New guinea pig owner

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Natalie B

New Born Pup
Joined
Sep 6, 2021
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Location
Bedfordshire
I am after a little bit of advice. On Sunday I was lucky enough to offer a new home to two beautiful 2 year old girls and I'm in love already. They are indoors and seem to be settling in quickly. They don't particularly run and hide when we enter the room and talk away to us including a few high pitch squeals 1st thing in the morning whilst we feed them their vegetables. My question is would it be too early to pop them in their playpen on Saturday so I can clean their cage out? They are already happy to be hand fed.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. 😃 Can’t wait to pictures of your lovely girls if you’d like to share.
 
Do your girls come from a known background? Shelter? Friend? Rescue?

I rescued my fellas from a shelter. My boys took longer than that to welcome me. My guys are still very skittish even with me.

I had my guys out within a week however you will have to see how they like to be transported. My boys don’t like carriers or being picked up.

Cannot wait to see pictures of them! Welcome!
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Your piggies are beautiful. :luv:
 
Thank you everyone, they really are lovely. I am still slightly nervous that I am not doing things right as I have never owned a guinea pig before. I did do loads of reading before hand but I have found different books say different things 🙄. This forum is brilliant though.
One very silly question I have is how many food bowls would you have in their cage? I feel I am putting too many in there a taking up their room.
 
:wel: your piggies are beautiful!

It's so lovely to see how much you care for them and are willing to do your research. This forum is fantastic and I've learnt so much over the years of keeping piggies.

Mine don't have food bowls as I don't feed pellets ad lib. They only have a small sprinkle of pellets once per day in their hay to encourage foraging behaviour. Have you had a look at the new owner guides? and the feeding guides etc?

Guinea Pig Care & Information Guides
 
I’m the same as Bradshaw Piggies.
I don’t use food bowls either. My boys get a large loose pile of hay (I don’t use hayracks either) and I simply throw their one tablespoon of pellets and their veg portion in the cage, amongst the hay etc - they get enrichment through foraging and have no need to bicker over food!

Generally though you need one of every item for each piggy.
 
One thing I would do is check they're both the same gender, of anything think of it as good practice for any future piggies you may have.

Regards to the playpen, follow their lead. If they're very confident pigs and will allow you to pick them up (or jump into a hide and pick them up that way) then you may be able to. If not, don't be too disheartened as this is as new to them as it is to you. Full cleans in the cage are easy. Make sure the pigs are at one end of the cage and start cleaning at the opposite side. Once you're 1/2 or 2/3 the way move them to the other side so you can complete the clean.

They look absolutely adorable. Welcome Biscuit and Oreo. Can't wait to hear more about you!

Bowls: if you use them then have one bowl per pig. Place them at least 1ft apart just in case they have an off day and don't want to share bowls. They may share the same bowl but don't remove the second. My boar pair (and sow pair) share everything but I still have 2 of everything just in case.
 
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