Do piggies need a lot of things?

[El Caso]

I have rats atm and they need a lot of hammocks and tunnels etc, I was curious to if piggies are the same?
How much stuff should I give them? For a pair of females, how many houses,hides and tunnels do they need and is there a point in which you can give them too much things?

I was thinking 3 tunnels and 3 hides/beds (going off other peoples setups) just unsure if its better to give them a lot of stuff and clutter their cage up or is less more with them?

I have a ferplast plaza 160 ready for when I do get them.

 

[Siikibam]

There should be minimum 2 of each - hides, water bottles and hay areas. I would say too much would leave little room for them to zoom around their cage.

 

[El Caso]

There should be minimum 2 of each - hides, water bottles and hay areas. I would say too much would leave little room for them to zoom around their cage.

Thank you! Don’t want to be worried about having too little or too much for them

 

[Claire W]

I have 4 pigs and in their cage they have 4 hides (one each) a hay area, two food bowls and two water bottles and that’s it as I didn’t want to clutter their cage

 

[Siikibam]

One thing I would say is to first be paired up with piggies before you get the cage. Housing requirements do vary between rescues. Exciting stuff though!

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you! Don’t want to be worried about having too little or too much for them

Rather than overfilling their cage with toys, have fun with enrichment time - especially at dinner time. This allows you much more to vary and stimulate their brains. Choose huts and log tunnels with two exits so piggies can zoom through them; at least one hut or log tunnel per piggy. It also mitigates dominance behaviour whenever they have to establish/re-establish their hierarchy. chucking an underpiggy out of a prime spot or hogging a bowl is typical dominance behaviour whenever piggies settle in, so you can neatly work around it.

Sprinkle their 1 tablespoon of pellets per piggy per day and their daily veg aroung the cage to encourage natural foraging behaviours, have them come to you for the first bite and make them work for their food. Keep in mind that pellets and veg only replace the supplementary role of wild forage and that over three quarters of what piggies eat in a day should be hay. This also avoid your piggies messing up bowls by turning them into their preferred water closet. The more hay they eat between meals, the better - it boosts health and can add 1-2 years to a normal life span. Instead of lots of treats, making a normal daily diet special is adding a lot more quality to their life and helping to make it longer - and you benefit as well from all the fun and creating an interactive bond with your piggiesthat goes way beyond petting on the lap.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

Here are some very helpful links to practical information collections for Wannabe and New Owners to help you to a good start:
Are Guinea Pigs For Me? - Wannabe Owners' Helpful Information
Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners

On a very personal note: PLEASE consider adopting from a good welfare standard rescue rather than buying. Not only can you neatly avoid all the usual pitfalls that await the unwary but you are also helping with the current unprecedented pet dumping crisis and are making space for more piggies in need of expert care. As a new owner, you will also be matched up with suitable piggies for an easy start - not necessarily babies but piggies that are used to handling and human interaction so you don't have to deal with wiggly babies that are already teenagers by the time they have settled in fully.
Rescues (Adoption and Dating), Shops, Breeders or Online? - What to consider when getting guinea pigs
New Guinea Pig Problems: Sexing & Pregnancy; URI, Ringworm & Parasites; Vet Checks & Customer Rights
Boars, sows or mixed pairs; babies or adults?
Guinea Pig Forum recommended rescues

 

[Ruth1]

There should be minimum 2 of each - hides, water bottles and hay areas. I would say too much would leave little room for them to zoom around their cage.

There should be minimum 2 of each - hides, water bottles and hay areas. I would say too much would leave little room for them to zoom around their cage.

I took a couple of things out when I experienced the zoomies for the first time! Now mine have two hides, two tunnels and that gives me places to stuff hay and also room for them to leg it in the Piggy National around 9.30 pm!

 

[RosieLily]

Lots of great tips above!

I’m sorry to hijack the thread a little, but how do you find keeping rats? I’ve been so interested in them for a while now, they seem like amazing pets.

 

[PigglePuggle]

It is also very enriching for the piggies to have lots of different things, but not all at once. You can keep some things specifically for floortime/playpen time, and also swap the furniture in their cage every week, we have accumulated maybe 40 piggy furniture items (Piggle is a big internet shopper and very spoiled) for 8 piggies but we don't use them all at once.

I usually have 1 hidey or bed per piggy plus 1 extra in the cage at any one time. And their needs may change over time- more secure hidey places when they are new and nervous, more cosy warm fleecy tunnels in winter, until after 3 or 4 years in the summer the most confident relaxed piggies just flop down for a nap right in the open and aren't too fussed about hiding anymore

 

[Claire W]

Lots of great tips above!

I’m sorry to hijack the thread a little, but how do you find keeping rats? I’ve been so interested in them for a while now, they seem like amazing pets.

I had rats many years ago. They are very intelligent and make amazing pets. Their lifespan is sadly poor though (18 months - 2 years) and they need a big roomy cage with plenty of enrichment

 

[Wiebke]

Lots of great tips above!

I’m sorry to hijack the thread a little, but how do you find keeping rats? I’ve been so interested in them for a while now, they seem like amazing pets.

Hi

We have an 'Other Pets' sub-section on our forum (off General Chat) for questions like yours and chatting about your other pets. I am sure that our rat keeping members will be able to help you in a dedicated thread.
Here is the shortcut to the Other Pets section: Other Pets

 

[El Caso]

Lots of great tips above!

I’m sorry to hijack the thread a little, but how do you find keeping rats? I’ve been so interested in them for a while now, they seem like amazing pets.

Low maintenance imo, they are very affectionate and love your attention, they get attached really quickly to you. They come to me and start licking and climbing on me often. They are like guinea pigs whenever they hear rustling, they come running expecting u to feed them ha. Rats should not be animals you get from rescues or pet store though as knowing their background is detrimental, any signs of biting is a no go contratry to popular belief that "you can train it out", biting is a sign of aggression and drawing blood is aggression too. I would only go with known breeders when it comes to rats. Would recommend joining the RatsRatsRats discord because most places you go to for rat info are still outdated - Join the RatsRatsRats Discord Server!

 

[El Caso]

Rather than overfilling their cage with toys, have fun with enrichment time - especially at dinner time. This allows you much more to vary and stimulate their brains. Choose huts and log tunnels with two exits so piggies can zoom through them; at least one hut or log tunnel per piggy. It also mitigates dominance behaviour whenever they have to establish/re-establish their hierarchy. chucking an underpiggy out of a prime spot or hogging a bowl is typical dominance behaviour whenever piggies settle in, so you can neatly work around it.

Sprinkle their 1 tablespoon of pellets per piggy per day and their daily veg aroung the cage to encourage natural foraging behaviours, have them come to you for the first bite and make them work for their food. Keep in mind that pellets and veg only replace the supplementary role of wild forage and that over three quarters of what piggies eat in a day should be hay. This also avoid your piggies messing up bowls by turning them in their preferred water closet. The more hay they feed between meals, the better - it boosts health and can add 1-2 years to a normal life span.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

Here are some very helpful links to practical information collections for Wannabe and New Owners to help you to a good start:
Are Guinea Pigs For Me? - Wannabe Owners' Helpful Information
Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners

On a very personal note: PLEASE consider adopting from a good welfare standard rescue rather than buying. Not only can you neatly avoid all the usual pitfalls that await the unwary but you are also helping with the current unprecedented pet dumping crisis and are making space for more piggies in need of expert care. As a new owner, you will also be matched up with suitable piggies for an easy start - not necessarily babies but piggies that are used to handling and human interaction so you don't have to deal with wiggly babies that are already teenagers by the time they have settled in fully.
Rescues (Adoption and Dating), Shops, Breeders or Online? - What to consider when getting guinea pigs
New Guinea Pig Problems: Sexing & Pregnancy; URI, Ringworm & Parasites; Vet Checks & Customer Rights
Boars, sows or mixed pairs; babies or adults?
Guinea Pig Forum recommended rescues

Excellent advice, thank you so much. I already know the rest of the info on where to get piggies from, I am very focused on finding a pair of girls that need rescuing as opposed to buying, I already know about the guinea pig crisis (even before showing interest in them), thru out the pandemic pets4home and gumtree were FILLED DAILY with fake breeders selling guinea pigs they purposely housed together to breed for money and constantly saw people try and rehome ones they had recently got - I werent even looking at guinea pigs at that period, i was looking for some rattos but could never find them because of how packed the websites were.

Its disgusting the way people see piggies and other animals, I hope we get laws in the UK soon around this.

 

[Wiebke]

Excellent advice, thank you so much. I already know the rest of the info on where to get piggies from, I am very focused on finding a pair of girls that need rescuing as opposed to buying, I already know about the guinea pig crisis (even before showing interest in them), thru out the pandemic pets4home and gumtree were FILLED DAILY with fake breeders selling guinea pigs they purposely housed together to breed for money and constantly saw people try and rehome ones they had recently got - I werent even looking at guinea pigs at that period, i was looking for some rattos but could never find them because of how packed the websites were.

Its disgusting the way people see piggies and other animals, I hope we get laws in the UK soon around this.

If you would consider adopting from a good rescue as this means that piggies with obvious issues can be taken in but you can have an easier start with fully ready piggies that have no reason to be staying on in rescue. A full rescue that is not rehoming is a stuck rescue because they cannot expand indefinitely.

 

[El Caso]

If you would consider adopting from a good rescue as this means that piggies with obvious issues can be taken in but you can have an easier start with fully ready piggies that have no reason to be staying on in rescue. A full rescue that is not rehoming is a stuck rescue because they cannot expand indefinitely.

That's what I'm trying to do, however I live in a town and i can only go 6 miles out as I would have to get a lift there via taxi so its extremely hard to actually get from a rescue as they tend to be at least 15+ miles out. I've just been monitoring facebook rescue pages and seeing listings for people who are looking to rehome, my focus is on finding some from a rescue though for sure, not really rushing to find a pair in the sense I'm not just itching to get the first i see listed because they are "cute".

 

[Engel]

Fellow rat owner here! It's quite different caring for pigs. Rats need lots of stimulation, puzzles and brain games and typically have to pick different ones regularly so they're not bored or becomes too easy. Places to run, jump, climb and dig too. With guinea pigs it's not like that, you may have a shock!

They're rather simple in comparison. Something like a paper bag or cardboard box/tube filled with hay and dry dry forage is enough to keep them entertained. As well as regularly scattering food around the cage for them to find. They don't climb nor do they really dig.

I have 8 pigs in 3 groups (2 trios and a pair) in each cage there's one hide per pig (wood bendy bridge) and an extra hide which is big enough to fit them all. Typically a fleece forest, they love zooming and pop-corning through it. Draping a tea towel over also has the same effect.

I have one water source per pig as well and a large hay area which is big enough for them all to use and still have a lot of space incase they have a squabble.

If you use fleece I'd recommend 3 sets. One to wash, one to use and one as back up. Pee pads and noodle mats too, again enough sets to wash, use and back up.