Any advise on keeping guinea pigs? Is indoor or outdoors best and do they make good first family pets?

[sails]

Also my mum said they are nocturnal is that true? Any guinea pig advise gratefully received my dc are 3 and 5 and would love a guinea pig!

Rabbits arent all bad...well the ones we had as kids were actually ,they were bloody evil, but I have one here sat on my lap as I type...he is very sweet, but only about nine weeks old Though he does have the look of something you might find in a skip - very scruffy!!

I kept mine outdoors in the summer and in a shed or garage during the winter where they were warmer and out of the wind.
Lovely cheery pets, lots of fun and great noises!

They don't need a huge cage inside as they tend to get lots of runs around the floor. You do need to clean them out frequently in a smaller cage though. Ours are in one like this over winter

No I dont have the rabbits hutch and run as they died 6 and 7 years ago (I had 2.) It was a big hutch dh's uncle keeps rabbits and always has them in such tiny hutches and never puts them in runs and that seems so cruel to me.

Our rabbits are brilliant geraldine but they can be really really tricky.

GPs are lovely and I was never bitten. Long-haired ones take a lot of grooming so I'd rec. short-haired ones.

mine are in fairly smallish cages indoors (one is 3 ft I think, the others 4ft) and I try to let them run round the kitchen or living room as much as is practical. it's a trade off really between being warm and having lots of running round time. now they have pretty much free rein of the garden so they get to make up for it the rest of the year.

Sails, the g pigs we are looking after have a smaller cage than that (about 3foot) it seems to small to me - we have borrowed a big run thing for the garden and they seem desperate to get in that everyday.

I will say they do seem like good child friendly pets - I am not normally an animal person and was worried about looking after them, but they seem good natured and don't seem to scratch or bite.

They're not nocturnal.

I had them for 30 years and they always had a hutch in the house / garage / shed for overnight or cold days then a run with hutch attached in the garden for day time.

They are fairly straightforward pets. Obviously they need cleaning out 2/3 times a week and their nails trimmed. A pair is best as they get lonely on their own.

They like cuddles and mine would happily settle on my lap in the evening, preferably with some cucumber.

If you want a book on them see if your library has any of the Peter Gurney piggie books as he knew everything about them. And if you are anywhere near cambridge, the cambridge cavy trust (CCT) are amazing if you get an ill piggie.

I agree, they can be, I expect this one to turn as he gets older
anyway sorry, OP, for hijack, I have a friend who has guinea pigs and they are really sweet pets, they've had loads of fun with them.

It is all down to their teenage years I think geraldine - keep cuddling and you should be ok.

thanks, Carrots, will do

Carrotsandcelery - as the fountain of all g pig knowledge - do you know if it's possible to overfeed them? And if we keep giving then fruit and veg when they go back to school and only get a few apples and carrots will they go on hunger strike and refuse to eat the dry food? Dp thinks we have spoilt them and they won't want to go back!

They are lovely pets :)

Your best bet is to get two baby girls (boys can fight and a boy and a girl will have FAR too much fun!! ).

They do need a big indoor cage (as others have said), unless you have somewhere safe to let them run around most days (somewhere that they can't get behind the fridge etc!) and clearly isn't carpeted.

Lots of people will say you can keep them outside all year, but it's really not fair on them - some will live, but many will die.

You need to use hay (not straw or paper) or fleece/towels in their cage. The towels/fleece are great because you don't get the hay traipsed through the house and you don't get the hay smell in the house - but I hated washing them in the same machine as our clothes and doing a rinse between their stuff and ours was a bit environmentally unfriendly and a faff!

There are quite a few things they can't eat - which take you by suprise so you need to check this out carefully.

It is possible to 'toilet train' SOME of them, but it's bloody hard work and not always successful.

If you get them, leave them be for two or three days, just talk to them a bit and feed them - after that you need to handle them a lot for them to become human happy :)

The fleece pouches are really good because their nails are very scratchy. They generally don't bite as such, but don't seem to have good eyesight so tend to nibble on fingers a bit by accident!!

It's great if you can get them from a rescue but we (a friend and I, for her)tried for 6 months, with a radius of 40miles - no luck, so ended up buying from a breeder - we went to her home twice, one by appointment and one 'as we were passing by' she had a lovely set up and offered to have them back anytime if we ever felt unable to keep them for any reason etc and gave us her vets details to check up on her etc.

I personally think your kids are really too small to enjoy them properly as pets and by the time they are old enough the GP's will be older and not so much fun - when they are young they are really playful and jump around, run about a lot... I'd wait if I was you, but if you are buying them for you then go ahead

I guess you could always start with some older really tame ones - then when they have ..umm... gone to greener pastures and the kids are bigger get some babies?!

I love GP's and miss not having them around - but I'm not in a position to have them right now :(

I think you know pretty quickly if you have over fed them on the veg front as it has an unfortunate effect on the other end

Guinea pigs only go on hunger strike if they are ill or if their teeth need checked - they are greedy little things generally.

They can gain weight though but since they are a temporary fixture nancy I think you are fine.

I am not highly knowledgeable btw - there are lots on Mnet who are though so ask away and people will answer.

thanks for the great advise everyone! Have been looking at the rspca website for advise very useful informative advise!