Need Advice For Leaving Piggies For First Time! Please Help!

[Lymaine]

hello all!
This sounds silly I know but my hubby and I are worried about leaving our guinea pigs when we go on holiday in June. We have had pigs before but they lived outside and were quite grumpy and liked to be left alone. These two live indoors in a c&c cage on fleece and are very tame and friendly (they follow me around when they are loose in the kitchen!). My sister in law has always looked after our pets before but like I said, the other two lived outdoors in a large hutch on wood shavings. As these two are indoors and on fleece, they are spot cleaned twice a day, fully cleaned out twice a week and fed twice a day! However, my sister in law will only be able to come once a day which I know is adequate for their needs and we will only be away one week but we are worried about our babies! Hubs even said we shouldn’t go away in case they miss us!
My sister in law is more than happy to look after them and of course she will spot clean once a day, feed and refresh water and hay once a day but I’m thinking... we can’t expect her to do all the extras we do... weigh in, feeding at exact times etc... do we need to be concerned about that? Also, do you think we should put them on wood shavings for that week as they have a tendency to go under the fleece which of course makes cleaning harder! Oh wow they are spoilt lol
Any help or advice is appreciated!

 

[Merab]

My girls don’t get fed at exact times any day - it’s roughly morning sometime between 7:00 and 8:30 then again mid to late afternoon. If I’m around during the day they get a bit extra.
The friend who piggy sits when we’re away sometimes can’t make it in twice a day.
The piggies survive.
Missing a werk’s weigh won’t matter unless you have a sick piggy.
Go and enjoy your holiday.
Hope you’re going somewhere nice

 

[Jess565]

I have just come back from my holiday and my mum was my pig sitter. I worried about how our fleece would cope as I spot clean daily and clean out every three days! My mum is scared of the pigs so could not touch them to clean them out but they were fine and just had to be stinky abit longer than usual. I also left instructions for adding hay and food, I even made up salad for each day. I find it hard to let go but it's good to have a break once I'm there

 

[Merab]

Hope you had a good holiday- the piggies sound as if they survived ok

 

[Lymaine]

I have just come back from my holiday and my mum was my pig sitter. I worried about how our fleece would cope as I spot clean daily and clean out every three days! My mum is scared of the pigs so could not touch them to clean them out but they were fine and just had to be stinky abit longer than usual. I also left instructions for adding hay and food, I even made up salad for each day. I find it hard to let go but it's good to have a break once I'm there

Thank you. We have booked the holiday and my sister in law is coming over before hand to receive instructions! I’ll also clean them out fully on the day we go and the day we return and ask her to change the puppy pads a couple of times. She even offered to have them in her house but I think that might stress them out more.

 

[Betsy]

I'm lucky as when I go on holiday my neighbours over the road are often around and they used to breed piggies. If they aren't around my other neighbour feeds them with strict instructions. My 5 piggies live in a hutch in the back garden and aren't cleaned out while we are away and they survive. They normally live on newspaper and loads of hay but when we are away I put aubiose on top of the paper underneath the hay for more absorbency. Don't worry about your piggie sitter doing stuff differently to you just be pleased you have somebody who is willing to do it for you!