Guinea pig 101!

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Loopylou

I am thinking about adding a piggie or two to our zoo (metaphorically speaking!).

I know a few basics but wonderd if you could all tell me the essential things I should know.
Are mixed pairs best?
Do they need to be vaccinated?
Is speying important in females?
What's the best food to eat?
And so on . . .

Thankyou O0
 
Piggys can be kept in male pairings or female pairings or a neutered male and a female pairing. Groups of girls are also good but boys tend to stay as pairs.
Loads of people have different experiences of each type of pairing - all work but obviously some piggys just don't like each other and have to be kept apart. On the whole, the boys can be more tricky to pair up than the girls but if you go for boys there is a website called Barmy4boars which is great for tips on getting boys living together.
No vaccinations are needed but you may want to consider regular baths to ensure their skin stays in tip top condition. Gorgeous Guineas do a fab range of shampoos and other bits for lovely skin and hair.
I would personally only spey a female for medical reasons. Piggy speying is not as common place as say cats/rabbits so if you do spey a female you want to make sure you find a really good vet (in fact a good piggy vet is a must anyway!).
Food is lots of good quality hay, veggies every day and a dried feed meant for piggys.

Housing - Shop cages meant for piggys can be a little on the small side so if keeping indoors I would either build a cage using grids or purchase a cage as big as you can afford. Piggys really benefit from a lot of space. If keep outside then a shed/non car garage is needed in the winter. A run in the summer so they can have time on the grass would be appreciated by them.

There are a lot of fantastic piggys in rescues waiting for forever homes so I would always recommend visiting a rescue before going to a pet shop. The rescue will be able to offer a lot of advice on housing and care etc.

Hope some of that helped - apologies if any of it was teaching you to suck eggs!

Keep us informed if you do decide to become a piggy owner - I warn you though, they are VERY addictive!
 
Welcome to the forum! As for your questions-
1. same sex pairs are the best, unless the the boar is neutered
2. they do need an annual check-up, but you should give them a bath every once in a while
3. spaying is not important, and should only be done if she needs it for medical reasons. If you're planning on having a female and a male together, neutering the male is safer
4. the best food is guinea pig pellets that you can buy at a petstore, timothy hay, fresh fruits and veggies, and of course, they should always have clean water

You've come to the right place for advice, anytime you ever need anything just let us know!
Kimmie
 
Thanks Beany and Kimmie. Very helpful :)
And they would definitely be of the rescue variety ;)
 
My biggest tip would be don't even think about getting 'a piggy or two'... get two for sure. They are so much happier and healthier with a companion... be it 2 females, 2 males (carefully) or a neutered boar and a sow.
 
Barmy4boars said:
My biggest tip would be don't even think about getting 'a piggy or two'... get two for sure. They are so much happier and healthier with a companion... be it 2 females, 2 males (carefully) or a neutered boar and a sow.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought ^-^ I would either get a pair or a single that was unable to be bonded for some reason. I do like to go for the sad cases and would be happy to take on a piggie that has been overlooked :)
 
Loopylou said:
Barmy4boars said:
My biggest tip would be don't even think about getting 'a piggy or two'... get two for sure. They are so much happier and healthier with a companion... be it 2 females, 2 males (carefully) or a neutered boar and a sow.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought ^-^ I would either get a pair or a single that was unable to be bonded for some reason. I do like to go for the sad cases and would be happy to take on a piggie that has been overlooked :)
Click to expand...

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=5214.0 ;)
 
I already had a drool over those lovely piggies! 8) Unfortunately I am in Kent and I don't think any of them are near me :-\
 
There are loads of piggies in rescues in kent I am sure someone can point you to them. I think rspca medway are in Kent they always have lots of lovely piggies.
 
Thanks Pumpkin piggie :) I had a look at their website and they have lots of lovely pigs! I also know a couple of other places - GBH and animal lifeline that I know have guinea pigs.
I would love to take on a hard to home pair particularly so I am looking for some piggie that nobody loves :(
 
Loopylou said:
Thanks Pumpkin piggie :) I had a look at their website and they have lots of lovely pigs! I also know a couple of other places - GBH and animal lifeline that I know have guinea pigs.
I would love to take on a hard to home pair particularly so I am looking for some piggie that nobody loves :(
Click to expand...

We got our two bonded boars from GBH and our single special needs piggie Dylan from RSPCA Medway. :)
 
Jackie at GBH has lots of piggies needing homes and no website to put them on! Or at least no one to do her website for her so I can't show you pigturesGBH Contact page

Last time we spoke she had a lot of piggies in that were looking for homes.
 
A big welcome to the forum :)
We got two boys, but unfortunately had to separate them as they did have a few 'niggles' with each other. But we had the cage divided and they could talk and smell each other, which they loved. Also had them out supervised for playtime together. Enjoy your piggies :-* :-* Let us know and hopefully we can see piccies too :)
 
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