I want Guinea Pigs, talk me out of it! Tell me the down sides!

[Suddengeekgirl]

I had guinea pigs as a kid. I loved them!

I am suddenly overcome with the urge to get some for me and the dc (nearly 5&3). Dh would hate them though - I think he's secretly scared if their claws.

Please talk me out of it. Tell me all the down sides that I have forgotten! :)

The boars are known as "My Good Children" in the supermarket because they eat loads of veg

DD is known as The She Devil when she ate the last yellow pepper (the boars won't eat green pepper)

There's always the option of hairless guineas but I don't fancy the thought of them TBH.

If you really want a pet, could you feed the birds? I have a bird table and now have a huge feathery family, some of whom sit on the wall and shout at me through the kitchen window if the feeders are empty. I also have several squirrels - some are named and a couple of toads. Oh and a pheasant called round today which was odd.

You can get weirdly attached to the wildlife.

I think you're right not to get any GP's re allergies/asthma. Even though my GP's don't raise a reaction in any of us, the hay makes both myself and dd sneezey and itchy. Fortunately it's only if we touch it though, so ds is on permanent hay duty.

Late to this thread so the moment may have passed but here are a couple more downsides:

1. It is v cold going outside at night in dark to give them their tea and shove more hay in their bedroom

2. If you get a long haired one you will be constantly having to cut hair, bath it, detangle it and if you don't you will have to look guiltily at your GP's bum hair all stuck together with god knows what yucky stuff

But hey - the upsides are great - they will love you with a passion provides you are always equipped with something to eat and even if you aren't they will love you anyway just in case

Even short haired aren't immune to yucky stuff agnesf
GP1 (smooth) has Boar Glue in various areas. DD picks if off his belly, behind his ear, his nose, his brother when he was alive .

DD and I cuddled GP1 and GP3 on her bed last night.
GP1 peed on her -little git- but , hey, at least it wasn't on me

I think having to pick boar glue off should have been at the top of the list of down sides!

Get a rabbit instead, they are easily house-trained, and will poo and wee tidily in a litter tray.

Tidy litterbox habits and pee
Long ears
Wriggly noses
Little fluffy tails
Binkying

None of these can compensate for the fact you can't tuck a rabbit in your jumper for a cuddle but you can with guineas (or 2 guineas in a jumper for my DD)
And they like to be taken to the fridge for a looksie

Rabbits like cuddles too! Ours thinks she's a lap cat - she jumps onto our laps while we're watching telly and rolls over to have her tummy rubbed.

I may be biased, because the only guinea pigs we've ever looked after refused to be handled at all. They used to squeal and run for cover if we so much as dared to look at them for too long. Most disappointing.

I've never had rabbits (my long time love of guineas started with looking after the school guinea for a weekend when I was 8).
Even before my DD wanted the pigs I used to say to DH "We should get a couple of guinea-pigs" when I was putting the veg trimmings in the compost heap.
My trolley now is full of things they like and I've just put a pan of soup on to use up the four celery cast-offs. They boys like the leaves but not the stalks

My NDN thinks GPs are boring and ugly (they had a rabbit and hamsters) , their character is completely different to many other creatures (lazy , greedy and just the right side of dim, what's not to love )

DDs older boy strides round thinking he's some sort of "Suburban Majestic Mini Lion" all rumblestrutt and saggy chins (golden mane and impressive swagger he thinks)
Piglet is like a little fluffy penguin chick

70 - you can tuck rabbits in your jumper for snuggles. My previous bun spent every evening doing this and doled out kisses to the whole family (she hated everyone else though). Current Bun is not cuddly unfortunately but what he lacks in cuddles he makes up for in entertainment and tidiness.

Only one of my GP's is cuddly - Smoothpig hates being caught but loves a snuggle and purrs when he is stroked. Scruffy is easy to catch but won't sit still and never shuts up.

We are currently considering getting guinea pigs or a rabbit. I have had both when young but can't really remember much about the guinea pig.

I have seen lots of people mention that gps poo and wee a lot is this considerably more then a rabbit? my rabbit had free run of the garden and house during the day and lived in hutch at night and I can't really remember him pooing or wearing in the house apart from the odd occasion so that is what I would prefer.

My mum has told me our gp didn't like being picked up or cuddled and our rabbit didn't like being picked up but if you sat on the floor he would hop onto your knee. Our rabbit was quite like a dog though and would come when you called him but a lot of people's experience seems to be that rabbits are not as friendly?

I can get a wheezy chest as I had asthma as a child but I outgrew it so also interested with regards to if gp are more allergenic then rabbits?

There seems to be no end to the amount of poo that comes out of a GP and my veg bills have increased dramatically. My 2 live indoors in a large cage in the utility. In the summer they go out into their run which I move around so they can mow all the lawn. In winter I have an indoor run for them which I set up in the kitchen so they can run (in theory - in practice they sleep). They are messy and greedy but very funny and love cuddles and interaction.

My bun is an indoor boy. We have an only bun but you should really have 2 (like pigs). He's litter trained and only pops/weed in his litter tray which makes cleaning him out very easy. All rabbits can be litter trained especially if they are neutered. They also need vaccinations annually. They are very chewy - you need to protect cables, carpets etc. they can be trained very well and learn some commands - my previous girl understood a lot of words and hand signals.

The GPs are probably easier pets overall and funny to watch. The rabbit needs more of my time and company but less cleaning out.

one handed typing, i've got gp3 here

the pooh - omg

we've had horrendous weather so the boars have been inside wed/thurs day and night.
so of course their run cannot go more than one day without cleaning, the amount of waste these chaps release......

and yes, empty fridge syndrome.
i had to cut grass yesterday because the fridge looked nekkid...which meant they had early morning grass breakfast then vegetable brunch when i got back from sainsburys.
which explains the pooh

Well went to local pet shop to have a look this morning and it left me really chesty. I do get hayfever so when I am at home with only one hutch worth of hay out will I be better?

Or will this mean its a no to the pet.

I love our guinea pigs they are a bind and the dd's soon got bored of them. Which means its me that feeds them and changes water, cleans them out and plays with them.

We got them at the wrong time of the year and they currently live in our hallway as they couldn't go outside. We will be buying a hutch in the next month or o and putting them outside in the day and building up to them staying outside except when its freezing.

We have a large run for them and we tent peg it down as we have two dogs, funnily enough the one we thought wouldn't be interested is the one that this to get at them if he's about, the Labrador, the terrier just stares at them.

I'd say on a weekly basis they cost more to feed than the dogs, the dogs have one bag of food between the two of them (due to allergies only dog food lab can eat is sainsburys or aldis own), but the guinea pigs food is £8 for a sack which doesn't last as long as you'd think, and plenty of fruit and veg each day, plus fresh hay daily and then sawdust twice a week to be cleaned out.

we just have the pets at home large in door hutch as we have the dogs we can't have anything that they might escape from, as I can't imagine the look on the dd's face if the dogs did get hold of them.

We have been recommended by so many people to get guinea pigs for younger dc rather than rabbits, even by rabbit owners. ours were 6 month old boars from the rescue part at pets at home, rather imaginatively called bubbles and squeak.

Vicki when you get a new hutch for your boys Go Large - as big as you can get.
One of the main problems with boars (especially adolescent boars) is they need room - space to be 'alone' but with the company of their cagemate.
If they get in each others faces, they then have the option to stomp off.
(See how many boar pairs are on Gumtree about the age they get mature and fighty )

It's that your DD lost interest in them, my DD worships her boys (we had one year old brothers, they originally belonged to DD and DS but DS was meh so I took over GP2 ).
When GP2 died we got our GP3 (now about 8 months old) as a baby piglet.

Alot of their expense is their food, they put it away
And their hay .

My friends dad builds cages for a hobby (he used to own a pet shop until retirement) so he's going to build us one on legs away from the dogs so at least when they are in the hutch they will be out of the way. They will be in the run any dry day and able to be unbothered as the dogs will be indoors while I'm at work.

I was very disappointed that the dd's lost interest. I've just cleaned them out and had a cuddle lots of squeaks and eating carrots and baby corn out of my hand.

I can't think of any downsides. They are perfect pets in my opinion. Go for it! ;-)

We love our guinea pigs, BUT, they are costing us a fortune at the moment.

GP 1 had a skin infection on its ear which the vet diagnosed as ringworm - no idea how the GP picked it up, as we had had them for 2 months before it developed.

We were prescribed cream and shampoo so we had to apply the cream twice a day, and shampoo both pigs once a week.

A month later, GP2 developed a really nasty skin infection just below its eye and has scratched away all the skin and hair . The vet thought it was a bacterial infection and prescribed us a different type of cream. After 4 days, the skin was just as manky and sore so we went back to the vet again, saw a different one and he thinks it might be a ringworm again, even though the other GP is completely clear of ringworm! So, different cream again, and different shampoo.

Nearly £150 of vets bills since we got them in November. They must be the most expensive GPs in history!