New owner advice

[Bexie1]

Hi everyone, I just adopted my two boys (approximately 4 months old) and just wanted some advice on their current setup and routine.

setup
They have the pets at home blossom guinea pig hutch
Hutch
First floor, I cover the floor with newspaper, in the bedroom they have fleece blankets and 2 snug houses on top, on the other side I give them a pile of hay (meadow at the moment)

Ground floor is a run, I have puppy pads as the base layer on the paving and bath mats on top, they have 2 igloos, 2 large hay trays, 2 food bowls, 2 water bottles (attached to the outside of the hutch with the nozzles pointing inside) 2 play tunnels, and a willow tunnel.

any advice or does that sound good?

Routine.
Daily -
Spot clean poops.
Replace all hay in trays (not sure if I should be throwing it out daily or just topping up, advice would be appreciated)
Clean out food bowls and replace with their guinea pig nuggets.
Empty, rinse and refill water bottles
Sweep upstairs replacing all hay, newspaper and blankets.

weekly -
Empty hutch, replacing puppy pads and bath mats on the ground.
Disinfect upstairs and replace bedding again.
Scrub out water bottles.
Wash hay trays and bowls and replace these with fresh hay and water
Inspect toys and tunnels for damage.

is there anything that I’m missing or could be done better?

also I give them a bowl each with fresh greens (kale or spinach usually) and a different veggie each evening (pepper, cucumber, celery, carrots) any advice on this?

they are still nervous so while I’m doing their daily chores I chat to them calmly and I’ve taught my daughter to do the same, occasionally stroking their heads if they will allow.

any advice on any of this is greatly appreciated as this is my first time with piggies and I want to make them as happy as possible.

Thankyou in advance

 

[Hope4gem]

Welcome to the forum! It's great that you're trying to give your piggies a good home. You've come to the right place. We're all about piggies here! Most of your questions can be answered by reading the guides that I'll link here...
Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides
Diet Guides
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Please give the guides a read. It's also recommended to have new piggies checked by a piggy savvy vet just to make sure they're in good health.

 

[Siikibam]

Hi and

I’m sorry to start with the bad but unfortunately that hutch is too small for them. As they are ground roaming animals, they need their minimum space requirements met on one floor. This goes for the space they are closed into overnight. Boars need a 6ft (180x60cm) hutch or 150x60cm at a the very minimum. I’m not sure that the upstairs area meets that size requirements.

Your cleaning schedule sounds fine. Do you change the upstairs blanket daily? Yoo may be able to leave it for 4-5 days before you do so, if you use puppy pads underneath rather than newspaper. If they’re living outside in winter, you will not be able to use fleece/blankets when it gets cold. They won’t dry properly so you’ll have to use disposable bedding. There are plenty of options and I’ll link to the bedding thread below.

With regards food. Pellets should be kept to a minimum of 1 tablespoon per pig per day. Hay makes up the largest part of their diet so hay, hay and more hay is best. If you give them too many pellets (and veg), they won’t eat enough.

Spinach and kale are too high in calcium to be fed more than once a week. It’s also better if you only feed one of them a week if you really want to. Spinach should be max two leaves each. Carrots and fruits are also too high in sugar to be fed regularly. So they should be an occasional treat. Citrus fruits and tomatoes can cause mouth sores.

Veg that you can give daily is cucumber, lettuce (not iceberg), green bean, coriander and bell pepper. The last two are good sources of vitamin c.

They don’t need toys. They’d be pretty happy with a cardboard box (two exits cut in) or something like a tube or carrot cottage. I think your main priority right now is to get them bigger housing. They are just at the start of their teens (4-14 months) and the hormone surges and general hormonal teen behaviour can test even the best of bonds. Not having enough space to get away from each other can also cause issues. I’ll link to a hutch thread below for you to have a look at as well.

Otherwise we’d love to see photos of your boys, if you want to post photos. We always welcome newbies to start a thread for their piggy updates etc

When you bring them home, it’s always best to give them one week to settle in. Once that is passed, you can hen start their weekly weighing as part of their ongoing health monitoring. They make take time to get used to you. Patience is key and also knowing theg may never like being cuddled. Most don’t like being picked up but you can ‘teach’ them to get into a carrier/box etc to take them out their cage.

Please make sure that the hutch is secure at night. I would also - when you buy another - buy covers for it. Thermal and waterproof.

It would also be a good idea to book your piggies in for a health check with an experienced veg in a weeks’ time. I’ve linked to recommended vets below.

I’ll link to some guides below for you. I’m sorry if it’s a lot but it’s too much to repeat here. Hope I haven’t put you off
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
New Owners' Most Helpful How-To Guides and Information
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pigs Safely
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering And Cuddling Tips

Recommended Guinea Pig Vets
A Comprehensive Guide to Guinea Pig Boars
Boars: Teenage, Bullying, Fighting, Fall-outs And What Next?
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Member Gallery: Hutches

 

[Piggies&buns]

Congratulations on your boys! Do share pictures of them with us if you would like!

We are a very friendly forum and are more than happy to help whenever it’s needed!

I do agree with everything @Siikibam has said.

The hutch is vey pretty but I’m afraid it’s not big enough, particularly for a pair of teenage boars. Keeping boars in a space which is less than the recommended 12 square feet can cause problems. A hutch they are locked into really needs to be 180x60 (6ft x 2ft). 5ft x 2ft at a minimum but in my experience, that isn’t ideal depending on the piggies in question. Mine started in a 5ft space but were upgraded within weeks. Also, the ramp up makes the floor space of the hutch area even smaller.
The downstairs run space provides 16 square feet which is great for two boars, but given they cannot have access to it 24/7 if they are outside, then I’m afraid it doesn’t count. It may be possible to use this blossom hutch as a daytime run space in the summer but have a separate 6ft hutch to lock them into at night and for winter if they are remaining outside year round. if they are to stay outside year round, then having bigger hutch definitely by the time winter gets here will be important, given they wont be able to come outside for run time much beyond September/October time. They also cannot be brought inside during winter for playtime and to stretch their legs (if they are to live outside) as the sudden change in temperature from inside to outside can make them poorly. Giving them the extra hutch space will be necessary for the sake of their bond.

Also, pets at home hutches generally speaking don’t do very well long term. I’ve got one outside which is used as a shelter for my rabbits. It has only been moved outside a year (was originally in my piggy shed so not exposed to any weather so was still pretty much as new) and is already showing signs of deterioration.

My two boys live in my shed, they have a 6ft hutch in there also. September to April they are bedded everywhere on aubiose, megazorb or shavings topped with absolutely tonnes of hay for warmth (along with multiple other warming methods!). In the summer months, their hutch remains as aubiose/hay but I sometimes use fleece in the shed floor (on top of puppy pads) to save on bedding costs. This can only be used in summer though. If it is a damp summer, then fleece won’t be suitable. Fleece can wick moisture from the air and then will remain wet.

You may need to keep a close eye if you are using pigloos. As they tend to be enclosed one exit hideys this can cause problems for boars. It’s best to only use tunnels or hides with two exits. This means no piggy can get cornered inside it. if one feels trapped by the other, then defensive wounds can occur.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

Good that you are making sure that you are doing everything right.

Your cleaning routine is fine.

Please read up on our diet recommendations (the mainstay of a piggy diet is grass hay and fresh grass when in season (although the latter needs to be carefully introduced; veg and fresh herbs as well as 1 tablespoon of pellets only filly the supplementary niche that wild forage used to have; stay off too much fruit and root veg, including carrots - they are like feeding a bar of chocolate). A good diet can make a real difference in long term general health and can push the healthy average lifespan from the lower to the upper end.
I would also recommend to conduct a life-long weekly health monitoring check.

The one potentially life-saving point that has not yet been touched upon is climate protection. Hot weather can - and sadly does - kill and hutches and runs can all too easily turn into death traps. For the winter, you need to either bring your piggies under cover or indoors; frosty night/large temperature swings - including day/night swings, storms and heavy rainfall will also continue to become a bigger problem as the climate continues to change and continues to veer towards extremes in all directions.
Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike
Cold Weather Care For Guinea Pigs

If you haven't got any piggies, please also consider where you want to get them from and how best to go about it in order to avoid the usual pitfalls that await the unwary as much as possible:
Rescues, shops, breeders or online? - What to consider when getting guinea pigs
Boars, sows or mixed pairs; babies or adults?
Children And Guinea Pigs - A Guide For Parents

PS: Here is the link to our comprehensive New Owners information collection. All the links in this section can be found in there plus many more that touch on other practical aspects, like making friends, understanding guinea pig behaviour and learning what is normal and what not, as well as how spot illness early on and how soon to see a vet plus vet information. You may want to bookmark the link, browse, read and re-read at need: Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides

Please don't be daunted. We are doing our best to help you have the best start possible and avoid any longer term problems that can be easily prevented, like fights/fall-outs because of lack of space, deaths due to lack of weather protection, how to avoid blind jumps/fall injuries etc. - even if it can be a bit overwhelming at first. Just work through it. The information resource link is helpful for looking up points later again when they become relevant but all that new information has turned into a bit of mush. We have tried to make the guides as practical, precise and easy to follow as possible.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Yes, as wiebke has said, outside in summer can be as problematic as winter. Mine live in my shed so I find Keeping them warm in winter easier as the shed itself offers a great amount of protection. Mind, with that said, my extensive measures did fail last winter due to the extreme cold and they had to move indoors. It’s actually summer which I find hardest as hutches and sheds get hot. Mine move indoors during the height of summer to protect them from it, only being allowed lawn time during the coolest parts of the day.

 

[weepweeps]

Hello and welcome to the forum