advice for new owners please!

[PhatsandFinn]

Hi everyone,

My other half and I have just bought 2 guinea pigs and have a couple of questions:

They seem to really like dandelion leaves and would eat them constantly if we let them! How much should we be giving them and how much is too much?

They don't seem to be drinking very much, despite having a water bottle and a water bowl. Are they getting enough moisture from their food and dandelion leaves or do we have a problem?

And lastly, we put them out in their run every evening when we get home and have been really lucky with the weather so far. However, when it gets a bit wet would they prefer to stay inside their cage with the wind/rain cover or would they prefer to be out on wet grass?

I'm sure we sound like a right pair of novices, but we want to be good owners and have happy piggies, so any advice would be very much appreciated!

Nic and Sarah

 

[minimowers]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Dandilion leaves are fine for piggies as long as they have not been sprayed by any chemicals. My avatar is of my pig Dandilion who absolutely adores them.

My girls are not big drinkers like yours but they also go out in their run every day and get plenty of moisture from the foods they eat. They do have a water bottle which is cleaned out daily but they rarely use it.

My girls go out wind rain or shine (only real exception is snow and frost). I have pinned a large shower curtain over their run which acts as an all purpose wind, rain and sun protection and also stops flying predators from looking into the run. Thay have a couple of igloos in the run too so plenty of hiding spaces as well.

I hope this answers all your questions.