New Guinea pig owners

[Spotsbeforemyeyes]

We bought 3 lovely pigs from PAH last weekend. They're very nervous. We were told they're about 16 weeks old.
Dd's have held them once, I've held them every other day since day 2.

How long and what do we have to do to help them be less terrified of us and friendly?

We're giving them fresh fruit and veg twice a day and nuggets once. Is this ok?

Oh my, just googled. How cute is that? 😍😍

Aww your piggies are so gorgeous. I adore guinea pigs! I’ve had quite a few over the year, but sadly not at the moment.

They will need a much bigger cage/run soon. That one is fine whilst they are settling in, but they will need lots of room to run around and hide etc..... We had a little summer house (10’ x 12’) which we lined with lino all over the floor and partly up the walls. We then made two extra doors covered in chicken wire, so we could have the main doors open for air in the warm weather, but the wire kept them safe. We also had a large hutch inside the summer house, so I could lock them in there safely at night. In the very cold winter months, I brought them inside the house. I also had a large run for the garden, with a little shelter inside, so they could graze as much as possible. They love grass! Their fave treats were dandylion leaves, tomatoes and cucumbers. They will become tame in time, they will also grow quite big too! Hope you have many happy years with your squeakies!

My guineas have a wooden playhouse (Pighouse) that DH customised for them ( two windows can be lifted out and the space has wooden grids, chicken wire and flymesh secured inside so nothing can get in.
There's a light , and power points for a fan and a heater .

They have had the entire space with a haybox or it has been divided with two hay hutches , depending on who we had .

Inside they have the small bedroom, radiator switched low and there isn't a door on the room.
So they chat to DD and keep us awake

We have C&C set up and the indoor cage (4x2) we decide which pigges are in each.

At the moment , we have our last piggie of the line , she is in the 4x2 , we're keeping her indoors now exceot for when she will go in the garden. I don't think the Pighouse on her own would be fair ,

Our 4x2 has a plastic base which is much tidier (exceot when DD lifts her out , brings half the hay with her) . C&C is more open, no matter how carefully I lined it , they managed to spread their debris far and wide !

At the moment our 4 are in a C&C (insert expletive of your choice, I hate it) cage which is 4 x 2 - it has an upstairs which is 2x2 and two choose to live upstairs and 2 downstairs with occasional swaps.
I just got back from the vegetable shop and the little monkeys have somehow pulled the entire top floor down and it's in bits. I've tried to put it back together but it's a two person job so they are going to have to stay on one floor for the rest of the weekend until somebody can help me put the blasted thing back together. I resent every single penny we spent on it - it falls apart every week.

little gits!

Do you use the fasteners ( circle thingies that you click the edges into?)

I got mine from Costco years ago , that had the circular clips in and I couldn't make them work at all

I ended up using cable ties , it takes a while and you need a load but they're cheap enough online or anywhere that sells car things .
Just need to make sure the end loose bit is snipped off and not going to catch them. (Getting them undone needs sharp scissors or nail cutters)

When I made a 'lid' (when DBro cat visited ) , I over lapped the grids for strength , if I was doing a 2nd floor , I'd put a sturdy box or something underneath it.

How the Devil did they manage to collapse it? Were they dancing about with excitement at the veg or are they maybe needing Cavy Boot Camp?

I have no idea what the little gits were doing. It's really windy so perhaps they heard something which sounded like the Vegetable Bag as that gets them climbing up the walls. We use the circle things, curse them, and lots of cable ties. I've just tried twice to put it together and was getting somewhere when it all just collapsed again.

Picture, if you will, an increasingly stressed woman with GPs ignoring the carrots at the far end of the cage and trying to put together the cage again with guinea pigs sitting on her feet and running round her ankles amid much excited squeaking. I've just given up for now.

On the plus side it meant I could catch GP8 for a cuddle because he couldn't hide under the roof.

Get a c and c cage, for 3 boars you’ll need at least a 6x2 otherwise they will fight. Some thumping about and shows of dominance are normal but if they draw blood you will need to separate them - easy to do with a c and c cage as you can add a barrier between two sides.

We have a piggy who fought with everyone- to the point of trying to kill them. (We’ve had a lot of pigs and he’s the only one I’ve ever known like it!) He is known as the “beast from the east” (we live in Norfolk). We gave up trying to pair him with anyone and he seems happier on his own - he lives in a very large 160cm cage and comes out every evening for a run about.

fairylea when you say comes out. Where do they run around?

What rooms do you have them in?

That size of cage ain’t enough for one pig never mind 3. I can’t believe pets at home sold you 3 boars and a cage size I used to have one Syrian hamster in.

Actually I can

You’re gonna need a LOT of space OP

This is an honest pic of my boys set up. So it’s all mismatched fleece, and hay spills etc. This is in my living room taking up lots of room but I love them more than I love any visitors I could ever have so I don’t care.

The blond blur on the ramp at the back is a photo shy pig. 😂

Mine have hay trays on the top level which minimises mess. Plus they like to sit up there and survey the room!

Keeping them in the living room means they get a lot of fuss and attention, so now they’re affectionate wee beasties!

OvO what is all the paw print fleece for?

Oh and it’s 120cm wide (and an extra 30cm wide at the top to allow space for the ramp) and 180cm long. I’d double it if I could!

I’ve actually said to my poor DH, "If you died there’d be no one to complain if I turned half the room into a guinea pig palace." Thankfully he’s smitten with them too so understands I’m not planning his death but just saying there’s be silver linings...

It’s over a couple of panels making a tent for them. And a bit over te box to make a nice dark space. And some dangly bits for them just to run through for fun.

Ours is all mismatched as well, the boars have cardboard boxes in various states of chewed, wood to chew on, a plastic tunnel, cardboard tunnels and one made of something edible which they don't eat (not sure if they don't know or don't like it). It's messy, they love it. It's in the lounge which is fine by us - they are more important than visitors.
They've also got some plastic balls which make a noise, they seem to like those.

^oh, and wooden chew toys.

SPot, just realised the fleece at the top looks like paw print too. I use fleece on the floor, top and bottom, with towels and newspaper underneath. This gets cleaned daily (poop patrol and general tidying) and then a complete clean (new fleece, paper etc) every 3 days.

Brizzle, mine love the ball with a bell more than any other toy! I really should get more noisy stuff.

I put a fleece on the floor to start with but they just used it to hide under.

They're much messier than I anticipated if I'm honest. I'm not sure where to put them. Our sitting room is not very big and is the only nice room in the house. I'm a home baker so even though we have enough room in the kitchen I'm not sure my EHO would be too thrilled.

They are very messy.

We have ours in the kitchen but it’s a very large kitchen / diner extension so they have one end of it. We have created a run around the cage (if you type guinea pig run into amazon you can see a wire slot together thing that’s about £20- we have two of them put together) so in the evening they come out of their cage and run about. We line the floor with puppy pads and then just sweep up afterwards - that’s where having them in a kitchen with a large floor is useful!

Here - www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0064NOR5G/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ref=plSrch&keywords=guinea+pig+run&dpPl=1&dpID=51MvwDYIwxL&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1549737636&sr=8-3

You can add as many panels together as you want. We put it outside in the summer so they can munch on the grass.

I'm impressed with all these guinea pigs who come out for a run around in the evenings, our lard arses little darlings just sit next to the cage waiting to go back in as they can't get back in themselves.

Oh we have a lazy tubby one who never wants to come out. We still take him out but he sits and watches the others go for it and the minute you pick him up he’s trying to dive back in the cage again!

Short of growing an indoor lawn I'm never going to get ours to do anything other than sit under the sofa or sit next to the cage.

I've sort of got their cage back together - I've got the top on now so they can go upstairs as long as they don't try and burrow through the wall (the cage is in the corner) or jump from the top to the bottom without using the ramp. I've discovered how they made it collapse - one of them stood up and pushed one of the supporting bars along so it fell down at one end.

If we put ours on the floor they just sit there , like blancmanges !

Even setting up a run on the kitchen floor with fleece (when they had to be evacuated to the garage in the middle of a rainstorm and the Pighouse was leaking). DD set up an indoor playroom for them, they were

They might walk a few steps on carpet , but otherwise no.

Our piggie was rattling the water bottle the other night , no idea why . She doesn't usually bother with it , she had veg and the room wasn't hot. I went through a couple of times to makes sure she was ok, she was all "WhassUp" butter won't melt .
Seriously Tilly , its 2am !