Sue_P
Teenage Guinea Pig
I got myself two guinea pigs on Sunday but after being picked on last week I didn’t do no more research, I just ran away and cried so now I’ve got my guinea pigs and I have lots of unanswered questions. If I don’t get banned can some nice people here try and teach me about how to look after them please cos I don’t really know what I’m doing.
Here’s my questions…..
1.) Do very loud ticking clocks annoy guinea pigs? There’s a noisy one in the guinea pigs’ room, it didn’t bother Henry because he had very bad hearing.
2.) I’ve put a sheet of lino down in one part of the guinea pigs’ pen like lovelygirl suggested cos they’re weeing heaps and I didn’t want my laminate flooring ruining. The rest of the pen has cardboard as a bottom layer and on top of that I’ve laid newspaper everywhere and on top of the lino. Then a bit of hay in places. Do guinea pigs defo not burrow? Do I not have to worry about them getting trapped under the large sheets of cardboard ever? Does that ever happen? Do they try and slip themselves under sheets of cardboard and lino? I guess it don’t matter if they dig under and bury under the newspaper but I don’t want them hurting themselves under bulky sheets of cardboard. & what about beach towels? Can they get in a mess in them and get lost and stuck and stressed cos they can’t find their way out? I ain’t put a towel down yet but I might in an area where they don’t pee. I’ve decided I don’t wanna wash towels all the time.
3.) Is newspaper and hay like I’ve got good? Should I get some of that greyish papery stuff I’ve seen in a pet shop as well?
4.) My mum says she can make her own hay by drying out lawn trimmings. Is dry normal lawn trimmings just the same as hay?
5.) The lady at the rescue centre gave a list of guinea pig info to me and it says some food they eat. I gave Henry and Bunny leafbeat (spinach beat), this stuff….
all the time and they loved it. I gave the guinea pigs a leaf of it this morning, is leafbeat cool for guinea pigs to eat cos it ain’t on my list of foods?
6.) What about blackberries and plums? They’re not on the list either and I can get my hands on them for free so I'd like to feed them it.
7.) Do guinea pigs climb on cardboard boxes? There was a load of hay on top of their oak box the other day and I figured they might have been up on it but I ain’t seen them climb before, they don’t have right long legs, can they climb up high things? & can they get down OK, do they ever get injured jumping off things like that?
8.) I ain’t held my guinea pigs yet, I read somewhere that you wasn’t supposed to in the first few days (although I may have been confused with rabbits, I’ve read lots of info recently, too much to take in). But how I am supposed to grab them cos they’re like missiles when spooked. Should I trick them like I did with Henry? Henry never liked being handled and the only way to grab him was to pretend I wasn’t going to so I could get near him and then just pounce when he was least expecting it. If he was onto me I’d have to chase him around the pen and try and corner him, one trick I used was to flip a getaway hole in a box over so he didn’t have no where to run and then graple with him. It was mean but sometimes I had to pick him up for medication and taking him to the vets and stuff. He was hard to handle cos he was so strong, the vet handled him wrong once and made his lip bleed cos he ended up above her head and scratched her in her face. So what do you do with guinea pigs, corner them or pounce when they’re not expecting it?
9.) Also do guinea pigs have to remain upright at all times? I found it easier to hold Henry on his back cos if I did it the proper way with him resting on my chest then he’d have jumped up over my shoulder and fly in the air (like what happened with the vet). Are guinea pigs not designed to be turned on their backs? What about for inspecting their bottoms and tummies and cutting their claws?
10.) Out of curiosity do they blink?
11.) My mum got a caring for rabbits book on the weekend and in that it says that oak is bad for bunnies. I had an oak box with Henry and it didn’t do him no harm. Are some woods not good for guinea pigs? Is it only bad for them if they eat it? It don’t effect them if they’re just in the same room as it does it?
12.) What are signs of fighting? Is it them having a face-off? Cos my two did that and seemed tetchy. It was when I was feeding them for the first time, it was like they were fighting over the food. They was probably stressed cos it was a new environment too. I’ve been cutting vegetables and fruit into smaller pieces now so that they don’t try and pinch the others huge chunk from their mouth.
13.) Does the flash of cameras hurt their eyes?
14.) Can you feed them too much grass? They well dig it so I’ve given them lots but is it bad for them in high quantities, can you give them too much? Also I read in the rabbit book that you’re not supposed to give bunnies lawn trimmings (I think it meant oldish ones) cos they can begin to go funny quick. In winter I picked Henry a weeks worth of grass and dished it out throughout the week and restocked on the weekends when I wasn’t working cos I couldn’t go grass picking at night or early mornings (where I get it from is locked up). I kept it in my hut and it always looked OK and kept fresh looking and he really liked it. When winter arrives again is it fine to stock up like that or shall I just not bother giving them grass during the week?
15.) My guinea pigs seem to spend a lot of time hiding under their boxes when I’m not about, is that normal when they’re got a big pen to play in? & how come they wanna pee where they snuggle up? That seems unhygienic, ain’t they uncomfy with that? Oh and the lady at the rescue centre said I should take away their cover so that they can get sociable quicker. She says she don’t put hidey holes in her hutches so that they don’t hide all the time and can be more friendly with humans. I ignored what she said and gave them places to hide cos I thought if I was scared and went somewhere new I’d wanna hide, I didn’t want to make them scared. Should I take away more cover though or do you recommend more places for them to play in? Mind you I found them peeing under all cover so I have actually taken out a table they’d hide under so I don’t have to clean up as much.
16.) My guinea pigs took a while to show an interest in drinking. I dunno if that was cos they were confused and didn’t know where the spout was or not cos my pen ain’t a hutch like they’re used to and I didn’t know if it was cos I had the water bottle at the wrong height. Yesterday I kept moving it up and down trying to figure out what height is best for them. Slowly they’re interested in it but don’t spend long trying to get water. I don’t know if that’s cos they can’t get their gobs around it or if guinea pigs don’t drink as much as bunnies. I’ve got an expensive non-drip water bottle which has a wider nossle than the bog standard ones, I can’t remember what the packaging said on it cos I got it for Henry ages back, do you reckon it’s too big for guinea pigs?
17.) Lastly I swear the one with bald ears looks different to a week ago, it ain’t got bald ears no more for a start and it’s legs look fine. It does scratch from time to time though. The lady at the rescue centre gave me some medication to put in the water which she said was to avoid them getting mites cos she says they’ve had it in the past and that moving home can make them stressed and bring it on. Do you reckon she was flogging an ill guinea pig? Do you reckon he's just getting over having mites?
Here’s my questions…..
1.) Do very loud ticking clocks annoy guinea pigs? There’s a noisy one in the guinea pigs’ room, it didn’t bother Henry because he had very bad hearing.
2.) I’ve put a sheet of lino down in one part of the guinea pigs’ pen like lovelygirl suggested cos they’re weeing heaps and I didn’t want my laminate flooring ruining. The rest of the pen has cardboard as a bottom layer and on top of that I’ve laid newspaper everywhere and on top of the lino. Then a bit of hay in places. Do guinea pigs defo not burrow? Do I not have to worry about them getting trapped under the large sheets of cardboard ever? Does that ever happen? Do they try and slip themselves under sheets of cardboard and lino? I guess it don’t matter if they dig under and bury under the newspaper but I don’t want them hurting themselves under bulky sheets of cardboard. & what about beach towels? Can they get in a mess in them and get lost and stuck and stressed cos they can’t find their way out? I ain’t put a towel down yet but I might in an area where they don’t pee. I’ve decided I don’t wanna wash towels all the time.
3.) Is newspaper and hay like I’ve got good? Should I get some of that greyish papery stuff I’ve seen in a pet shop as well?
4.) My mum says she can make her own hay by drying out lawn trimmings. Is dry normal lawn trimmings just the same as hay?
5.) The lady at the rescue centre gave a list of guinea pig info to me and it says some food they eat. I gave Henry and Bunny leafbeat (spinach beat), this stuff….
all the time and they loved it. I gave the guinea pigs a leaf of it this morning, is leafbeat cool for guinea pigs to eat cos it ain’t on my list of foods?
6.) What about blackberries and plums? They’re not on the list either and I can get my hands on them for free so I'd like to feed them it.
7.) Do guinea pigs climb on cardboard boxes? There was a load of hay on top of their oak box the other day and I figured they might have been up on it but I ain’t seen them climb before, they don’t have right long legs, can they climb up high things? & can they get down OK, do they ever get injured jumping off things like that?
8.) I ain’t held my guinea pigs yet, I read somewhere that you wasn’t supposed to in the first few days (although I may have been confused with rabbits, I’ve read lots of info recently, too much to take in). But how I am supposed to grab them cos they’re like missiles when spooked. Should I trick them like I did with Henry? Henry never liked being handled and the only way to grab him was to pretend I wasn’t going to so I could get near him and then just pounce when he was least expecting it. If he was onto me I’d have to chase him around the pen and try and corner him, one trick I used was to flip a getaway hole in a box over so he didn’t have no where to run and then graple with him. It was mean but sometimes I had to pick him up for medication and taking him to the vets and stuff. He was hard to handle cos he was so strong, the vet handled him wrong once and made his lip bleed cos he ended up above her head and scratched her in her face. So what do you do with guinea pigs, corner them or pounce when they’re not expecting it?
9.) Also do guinea pigs have to remain upright at all times? I found it easier to hold Henry on his back cos if I did it the proper way with him resting on my chest then he’d have jumped up over my shoulder and fly in the air (like what happened with the vet). Are guinea pigs not designed to be turned on their backs? What about for inspecting their bottoms and tummies and cutting their claws?
10.) Out of curiosity do they blink?
11.) My mum got a caring for rabbits book on the weekend and in that it says that oak is bad for bunnies. I had an oak box with Henry and it didn’t do him no harm. Are some woods not good for guinea pigs? Is it only bad for them if they eat it? It don’t effect them if they’re just in the same room as it does it?
12.) What are signs of fighting? Is it them having a face-off? Cos my two did that and seemed tetchy. It was when I was feeding them for the first time, it was like they were fighting over the food. They was probably stressed cos it was a new environment too. I’ve been cutting vegetables and fruit into smaller pieces now so that they don’t try and pinch the others huge chunk from their mouth.
13.) Does the flash of cameras hurt their eyes?
14.) Can you feed them too much grass? They well dig it so I’ve given them lots but is it bad for them in high quantities, can you give them too much? Also I read in the rabbit book that you’re not supposed to give bunnies lawn trimmings (I think it meant oldish ones) cos they can begin to go funny quick. In winter I picked Henry a weeks worth of grass and dished it out throughout the week and restocked on the weekends when I wasn’t working cos I couldn’t go grass picking at night or early mornings (where I get it from is locked up). I kept it in my hut and it always looked OK and kept fresh looking and he really liked it. When winter arrives again is it fine to stock up like that or shall I just not bother giving them grass during the week?
15.) My guinea pigs seem to spend a lot of time hiding under their boxes when I’m not about, is that normal when they’re got a big pen to play in? & how come they wanna pee where they snuggle up? That seems unhygienic, ain’t they uncomfy with that? Oh and the lady at the rescue centre said I should take away their cover so that they can get sociable quicker. She says she don’t put hidey holes in her hutches so that they don’t hide all the time and can be more friendly with humans. I ignored what she said and gave them places to hide cos I thought if I was scared and went somewhere new I’d wanna hide, I didn’t want to make them scared. Should I take away more cover though or do you recommend more places for them to play in? Mind you I found them peeing under all cover so I have actually taken out a table they’d hide under so I don’t have to clean up as much.
16.) My guinea pigs took a while to show an interest in drinking. I dunno if that was cos they were confused and didn’t know where the spout was or not cos my pen ain’t a hutch like they’re used to and I didn’t know if it was cos I had the water bottle at the wrong height. Yesterday I kept moving it up and down trying to figure out what height is best for them. Slowly they’re interested in it but don’t spend long trying to get water. I don’t know if that’s cos they can’t get their gobs around it or if guinea pigs don’t drink as much as bunnies. I’ve got an expensive non-drip water bottle which has a wider nossle than the bog standard ones, I can’t remember what the packaging said on it cos I got it for Henry ages back, do you reckon it’s too big for guinea pigs?
17.) Lastly I swear the one with bald ears looks different to a week ago, it ain’t got bald ears no more for a start and it’s legs look fine. It does scratch from time to time though. The lady at the rescue centre gave me some medication to put in the water which she said was to avoid them getting mites cos she says they’ve had it in the past and that moving home can make them stressed and bring it on. Do you reckon she was flogging an ill guinea pig? Do you reckon he's just getting over having mites?
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