Can we leave guinea pigs for 3 days?

[looseleaf]

We'd leave masses of food, hay and an extra bottle of water not that they'd drink it all. But do you think this is too long? No neighbours will be around either sadly and I don't want to take them to Wales and back!

That's too long. Three nights leaves a lot of time for things to go wrong eg water bottle drips away to empty, food gets knocked over and soiled.

Do you have a friend who would pop in every day to feed them and check on them?

I would not leave mine for more than a day to be honest. The cage would smell, the water would be stale.

Is there no one who you could take them to for the duration?

You could probably find a pet sitter who would come in daily (for a fee). If there are none listed localy, you can always try dog walking services - that's how we found our cat sitter.

Hi 8Looseleaf - I'm afraid I would agree with the others on here - 3 days is a very long time for guineas, they need daily attention, hay changing, water filling etc etc and I personally would be worrying about what was going on. Where do you live? I am in Hants and I would willingly sit them for you, so let us know where you are - all you need is someone keeping their eye on them, bringing them fresh fruit and veg etc, is there a local teenager who might be able to help? If not try local cattery/kennels etc who may be able to recommend someone to help you. PS there is someone on these threads who takes her guineas everywhere with her on holiday, we used to ( but not in posh hotels like Kritiq's* gang!)

Oh thank you kind people. This is really helpful and I will make sure we work something out then.
Guineapiglet I'm so touched by your offer of help but we're in central London. Thank you though!
Am going to try and buy an indoor cage tomorrow and bring them. They've been to Scotland and back twice but we have a spare hutch and run there !

looseleaf yes 3 days is too long I'm afraid.
Their food won't last (even if there's plenty it will be limp and nasty).
And the temperature is fluctuating so much (my boys shed was 25c last week, I have a window I can open for them-mesh and bar lined for Fox/Fly safety)

GP health can deteriorate so quickly too. Even if they don't seem to do much (I wonder what my lardy boars get up to-except eat and pooh) they might have an injury or a fight especially over food.

Get a travel cage and a large cheapie paddling pool then they can have some space when you get there.

One of ours died suddenly the other week: fine one day, bit off colour the next, died at the vets the following day.

If I'd come home to a cage of Dead Pig my daughter would never, ever have forgiven us, even though the outcome would probably have been the same regardless

Don't panic, we bought the biggest indoor cage (1 metre I think) that filled our whole car boot and suitcases had to go by our legs! Guinea pigs have had lots of fresh dandelion leaves, brocolli and snuffled about on the grass in the sun so are enjoying Wales! DH wasn't thrilled as buying the cage from Gumtree ended up adding 1.5hrs to our journey, whoops.
Tingadingle sorry about yours dying