Adopting 2 piggies, would love some advice and help!

Babble

Babble

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Hi all! I've come to this forum for some help as Reddit seems to not be giving me any atm! Also before I start I wish to inform you that I'm not the best at writing so this post will be in bullet points and straight to the point.
First off some info on my situation; I live in the UK, i also live with my parents still and I'm not the richest at the moment but this should be sorted within the month! I have owned 2 piggies in the past 5 years, one died and I'm left with a solo piggy for maybe about 1-2 years and she is still alive and well.

Current info i got on these 2 new piggies:
• Both are female and around 2-3 yrs old,
• They live in a 2 tier PetsAtHome cage, with sawdust shavings.
• Cage was very dirty when i went to see what they was living in.
• One is a White crested and the other looked like a Silkie.
• The White Crested has a large-ish mat on their back end, Will be sorted off right away.
• Unsure of what the Silkie is like atm but looked well cared for in terms of hair? not sure tho only had a glance.
• Was told they clipped their nails, groomed and bathed them on the regularly. Also stated that they are tame.

The plan I got currently:
The trip from my house to theirs is about 40 mins, we should be transporting them in a small pet carrier. They will be giving all their care supplies including the cage, I will be keeping their cage until i can afford a new one (hopefully should be by the end of the month), I will replace their bedding with IKEA Bathmats.
Once we are home, I plan on fully giving their cage a deep clean with warm soapy water. A few days after we will be going to a pet store to pick up some more hides and chews. I understand they will be stressed in their new environment so any taming or long extended contact will be left until they are settled! Hopefully, them hearing my other piggy will soothe their nerves slightly, i 100% wont be mixing my current pig with these 2 due to how large they are and how old my pig is.

The main thing I want help/advice with:
• How would you prepare for these piggies car trip? like should i bring veg/treat to give them on the way?
• I would love tips on how to maintain long hair piggies and bathe them, also what type of brushes would you recommend?
• Recommendations on semi-cheap but good quality items for a DIY Grid Cage (preferable off amazon).
• Tips on how to tame them (Owners say they are tame but just wanna make sure I gain their trust fully!).
• Would love to try them on a variety of new veg, just not sure what to get, any recommendation would be lovely! also would appreciate to know how often they can have it.
• Any recommendation on vitamin tablets? or like health supplements?
• Any other tips/advice you might think of would be lovely too <3

Any questions you have on the piggies I will try to answer the best i can! And thank you all for any help you give!
 
Welcome to the forum

You sound like you are planning well and doing your research.

In terms of the cage, it is a good idea to get them a new cage asap. Two tier is not the best way for them to live and it is likely the cage is small (potentially too small).

Songmics grids from Amazon are fine to use.

Make sure you single piggy lives beside the two new piggies so she can still interact between the bars with the new piggies.
If you choose not to bond them as a trio then that is absolutely fine - the interaction between the bars is enough for your current single sow. Physical size and age though are not factors in their own to discourage bonding. With their said Older sows can sometimes be more tricky to bond with new piggies.

In terms of the car trip, make sure there is hay in the carrier and you can add a couple of chunks of cucumber. However the fact is they are likely to be stressed and not eat anything anyway. 40 minutes isn’t that bad is a journey to be honest.

Veg. Safely daily veg are lettuce, bell pepper. Cucumber and coriander. Introduce any new veg very slowly and one at a time so you can ensure you don’t cause a digestive upset.

They do not need any vitamin supplements at all. It is not recommended to give any supplements unless medically advised to do so due to diagnosed deficiencies. Piggies get all they need from a healthy balanced diet.
No long term owners on this forum supplement routinely.

Lastly, it sounds as if they may be coming from
A private rehoming situation. If that is the case, then please go in with your eyes open. Private rehoming can come with risks of undisclosed health issues (people aren’t always honest about their reasons for rehoming) meaning you can be walking into an immediately expensive vet bill situation.
Do get them vet checked as soon as you can after bringing them home.
Don’t forget to carry out the all important weekly weight checks to ensure they are eating sufficient hay.

Guides and tips for all aspects are linked in below
New Owners' Essential Information and Practical Tips Starter Collection
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
An Illustrated Guide to Hair Cutting
 
Babble said:
Hi all! I've come to this forum for some help as Reddit seems to not be giving me any atm! Also before I start I wish to inform you that I'm not the best at writing so this post will be in bullet points and straight to the point.
First off some info on my situation; I live in the UK, i also live with my parents still and I'm not the richest at the moment but this should be sorted within the month! I have owned 2 piggies in the past 5 years, one died and I'm left with a solo piggy for maybe about 1-2 years and she is still alive and well.

Current info i got on these 2 new piggies:
• Both are female and around 2-3 yrs old,
• They live in a 2 tier PetsAtHome cage, with sawdust shavings.
• Cage was very dirty when i went to see what they was living in.
• One is a White crested and the other looked like a Silkie.
• The White Crested has a large-ish mat on their back end, Will be sorted off right away.
• Unsure of what the Silkie is like atm but looked well cared for in terms of hair? not sure tho only had a glance.
• Was told they clipped their nails, groomed and bathed them on the regularly. Also stated that they are tame.

The plan I got currently:
The trip from my house to theirs is about 40 mins, we should be transporting them in a small pet carrier. They will be giving all their care supplies including the cage, I will be keeping their cage until i can afford a new one (hopefully should be by the end of the month), I will replace their bedding with IKEA Bathmats.
Once we are home, I plan on fully giving their cage a deep clean with warm soapy water. A few days after we will be going to a pet store to pick up some more hides and chews. I understand they will be stressed in their new environment so any taming or long extended contact will be left until they are settled! Hopefully, them hearing my other piggy will soothe their nerves slightly, i 100% wont be mixing my current pig with these 2 due to how large they are and how old my pig is.

The main thing I want help/advice with:
• How would you prepare for these piggies car trip? like should i bring veg/treat to give them on the way?
• I would love tips on how to maintain long hair piggies and bathe them, also what type of brushes would you recommend?
• Recommendations on semi-cheap but good quality items for a DIY Grid Cage (preferable off amazon).
• Tips on how to tame them (Owners say they are tame but just wanna make sure I gain their trust fully!).
• Would love to try them on a variety of new veg, just not sure what to get, any recommendation would be lovely! also would appreciate to know how often they can have it.
• Any recommendation on vitamin tablets? or like health supplements?
• Any other tips/advice you might think of would be lovely too <3

Any questions you have on the piggies I will try to answer the best i can! And thank you all for any help you give!
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome

It is great that you are doing your research beforehand.

Please take the time to read our excellent guides with all the little practical how-to advice and in-depth information; you will find them very helpful because we cannot repeat all the details in every single post; that would take too much time. It is however exactly those little details where the devil usually sits in for any new owners.

You do not need any extra preparations for a 2 hour drive but a piece of cucumber (for thirst) and some soft meadow hay (for munching, comfort and snuggling into) may help.
Travelling with guinea pigs

What you need to be aware of when rehoming privately:
Rescues (Adoption and Dating), Shops, Breeders or Online? - What to consider when getting guinea pigs
New Guinea Pig Problems: Sexing & Pregnancy; URI, Ringworm & Parasites; Vet Checks & Customer Rights

How to settle in new guinea pigs and make friends with them - a step by step guide for the first few weeks from the moment of arrival:
New Guinea Pigs: How to Best Manage Arrival and Settling In
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips
A - Z of Guinea Pig Behaviours
Reacting to group or territorial changes: Dominance and group establishment/re-establishment (also applies to setting up shop in a new home and a new cage)

Our comprehensive diet guide, which explains diet as a whole and contains a detailed practical look at all food groups: A Comprehensive Hay Guide for Guinea Pigs (incl. providers in several countries)

Please do not supplement vitamin C; it is in virtually every food group that piggies eat. Long term supplementation can become very problematic and can ironically lead to scurvy symptoms.
They should get enough vitamin C on their new diet. Never introduce more than one new food in a small quantity at any time and give them time to get used to it. if they have never learned to eat any of the new foods from their elders it can take a while and many tries to get them there. Just be patient and persist,
The best natural high vitamin C source is actully fresh growing spring grass. However, it needs to be dog pee free, any treatment needs to have grown out and you have to introduce it slowly from a very small quantity with a little more each time over the course of several days to allow the gut microbiome to grow the correct digestive specialist bacteria and avoid diarrhoea and potentially fatal bloating. However, grass is a food that virtually all piggies will tuck into straight away.
Feeding Grass And Preparing Your Piggies For Lawn Time

Here is our hair cutting guide with pictures and videos: An Illustrated Guide to Hair Cutting


Other members will be better poised than me to discuss where to source C&C grids more cheaply right now.

All the links in this post are part of our very practical New Owners information collection into which quite literally tens of thousands of questions in nearly 20 years on this forum and personal experiences going back half a century have gone into. You will hopefully find it very helpful; it contains lots more detailed guides on all the anticipated and unanticipated issues that new owners regularly come up against. All the links above are part of it but it is much more extensive, inclusive learning what is normal and not, how to health monitor and groom (including nail cutting).
The guides are as precise and comprehensive as we can make them; we are all aware of the need of new owners in managing the tricky little details that can so easily trip them up or stump them.
You may want to bookmark the link, browse, read and re-read as you go along because you will pick up on different things as your experience grows.
Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners

I would however recommend that you have them vet checked not long after their arrival, seeing that they re coming from a less than ideal background.

All the best. We are here for help with the little questions. Give yourself time to work through the information load bit by bit.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. You will absolutely get the best advice here.

Can’t wait to see pictures of your older piggy and the newbies once they are settled in.
 
Best of luck- you've been given incredible advice above, and you're doing an amazing thing for your two new piggies. :)
Please double check all of your piggies' sexes before attempting any bonding too- you'd be amazed how many owners believe their boars sows! Illustrated Sexing Guide
P.S. Just to forewarn you, guinea pig vet bills get very expensive very quickly (I spent £3500 in one week once 😭). It's definitely worth finding a good exotic vet near you Recommended Guinea Pig Vets, and setting up a vet fund straight away. Unfortunately insurance isn't really worth it.
 
Hello and welcome

Good on you for giving these little girls are loving home. It will be so nice for your solo piggy to have their company too
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Well done for researching. Songmics grids from Amazon are only about £30, much cheaper than the specialist sites. Please be aware that you will need something absorbent under the bath mats, I use washable pet cage fleeces also from Amazon. Most of us tend to use several smaller ones rather than cage sized ones.
Other than that, the care guides you have been sent links for are fantastic, enjoy your girls when you get them and we look forward to seeing pictures of all your piggies.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Welcome to the forum

You sound like you are planning well and doing your research.

In terms of the cage, it is a good idea to get them a new cage asap. Two tier is not the best way for them to live and it is likely the cage is small (potentially too small).

Songmics grids from Amazon are fine to use.

Make sure you single piggy lives beside the two new piggies so she can still interact between the bars with the new piggies.
If you choose not to bond them as a trio then that is absolutely fine - the interaction between the bars is enough for your current single sow. Physical size and age though are not factors in their own to discourage bonding. With their said Older sows can sometimes be more tricky to bond with new piggies.

In terms of the car trip, make sure there is hay in the carrier and you can add a couple of chunks of cucumber. However the fact is they are likely to be stressed and not eat anything anyway. 40 minutes isn’t that bad is a journey to be honest.

Veg. Safely daily veg are lettuce, bell pepper. Cucumber and coriander. Introduce any new veg very slowly and one at a time so you can ensure you don’t cause a digestive upset.

They do not need any vitamin supplements at all. It is not recommended to give any supplements unless medically advised to do so due to diagnosed deficiencies. Piggies get all they need from a healthy balanced diet.
No long term owners on this forum supplement routinely.

Lastly, it sounds as if they may be coming from
A private rehoming situation. If that is the case, then please go in with your eyes open. Private rehoming can come with risks of undisclosed health issues (people aren’t always honest about their reasons for rehoming) meaning you can be walking into an immediately expensive vet bill situation.
Do get them vet checked as soon as you can after bringing them home.
Don’t forget to carry out the all important weekly weight checks to ensure they are eating sufficient hay.

Guides and tips for all aspects are linked in below
New Owners' Essential Information and Practical Tips Starter Collection
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
An Illustrated Guide to Hair Cutting
Click to expand...
Hello! Thank you all for the advice and kind words! With all the information and sources on this forum, i have been able to scrape up enough money to buy a 2x4 grid cage kit that should arrive a week after the guinea pigs. I've come up with a weekly diet chart that includes previous diet items and some new, i will only give small amounts of the new food. Also, I'm not sure how long i should keep it in small amounts, should i up it a little bit every week or day?

Here is the current diet chart:
Screenshot 2024-04-02 18.09.26.png
 
Add in bell pepper - it’s good for vit c intake.

I would remove all the daily kale. Kale is high calcium so should only be fed once a week.

If they were used to some veggies already then you can just add in a new one or increase the amount every few days.
The amount of veg per pig per day should be one cup full
 
Welcome to the forum.
It sounds as if these piggies are about to land on their paws with you and have a wonderful life.
We look forward to getting to know you and the piggies.
 
Wow, they are going to be lucky piggies and it will be nice for your lone girl to have some friends.
Cant wait to see some pictures 😍
 
Update!
They are home! I got them weighed straight away with them both coming in around 1220g. They also look and feel well kept with no matting at all, and well kept nails! They were very skittish, but as a few hours went by they are coming out more and even took some forage and little gem from me! At this time, they are still in their 2 tier cage but I have ordered a 2x4 grid cage that should be here next week!
Meet Willow and Pepper!
20240406_144810.webp20240406_145205.webp
 
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