First things first. Quite a lot of us guinea-pig people get anxious about whether we can look after our piggies properly... I really don't know whether it's a piggy thing as they are so dependent! I grew up with a series of cats and tbh I never worried about any of them nearly so much because cats can pretty much look after themselves. Cats hunt their own food, they poop out of the way, they can generally hold their own in a fight if it should come to it (and all this can really annoy the neighbours) but piggies seem so much more vulnerable
You might not welcome this observation but I have teens and they are prone to feeling anxious - maybe more anxious than the situation needs? (This is not exclusive to teens - I'm nearly 50!) How are your piggies at the minute - are they happy and healthy and munching away? If so then it's just a matter of keeping them like that so for now try to relax and enjoy them.
Make sure they have plenty of hay - that is the most important as had been said. It's 80% of their diet after all! They can also have grass but make sure there is no dog-pee or other animal waste on it as this is toxic for them, and if they have not had grass before only put in a little at a time at first so their tummies can get used to it. They have evolved to munch grass and hay most of the time... mine are mainly eating or sleeping it off! Like has been said above the pellets are much less important and a small amount of veg is easy to provide but they love to bed in hay and munch on hay. When I first got piggies I thought they had to eat ALL their hay before I put any more in but I quickly realised my mistake! My 3 get a handful of fresh hay each in the morning and after a quick clean up in the evening they get more to bed down for the night. Of course some is 'wasted' as they pee on it and flatten it but hay is
much cheaper than vets and it keeps them healthy and keeps their teeth in great shape. I personally don't add vitC to the drinking water or anything like that (it's not recommended here in the UK) because they get all they need from grass and veggies so that's some money saved too. I do buy bottled drinking water for my pigs though, as the tap water in my area is ridiculously high in calcium so even if I filtered it (like other people do for their pigs) there would still be a lot - the bottled water is very low in calcium and I aim to avoid bladder problems by using this! I clip their nails myself and they don't need shampooing or anything silly like that so they only really get expensive if they get ill and not all piggies do - remember many people contact this forum for advice on their poorly pig so there are lots of posts about illness plastered everywhere but there will be millions of ordinary pigs out there living perfectly happy lives that we never hear about!
So hope for the best but of course it is wise to think about your options if one does get poorly. Have a look to see if there are any rescues locally that would take your piggies in if it all becomes too much, and ask them about which vets
they might use for their guinea pigs... they might have a good recommendation and be able to give you some good
local tips and pointers. There are certainly a few forum members in Hawaii and I bet there are other piggy people there too. It's really great that you have two and they have each other - it's the best gift you can give them. Good luck and don't fret - you can do it!
