a week later. They are always hungry.

They are adorable.

Uterus

We take our piggies on holiday in fact Sadie is a Norfolk pig due to this. We stay at my DB's and so have a set up their similar to home.

We once had to go to Durham for the day and asked our neighbour's children if they'd feed and visit our girls for us. They often visit them, handle them etc.
DH wrote out a lovely schedule from the piggies outlining their needs.
What we didn't realise was there was to be a birthday party next door. Our pigs became part of this as an impromptu petty zoo (which they loved). As you can imagine, this went down really well and a few weeks later, a party invite for the pair of them came through our door. My piggies have a better social life than I do.
Children in the close often visit with dandelions and stay for a cuddle.
When our wonderful, gentle Mollie died, I made DH go and tell them. I thought at one point we'd have to have a state funeral.
When our lawn is poor or eaten to the roots! DH is often seen picking grass from our local park. He is known as Sadie's dad the guinea pigman 😃
We also have a Ness, but Sadie is absolutely devoted to DH and barely gives me the time of day.

My friend has two boys and they fell out - after several vets trips, they now have a cage each and don't get to socialise together unsupervised.

DD (28!) has 2 and this happened after they hit puberty. They were such good friends earlier. We'd had GPs when DCs were small and had no experience of it before.

our piggies have a holiday home, they go and stay on my friends farm. If they are good she puts their run in the carrot field and they eat all the leaves from the top

They live in the boot room there and climb in and out of the boots and hide much to the delight of her children. I think they like holidays better than home