Costs

[loveanimals]

I'm sorry to post one last thread but basically, do you think £50 per month for two piggies is do-able? Excluding sudden vet bills or initial set up costs. If so any advice for sites to get supplies etc?

I definitely am not trying to seeif i can keep guinea pigs without spending money, and want to only get them if i could give them the best life they deserve.

Thanks

 

[sport_billy]

My advise would be to price up everything

Where are you going to get a good quality hay from? Local pet supply store? or Online from somewhere like www.dustfreehay.co.uk or Natural Hays Rabbit Supplies | The Hay Experts
Price up dry food - we use a 2kg bag of harringtons roughly every other month at £2.48
Cost your veggies up too at supermarket
Then finally bedding - what are you thinking of using? Remember thigns like fleece have the hidden cost of washing

 

[luckyandsammy]

It depends what you will be buying.

I spend £6 on guinea pig food which lasts me about 2 months.

Then there's hay. I usually get a bag 3.5kg bag from B&M for £3.49 and it lasts me a week but that's with two guinea pigs and three rabbits. I also buy other hays, like Timothy hay and that's around £3 for 1kg and it lasts about a week. I buyother hays too, like readigrass which is around £4 for 1kg. They don't eat a lot of it so we have it for about a month. This month I decided to get them some they hays which added up to about £30 but that's not necessary, I just like to give them variety.

I buy some vegetables every week. I usually get them in offers or on sale but if I can't find any I just go to lidl. I spend about £5 a week on fresh food. I think I would spend more if I didn't live with my parents - they buy a lot of vegetables so my pets always have the leftovers, peelings or just things things we need to use up.

I can't tell you much about bedding because I use fleece. I bought a few cheap blankets for around £3 each and I use our old towels that we don't want anymore under them. The only cost with this is washing.

You don't need to get things like hideys, bottles, bowls & other cage things often unless you want to. Mine have had their stuff for about 3 months but that's because they got a new cage and I bought new things for it. I think everything will be okay for at least a year or until I decide I want to get them new things

There's also other costs like treats & toys. I get them whenever I feel like it but I can't tell you how much I spend on them because I really don't know.

I hope I helped!

 

[Poppy'sMum]

If you can, I would definitely recommend getting guinea pigs insured. When something goes wrong they need a lot of expensive medicines, posibly x rays etc & all those soon add up. I recently lost one of mine & she cost me the best part of £3,000 in vet bills over her lifetime because I wasn't prepared just to pts & buy another, she was part of my family. You need to make sure you have enough on standby otherwise.

 

[Namaah]

£50 a month should be doable if you shop around for good prices, Aldi is great for cheap veg if you have one near you. Asda also do a wonky veg box in some stores that is really cheap and has loads of veg in that perfectly good , just not the "right shape" (google asda wonky veg stores and see if your nearest store does it). I've found that home store types of shops are a lot cheaper than actual pet shops for things (shops like the range, home bargins, B&M's Wilko etc)
You could help keep costs down buy growing some veg yourself for them. Even if you don't have a garden thing like baby leaf lettuces and herbs will grow pretty much year round on a sunny window sill. Carrot peels and extra veg left over from dinner is fine for guinea pigs too. (As long as it's not cooked).
I use fleece bedding which worked out pretty cheap for me (£15 for enough fleece, wadding and fabric for a 12 square foot cage with a 5 square foot loft, I made 2 sets of liners with it) I use old towels under the fleece which I already had in the house. now the only ongoing cost of bedding is washing which costs less than £1 a week. I've heard fitch is another good bedding that is cheaper than pet store alternatives but I've never used it myself so I don't know how much you would need to use each month Fitch Recycling - Fitch Pet Bedding
I would also suggest putting money aside every week to cover any vet bills

 

[loveanimals]

Thanks! I don't know what bedding but i think it would have to be a disposable bedding, although i could probably have a little bit of vetbed or fleece, because it isn't very easy for me to get it all washed constantly.

I would probably have a 150cm cage i think.
And that's helpful because i didn't have a clue how much hay they would actually eat.

I do have a b&m and the range very nearby, and i just discovered the hay experts today

 

[artcasper]

This month i have started to keep a total of what mine cost, just out if interest really ! But i imagine £50/mnth is do-able...

 

[VickiA]

Well done for doing your research. Shopping around online and in stores is a good idea. Aldi and Lidl often do cheap veg suitable for piggies to help keep the shopping bill down.

 

[Lady Kelly]

If you are able to save up a bit in advance to buy in bulk you can minimise your costs. For example I buy 10kg bags of pellets for around £25 including delivery, I store this in the garage and it will last around 6 months (well the last one did and that was for 4 piggies). I buy my hay in 9.5kg bags from hay for pets at £18 and usually get two of these a time and think I get through one every 6 weeks approx sometimes it gets used quicker in colder weather (again based on 4 piggies). Then I buy aubiose for the bedding and I try and buy 3 20kg bags at a time as my local farm shop charges about 50p per bag less if you are buying 3 or more. They are around £10-£10.50 a 20kg bag which lasts me 4-5 weeks but then I have a 2 storey 6ft hutch to cover.

I don't go for insurance as it is a lot of money for 4 pigs (though I only have 3 at the moment) and vets visits are hit and miss. Before I lost Bumble in October she went through a series of tests at my vets before being referred to an exotics specialists for further tests to find out what the problem was, it did cost around £300 and I think a year and half before she had an emergency spay at around £150. When I first got her she needed the emergency vet and pain relief which was about £80 in visits and then at the end of her life the emergency vet to pts at around £55. In 5 years it may have been worth having her insured but then I look at Jemima who I have had for nearly 5 years and she has been to the vets once with a uti so has cost me about £40 in treatment and I would have paid a lot more for insurance. I tend to just put money in a savings pot and dip into it as and when needed but it depends if you have enough self control to build up a large fund just for the piggies.