Guinea pig advice for a new owner!

[Adayinthelife]

I got my two beautiful baby guinea pigs on Friday evening. They have an indoor cage to share, toys, a house to hide in, a tube, food pellets, hay, fresh veg and water. So I think I have everything covered there.
They also have a pen we have been putting them in, and we've put cereal boxes with the ends cut off in there (as well as their house, tube etc) for them to hide in, which they seem to live.

I've never had guinea pigs before though, only ever cats and dogs, so I just want to know we are doing everything right! It's so hard to gage what they like and don't like by their squeaks as we're not used to them, so any advice would be really, really appreciate. So...what do I need to know as a new guinea pig owner? :)

Welcome to you and your pigs. Sounds like they have landed on their paws and are living a luxury life.

Are they boys or girls? Boys can go through a terrible teen stage when they bicker about who's top pig. It can be unnerving to watch but they usually sort it themselves.

They love a paper carrier bag (cut the handles off) with hay inside. This provides them with hours of fun. Cereal boxes or any box are also wonderful to pigs.

Enjoy them.

at baby guinea-pigs , they are lovely and once they've got their bearings you'll be treated to some popcorning, tearing about and a variety of wheeks, squeaks and purrs .

Food - there's a Food Thread on here. You'll find out what they like but there's some things they should only have limited amounts of. Mine trough carrots with leaves but not bothered by regular carrots.
Rocket, watercress and spinach salad (only small amounts) but don't like lambs lettuce

You can build a guinea village with boxes and bags that are easy to replace. Plastic tunnels . It's good to move things round and keep them entertained.

Have a search on YouTube for some guinea-pig sounds and what they mean. They have a good vocal range, I'm hoping that one/both of my sows is a Singing Guinea-pig ( it sounds like a bird song) when they come inside for winter.

Good Luck catching them - our little girl is easiest to catch if we leave her till last (we have three) she'll run into a tunnel so much less stressful all round.

Thanks for the advice so far! :)
They are squeaking away to each other in their cage this morning - I assume this means they are happy?
We've been treated to some lovely popcorning from one of them the last 2 days! We have a cat, and we have been putting the guinea's in a pen for a number of hours in the afternoon/evening, which they seem to love. The cat comes in and out as she pleases, and when she's in, she sits near the cage watching them (supervised by us at all times of course). One of the gunineas appears to get very, very excited when they cat sits near them, and just starts squeaking and popcorning around the place, it's so funny :)

They are letting us stroke them a bit more often, when holding one of them the other day though she weed all over me :( We are holding them in a towel and they sort of burrow down into it, and don't seem to want to poke their head out or want strokes - is this normal?

We are feeding them their pellets, hay etc, but we are also cutting up some veg for them daily - is this the right thing to do? Or should it only be every few days?

Also - is it normal for them to poo LOADS??

Oh, and they are girls btw!

They will eat as much veg as you provide and still think it's not enough . Every day with the veg - a variety is ideal but they do tend to have favourites. Mine like parsley, basil, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, kale, peppers, celery, grapes, apple and melon rind. Only give small amounts of fruit. I give a bit of parsley in the morning and then a bit of cuc later on and then they get a few more bits at bedtime.

Mine have a plate of breakfast and a plate of supper veg.
Fresh water, pellets and hay at night (three very greedy adult pigs, eat for Britain)

And YY the pooh We don't really notice how much they produce until they go out in their run, every day their tunnel is full of guinea-poo

I aim to give 5-7 different veg each meal. Tonight they have : green thin beans, sweetcorn,red topped gem lettuce,orange pepper, parsley,pak choi.

If it's a "What's in the fridge" night, they have a "Scruffy Tea" - cucumber,kale,green pepper (the last one to get eaten) celery, whatever herbs we have, romaine,rocket (which I always have for me). They give me a look.

(Had a trip to Tesco tonight, essential pig-stock purchasing)

At Scruffy tea! Should explain to new pig mums that this refers to my Scruffy pig who only eats green veg and shuns all other colours (the list in my previous post is really Smooth pigs diet )

Scruffy tea - I love it!
Thanks for all the ideas for veg! So far we've only given them carrots, brocolli, lettuce and cucumber...so we will get a bit more adventurous!

Good to know mine aren't the only one's that poo loads! Mine go in their tunnel lots too - in the early days they used to wee in it too.....urgh it was rank to clean out! The last three days it's just been poo though, but when we tip it up it's like cos it's unbelievable how much there is - we were worried there was something wrong! Lol

They need to poo loads to make room for more food to go in the other end .

BTW mine also like an occasional sprig of lavender and they smell lovely after.

Ooo lavender? I'd have never thought of that!
How do I get my gps to enjoy cuddle time? I wrap them in a towel and the just burrow down into it. I try stroking them, and they let me, but don't come out of the towel....

Aday it's just a matter of time really.
When we got our sows in July (they were Rescue adults) I had to literally clamp GP5 down to my lap or stomach. If I let her near my shoulder she'd be up behind my neck. If I took my hand off her back, she'd try to escape .
She has settled down ALOT, we've had them now 3 months. But she's the most uncatchable hog I've ever met.
If there's a loud noise, even someone sneezing, she'll get a fright.
She's a lovely little piggie, but unlike the lardy boar and the lardy other sow, she just shows that they are prey animals. And she's a ruby eyed Himalayan so I question her eyesight.

I used to bodywrap her in a towel. My DH won't hold her , though he's fine with GP3/GP4.
My DD has fallen in love with her but she's mine but has her work cut out with the other two.

More IN = More OUT

I use a confetti cut shredder for pig safe paper - it cuts so tiny , unlike the ones that do the long strands.
All the paper ends up powderpuff soft (the Holiday Home our pigs go to uses paper shreddings too), it's softer than hay.

But yes , it gets flipping everywhere

Errrrmmm Pigtures adayinthelife

Taps foot

Any shredded paper can cut their little feet.

We used sixty billion different things fleece in the bottom of their indoor cages for a while, which was nice :) However, I wouldn't wash them with anything else, didn't want them hanging around and felt I needed to run an empty cycle through the machine after - I decided it was too much like hard work bad for the environment and went back to hay messy, smelly stuff

Here they are! :)

Ahhh they are scrummy
The piggie at the back looks like a long haired (start brushing her to get her used to it)
The one at the front looks like she's wearing a cardigan, skirt and nappy !

Enjoy them.

Oh they are adorable :) - I miss having Guinea Pigs :(

Thanks for sharing.

Ooo I didn't realise she would need to be brushed - told you I didn't know anything!
we bought another pen today, and attached it to the other one so it's now twice the size. They are racing around, like properly sprinting, running in and out of the tunnel, popcorning, squeaking away to each other, properly mental! It's hilarious!

How do you all keep up with the constant wee and poo?!
I hope we're doing the right things....our set up is that they have a cage, and in the cage there's sawdust for the flooring, then hay, food etc.
Then as I said we've had a pen, which we've extended to make twice the size. We put towels down on the floor in this pen, to protect the carpet. They were weeing through that, so we bought a waterproof mattress protector today to put underneath the towels. It seems to be doing the job (ie protecting the carpet), but the towels have soaking wet spots on them today! Loads of poo (as usual), but the wee is just crazy.
They have also been weeing in their tunnels. One is made out of cardboard stuff so that wipes clean with a baby wipe. The other tunnel is an expandable one (which they love, so don't want to get rid of), and they wee and poo in it. A lot. Some days are worse than others. But today they weed in it, then had been sat in it (urgh!). So we had to take the tunnel out and wash it (it gets washed daily), and we have these pet wipe things for them, and had to wipe their tummies cos they were soaked. The fluffy guinea, on her white bits on her tummy - it's stained yellow, even after these wipes.
I guess my question is - is all this normal?! Are we doing the right things? Are we doing it right by having towels down on the pen...we can't put sawdust down cos of it being carpet, and cleaning it away every day. I just panic when I see their tummies so wet, because I had a hamster who died of suspected wet tail when I was a child. Although I know guineas can't get this, I'm just worrying I guess!

They are walking pooh/pee machines. What goes in comes out.
Our GP1 (boar) used to 'mark' the cage when he went in, even if he'd had a pee, he still had a few drops tucked away, but usually he held it to do a big pee which his cagemate then walked through

Sawdust, like shavings isn't recommended for pigs. It's too dusty and can irritate their eyes and breathing (some wood products have a really strong smell)

When you wash their towels, use something as bland as possible (I use an unscented Ecover liquid or one of those wash-ball things with the little stones in it)

We use newspaper and hay outside in the Pighouse ( with cardboard and Ecobale as the base layer)

Mine haven't come indoors yet- I need to clear my DDs tat from the little room- but I'll give them a fleece on puppypads (anchored down so they can't chew the pads) I can put their run on the top of the fleece for safety. Their hay in a rack. A couple of towels in boxes to sleep in.
They'll go out in the daytime (I put a heater in their Pighouse) because IMO they need to do pig things like rummage through hay and have daylight.
Mine have their bedding changed daily (3 adults, alot of pee/pooh )

I was thinking today (cleaning out the Pighouse ) that no wonder laboratory animals live in plastic boxes with wire floors. Poor little sods

Ooh, my indoor cage is a pen in the bedroom which has carpet. We put a tarpaulin down, then cardboard, puppy pads and paper then their towels or fleeces.
Last year I had two boars (one young,one older)
Previous years , the original boar brothers who did not like the indoor cage (it's 4'x2')
I got a run assembled from panels to make it 5'x3' and-a-bit-extra,

Now we have three (boar + 2 sows) I have some C&C type panels so I need to decide the dimensions and what I can build.

Ahhh ok, we went to a pet shop and asked them what we should do for bedding in the cage, and sawdust was what they recommended. We were given two different types of hay when we bought their cage - I think one of them is like a beddingy type hay. Should I used that aswell? (The other type was the one they're eating)

I wouldn't want to use towels in their cage (when we're at work/sleeping, when at home they'll be in the pen), cos it'll just be way too much washing! So perhaps I need to find an alternative, like trying that other hay for cage bedding.

I'm just worried that they wee in their tunnels and stuff and get covered on their little tummies :(

Fleeces do wash easier that is true , and the advantage is they 'wick' so the fluid goes through (so you need something absorbant underneath)
You need to get everyone to donate their newspapers to you

Hay is usually Timothy or Meadow, you can get Alfalfa for piglets (but not suitable for adults unless they are pg or nursing, too much calcium)

I have given naice hay in a rack but mine either ignored it or pulled it onto the floor. I buy big bags from The Range or Jollys (and ReadiGras from Jolleys). I bought some fresh bale hay last year, that was nice but very seeded.(GP1 got a seed in his eye, daft article)

Our GP2 and GP3 seemed to delight in being covered in GP1 wee < vom.
You could put folded newspaper in their run to absorb , then throw it out when it gets mucky?

Petshops seem to favour shavings and sawdust for bedding , it does look 'proper' and makes the animals smell lovely, but not good for them.

Some of the equine bedding is ok (alot isn't though) . Megazorb is recommended. I'm using a chopped cardboard in our Pigs House at the moment.
I did use a Small Animal Friendly cat litter - the soiled bits scoop out easily. I don't think the binmen were pleased when I emptied the whole cage, weighs a ton !