How much do your guinea pigs cost you in consumables monthly?

[Anendlessseriesofunfortunateevents]

If you have guinea pigs, how much do you spend monthly on everything they need?

Also do you have any regrets about getting them, or things you wish you had known beforehand?

It’s the vet treatment that’s expensive - you can now get guinea pig vet insurance and I’d urge anyone to get it. One of ours cost £750 to have an eye removed when it got a tumour. They’re classed as exotic pets and vet treatment is expensive.

Mine also cost a fair bit in puppy pads / incontinence sheets which I used instead of sawdust etc to line their c and c cage with (sawdust etc is bad for their lungs and I didn’t want to wash fleece pads). We had 5 in a huge indoor cage.

I once averaged out all our costs over about 3 years and it was £40 a month. That was a fair few years ago. Since then at least one other pig has cost upwards of £600, and several other visits have been £60-£100 each. We have 2-3 pigs at a time, and usually get them aged 2-3 from rescues. The other cost is holiday boarding. This summer that cost nearly £10 per pig per day.

Ours are generally on aubiose (which is great at soaking up wee and smells) and hay, and lasts all week Occasionally we've switched to fleeces, which need dealing with daily. Can never decide with us best. Fleece is more work, hay is more mess (ours are in the living room).

They are great little pets. We've currently got some younger pigs and they're so adventurous, it's wonderful to see.

@Sparrowsandbudgies I had no idea you could now get pet insurance for them. Whenever I've looked before it didn't exist. Thank you for the information.

I don't have pigs now , but DD and I shared eight over 8 years. ( Had five at one point in a group of 2+3 )
Pricewise-
Vets are expensive, we went to a guinea- pig specialist. Not much more expensive than a regular vet, an hour to drive there but worth it for the expertise.
Our boar was £60 to castrate
One piggies was £30 to euthanise
I did claw clipping and bought shampoo and Xeno 450 online

Hay was the next expense , they went through bags of it, I didn't ever but baled equine hay as it can have sticks in it ( I used to ride horses so I knew from feeding them). I did but equine readigrass which was fine .I bought the big packs from the Range ( usually 2 a week) and Jolleys which was nicer for eating .

Housing, outdoor runs , . We had a wooden play house to hat DH modified. Small heater , fan, those microwaveable rubber discs that you heat and stuff into their bedding .
I used puppy pads and IKEA fleeces ( they wicked well as they're not fluffy , cost about £2 each)

Holiday boarding was around £10/pig/ night but discount for shared cages
I didn't buy insurance , some of mine never needed a vet , others did. I looked at prices when we got the first two but it was difficult to find a company, cats dogs and rabbits mainly
Vegetables you can grow your own, buy from a market , sometimes pick up a bargain in reduced. Only caveat is "would I eat this myself?" If it wasn't safe for me it wasn't safe for my piggies.My shopping trolley looked SO good but I realise how invested I was muttering "Oh they don't like lambs lettuce, oh good leafy sweetcorn or leafy carrots" because they are fussy 😄
The cost of the piggies was on average £10 but we paid more for a tiny piglet and for a ready castrated boar ( because I knew the cost having got one of our boys done)

I love our 2 pigs and they are very entertaining and cuddly. They are expensive though. Food and treats aren’t that much, but as a PP said vets are expensive, though we haven’t had quite the same level of costs so far. One of ours has a nail that grows like a corkscrew and that’s £22 a month to get it clipped by a nurse at the vets, I just can’t do it. We use fleeces and have invested in kavee liners which were an expensive outlay but are washing and wearing well 3 years down the line so probably worth it. I don’t wash them daily though!

Hmm, I could add that my supermarket shop does include things the pigs like regularly, mint, parsley, cavolo Nero, spinach….of course we eat them too!

But a special Pet bag for washing fleeces , as much as you try you won't brush all the hay off . They stop your washing machine filter clogging .
Get a no scented detergent ( piggies are very respiratory sensitive) and no fabric conditioner, it will make your fleece non wicking ( wicking is where the pee goes through to the absorber layer and leaves the fleece dry)
I used to pick up as many free newspapers as I could at the end of the day then hoik out any staples.
You'll need somewhere dry to store the hay and bedding.
They don't like heat,cold, draughts and damp can kill them. Extremes of temperature or going hot to cold / cold to hot
They eat all the time 🤣it's how their guts work and keeps their teeth down.

If you're considering guineas I'd suggest a couple of more. You can have two boars but they need space. A castrated boar and females . Or all girls.
Not three boars and not more than one boar in a herd with females.

I like a nice chunky smooth . We've had an Abby, Rex, Teddy , I had a Peruvian years ago (Hard work) . Silkie long hair.

I wouldn't have a Swiss (or another Peruvian) or one of those crinkly coated ones or a hairless ( Skinny or Vampire)
Smooths are simpler to manage 😄