So, I joined the forum to search through all the advice and help, and have found more than I imagined! I've also felt a nice "community" feeling here, I already recognise a few of you, and your guinea pigs!
So I thought I'd tell my Guinea pigs' lives stories so you can get to know me! I'd also like to know any similar stories (which I have seen some of already, thank you for sharing!), and opinions as to what to do!
So, I've had guinea pigs as a child and loved them all! I went to uni and missed having their squeaks, so when me and my boyfriend moved into a large share-house together in our second year (last september) we both agreed to buy "a couple of females"... we looked around a few shops, and although we fell in love with them all, we saw Lucian... he was unusual looking (i think he's a teddy?) and much quieter than the others, in quite a large group he stuck to just chilling out in a corner, with a couple of the others, or by himself (we watched for a while)... We had researched introductions, as we weren't sure if we'd end up with one or two, and felt confident with later introducing a second.
Lucian (all grown up... can't find his baby pictures!) :
he settled right in, the first night we had him he came right over to the bars before we'd even offered food - he just liked company! On the second day we opened the lid and stroked him, to which he wasn't bothered, so we got him out for a cuddle, the next week went on like this, and often, we'd have him out on the floor in between us with the cage door open, and he'd hop back in for a wee, then hop back out to us!
He had plenty of cuddles and company, so we were happy that he was happy, until he started getting quiet (looking back, I think he was just growing out of popcorning a bit and getting more "sophisticated")
So, we went back to research, and continued as we were...
In feb, when shopping for some food for him we went to a shop we don't normally use, we saw Winston... he was by himself, in a hamster cage, with nothing to hide under or behind, with just a whole floppy-looking carrot in front of him... he was beautiful, even in this state! and I couldn't leave him there... we left the shop to discuss it outside and came up with an introduction plan, afterall, Lucian was chilled out with anything right?
We also agreed, if it didn't work out, we could take winston to a rescue - at least he would be kept in nicer conditions than at that pet store....
Winston (with a whole carrot, we thought he might feel at home with it!) :
we gave them a bath together, which shocked little winston a bit! and put them in a large run made from C&C on the spare bedroom floor - we moved it and changed it around from what Lucian had been in before, and had bought a second of everything lucian had.
This was taken as a "first encounter" photo:
Lucian was trying to lick winston through the bars - his nose, and down his body if winston laid down... we gave them some time together which wen treally well, they cuddled up together and lucian cleaned Winston. Lucian also seemed to let winston eat his "chew-poo" from his bum... winston was very... erm... excited... mounting lucian quite a lot.. poor lucian.. but this quickly died down!
we resisted the temptation to leave them together for too long, and split them for the night - only to come back to winston having jumped over the divider over night, but all was well and they were cuddling!
For a couple of months they lived happily:
but they started getting quite noisy, and lucian became very timid with us, even nipping us occasionally. I was going away for three weeks so left them in the charge of Craig, and in the end, he had to take the difficult decision to separate them - they'd been getting noisier and noisier and one morning he woke up and found lucian had lost some of his ear, and winston had a cut under his chin...
the cage they lived in was 2 storey, so separating them was, luckily, easy:
(it looks dark and gloomy there, but it's right opposite a window which they get light from all day long!)
now I'm at home for the summer, my mum has her own guineas, so has a set-up outside, which we adapted to give mine a turn outside, with a divider. there was a clear strip of grass that they'd eaten either side of the divider, and they'd often sleep next to one another, so me and mum thought maybe after another few months winston had grown up a bit and calmed down! We took the divider out, and there was a lot of mounting from winston, lucian seemed to ignore him completely and continue to graze!
after a few afternoons like this they were so settled together, so we put the two floors next to eachother on the floor inside, after a week or so we cleaned it completely, changed it around and opened up the middle grid. they got on really well, but we didn't leave them in together for too long, but never split them up completely, leaving them where they could see one another, and they would touch noses through the bars. We began leaving them for longer and longer and all was well...
then all of a sudden they had a fight and blood was everywhere! on closer inspection, it was just a cut on lucian's foot, which he's had to go on antibiotics for since it swelled up pretty bad... but still, I've seen in lots of places, if they draw blood, split them up! so I have, this is their current set-up:
but I think winston is stressed with lucian there, his fur looks chewed, which he can only have done himself, and he behaves so differently if i put him in his side, while lucian is out on the grass - as soon as lucian is there winston chews the bars and won't leave the divider... is he lonely? or defensive?
So, I love both my boys, but want the best for them... I don't have space for more guinea pigs (if I could have them neutered and get females) although when they were getting on better I was going to build a third, in-between floor, with a divider, so they could see eachother, or stick to their own floors...
Phew! so there's my guinea pigs! and the dilemma I now have! I hope you like the photos! but they don't show off winston's skirt at all... I'll have to do better in future!
So I thought I'd tell my Guinea pigs' lives stories so you can get to know me! I'd also like to know any similar stories (which I have seen some of already, thank you for sharing!), and opinions as to what to do!
So, I've had guinea pigs as a child and loved them all! I went to uni and missed having their squeaks, so when me and my boyfriend moved into a large share-house together in our second year (last september) we both agreed to buy "a couple of females"... we looked around a few shops, and although we fell in love with them all, we saw Lucian... he was unusual looking (i think he's a teddy?) and much quieter than the others, in quite a large group he stuck to just chilling out in a corner, with a couple of the others, or by himself (we watched for a while)... We had researched introductions, as we weren't sure if we'd end up with one or two, and felt confident with later introducing a second.
Lucian (all grown up... can't find his baby pictures!) :
he settled right in, the first night we had him he came right over to the bars before we'd even offered food - he just liked company! On the second day we opened the lid and stroked him, to which he wasn't bothered, so we got him out for a cuddle, the next week went on like this, and often, we'd have him out on the floor in between us with the cage door open, and he'd hop back in for a wee, then hop back out to us!
He had plenty of cuddles and company, so we were happy that he was happy, until he started getting quiet (looking back, I think he was just growing out of popcorning a bit and getting more "sophisticated")
So, we went back to research, and continued as we were...
In feb, when shopping for some food for him we went to a shop we don't normally use, we saw Winston... he was by himself, in a hamster cage, with nothing to hide under or behind, with just a whole floppy-looking carrot in front of him... he was beautiful, even in this state! and I couldn't leave him there... we left the shop to discuss it outside and came up with an introduction plan, afterall, Lucian was chilled out with anything right?
We also agreed, if it didn't work out, we could take winston to a rescue - at least he would be kept in nicer conditions than at that pet store....
Winston (with a whole carrot, we thought he might feel at home with it!) :
we gave them a bath together, which shocked little winston a bit! and put them in a large run made from C&C on the spare bedroom floor - we moved it and changed it around from what Lucian had been in before, and had bought a second of everything lucian had.
This was taken as a "first encounter" photo:
Lucian was trying to lick winston through the bars - his nose, and down his body if winston laid down... we gave them some time together which wen treally well, they cuddled up together and lucian cleaned Winston. Lucian also seemed to let winston eat his "chew-poo" from his bum... winston was very... erm... excited... mounting lucian quite a lot.. poor lucian.. but this quickly died down!
we resisted the temptation to leave them together for too long, and split them for the night - only to come back to winston having jumped over the divider over night, but all was well and they were cuddling!
For a couple of months they lived happily:
but they started getting quite noisy, and lucian became very timid with us, even nipping us occasionally. I was going away for three weeks so left them in the charge of Craig, and in the end, he had to take the difficult decision to separate them - they'd been getting noisier and noisier and one morning he woke up and found lucian had lost some of his ear, and winston had a cut under his chin...
the cage they lived in was 2 storey, so separating them was, luckily, easy:
(it looks dark and gloomy there, but it's right opposite a window which they get light from all day long!)
now I'm at home for the summer, my mum has her own guineas, so has a set-up outside, which we adapted to give mine a turn outside, with a divider. there was a clear strip of grass that they'd eaten either side of the divider, and they'd often sleep next to one another, so me and mum thought maybe after another few months winston had grown up a bit and calmed down! We took the divider out, and there was a lot of mounting from winston, lucian seemed to ignore him completely and continue to graze!
after a few afternoons like this they were so settled together, so we put the two floors next to eachother on the floor inside, after a week or so we cleaned it completely, changed it around and opened up the middle grid. they got on really well, but we didn't leave them in together for too long, but never split them up completely, leaving them where they could see one another, and they would touch noses through the bars. We began leaving them for longer and longer and all was well...
then all of a sudden they had a fight and blood was everywhere! on closer inspection, it was just a cut on lucian's foot, which he's had to go on antibiotics for since it swelled up pretty bad... but still, I've seen in lots of places, if they draw blood, split them up! so I have, this is their current set-up:
but I think winston is stressed with lucian there, his fur looks chewed, which he can only have done himself, and he behaves so differently if i put him in his side, while lucian is out on the grass - as soon as lucian is there winston chews the bars and won't leave the divider... is he lonely? or defensive?
So, I love both my boys, but want the best for them... I don't have space for more guinea pigs (if I could have them neutered and get females) although when they were getting on better I was going to build a third, in-between floor, with a divider, so they could see eachother, or stick to their own floors...
Phew! so there's my guinea pigs! and the dilemma I now have! I hope you like the photos! but they don't show off winston's skirt at all... I'll have to do better in future!
