New Guinea pig owner, help needed

[PurpleThistles84]

I brought home two female 8 week old guinea pigs around 1pm this afternoon. They are indoor, nice large cage, which I have put sawdust, Timothy hay, guinea pig nuggets and some wood toys into. There are two water bottles which I have added vitamin c supplement to.

They initially hid away for most of the afternoon but in the last hour they have been getting brave and going exploring. Plenty of hay eating and I put four pieces of broccoli in which they have ate too.

However neither of them have drank any water and I’m starting to get a little worried! I don’t want to go to bed until I know they have found their bottles and used them. Have I done something wrong? How long can they go without water before getting unwell?

Also I know they need dark leafy greens daily, but I’m not sure of the amount I should give them?

Congratulations on the new arrivals!
They will have got some water from eating the broccoli so I wouldn't worry too much. Are they use to water bottles? Did they have them before?

Any photos? I love guinea pigs! Have you tried a dish with water? It might be they may not know how to use the water bottle? You could leave some cucumber for them to eat which has lots of water to ensure they are well hydrated. I never added vitamin c to my water for my guinea pigs but fed them veggies that had it (red pepper was always a favourite!) Be careful with dark greens as it can contain a lot of calcium which can cause bladder stones. Hope your little ones settle in well, I love their squeaks and their popcorning!

Sorry just to clarify you can give dark greens but just not too much!

The vitamin c added to the water can change the taste and might mean they drink less. For this reason we were advised to just give plain water and to give vitamin c rich vegetables like peppers (any colour) daily. Advise above to give cucumber also good. Aim for 1/2 to one cup of veg per pig per day. Be careful with brassicas like broccoli because too much might cause bloating. The guinea pig forum website has lots of good information about diet and how much veg and what types.

Not the best piccies but I didn’t want to frighten them and get too close! The little brown one with the white stripe down her face is Billy and the tri colour girl is Melanie. My daughter named them after her two favourite singers they are so sweet but their fur is crazy! I’m dying to brush them but want to give them plenty of time and space to settle in.

They are lovely! We got ours at a similar age and it took them about a week to be brave enough to drink from the water bottle. We put some in a little bowl near their bed. They will get some water from veg such as cucumber.

Hello to Billy and Melanie , welcome to Small Pets

They will be very shy at first. They are shy, prey animals ( they assume that any minute something will swoop in and eat them) . They've been introduced to a new environment , new sounds, new smells. The only constant is the other guinea-pig.

Part of the charm of guineas (apart from the fact they are as Thick as Mince ) is that they are the gentlest little animals ever . And even though they have very sharp teeth they are very rarely biters.

My pigs almost never drank water from a bottle (except at 3am when they were in the next bedroom to me !) But from the amount of pee they produced there was no doubt they were getting enough fluid.
But offer clean fresh water daily , scrub the water bottle every week. Even if they choose to ignore it !

Hay is essential. They need a wedge of hay about the size of the pig , but they eat,sleep. pee,pooh and play so you're looking at offering unlimited hay .
Pellets contain Vit C .

There's loads of veg you can offer them.
Some they can have limited , some are 'No'

Root veg (carrot, parsnip) are high in sugar so give sparingly . Mine liked the leafy carrot but not carrot peel
Sweetcorn in leaf (again quite high in sugar)
Herbs- parsley , mint ,coriander
Dark greens-brocilli, kale,cabbage ,cavelo nero (limited due to risk of bladder stones)
Salad- cucumber, spinach (limited) cos lettuce ,romaine, chinese leaf, celery but no strings. Loved the leaves

Not to give
iceberg lettuce, onions,mushrooms, any potato

Wild plants- dandelions, grass, limited clover . All fresh cut , rinse and dry . No lawnmower cuttings .
No buttercups, daisies, bulb plants

Fruit - (limited)
small bits apple, watermelon ( especially the rind with a bit of fruit left) banana (skin+fruit) strawberries and leaves, blueberries. Some pigs like a slice of orange .

Give a few bits for variety and they'll choose .
They can be fussy
Mine wouldn't touch lambs lettuce but hoovered up spinach.
Wouldn't eat peelings .
Only ate kale if they were at the point of starvation but loved Cavelo Nero .
Acted like I'd poisoned them when I offered them a bit of pumpkin !

Sawdust and shavings aren't good for guineas - it can dry their fur and paws . Plus they are respiratory sensitive , their little noses are at floor level.
Lots of pig keepers use equine bedding like Megazorb or Auboise .
I used Ecobale (chopped cardboard) in their outdoor house . Or just newspaper on the floor . You can use fleece but its a pain to wash . If you do get a petbag to save your machine and a scentless detergent .

Piggies are lovely , full of character .
And the noises . Look on YouTube for videos . It is a good way of 'reading' their mood .
I had some Singing Pigs (its like a bird chirping) There's no known reason why they sing.

Thanks for the advice, when I got up this morning the water bottle was very low so they both must have had a good drink in the night! They got fresh nuggets, fresh handfuls of hay and a spot clean of their cage as I don’t want to disturb them too much.

Billy is the smallest but much more confident than Millie (youngest can’t say Melanie!) and has been ambling about her cage a lot today with Millie following more cautiously behind. Billy is quite vocal and makes lots of little noises, it’s very cute!

I’ve been online and ordered some bits and pieces for them, a wooden board with log pieces and holes for hiding treats, a snuggly fleecy hidey hole, a willow tunnel and a large playpen for when they come out of their cage.

Still have made no attempt to interact with them as it’s only 24 hours since they arrived, going to wait until 48 hours. Just enjoying watching them!

Lovely pets, you'll have so much fun with them. I would highly recommend that after they have settled in, you weigh them on a weekly basis. If Guinea pigs get ill they hide it until they are so unwell that they can't. This means they can be dangerously I'll by the time the owner sees. A drop in weight can be the first indication that a piggie needs to be seen by a vet.

YY to weigh them . My DS had a spreadsheet on the computer and we tracked them. My Himalayan was 1066g (like the Battle of Hastings our Rex boar was 1.4kg which is over 3lb in real money !)

Also check the food in/pooh out . Trickier with two or more but when you clean the cage you'll find neat little pooh nests where they sleep (as well as the random walk'n'drop pooh)
And check for any loose pooh -obvs they'll squish a bit where they pee /pooh and sit .
They eat the first passing of droppings (very discrete , they'll potter off to the quiet areas to do this . They're not savages ) this is essential to get the nutrients.

When you cuddle them first , pop them in a towel. It makes them secure , it'll catch the pee and protect you from the razor claws of the baby pig.

The piggies are settling in well, both have been drinking their water with vit c supplement, plenty of hay and love foraging for their pellets. I got them a willow tube and they were going a bit crazy last night, chasing each other through it and even jumping over each other, a bit like when a dog had their funny five minutes!

I STILL have not picked them up, I tried yesterday but they are so fast and I really don’t want to be bitten, after seeing the size of those teeth. It’s a bit pathetic but I have ordered some bite proof gloves, I was thinking I could use them initially and once we are more used to each other I could start using my bare hand?

No , you don't need gloves , they really aren't biters .
They might give you a (deserved ) nip if you do something really bad (which you won't) but the only time I've ever felt the toothy wrath of a guinea-pig is when my hands have smelled of food and they get confused (and that's not a bite)
Or my GP5 who was a gnawer ( a child would say "she bit me" an adult wouldn't ) . Or GP3 had a 'touchy' side but he'd give an 'air snap' not a bite .

With your cage , you have a plastic house at one end .
Don't stick your hand in there , you'll scare them, they'll do the 'legs sticking out' thing and get caught in the door .
Remove it . Give them a cardboard box ( 2 doors- they always need an escape route from their cagemate)
When you want to catch them , they'll go into the box. Seal the doors ( hand , bi of card ) Don't panic them.
Them scoop under the tummy with one hand , under the rump with the other , hold securely (they can scrabble and try to jump)
Into a towel to wrap them.

They do like to run up to your neck so you need to make sure they don't scarper down the back of the sofa .

At this age it's their claws that do the mischief , they get blunt later though.

My pigs with DD have all been Rescues . GP5 was the tardiest . But it was fear not violent tendancies .
She was always a mouthy little rodent though , but not a bite .

When you consider they are not climbers, can't burrow , can't kick like a rabbit, can''t turn their heads quickly , not the most athletic as adults , can't leap like a rat or mouse ............those teeth would be a good defence .
But they don't really use them.

Enjoy the piglet time . The popcorning (leaping about) .
Adults do popcorn but they're more laid back and solid .
More to cuddle

I can't anything to the great advice you have already had from the MN guinea pig expert except nods.
We have an elderly pig who is short sighted (like his owner...) and will occasionally nip by accident when trying to take food from me, it never hurts, it's more of a scratch.

We use washable puppy pads and hay for their bedding and snacks are brocolli, kale (not often), corn on the cob, cucumber and occasionally carrots - most guinea pigs love them as a treat but our pigs don't like them.

We have the plastic house, they use their noses and push it up and go out the 'back door' as well as the more conventional exit.

i run a guinea pig rescue and you dont need to worry you dont need vit c in bottles most proper guinea pigs food does have added vit c with it and if they eat a varied diet they will get what they need.
guinea pigs will figure out the bottles ive never had any problems some drink loads my gizzy and spice i bought a really large bottle for and have to fill it daily as it is totally empty but others have a small bottle and hardly touch it.
give them lots of kale cauliflower cabbage apples peppers banana sweetcorn broccoli carrots cow parsley etc

We've had our piggies for almost 2 months now & they've settled in really well they love nothing better than snuggling up in DD's dressing gown.

It did take them a few days to confidently use the water bottles.

Don't worry about picking them up we found that the more anxious we were about it the more anxious the piggies were - they are so comfortable with DD now that they sit patiently waiting on her at playtime - they will be unimpressed today as they only have me & I don't have a snuggly dressing gown but I do have red pepper

Look at Mason's Cavies on Facebook, Sophie has 100 piggies, some rescues, some donated plus some of her own. The group is friendly & can advise on anything you need to know, plus they are sponsored by a small pet company & there are discount codes for food, bedding & equipment.

I've hand reared some orphaned pigs so if you ever (hopefully not) need to know about critical care then do ask. I think 70 knows about it too.

at the moment my rescue Happy Squeaks on fb has 17 piggies and 2 staying with us for 2 weeks while owner is away. we took a female on last year and discovered she was pregnant far too young and small but she had one tiny runt baby who survived but is no bigger than a hamster and her sister who is bit bigger than mum.
more you handle them better they will be mine run around the kitchen quite happily squeaking at me

Ours were like that when we first started raising them at just over a week old, both would fit in the palm of my hand. 4 months later they are fully grown and happy piggies.

Labaz I love your Piggy Facebook site and how relaxed some of your guineas are ....they look like they're being cuddled to sleep

vingt oh yes the delights of syringe feeding a guinea-pig with sloppy Critical Care . They wear some , I wear some , it goes on the towel!
It is a long , painstaking process to handfeed a cavy !

Which reminds me : Thistles you will need a Guinea-Pig First Aid Box

(There's a couple of threads on here - very handy to have a few things tucked away )

We have successfully held the piggies without gloves! Used their willow tunnel to safely move them to their playpen which gave more space to pick them up. Billy was absolutely fine and seemed quite happy, Millie was much more skittish and unimpressed but it’s a start! They did lots of popcorning once back in their cages.

I gave them red pepper yesterday but it was completely untouched. I guess it is not their thing. Broccoli today which was hoovered up rapidly!

Thanks for all the advice I will check out the places suggested.

70isa
yes they do fall asleep sometimes catching them is sometimes a challenge but once they are out they love a fuss. we also bath them and they really enjoy that.

My Abby boy ( GP2 , jet black with a fatty eye , did the odd dropping the size of a Ferrero Rocher the Vet was most impressed ! )

He would fall asleep and make little grunting noises then roll down my front and look judgey that I didn't catch him tsk
Then started sleeping in a croissant shape to stop the roll

I was thinking last night that our two youngest pigs don't fall asleep when we have them out, they are four months now and still really active, I'm not sure they ever sleep. I had one out for an hour last night whilst they were being cleaned out and he sat their squeaking the whole time and then did a wee on me. Thanks gp#8 (I think..losing count!)

Labaz, just looked on your FB page..I know your home town very well indeed