which are better as a first family pet guinea pigs or rabbits?

[chocoholic05]

That's it basically. We have never had a pet since our dc aged 5 and 7 were born. Ww used to have two rabbits ages ago and we have never had guinea pigs. What do we need to consider?

[chocoholic05]

so basically if we went away on the Friday I could feed them etc before we went away ask my parents to pop in on the Sunday and they'd be fine for the Monday when we get back? We'd have to find a better solution for our main August holiday though

[chocoholic05]

my 5 year old said we could take them with us! Well it is my inlaws caravan so I suppose we could

[Floralnomad]

There's loads of places that do small animal boarding ,your local vets will probably know someone or have some adverts for some.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

My hogs are going to Small Animal Boarding in August. I wouldn't want them stuck in their Pighouse for a week and if someone came round to feed them they probably wouldn't be able to catch them in their run (I send DD in)

In May I'm leaving DH in charge while I take the DC away for a couple of days.

I'll leave him a "To Do List" (and DD will phone every day to check up on them)

[oohaveabanana]

Holidays: we have done the following-

• UK holidays - taken them with us! You can get collapsable runs/C&C cages (google them!) are easy to collapse and wok indoors and out
  
• guinea swops - we now have mates with guineas and/or who would like them. Its easy to take the cage round to someone else's house, or give them keys.
  
• for weekends away - yes you can get away with occasional dropping in - if we go away on Fri night & get back on Sunday, we reckon they can manage without us as long as we fuss them at both ends of the trip
  
• guinea boarding - google, or local vets, are your friend. Lots of places, including rescues will do this - it is (imo) often surprisingly expensive. Look out for people who will pop into your house and feed there - they tend to be cheaper - but obv limits your piggies outdoor time. We've done boarding for big holidays before, where we knew they'd be out in a run every (reasonable weather) day.

[chocoholic05]

when we had rabbits predc our neighbours used to pop round if it was just for the weekend and they used to stay in a cattery that took small animals for longer holidays. However we have different neighbours now who aren't as keen on animals and if I remember rightly the cattery was quite expensive. I may have to do more research i think!

[catsdogsandbabies]

From a veterinary point of view guineas every time. Rabbits are lovely but take more work with diet etc to avoid issues. GPS more resilient and suffer less illness (particularly dental disease). As a first pet a couple of female baby GPS are perfect IMO.

[Rockinhippy]

Excuse thread hijack, but I'm very curious about GPs now too - I miss our old Bunny very much, we just couldn't face replacing him after he died as he was just too much a part of our family, but now a couple of years later, we really do miss having a pet living free in our yard, but still not keen to get another rabbit as it means putting up fencing around built in large planters again & we would have to lose a lot of our potted plants that he could reach & destroy & we do like having so much more green & colour out there too, hence why we've decided against another rabbit, but you lot are winning my over with your tales of your GPs, so I'm now wondering...

How are they with cats -can they stand up for themselves & chase a cat off as our rabbit would - (he ended up as great friends with our cat & they would lie & sun themselves together :) )

Can they climb -
I always presumed they can't, but even having kept Rabbits before, I was quite shocked at how high up or buck could get if it meant something to nibble on.

Would they be okay with a small hen loft type cage, you know, a few feet square & up a little ramp for shelter, but no proper cage just free run of a large yard.

Do they like veg left overs as treats ?
The time I miss our rabbit most is when cooking & peeling veg, as I always used to pile up the best scraps for our rabbit & he used to get very excited to see me through the window with them - he would climb up & sit on the windowsill watching & waiting at tea time :)

We did consider hens, but our friend keeps them & I realised I had forgotten how much mess they can make - GPs sound like a possible solution, keeping our 2 cats firmly in mind

Thanks

[FernieB]

chocoholic do your DC have friends who have GP's? If so, you may be able to do a 'pig swap' and look after each others when you go away. We have done that before, but mainly our lads (GP's and Bun) go to a pet hotel in the country! I would say that as first pets, GP's are easier as they are happier to be handled and very easy to please. Rabbits can be more stroppy and do not like being picked up. Having said that, I would find it hard to be without a rabbit - their general grumpy-ness is very appealing to me. All our animals live indoors and the rabbit is cleaner by miles. The pigs need cleaning out every day but I only clean the rabbit's litter tray every day or two and his cage is cleaned out every 10-14 days, but then he is roaming around the house 24/7.

Rockinhippy - I love the sound of your rabbit - they are fantastic. I would be dubious about having free-ranging GP's outside. They lack the physical presence of a rabbit and I don't think they could chase off any prey/cats, although my Scruffypig would certainly have a go . They aren't really climbers and ramps aren't the best idea as they could fall off. I would just be worried that they'd just end up as a meal for your cats.

70 - a few years ago I took the DC away for a week leaving DH in charge of our previous bun. I left him instructions - 5 lines of things to do in the house and 3 pages of instructions on the rabbit.

[guineapiglet]

Hi all - and hi to you Fernie haven't seen you this week!

Lots of great advice about guineas and rabbits, it is hard to chose pets sometimes, they all have their advantages and disadvantages! Guineas are great lawnmowers and green recycling bins! ( As are rabbits - ) but you need more than one, they are happiest in pairs or more. I would never have new guineas in with an established cat