Meet moose my first skinny pig ❤️🫎

Lauraarse03

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hey everyone, I had posted about a week ago. I was going to adopt some female guinea pigs well that fell through and they found their forever home and I found my little boy moose. He’s a one-year-old skinny pig. I just picked him up today. This is the first big cage he’s ever had with fleece bedding. I’m hoping he’s gonna be very happy here. Any tips? I’m giving him a few days to relax and get used to his new cage.
 

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Hello and welcome - what a gorgeous boy Moose is 🥰
I have a skinny pig called Freddy I adopted him in Oct 2024 - he’s a friend for my elderly Geoff
They do need to have soft bedding fleece/vet bed
Also lots and lots of hay as he’ll need to eat alot to keep him temperature regular
He needs @ warm environment - I was told between 19C - 22C
He won’t like you touching his skin so I use a soft flannel or a snuggle sack to handle him and he’s less wriggly then
 

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As he's darker, he may be more prone to having skin that looks like this:

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His skin was a solid dark brown when he arrived here, it depigmented across his shoulder blades, ears and his neck. It's normal, it wasn't dry or flaky or anything fungal. Cam, who was mostly pink with a chunk of grey skin, never had the same thing.

Other than that, I can't say more than I did last time - he'll need a bit more to eat, he'll likely be much more vocal, and he'll need to be kept warmer. I did occasionally use wood shavings instead of fleece or vet bed without any issues but I was using quite soft shavings and if you're unsure about them I wouldn't bother. And he will absolutely poop a lot more, even accounting for the extra food I have no idea where they managed to make it from lol. On the bright side it's easier to see if he's not pooping enough.

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Thank you so much for all the advice . in the winter would it be ok if I had a pet warmer under this blankets to keep him warmer or is that not good? I’ve seen it on the Los Angeles guinea pig rescue videos about keeping skinny pigs warm
 
I used to warm up two Snugglesafes for overnight during the cold weather and they both used them overnight. They won't use it if they don't think they'll need it but as long as there's no risk of them burning themselves by being directly on top of it (and the Snugglesafes use covers to mitigate that, a blanket works just as well) then absolutely do it. Better them not need it than not have it.
 
I have another question how do I know if his skin is getting too dry? Does he look like he has dandruff and if so, what do I do cause in a lot of different videos? I see people rubbing organic coconut oil.
 
I wouldn't use coconut oil, I never did for either of mine. They don't need it and aren't any more likely to have dry skin than another guinea pig, so if their skin is dry I'll always say to see a vet.

That's why I mentioned the depigmentation spots on Bann, which did look like he had dry skin but he didn't. I left their skin alone, I believe at least half of the stuff that goes out about them having dry skin is we think they must do simply because they're skinnies rather than anything about their skin general.
 
I just adopted my first skinny pig yesterday just want to know how long should I wait till I try to handle him so he knows he’s ok he’s been hiding alot but he is eating just don’t want to rush him an stress him out ❤️
 

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