A couple of questions about Guinea Pigs.

[coldwater1]

I am thinking of buying a couple of Guinea Pigs as much for me as my kids. Although my eldest who is 12 has been on and on at me to buy them for years since our cute little rabbit died.

A couple of things have stopped me, the main one being i have never owned one so don't know what they require in terms of housing and food. I have had cats, dogs, hamsters, fish and rabbits but never a guinea pig.

Can someone please tell me if they are better kept indoors or out, or a mixture? Indoors through winter but out in summer? What do they use as bedding, sawdust, hay or straw? What do they eat? I know you can buy the ready mix stuff and they can eat fresh veg but how much of each everyday? What veg to avoid? Are females better for children or does it not matter? If they are kept as indoor pets do they make noise at night? I remember our hamsters being very noisy at night. Lol anything else i should think about before making a decision?

I got my piggies from a rescue centre. They live outside all year round. The rescue centre told me that as long as they are acclimatiised they will be fine ( ie dont put a piggie from an indoor shop outside in November. Our piggies have been with us 3 years, .. they have a nice warm hutch with plenty of hay and we let them out in a run whenever we can.. we do sometimes put a blanket over the front of the cage when it is really icy, but they have been fine.

I found the water bottle kept turning green so invested in a heavy bowl that they cant tip over!

We have had our two girls for about a year. They are dd2's and she adores them in fact we all love them. We keep ours indoors in a large cage because I think it can be too cold to let them go outside.

They are very easy to take care of but I would advise getting a book which explains what they can eat. They are quite fragile and if they eat one wrong thing they can die. So you do need to be careful.

Oh and ours are long haired and we have to trim their fur a lot otherwise it gets all messy.

And of course, they need lots of hay. We get Oxbow Timothy hay for ours - I buy it from amazon. It is a lovely green colour.

Mine were in the shed / garage / house overnight. And always popped outside in the day for a some fresh air and a run around, the outside hutch and run was quite snug so they could keep warm even on a cold day.

I miss having piggies . I'll be getting more when we finally move house.

If you look at my profile pics there is a photo of the old outdoor run. The hutch had a cosy and dry inner room stuffed with hay and they could hide underneath on hot days.

They had a hard life .

lottie OP has a list of suitable fruit and veg.