GUINEA PIGS

[cazzybabs]

DD1 WANTS a hamster for Christmas. I had had hamsters when I was child and want something different. I wondered about guinea pigs because I have read they are quite social and make good pets.

But (1) Do you need to have more than 1?

(2) What sort of cage do they need?

(3) Do they live outside? What happens in the winter - do they need a run outside?

thanks

Yes you have to have more than one.

Ours live in this cage:
www.petsathome.com/find/keyword-is-cages/product-is-16909

Ours live inside, they can do either but I don't think GPs cope with cold very well so if outside you have to insulate the hutch or keep them in a shed during winter.

They are lovely pets.

Try gerbils/degus/rats. Same size as a hamster but IMO more entertaining. You will need at least 2 of any of these to keep themselves happy but because of the size you will not need anything anywhere as big as a guinea pig.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about them to offer any other help as the only time i've had GPs is when I had to babysit them on school holidays.

Try this
www.bva-awf.org.uk/pet/buying/guinea.asp
V useful info on other pets too so you can decide. Personally I think guinea pigs are excellent pets for children, but you do need 2.
HTH

That is brilliant..I don't mind having 2 (of the same sex )...I shall look into it further.

i have two boys, however one is younger than the other as got two to start, and one died (broke my blardy heart that did, i was sobbing down the phone at 3am to my mum, she thought DP had died!!),

they are lovely, they make lovely sounds, mine live indoors cos of the cats in this area, other than my two wimps are bloody terrors spirited, and because they scare easily.

my two have never ever bitten me, and with consistant handling now do not mess on us ( they bleat when they want the loo so you can put them down) they also have distinct personalities and will let you hand feed them, they really are rewarding pets, we let ours loose for a run around (however they are bloody quick when they are young so difficult to catch) cleaning them out is relatively easy, and my two eat almost any thing (particulary fussy with apples tho )

Hi Cazzybabs

I'd really recommend gps for young children; we have two. I think they are better than hamsters because they don't generally bite as much and they are not nocturnal, so the dc get to see more of them during the day. With careful handling when you first buy them, they become tame quite quickly and have lovely characters; I'm smitten anyway!!

(1) you don't have to have more than one but personally I think it's less cruel as they are herd animals ... I chose two who were already huddled up together in the pet shop. Two sows are best imo because (a) you don't obviously don't want them breeding and (b) because boars can get a problem with compacted faeces when they get older which you have to er, de-compact by hand(sorry if tmi!)

(2) mine live in our sitting room (!!) in a low-sided plastic bottomed cage which has a hay rack and a water bottle. The cage is open most of the day but they don't seem to want to make the effort to escape!! The cage should be adequately sized for two, but remember it should be easy to clean too, so personally I didn't buy the largest for that reason. In my view it's more important to have an adequately sized, easily cleaned cage where there's lots of stimulating things happening ..; rather than a huge cage that's difficult to clean that's sat in a shed away from activity ...

(3) gps have the same tolerance as us to weather so in the summer ours live out in a wooden ark on the lawn to graze during the day (I bring them in at night because of cats). An outside enclosure should always have a covered area to shelter them from sun/rain/marauding felines! Even now, they go out for an hour or so every day if the weather is OK.

As BeingPatient mentioned, they have very distinct characters: ours sing when we open the fridge and they squeak a warning to us if they need to get back to their cage for a "bathroom break" .

I can't imagine not coming home to a warm, inquisitive gp at the end of the day now ....mine actually falls asleep in my lap whilst I'm watching the telly ...and dd's likes to chase a willow ball around our wooden floor ..

two or more, defo - very social animals. Although my first one was a solo and (s)he was lovely - very person-oriented, until we got another one as company, then less so.

They can freeze to death outside (this happened to a friend of mine - a sudden overnight frost and no more GPs) so if you do keep them outside, bring them in every night, even if just into the garage.

They are absolutely great little animals - I can't wait to get some more. I always had mine indoors in the low plastic tray with clip on wire cage - at least 2 of mine could jump out of their own accord when the wire cage was unclipped, the others were all too fat lazy. (I have had 7 overall, the most I had at one time was 5).

We have 2 boys originally two brothers, but one died after a year so we got another baby and they are lovely.

Ours live outside in a hutch which goes into the garage if it gets too cold, but they spend most of the day in a big run and get bought in when DC's come home from school. They are very much loved by Dc's and are very affectionate now.

thanks for all the advice...sorry to ask so many stupid questions but I need to think carefully about it. how much time out of their cage would they need?

We give our 2 piggies an hour roaming free in the living room every day. Keep an eye on them cos they will poo like anything!

I agree with Ruby though. Do not buy your pigs from Pets at home. They are rubbish at sexing, and I found half a mouse in their hay. Was yuk.
Piggies are just the best. We get them out when the cats' outside. They squeal and squeak and are just so friendly. And they will eat all your peelings from dinner, so great at recycling too.
They have fresh hay every day and we clean them out every 4 days or so, as they do smell.

I found that piggies are much less effort than our old hamster. And they don't bite. They nuzzle into your shoulder and give you a bit of a headbutt if they need anything...but I wouldn't change it for the world...all bar the cat's hostility maybe...

our spend all day in the run outside and come in when dc's come home for school for petting and cuddling. They are brilliant lawn mowers and will eat a huge patch of grass a day.
Our Bruno (blonde one on my profile) is so lovely and affectionate and will run into dd's lap when she is sitting on the floor.
Muffin our peruvian came from a breeder as we had to get a baby when Rollo died. He is gorgeous but doesn't quite have the personality of the other two, don't know if it's because he is a pure breed or not.

Crazzybabs - I have recently got gp's too! My fave website on gps is

this one

We have got a cubes and correx 2 by 4 grid cage for our two big boys! (as shown in the link above - cost £36 half what a nero 4 costs and more spacious) You can buy the grids from b&q, correx from a signmakers - I felt bizarrely proud when I had finished creating ours You can also use the grids to make an indoor playpen or to cordon off bits of your house.

They love it as they have got so much room to play and chase each other about. They have time out on the floor too but I like the fact that when they are in the cage they have still got plenty of room. plus they are indoors so I can sort them out without freezing!!!

May I also make my third plug of the evening for rescue centres if at all possible eg
45 piggies

Christywisty - Do you also put your car in the garage with the gp's? Car fumes can kill them - I just wanted to make sure that you knew

HTH

Yurtgirl...Was it expensive to make? The cage we have for our 2 seems a bit small, so would love to make one of these to give them more room.

Doh! you said how much in your post, so was it difficult to make?

we have 2 girls and are fab - we keep ours outside and they faired fine over winter last year outside too. They have never bitten our dc and make lovely squeaky noises at me when they hear the food bag rattle.

Pucca - not at all expensive - esp when you think a new nero 4 is £75

A Pack of 24 grids from b&q £23.50
A sheet of correx 8ft by 4ft

An evening of being careful with a stanley knife and a tapemeasure, ruler etc - the instructions on the cavycages site are very clear

Also that site has a fab forum and photo section with literally hundreds of pictures of different setups!!!!! The advice about keeping gp's is really good too - the best on the web imo

Not difficult as such

But yes I did swear a few times when I realised I had cut through and not just scored

But some silver gaffer tape from b&q looks quite fancy covering up my mistakes - you need some tape to fasten the sides anyway

Also I scored the base a bit too big initially, cue more swearing, but I just rescored it and put gaffer tape over the mistakes

Our car has never been in the garage, no room
Our tortoise hibernates in there in the winter as well.

Hi, does anyone have any experience in joining another female guinea pig with two other female adults? I have sectioned off a bit of the hutch for the new guinea pig Poppy to live in at the moment,(they can smell her and sniff eachothers noses through the bars but not actually get to her) so Bubbles and Roxy can get used to her. They're all fine out on the floor on bed, but just not together in the hutch.

Oh, and bye the way just comenting on the first message at the top of the page, a guinea pig should have another companion preferably in a group of three or four, as two could fight (especially males)and then they both have no one to play with exept someone they don't like. Get a two tier hutch so that all the guinea pigs can keep themselves amused by going from one floor to another, and it's best to keep a guinea pig indoors as outside in the winter, some guinea pigs fur is too short and they can freeze, and in the winter they can overheat and have a heat stroke or something like that.

Ps: Does anyone know a farmer that can supply hay?

Kait x

Summer I ment Lol

I would love a guinea pig or two but terrier rules them out However I have had gps and rats in the past and I think rats are better for children,they are more interactive than gps and much more intelligent.No cute squealing though.

And Pets at Home are NOT bad at sexing the guinea pigs i've got three females from there and there fine. I agree with PurpleOne on the hay though, you should have taken it back and complained about it.

If you have more than one (which you should do) although everyone says females are great together, some of them are not! Two of my females will fight. (Not proper fighter like killing eachother) but just a push out the way, and then if the agouti gets close to the american guinea pig the american guinea pig will start to squeal (even through the agouti is doing no harm.) Some days I have no problems but, one night I heard them squealing and squabling like mad so luckily I had another cage, that I put the american guinea pig in (I just picked the guinea pig easiest to get.)

Males however, if oyu see them fighting you should get them seperated straight away, or one of them could end up seriously injured or killed.