1 Week In - How Is My Setup?

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Mogwai

New Born Pup
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We've got 2 female piggies housed indoors in the PAH Rose Cottage hutch. It has an enclosed 'bedroom' upstairs plus an open area and a run downstairs.

I lined the floor with newspapers, then put in 2-3 cm of wood shavings, another house, cardboard tube and a few rattan balls to play with.

I bought a kitten litter tray into which I put about 2-3cm of litter (from my free PAH pack). I put this in their bedroom and put a good lot of hay on top.
I also bought a corner litter tray (filled with the same as above) which I put in one corner of the run where there were a lot of poos.
I also got a trial pack of soft white paper bedding - not sure where to use this as I read they like to sleep on and burrow into big bunches of hay.

I tried putting some soiled wood shavings and poos into the corner litter tray, but they don't seem to use it at all. They are just peeing and pooing everywhere.

Doing spot cleans 2 or 3 times a day. Going to clean out the whole thing tomorrow as that will have been 1 week.

Piggies are skittish (to be expected) but seem content to be handled. They sit quietly and occasionally do a bit of exploring. When put on the floor, they run around squeaking and popcorning (one more than the other).

Feeding them lots of hay, PAH nuggets with handfuls of curly kale and baby spinach. They like carrot, but left the celery and cherry tomatoes. They have a hay rack downstairs and a water bottle (with vit-c additive) on both levels.

I'll post photos asap -would've been quicker then describing it!
 
How lovely..my piggies just pee and poop everywhere lol, haven't even bothered trying to litter train, as long as they are happy and healthy I don't care. personlly I would swap the carrot, kale and spinach to treats as apposed to their daily veg as they have a high content of various vitamins etc which isn't too good for them. But I'm no expert just what I've learned from others here :-) I look forward to seeing pictures!
 
They need a slice of bell pepper every day for the vitamin c, they can't process their own.There are veg guides somewhere
 
Hey there!
The following link sums up the forum guides amongst the forum.
" Starter Kit" Of Information Threads For New Owners

Regarding veg, please read the diet thread above, curly kale and baby spinach shouldn't really be fed everyday, nor carrots. You can feed celery, bell peppers (remove any seeds first), cucumber, coriander each day as they are low in calcium. And you can mix in other foods to add to the staple foods. Fruit should be given as a treat, along with tomatoes.

Regarding Vitamin C, putting probiotic powder in the water doesn't do anything for them, it simply disintegrates. Your sows should get enough vitamin C from their vegetables :)
 
Hiya and :wel:!

I Can't wait to see pics of your hutch! ( I have the same one for two sows but it is in a garage. )

For bedding I put back2nature in the litter tray, non pets@home meadow hay in the sleeping area and easibed in the living areas.

Wood shavings can be dusty and give guinea pigs problems which is why I don't use them. Guinea pigs can't be properly litter trained. I place my pound land cat litter tray in between the ladder and bottom left hand corner on the bottom level of my pets@home rose cottage!

For food I give my piggies unlimited Alfalfa king Timothy hay from pets@home. They have water with NO vitamin c powder.
They also get a handful of selective nuggets in the morning along with a Hanful of kale/salad/spring greens. They get a tiny bit of carrot/apple/pepper/spinach/celery ... for lunch and salad/kale/spring greens for tea!

The others have given you all the other info you need! :)

I hope this helps!
 
Hi and welcome.

It can be slightly confusing when it comes to feeding (I'm still confused now). Have a look at the link below, it had a list of foods that can be fed daily etc. I wouldn't recommend giving things like Kale, broccoli daily because of the calcium content, but it tells you on the list anyway :D I always refer to it when I get a bit stuck.

What Can Guinea Pigs Eat? – The Guinea Pig Safe Food List
 
Thanks for the information on kale and spinach, folks.
I'm sure I read in a guide/blog/forum about kale being ok, but I don't think it mentioned about the calcium levels.

I've given them nuggets, a slice of bell pepper each and some cucumber each. I'll give them kale and spinach once or twice a week from now on (it was a great excuse for getting my two wee daughters to eat some kale and spinach, as they wanted to be like the guinea pigs!)

I feel a bit conned about buying the Vit-C supplement from PAH, but I'll chalk that one up to experience.
 
@Mogwai pets at home always push the probiotic vitamin c trick, adding it in water. We bought it, but never used it as I didn't think it would do any good. It's useful to keep on hand though if your piggy is having antibiotics, or going through times of stress to give the piggy a little boost :)
 
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