Sanderling
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello, this is my first post on the guinea pig forum!
I adopted two guinea pigs from an acquaintance last Sunday. I wasn't expecting to get guinea pigs any time soon, although I had always wanted them!
I really just wanted to check that I am doing the right thing, and if anyone has any tips for a newbie.
First I'll introduce the piggies! They are brothers and I have named them Machu and Picchu after the south american ruins. They are about 2 years old. They came in the smallest hutch I had ever seen and had been living outside all winter they had never been properly tamed (how would you tame a guinea pig in such a tiny cage?) So the first thing I did was make them a cage indoors.
(1) The cage is made from plywood (is this OK for guinea pigs?) nailed together. It is only just over 3 feet by 2 feet which is quite small for two boars but it is bigger than their hutch and I am in the process of building an extra floor. I'm afraid it's the best I can do for the moment but I am planning to extend it in the near future.
(2) for bedding I am using newspaper covering the lino floor with a little easibed to absorb their pee and then hay covering this. They have two igloos so that they have a choice of where to sleep.
(3) for food they get one cup of veg in the morning and one cup of veg in the afternoon/evening, including bell pepper, celery, romaine lettuce, cucumber, parsley, and sometimes a little broccoli, tomato, carrot, etc. They also get a cup of burgess excel pellets a day which I have slowly been changing to from a wagg muesli. They have an unlimited supply of meadow hay which is refreshed daily. Is this OK? Should I be providing more/less of anything?
(4) for toys they have toilet tubes stuffed with hay, a cardboard box, a willow ball, a hanging chew toy and a corn rattle roller thing. Also some gnaw sticks. They didn't have any toys when I got them so I think they have taken to these quite quickly.
(5) I clean out their water bottle daily.
(6) they were extremely shy when I got them and I was expecting it to be at least 3 to 5 weeks before they would be eating out my hand and letting me stroke them but it hasn't even been a week and they let me stroke them today which I was amazed by! So I seem to be doing OK when if comes to taming them! machu also started to lick my fingers which I think is a good sign? They both continued chewing when I was stroking them, rather than freezing, so I took that to be a good sign too.
(7) they have not been taken out for any excersise outside their cage yet because I could tell it would freak them out and I would lose their trust, so as soon as I feel they are confident enough and have learnt to trust me I will begin to bring them out for excersise.
Is there anything else I need to think about/am doing wrong? I'm very new to all this and I just want the best for my guinea pigs!
Thank you on advance.
I adopted two guinea pigs from an acquaintance last Sunday. I wasn't expecting to get guinea pigs any time soon, although I had always wanted them!
I really just wanted to check that I am doing the right thing, and if anyone has any tips for a newbie.
First I'll introduce the piggies! They are brothers and I have named them Machu and Picchu after the south american ruins. They are about 2 years old. They came in the smallest hutch I had ever seen and had been living outside all winter they had never been properly tamed (how would you tame a guinea pig in such a tiny cage?) So the first thing I did was make them a cage indoors.
(1) The cage is made from plywood (is this OK for guinea pigs?) nailed together. It is only just over 3 feet by 2 feet which is quite small for two boars but it is bigger than their hutch and I am in the process of building an extra floor. I'm afraid it's the best I can do for the moment but I am planning to extend it in the near future.
(2) for bedding I am using newspaper covering the lino floor with a little easibed to absorb their pee and then hay covering this. They have two igloos so that they have a choice of where to sleep.
(3) for food they get one cup of veg in the morning and one cup of veg in the afternoon/evening, including bell pepper, celery, romaine lettuce, cucumber, parsley, and sometimes a little broccoli, tomato, carrot, etc. They also get a cup of burgess excel pellets a day which I have slowly been changing to from a wagg muesli. They have an unlimited supply of meadow hay which is refreshed daily. Is this OK? Should I be providing more/less of anything?
(4) for toys they have toilet tubes stuffed with hay, a cardboard box, a willow ball, a hanging chew toy and a corn rattle roller thing. Also some gnaw sticks. They didn't have any toys when I got them so I think they have taken to these quite quickly.
(5) I clean out their water bottle daily.
(6) they were extremely shy when I got them and I was expecting it to be at least 3 to 5 weeks before they would be eating out my hand and letting me stroke them but it hasn't even been a week and they let me stroke them today which I was amazed by! So I seem to be doing OK when if comes to taming them! machu also started to lick my fingers which I think is a good sign? They both continued chewing when I was stroking them, rather than freezing, so I took that to be a good sign too.
(7) they have not been taken out for any excersise outside their cage yet because I could tell it would freak them out and I would lose their trust, so as soon as I feel they are confident enough and have learnt to trust me I will begin to bring them out for excersise.
Is there anything else I need to think about/am doing wrong? I'm very new to all this and I just want the best for my guinea pigs!
Thank you on advance.