A few questions...

[emm-jane76]

Just a few questions regarding guinea piggies.

I have noticed on a thread which showed all your housing for your piggies that they have a fleece down? Don't they poo/wee on this? Also won't they chew it?

Can guinea piggies be litter trained?

The next question is regarding their poos. Why do guinea pigs eat them? Is it for the same reason bunnies do (ceatrophs)

Do guinea piggies have the same gut system as bunnies i.e if they stop eating their guts stop working leading to gut statis?

As you can see I am a guinea piggie virgin and own four bunnies so need to learn about piggies! Sorry for all the questions but would appreciate any help x

 

[skrikopanik]

yep, they poo and wee on it. The fleece is instead of disposable bedding.

Some of us have smart litter trained piggies. Those of us (like me) with less gifted pigs just live with lots of cage changes. Guinea pigs have very fast metabolism so if they eat they poop, kinda. I've found they poop and wee a lot where they hay is, so you can may the hay place a kind of litterbox.

They eat the poop just like bunnies and for the same reason (I think)

Yes, they need to eat a lot of hy, just like bunnies. They have the same kind of guts (or so I've read)

 

[Laura-CCC4]

Better to ask your questions than not.

I'm one of the fleece users, there are a lot of others too. They do pee and poop on the fleece, but fleece works in the same way as Vetbed in that any moisture (urine) is pulled through the fleece, and absorbed by whatever is underneath (hence the importance of using towels or puppy training pads, for example, underneath the fleece) leaving the surface of the fleece perfectly dry. The poops are swept/vacuumed up daily or as required. Some piggies can be litter trained, but usually only for urinating - they poop too much for them to use a dedicated litter area!

Some piggies do chew on fleece bedding, and some are determined to burrow underneath it. There are solutions to the latter problem, but pigs who are adamant fleece chewers can be tried with Vetbed or a different bedding.

I don't know much about rabbits but what you describe in regards to caecotrophs, and the problems caused by lack of food going through the digestive system, does sound very much like piggies. A guinea should go no more than 12-24 hours without food, although of course if a piggie is known to be not eating then syringe-feeding would begin as early as possible to prevent too much weight loss and to avoid too much digestive upset.