Guinea Pig Advice

ryleenhale

ryleenhale

New Born Pup
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Camdenton Missouri USA
hello everyone! so recently, I have been researching different things about Guinea pigs and guinea pig care. I want To post on here For guinea pig, advice and the best equipment. I am going to get a 2 x 4 C&C cage from the guineadad website. I want to get fleece liners, but they are very expensive and I want extras. Does anybody have any advice on toys, liners, water, bottles, foods, treats? It is hard to trust the youtubers, especially when most say different things.
 
Hello and welcome, the advice on here is always consistent. There is a new owners guide for reference too. You can get C&C grids and cage liners much cheaper from amazon instead of using the specialist sites and just buy the correx from them. Most of us who use fleece tend to use several small ones rather than one cage sized, especially for boars. Are you planning on getting a male or female pair? If you want males then a 2x4 can be a little tight and it's recommended to give them as much space as you can spare.
 
I originally got guinea dad liners and they are great besides the price. I prefer noodle mats (if you live near a Target, they have really good quality ones) or simply fleece from Joannes with a U-Haul pad underneath.
 
fluffysal said:
Hello and welcome, the advice on here is always consistent. There is a new owners guide for reference too. You can get C&C grids and cage liners much cheaper from amazon instead of using the specialist sites and just buy the correx from them. Most of us who use fleece tend to use several small ones rather than one cage sized, especially for boars. Are you planning on getting a male or female pair? If you want males then a 2x4 can be a little tight and it's recommended to give them as much space as you can spare.
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I am planning on getting females, I am also open to getting a bigger cage if that’s not enough for my girls
 
A Guinea Pig said:
I originally got guinea dad liners and they are great besides the price. I prefer noodle mats (if you live near a Target, they have really good quality ones) or simply fleece from Joannes with a U-Haul pad underneath.
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I do live close to a target, unfortunately our joannes closed about 2 months ago :(
 
A 4x2 is enough for 2 girls but once you get some you will want to give them as much space as you can manage, we all love to spoil our furry overlords 🤣
 
I have a couple guinea dad liners and they threw my washing machine off kilter, because of the rubber traction. Depends what kinda washer you have, mines a top load.

I have 4 Kavee liners and they are lightweight and super cute and my machine can handle them.

Some people get two half size liners and clean half the cage at a time so they retain scent, because a totally clean cage can make them restart their dominance. But I prefer big fleece and put pee pads from guinea dad on the place they pee most, then I change the whole fleece every 3 days and keep the dirty pee pads for a couple days.

I'm from Michigan. Welcome to the forum.
 
fluffysal said:
A 4x2 is enough for 2 girls but once you get some you will want to give them as much space as you can manage, we all love to spoil our furry overlords 🤣
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I was planning on getting a 4x2 and then getting a playpen for them. Do you have any food recommendations?
 
Ramia said:
I have a couple guinea dad liners and they threw my washing machine off kilter, because of the rubber traction. Depends what kinda washer you have, mines a top load.

I have 4 Kavee liners and they are lightweight and super cute and my machine can handle them.

Some people get two half size liners and clean half the cage at a time so they retain scent, because a totally clean cage can make them restart their dominance. But I prefer big fleece and put pee pads from guinea dad on the place they pee most, then I change the whole fleece every 3 days and keep the dirty pee pads for a couple days.

I'm from Michigan. Welcome to the forum.
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Thank you so much for this reply! Everyone so far has been so kind! I was looking at Kavee earlier. Everything they had was really cute too, I kind of want the aesthetic of my cage to match my room while also keeping it comfortable and natural for the piggies. I have a fairy room and I think it would look really cute with like mushroom liners or something.
 
ryleenhale said:
I was planning on getting a 4x2 and then getting a playpen for them. Do you have any food recommendations?
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Unlimited hay, I use a mix of Timothy and orchard. You'll be topping off the hay a few times a day because they can't run out.

Oxbow adult pellets 1 tbsp per pig per day.

1 cup of veggies per pig per day with lower calcium like lettuce (not iceberg), cilantro, sweet peppers, and cucumber. Once a week veg higher in calcium like parsley is ok. They need vitamin c
 
ryleenhale said:
I do live close to a target, unfortunately our joannes closed about 2 months ago :(
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Amazon has a lot of options as well. I've bought some really pretty cow print fleece and those cheaper grey reusable pee pads. The fleece will allow for all the liquid to pass through it and the pee pad will absorb it.
 
Ramia said:
Unlimited hay, I use a mix of Timothy and orchard. You'll be topping off the hay a few times a day because they can't run out.

Oxbow adult pellets 1 tbsp per pig per day.

1 cup of veggies per pig per day with lower calcium like lettuce (not iceberg), cilantro, sweet peppers, and cucumber. Once a week veg higher in calcium like parsley is ok. They need vitamin c
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I have seen so much about them and they vitamin C and everything but not one video or forum has even talked about the ratio of what I need to do per week so thank you so much for this reply
 
They also recommended scattering the pellets through the hay to encourage foraging and to prevent food hogging.

Ideally you won't use any bowls for the hay. They like to burrow, munch, poop, play all in a large pile of hay on the floor of the cage.

Also look for hides with two exits. You will need two hideys both with two exits so one doesn't feel trapped by the other and fight out of panic.
 
ryleenhale said:
I was planning on getting a 4x2 and then getting a playpen for them. Do you have any food recommendations?
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If you get them a slightly larger cage then you won’t need a playpen.

Food is hay, hay and more hay. Daily veggies are a bit of lettuce (not iceburg), peppers, cucumber and coriander. I don’t feed much fruit and carrots give my piggies soft poops. Tomatoes can cause Chelitis so I never feed them either.

I don’t buy toys as my piggies have never really played with anything I’ve bought them. They like a tunnel and cardboard boxes are good to hide under.
 
I have a toy boy that really likes his store bought toys. You should put two in the cage.

Small Pet Select is an online store I sometimes buy toys from in the USA. They have other products as well as hay. I'm currently waiting for some hay cookies and two toys from them. :)
 
A Guinea Pig said:
Amazon has a lot of options as well. I've bought some really pretty cow print fleece and those cheaper grey reusable pee pads. The fleece will allow for all the liquid to pass through it and the pee pad will absorb it.
Click to expand...
ryleenhale said:
I have seen so much about them and they vitamin C and everything but not one video or forum has even talked about the ratio of what I need to do perweek so thank you so much for this reply
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i am not exactly sure why this posted
 
hello everyone i just wanted to say thank you all for the lovely responses and amazing help and support. here is my amazon cart and the cage i am going to buy. we want to buy toys closer to when we actually are getting our piggies.
 

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Just looked properly, you will do better if the dustpan and brush set has silicone bristles. You might want a pet wash bag too. Remember to wash the cage liners a couple of times before use it gets rid of potentially harmful chemical residue and wicks them.
 
fluffysal said:
Just looked properly, you will do better if the dustpan and brush set has silicone bristles. You might want a pet wash bag too. Remember to wash the cage liners a couple of times before use it gets rid of potentially harmful chemical residue and wicks them.
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I did not know that they had to be washed or wicked! thank you so much!
 
I vote for the brush with silicone bristles too. Definitely a game changer. It gets rid of the hair and the hay really well. A handheld vacuum cleaner can also be effective, if your fleece is not too lightweight. May I also give another advice. Don't buy too much stuff, before you get the piggies. Just the essentials. Once they settle in and you get to know them and what works for you, you can purchase things that you know you will use. I have a bunch of stuff that I don't use. My piggies are not interested in toys, like not at all, but they popcorn when I give them herbal/forage mix.Also for the playpen, I know some people use spare grids with fleece and it works really well. Basically build a large c&c cage on the floor without the correx. I also think it might be cheaper and you will have some spare grids just in case.

How are you planning to offer hay? I vouch for large litter tray or just simple hay pile.

If your water is hard you might want to look into water filter jug or something and filter their water.

Also if the hay is too expensive, you might look around for local farms that sell good hay by the bail.

Another thing to consider when you get your piggies, is to have critical care, syringes and other emergency meds at hand and a kitchen scale. Life saver for when they get sick.
 
ryleenhale said:
I was looking at Kavee earlier. Everything they had was really cute too, I kind of want the aesthetic of my cage to match my room while also keeping it comfortable and natural for the piggies. I have a fairy room and I think it would look really cute with like mushroom liners or something.
Click to expand...
Have you looked on Etsy for cuddle cups etc? The accessories on kavee are very cute...but the prices!!
 
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