Does anybody else think owning Guinea Pig's is the equivalent to a full-time Job?

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flintstones

flintstones

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Only joking, or am I :))!

I have to get up at 6am every morning and it's not to get ready,

By the time I've checked the pigs, made up there veggies, Boilled Patrick's peark Barley, syringed his liquid to him and removed all the wet hay, then replaced with dry hay, topped up water bottles and pellet bowl's it's time to leave the house. It takes me an Hour every morning to sort my pigs then another hour in the evening by the time I give them all veggies, check them over that's not including weighing them, cleaning them and nail clippings.

I was wondering what everybody else's routine was, I don't think anybody would ever want to watch my pigs!
 
I get up every morning at 6 for work, I start at half 8 ")
But between that i've got to have a shower, get myself ready, change the piggies water, give them some more hay, change their bedding, have my breaky, get to work..
But my routine isn't as big as yours on a morning!
I do alot of my piggy stuff when its home time, usually its off to the supermarket for veggies and mine and OHs tea, change their water, veggies, pellets and manage to give them all a cuddle to check them over and etc.
inbreeding
 
My pigs are pretty low maintenance I think!

Veggies and pellets and water and hay in the morning (with appropriate levels of fuss administered accordingly), more hay when I get in and some free ranging, then veggies hay and water in the evening! Clean out 2 or 3 times a week depending on how much floor time they've had (ie how many poos have ended up on the floor!)

They are rarely bathed, nail clipping is done as and when they require and weighing is done at clean out time.

I think the most time consuming bit is bathing and cutting Cameo's hair, which is due today :{
 
I have to be up an hour earlier on college and work days now to do veg and have the morning snuggle lol
 
It is most definately a full time job for me. :))

I work odd hours, a couple of evenings and all day Sunday, but I get up at 6:30 every day when my hubby goes to work. I also home ed my boys so I have a pretty full day. :(|)
 
I home edded my two all the way through from babies to university! Nice to meet another home edder! :)

I've had cats and dogs for over forty years and none of them has EVER been as high maintenance the the piggies! Just cleaning them out, as in sweeping up their jobbies, morning and night, from the bedroom (cage) and the floor run, and cleaning the whole bedroom out and washing it with vinegar-y water every two/three days and then washing and drying the bedding... Cats and dogs are MUCH lower maintenance! And I've never bathed the pigs yet. They're still learning to trust me...

Jo, how many piggies do you have? That sounds like a LOT of work!
 
When we make their tea in the evening, we do the veggies for the morning in food bags so we can just pop it in
6:30pm get up, Grab food from fridge. Go into front room, the girls (Cookie & Treacle) throw themselves at the front of cage. Feed them Pepper qucikly to get them out way :)) Change hays, pellets, pop in Veggies.
Then Megan..... Pop pick (Megan produces poo like no other piggie, which is odd for her tiny size..) this can take 5 mins... Pop in Veggies, Wash her food dish and hay trays as she poo's and wee's in them 5 times out of 7.
Normally takes around 15 mins overall, especially as there's two of us doing it often. Attempt to leave house 7:30am.. :))

Evenings take longer because of preparing food, run time and big cleans and of course cuddles drool etc....
 
My routine is very similar, but no one's yet mentioned the hoovering! We traipse hay all over the house - it hangs off their legs when we pick them up, it falls out the bag as we're putting in their cage, I swear sometimes they just throw it out of their cage when we're not looking :) Thank god we own a dyson!
 
Oh I forgot the sweeping thankfully I have a wooden floor so that isn't to difficult to clean up but does take up quite a bit of time.

I have 6 pigs - 3 cages.
 
Oof Hoovering it a nightmare!
I have physio for my back and hoovering + cage moving definitely takes it out of me!
 
On an early shift which means me leaving at 5.30am, (get up at 3am) the piggies are cleaned out, fed, watered and hayed up for 5.15am. We have 18 piggies so my OH does the top three pens and I do the lower ones, have a perfect routine and can get them all comfortably seen to within 30 minutes :)) Any damp/wet blankets, fleeces etc. are chucked into a bin bag.
I get home for around 4pm and see to them straight away (not even a cuppa for me) and it takes me a good hour + to do them by myself. Washer goes on from the morning clean out.
If I'm on a late shift, the piggies have a lie in and I see to them all and get finished for around 9.30am then my OH does the evening 'piggy shift' as I don't finish until 8.30pm.
Days off and weekends revolve around deep cleaning all six pens and washing umpteen large pieces of vetbed, fleecy blankets, cosies etc.
Definitely plan our lives around them, I turn down overtime/extra shifts at work so as not to upset their routine.
Has to be done and tbh, I love caring for them but yes, it is definitely another full time job :))
 
You all make me feel awful

My piggies get a check on a morning and top ups of stuff if required and a quick chin tickle if they are awake which they usually are not and they seem grumpy if I wake them and its not for hay!

Though when I get in from work they get attention and just before I go to bed they do , so 5pm and 1am they get attention so its not bad and they get a hello everytime I go to the bathroom (next door to piggy room!)

Full clean out once per week , cages swept daily and litter trays/cage emptied when needed.

My 2 boars have a ferplast 140, with a litter tray thats huge and takes up the whole width of the cage, their hay rack, water bottle and food are in that so their poops are mainly in there, even after a week the towel under their fleece is dry!

My 3 sows have a 4x2 run attached to an 80cm cage , their 80cm cage is a hay, food, water litter tray so the same is true for them!
 
YES YES YES !

Piggie slave is the best job in the world though, even if i do walk into school looking half dead with the occasional bit of hay or sawdust on my blazer ! My morning revolves are the piggies,

Get up, Fill bottles, take out veggies from last night, give each pig a grape or something yummy as a treat, fill food, fill hay, small cuddle with sleepy piggies, spend about half an hour just watching them be cute then spend about 5 minuets getting ready before i have to leave.

Somehow i slip the forum in there and get glued to my laptop screen !

My bus driver is used to seeing me running down the road by now :')
 
take out veggies from last night
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ha ha mine would never let any go spare.
I am so not a morning person so my piggies get most things done at night. The morning is saved for a quick tickle behind the ears, hay and pellet top up. At night though, I clean out in hay thats been badly urinated (i just bed on newspaper and hay. Top up hay and prepare veggies, clean out water bottles and then watch them nibbling the veggis. I give my veggies in one portion at night and its all gone be morning, thus forcing them to eat hay throughout the day- I worry about their wee teefles having had dental piggies before. I wouldnt say that taking away cuddling, watching for my own amusement, bathing, nailclipping and brushing and the very deep clean once a week I spent any more than an hour a day on my piggies. Although I do have small growing set for growing their veggies and grass now that takes up about 15mins as well a day.
 
hazeyg said:
ha ha mine would never let any go spare.
I am so not a morning person so my piggies get most things done at night. The morning is saved for a quick tickle behind the ears, hay and pellet top up. At night though, I clean out in hay thats been badly urinated (i just bed on newspaper and hay. Top up hay and prepare veggies, clean out water bottles and then watch them nibbling the veggis. I give my veggies in one portion at night and its all gone be morning, thus forcing them to eat hay throughout the day- I worry about their wee teefles having had dental piggies before. I wouldnt say that taking away cuddling, watching for my own amusement, bathing, nailclipping and brushing and the very deep clean once a week I spent any more than an hour a day on my piggies. Although I do have small growing set for growing their veggies and grass now that takes up about 15mins as well a day.
Click to expand...

My Prince Marmite pig, seem's to change what veggies he likes from day to day so anything he has left over is shared out with the other piggies :')
 
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