Mirandarachnid
New Born Pup
Hi everyone!
I unexpectedly became a guinea pig owner after my husband and I found a sow in our backyard. I posted on Facebook and knocked around on my block, but nobody claimed her. I don’t normally acquire a new animal without months of research before hand so I still feel like I’m scrambling. We found her on May 24th. She doesn’t appear to have put on considerable weight so I’m fairly sure she’s not pregnant.
Obviously I’ve read that they do best when they have a companion. I’ve found a person in town who has four week old babies and I am planning on picking up one of them.
Our girl received a clean bill of health, and is estimated to be around a year old. She will occasionally hop into our lap from her cage if we have food and a blanket on our lap, and if we’re sitting in her play pen she will jump right into our laps without encouragement. She lets me pet her, and sleeps out in the open (even with her eyes fully closed a couple times). She’s only tweaked my husband once, and that was shortly after we found her, after getting a bath, being blow dried, and having nails clipped. (We only bathed her because she had been out in the dirt and then inadequately housed overnight in a plastic tote box with no bedding so she was a mess). She’s very interested in our ancient cat.
I’ve been reading the pinned posts on here, and I’d like a little bit of targeted guidance.
When picking a baby to (hopefully) be her friend, what sort of behavior should I look for or avoid?
I’ve read on here to skip the quarantine period with little ones. Should I immediately put them together in neutral territory? I’ll be bringing the baby home around 6, my toddler goes to bed around 8. I’m worried about the chaotic energy that my toddler would contribute to the situation and wonder if it would be best to do the introduction after she goes to sleep.
If all goes well with the introduction, at what point can I put them in the cage and trust that they should be okay overnight?
I understand the cage needs to be thoroughly cleaned and rearranged when they are moved into it. When can I reintroduce items like hay hides and willow balls that had been previously used by our sow?
I apologize if these questions have already been answered elsewhere. The most social animals I’m familiar with keeping are ants, so this is all very new to me and I’m only just starting to feel confident about husbandry basics.
I would wait a little longer, but I feel like I need to jump on this chance to acquire a baby because the lady I’m in contact with is about to donate them to a reptile shop (hopefully not to become snake food? But that particular shop does not take the best care of their animals). Of the two other independent pet stores in my area with guineas, one tried to sell me an extremely sick six week old, and the other will not have babies for a few months. So I feel a little stuck.
I unexpectedly became a guinea pig owner after my husband and I found a sow in our backyard. I posted on Facebook and knocked around on my block, but nobody claimed her. I don’t normally acquire a new animal without months of research before hand so I still feel like I’m scrambling. We found her on May 24th. She doesn’t appear to have put on considerable weight so I’m fairly sure she’s not pregnant.
Obviously I’ve read that they do best when they have a companion. I’ve found a person in town who has four week old babies and I am planning on picking up one of them.
Our girl received a clean bill of health, and is estimated to be around a year old. She will occasionally hop into our lap from her cage if we have food and a blanket on our lap, and if we’re sitting in her play pen she will jump right into our laps without encouragement. She lets me pet her, and sleeps out in the open (even with her eyes fully closed a couple times). She’s only tweaked my husband once, and that was shortly after we found her, after getting a bath, being blow dried, and having nails clipped. (We only bathed her because she had been out in the dirt and then inadequately housed overnight in a plastic tote box with no bedding so she was a mess). She’s very interested in our ancient cat.
I’ve been reading the pinned posts on here, and I’d like a little bit of targeted guidance.
When picking a baby to (hopefully) be her friend, what sort of behavior should I look for or avoid?
I’ve read on here to skip the quarantine period with little ones. Should I immediately put them together in neutral territory? I’ll be bringing the baby home around 6, my toddler goes to bed around 8. I’m worried about the chaotic energy that my toddler would contribute to the situation and wonder if it would be best to do the introduction after she goes to sleep.
If all goes well with the introduction, at what point can I put them in the cage and trust that they should be okay overnight?
I understand the cage needs to be thoroughly cleaned and rearranged when they are moved into it. When can I reintroduce items like hay hides and willow balls that had been previously used by our sow?
I apologize if these questions have already been answered elsewhere. The most social animals I’m familiar with keeping are ants, so this is all very new to me and I’m only just starting to feel confident about husbandry basics.
I would wait a little longer, but I feel like I need to jump on this chance to acquire a baby because the lady I’m in contact with is about to donate them to a reptile shop (hopefully not to become snake food? But that particular shop does not take the best care of their animals). Of the two other independent pet stores in my area with guineas, one tried to sell me an extremely sick six week old, and the other will not have babies for a few months. So I feel a little stuck.
