Newbie - food and housing questions

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Elis.jane

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Hi! There are so many information here but many are different from what I was told so I have few (many) questions. We will have 3 female guinea pigs babies in three weeks and I am preparing and studying..

Housing - I decided to buy cage 100 cm long since it is the only size that fits in the car for possible “babysitting” 😅 and I plan to remove longer side and connect to a “fence”. I found songmics 30x30 tiles and trixie 35x35 cm. Which are better? I want to combine wires at front and plastic in the back. Are they ok to be taken on holidays ? I mean can I built, disconnect and build again or it will break because it is meant to be build one time only?

Floor - I understand there is modern way to have “carpets” and cloths of the floor. But it doesn’t seem natural for them. Or is it? Like with dogs they just like the fabric? Or is it healthier because they do not pee on it?

Hay - so so so many options. And it is mostly what they eat. Which brand do you recommend? I can order on german amazon if it is not available here. I just dont know which one. The guide here is great.. but honestly too much information for now 🫣

Vegetable - what I read here they need much more then I was told! And not carrot! That is new and confusing information for me since I feel to start over again 😏 is there a chart a can print on the fridge? Like 6 categories, each day give them anything from all 6 together 50 g per guinea pig?

Grass - is there some plant poisonous for them? Or can I just take my grass in the garden where dogs cannot access?

Pellets - language barrier. I was told they need pellets to pee on them. So this is obviously not it. Is that dry food? Like for dogs?

I felt prepared before I found this blog. Now I feel lost again 🥹 my daughter wants quinea pig since she was two. Now she is seven and she still wants them. So it is time but it terrifies me because I dont like having pets in cage to look at them when I feel like it. I really want them to feel good and well taken for. ❤️ Thanks for your help.
 
Re pellets - you can get certain bedding that is pellet-like, which is probably where the confusion is. Actual food pellets are something like Science Selective guinea pig food, or Versele Laga Cavia Complete. I don't know what brands you have available to you but whatever you use you need something formulated specifically for guinea pigs. They need things like vitamin C in their food that's not in something like rabbit food. They don't need many pellets, a tablespoon each once a day.

Amy grass untouched by pesticides and cat/dog/fox etc urine is fine.

Either of those grids would work. I attached a sheet of tarp to mine to give it a "floor" that doesn't directly affect the flooring in the room, and then I add my bedding on top of that.

Finally, I'm linking our food guide, which should help with finding a diet that works for you and your future guinea pigs. The only other thing I'll say is I know your daughter wants the guinea pigs but the responsibility will ultimately be yours, not hers. Cleaning out, vet bills, all sorts, and children can get bored of small pets quickly no matter how much they wanted them. Just be aware of that before it happens.

Wiebke

Thread 'Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets'

1 The recommended ratio of food groups
2 Hay and fresh grass
3 Vegetables, fresh herbs and fruit with an illustrated balanced sample diet
4 Special dietary needs
- Urinary tract infections, bladder stones and sterile IC (non-bacterial interstitial cystitis)
- Diabetes and long term digestive problems
- Impaction in boars
- Pregnancy and nursing dietary tweaks (only visible to registered members who have accepted our no intentional breeding policy)...
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Welcome to the forum

Three sows need a cage of 180x60cm.
The grids safety depend on how many holes there are - you need grids which have 9 holes but I’m sure either one of those are fine.
Grids with 7 or 8 holes will mean each hole is too big and can pose a danger to the pigs of getting their heads stuck or even escaping.
To be honest, I wouldn’t bother with a 100cm cage at all. Piggies aren’t safe to travel in a cage like that - we recommend they are in cat carriers - and a 100cm cage isn’t big enough to be used standalone.
You would save money by just buying the grids and making their permanent cage with them. A cage made of 35cm grids needs to be 5 grids by 2 grids.
You would need it to be 6 grids by 2 grids if you went for the 30cm grids though as you need the cage to measure 180x60cm once it is finished

Grids can be taken apart as and when you need to. The connectors may lose their strength over time if removed too often though. We recommend cable ties are also used to secure the cage so you would have to make sure you had reusable ones so they can be removed (unless you don’t mind having to cut and discard them every time you wanted to take the cage apart).

Bedding - depends very much on what you prefer. Fleece (with an absorbent layer underneath) absolutely can be used.
Personally I don’t like the mounds of washing it produces but also as mine live in my shed anyway, I use wood shavings and hay as bedding everywhere in the cage.

Hay - any grass hay is fine. Meadow hay or Timothy hay are most commonly used for feeding.
If you don’t want to use fleece bedding, then you would be best to use meadow hay as bedding because Timothy hay can be too sharp to use as bedding hay.

Veg is one cup per pig per day. You cannot go by weight as each veg has a different density - eg 50g of lettuce is loads but 50g of cucumber is hardly anything.
The four veg they can have safely everyday is lettuce (not iceberg), bell pepper, cucumber and cilantro/coriander.
Everything else is in moderation and rotation. High calcium veg such as kale, parsley or spinach is no more than once a week.
Sugary items such Carrot and fruit shouldn’t be in the diet regularly. A small amount as an occasional treat is ok though.

Grass - some weeds are poisonous such as moss or buttercup. You would have to be able to identify any weeds in your lawn to know if it is safe for them to have access.
You cannot just let them have unfettered access to grass though as too much in unprepared tummies can cause bloat (which can be fatal).
You have to build access to grass up slowly - I start by handpicking grass and giving them in their cage. Once all frost have passed and it is warm enough, they have 10 minutes a day on the lawn. I then build their time up by 15-30 minutes a week over many weeks until they can be out all day (supervised). I start handpicking around February/March and feeding in their cage. I then start them going outside for short periods around April so they are out in the lawn all day from around June.
They also cannot be outside until it is warm enough for them - it has to be dry and at least 15 degrees before they can go out. The guide is that you have to be able to stand on the grass with bare feet without feeling cold or damp.

I’ve added lots of guides below detailing everything I’ve mentioned here.
Lorcan has already added the diet guide so I won’t add that one again

Wiebke

Thread 'New Owners' Essential Information and Practical Tips Starter Collection'

Contents Overview
1 What This Collection Is About
2 Guinea Pigs as Pets
- Family and Classroom Pets
- Sourcing Your Guinea Pigs, Common Pitfalls and Your Customer Rights
- Human Pet Anxiety: Practical Tips for Sufferers and Supporters
- Naming and Finding Out the Breed
- Guinea Pig Facts: An Overview
3 Living Environment
- Housing (with sourcing tips)
- Bedding (with...
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Wiebke

Thread 'Cage Size Guide'

Remember - guinea pigs are ground roaming group animals and they need as much space as you can spare! More space to run and popcorn in means healthier and happier piggies and in turn more joy for you!

Here is a visual guide to show you the sizes of the currently commercially available cages in comparison to each other:
IMG_2522_edited-2.jpg

This is a 120x60 cm / 2x4 ft cage in comparison with a 100x50 cm cage, which is sadly still very much pushed by pet shops and commercial online sellers; you can see what a difference it makes!
IMG_3833_edited-1.jpg


C&c grids are a size of 35.5cm to meet the size...
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sport_billy

Thread 'Bedding For Guinea Pigs - Overview'

- Fleece
- Vetbed
- Aubiose
- Oil Seed Rape Straw Bedding
- Fitch Bedding
- Recycled Paper Bedding
- Wood Shavings
- Snowflake
- Supreme Science Cosy N D

This is a broad overview of various types of bedding used to give owners an idea of what is 'out there' and the pro's and con's of each Guinea Pig bedding.

Fleece
Fleece is one of the materials you can use as bedding for guinea pigs. You can either use it in conjunction with an absorbent layer such as towels, puppy pads or Fleece buy cage liners already made with an absorbent layer...
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Wiebke

Thread 'Feeding Grass And Preparing Your Piggies For Lawn Time'

- How to provide the run
- How to prepare guinea pigs for the lawn season
- Beware!

Warmer spring weather is on the way - and that means the start of the lawn season!

How to provide the run
- Provide a shelter against wind and weather, as temperatures can drop quickly as soon as the sun has gone or a sudden shower crops up. Make sure that your piggies have access to hay to help balance the digestion and ideally a place slightly above the ground that is dry and warm, so...
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Thanks for your reply. I have ready this article About food and many information are there. But I hoped someone on this forum took it and created a cheatsheet for the fridge 😅 but never mind, I will print and highlight before I can remember :)

I dont have much expectations from my daugther, she is still to young for such responsibility. I will be happy if the feeds them but of course at the beggining I expect her to sleep in the cage to be near them 😅🫣
 
There is no cheat sheet as such - As I say though , lettuce, cucumber, pepper and cilantro are the four veg which can be fed every day.
Everything is in moderation and rotation

squeakypigs

Thread 'Edible And Forbidden Veg And Fruit List With Vitamin C Grading'

1 Recommended Food Proportions
2 General Diet Advice
3 List of Edible Veg, Herbs and Fruit
- High vitamin C foods
- Low vitamin C foods
4 Edible Wild Forage
5 Not Recommended and Dangerous Foods
- Unsuitable for a diet
- Questionable foods (lack of information)
6 Exotic Fruit and Vegetables
- Asian fruit and vegetables
- Other fruit and vegetables
7 References


1 Recommended Food...
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Hi, so last Saturday we got our three babies. One from one owner and two from another. Which turned out as a problem because those two used together were bullying the third one - and the smallest one. I hope it will get better in time. They are so so scared all the time. I was hoping they will get used to us but they are really frightened all the time. They are extremely loud when I bring vegetable but still hide. They don’t take anything from hand. I hope it will get better with time. But food is my concern.

1. I was told by the owners that they should eat root vegetable, mainly carrot. Second owner allowed roman lettuce as well. So I asked in local FB group and I was told to be stupid to feed them differently then root vegetable. Everything else is bad for them including paprika or lettuce because it contains too much water. Cucumber can kill them. How can it differ to much from what I have read here? Root vegetable is something older or newer then here? I cannot find if it is meant to be bad and now it was found out ok or the other way around. Was considered safe and now there are better options. It is really confusing and now I am afraid to give them anything…
2. I couldn’t imagine how much they eat, that is a lot of vegetable! What do you feed daily? I know what to give them once or twice a week but what can I give them every day? Currently I gave them little gem lettuce (daily), paprika or celery (every other day and they LOVE celery), carrot (because it was the only thing they were used to and I dont want too big change). I was studying various types of vegetable and almost everything was as from time to time and were few safe vegetables that can be given daily. So what they naturally eat? What should be the core of their food? It seems vegetable is something they like or tolerate but it is not natural to them…
3. Can they be hungry? They love vegetable, if I would buy everything from the store they would eat it. They still have pellets and hay of course. And still seem to hungry. If I enter room they seem to be starving, they start to cry a lot :D
4. I saw many people are growing grass in a pot. Is that a way to feed them? Give them mainly grass and vegetable from time to time?

They are adorable. I hope they will not be this shy all the time. Thanks
 
Ok so you have a few things here.

First, are they all female?

As you have taken two already bonded piggies and added in a third, they are now entirely bonding as a trio. This will take two weeks for them to go through the whole process.
You will now have to sit out the dominance behaviours that will ensue due to being in a bonding situation.
Dominance and bullying are two very different things. Dominance is normal. Bullying is not.
Bullying is a sustained set of behaviours which are ultimately bond breaking and means piggies cannot remain together.
If you could tell us a bit more about the behaviours you are seeing then we can help further.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Moody Guinea Pigs: Depression, Bullying, Aggression, Stress, Fear and Antisocial Behaviour


In terms of them being scared, that is normal. It will take weeks to months for them to fully settle in.
They are prey animals though and you do need to expect them to be shy.
One of mine took six weeks to settle in, another took 18 months and he would still run away from sudden movements even after six years with me. Some learn to enjoy a cuddle but others don’t.

New Guinea Pigs: How to Best Manage Arrival and Settling In
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips


In terms of food, the advice you have been given so far is rather wrong.

The core part of their food is hay. They need it in unlimited and constant amounts. Hay is what they fill up on.
We have to feed them hay because we cannot provide enough fresh grass

They can have one cup of veg per pig per day.
The four safe veggies they can have every day is lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper and coriander. Everything else should be fed in moderation and rotation.
Carrot and root veg should not be given any more than one very tiny piece as an occasional treat, and certainly not more than once a week. Carrot is far too sugary.

You can give one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day.

They are going to try to trick you into thinking you need to give them more and more veg - this is just them manipulating you. As long as they have a constant supply of hay; they are not hungry!

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Some people do grow grass in pots if they don’t have access to putting them on the lawn.
Any fresh grass must be introduced slowly as too much on unprepared tummies will cause bloat

I’ve added links to guides throughout this reply which detail everything further
 
Piggies&buns said:
Ok so you have a few things here.

First, are they all female?

As you have taken two already bonded piggies and added in a third, they are now entirely bonding as a trio. This will take two weeks for them to go through the whole process.
You will now have to sit out the dominance behaviours that will ensue due to being in a bonding situation.
Dominance and bullying are two very different things. Dominance is normal. Bullying is not.
Bullying is a sustained set of behaviours which are ultimately bond breaking and means piggies cannot remain together.
If you could tell us a bit more about the behaviours you are seeing then we can help further.

Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Dominance Behaviours In Guinea Pigs
Moody Guinea Pigs: Depression, Bullying, Aggression, Stress, Fear and Antisocial Behaviour


In terms of them being scared, that is normal. It will take weeks to months for them to fully settle in.
They are prey animals though and you do need to expect them to be shy.
One of mine took six weeks to settle in, another took 18 months and he would still run away from sudden movements even after six years with me. Some learn to enjoy a cuddle but others don’t.

New Guinea Pigs: How to Best Manage Arrival and Settling In
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering and Cuddling Tips


In terms of food, the advice you have been given so far is rather wrong.

The core part of their food is hay. They need it in unlimited and constant amounts. Hay is what they fill up on.
We have to feed them hay because we cannot provide enough fresh grass

They can have one cup of veg per pig per day.
The four safe veggies they can have every day is lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper and coriander. Everything else should be fed in moderation and rotation.
Carrot and root veg should not be given any more than one very tiny piece as an occasional treat, and certainly not more than once a week. Carrot is far too sugary.

You can give one tablespoon of pellets per pig per day.

They are going to try to trick you into thinking you need to give them more and more veg - this is just them manipulating you. As long as they have a constant supply of hay; they are not hungry!

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Some people do grow grass in pots if they don’t have access to putting them on the lawn.
Any fresh grass must be introduced slowly as too much on unprepared tummies will cause bloat

I’ve added links to guides throughout this reply which detail everything further
Click to expand...
They are three females. Two of them are sleeping together and third is separately outside. If they sleep all together they will make the third leave. They take her vegetable if they dont have currently any. It feels kinda cruel but maybe it needs take time. She is also the smallest one so I feel really sorry for her. But she is also most shy so I just leave her be and give some vegetable in her direction while the other two are already eating.

About food - I meant all I wrote just about vegetable part. They have hay all the time and pellets. I give them half that because they are babies. That is also wrong? Should they eat 1 tbl spoon per animal even for babies? I was told half of that per baby. But the confusion is how the advice can be so different? Everyone here told me to give root vegetable and cucumber can kill them because it is too waterly. So it is not slightly different where I could choose to go middle path but actually the opposite.
 
The issue with a trio is that unfortunately one can get left out.
The other thing is that she may well be bottom of the hierarchy so she is never going to come first or get her pick of anything.
You need to make sure you have at least three hide houses (each house must have two doors), three hay piles, three water bottles. Make sure you scatter feed their veg around the cage so they can freely forage for it and everybody gets their share.

How big is your cage?

I can assure you the advice we give is up to date and accurate. Cucumber doesn’t kill them - it is watery so they can’t have much but it doesn’t kill them. Mine have had some every single day!
You shouldn’t give carrot regularly.

Pellets are the one part of the diet they can go without. They can have one tablespoon per pig per day but no more.
I actually don’t feed pellets to my piggies
 
Cucumber is absolutely fine to feed, in moderation as always.
Root vegetables are a special treat only occasionally given as they are very high in sugar.
Our four do well on a basic mix of romaine lettuce, sweet peppers, and cucumber daily, with the occasional piece of carrot, celery or apple.
Herbs like basil and coriander can also be given.

But hay should always be the largest part of their diet, as you're aware.

This forum is the best place to come for up to date, accurate advice 👍😊
 
Piggies&buns said:
The issue with a trio is that unfortunately one can get left out.
The other thing is that she may well be bottom of the hierarchy so she is never going to come first or get her pick of anything.
You need to make sure you have at least three hide houses (each house must have two doors), three hay piles, three water bottles. Make sure you scatter feed their veg around the cage so they can freely forage for it and everybody gets their share.

How big is your cage?

I can assure you the advice we give is up to date and accurate. Cucumber doesn’t kill them - it is watery so they can’t have much but it doesn’t kill them. Mine have had some every single day!
You shouldn’t give carrot regularly.

Pellets are the one part of the diet they can go without. They can have one tablespoon per pig per day but no more.
I actually don’t feed pellets to my piggies
Click to expand...
I was overreacting with the cucumber. They were not. Someone literally wrote me it will kill them. How to adjust for babies? I have read 2 slices per day per animal so per baby it will be half? And if they were used only to eat carrot how fast can I eliminate it from their diet? I currently give few slices with every meal and try to take it from the diet slowly.

If you dont give pellets at all you give more vegetable?

It the problem will continue will 4th female help? I have c&c “cage” - currently very generous since we are moving and I dont have much furtniture here (so more space for cage). Their final space will be smaller - 140x70 cm but they will have free access to one room during day (hopefully it will work out). But currently they are still too afraid and I am not letting them out. So they should have space enough to hide but the third one is shadowing the other two, she doesnt want to be alone. So two sleep together below bridge and she is outside near them. I scatter their food around cage so everyone can eat but still they take it from her. I put pellets inside bowl. Maybe I will scatter these as well.
 
Wheekallweek said:
Cucumber is absolutely fine to feed, in moderation as always.
Root vegetables are a special treat only occasionally given as they are very high in sugar.
Our four do well on a basic mix of romaine lettuce, sweet peppers, and cucumber daily, with the occasional piece of carrot, celery or apple.
Herbs like basil and coriander can also be given.

But hay should always be the largest part of their diet, as you're aware.

This forum is the best place to come for up to date, accurate advice 👍😊
Click to expand...
Thank you. It just feels strange that the custom here is so different. But this makes more sense to me. Sweet peppers are different from bell peppers? Those are the longer ones with pointy edge? Or it can be whatever pepper just not spicy one? Translators are not unified on this…

To prevent misunderstanding - how is this called in English? This is most common lettuce I can get here. In spring it will be everywhere and I also grow my own. Can they have these daily or should I stick to roman lettuce or little gem lettuce?

1742584031344.webp

And this is bell pepper, right?
1742584137321.webp

And this? Also sweet taste, not spicy one. Those are sweet peppers?
1742584185281.webp
 
Literally just stop giving them carrot altogether.

You need to add any new type of veg to their diet slowly and one at a time to make sure it doesn’t upset their tummies.
You don’t adjust - they can eat one cup per day but just make sure you increase it all very slowly.

One slice of cucumber per pig regardless of how old they are.
The diet guide I linked in above contains a sample plate so you can see how much each pig can have per day

I do give a little more than one cup of veg as I don’t feed pellets, but my piggies eat huge amounts of hay. They get out in the grass in summer and I also feed dried forage (dried leaves such as birch, plantain leaves, nettles, raspberry leaves etc).

We don’t recommend bowls are used. Veg and pellets are best scattered around the cage

Bell peppers and sweet peppers are fine.
Any type of lettuce, except from iceberg, can be fed. Don’t feed iceberg lettuce to them as it can cause diarrhea.

The cage for three piggies needs to be 180x70cm (so a c&c cage which is 5 grids by 2 grids) so if your cage is/will be only 140x70,’ then you need to increase its size.
It doesn’t matter whether they have access to a room during the day; any time they are locked into the cage it has to be big enough.

Adding a fourth female will only help if all four of them are compatible and want to be together.
It would also mean you would have to increase the cage size to 210x70cm (or a 6 grids by 2 grid c&c cage).
Adding a fourth pig can mean she isn’t accepted so you would need to plan for splitting them up into two pairs. Adding a fourth pig will not solve any issues that exist between any current piggies.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Literally just stop giving them carrot altogether.

You need to add any new type of veg to their diet slowly and one at a time to make sure it doesn’t upset their tummies.
You don’t adjust - they can eat one cup per day but just make sure you increase it all very slowly.

One slice of cucumber per pig regardless of how old they are.
The diet guide I linked in above contains a sample plate so you can see how much each pig can have per day

I do give a little more than one cup of veg as I don’t feed pellets, but my piggies eat huge amounts of hay. They get out in the grass in summer and I also feed dried forage (dried leaves such as birch, plantain leaves, nettles, raspberry leaves etc).

We don’t recommend bowls are used. Veg and pellets are best scattered around the cage

Bell peppers and sweet peppers are fine.
Any type of lettuce, except from iceberg, can be fed. Don’t feed iceberg lettuce to them as it can cause diarrhea.

The cage for three piggies needs to be 180x70cm (so a c&c cage which is 5 grids by 2 grids) so if your cage is/will be only 140x70,’ then you need to increase its size.
It doesn’t matter whether they have access to a room during the day; any time they are locked into the cage it has to be big enough.

Adding a fourth female will only help if all four of them are compatible and want to be together.
It would also mean you would have to increase the cage size to 210x70cm (or a 6 grids by 2 grid c&c cage).
Adding a fourth pig can mean she isn’t accepted so you would need to plan for splitting them up into two pairs. Adding a fourth pig will not solve any issues that exist between any current piggies.
Click to expand...
ok, I will replace carrot by cucumber immediatelly. I was thinking about removing bowl but they are jumping inside it. I dont know it is meant to tell me they want more or it became entertainment for them. So I kept it. Pellets will be also scattered, it is easier that way then putting it all in a bowl.

Ok, forth will not solve my problem and might only add more. I will wait and hopefully it will get better.

Curretly their C&C cage is 5x3 so quite big. It takes half a room :D. Once we finally move they will be in a workroom during day with small open c&c cage as their base and place to hide and during afternoon they will be in children room with 4x2 cage with second floor. One owner had cages built in multiple floors and they loved it so I want to try once they are older and start climbing. If it wont work I will just make the base bigger. I just love the c&c cages, such a variability!
 
Elis.jane said:
ok, I will replace carrot by cucumber immediatelly. I was thinking about removing bowl but they are jumping inside it. I dont know it is meant to tell me they want more or it became entertainment for them. So I kept it. Pellets will be also scattered, it is easier that way then putting it all in a bowl.

Ok, forth will not solve my problem and might only add more. I will wait and hopefully it will get better.

Curretly their C&C cage is 5x3 so quite big. It takes half a room :D. Once we finally move they will be in a workroom during day with small open c&c cage as their base and place to hide and during afternoon they will be in children room with 4x2 cage with second floor. One owner had cages built in multiple floors and they loved it so I want to try once they are older and start climbing. If it wont work I will just make the base bigger. I just love the c&c cages, such a variability!
Click to expand...

It all comes down to whether they are actually having a problem now.
If it is just normal dominance and they are otherwise happy together then there isn’t an issue and you don’t need to worry.
If she was to be actively bullied (ie relentless chasing so she isn’t allowed to rest, losing weight at each weekly weight check through never being allowed to eat and constantly being chased away from food, becoming depressed) then that is very different situation and she would most likely need to be permanently separated from them.

A 4x2 c&c is not big enough for three piggies if they ever get shut into it at any point ie at night; their cage needs to be a 5x2 even if they are only going to be in it during the night.

Multiple levels is not how piggies prefer to live and second levels do not count towards the floor space of the cage.
Piggies need large flat surfaces that meet size requirement on that single ground floor level.
You can add a second level but only if the ground level is big enough (and as I say for three it needs to be a 5x2); a second level is a bonus space only, and only if piggies will use it - not all will. Piggies are not natural climbers.

C&c cages are brilliant!
 
Everyone is interested in photos but getting a photo of three shy babies is very difficult! So introduction:

We have three females.

Smallest one Teddy wholly Black (she is adorable! And the loudest one) called Cinder.

Middle one Teddy moreless Black, White around eyes and White belly. Called Snowflake.

Third is the oldest one - two months already. She is.. Abyssinian, the one with the curls. I dont know now to translate her name - something like Little Rosset. She will be the dominant one, she was from the same owner as Snowflake. But Snowflake started to spend time near Cinder. Little Rosset is on her own and takes food from both of them so I guess that would be the dominant piggy and not the bully.

Teddies are named after unicorns in unicorn academy 😅 the last one has a name from her breed it is nice in our language as it is :)
 

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Hello and and welcome to the forum.
It’s really great to see how serious and careful you are taking Guinea pig ownership, well done!

You’ve had really great advice on here already but I thought I’d comment anyway.
Cucumber is completely safe, just one slice a day with the other veggies is perfect.
My Guinea pigs get daily; cucumber, bell pepper, lettuce (baby gem or the one you pictured). And then rotated throughout the week (so not everyday, maybe 3 times
a week); celery, fennel, bean sprouts, carrot (just a slither).
And of course hay 24/7, topped up twice a day. And a little amount of pellets before bed.

Piggies are naturally skittish and shy animals so it will take time for them to learn to take food from your hand. Be patient and provide them plenty of hiding spots.
 
I personally feed my guinea pigs this:
Everyday: Green bell pepers, cucumber or zuccini (Pick one), red leaf lettuce or romaine lettece (Pick one). The romaine or red leaf lettuce should all add up to the size of your palms like, thats the recomended amount. Sometimes, we feed them celery and carrots when we are giving them an extra treat for like, for example, when they are cutting nails or something. They should only be fed at most 2 a week.
 
Elis.jane said:
Everyone is interested in photos but getting a photo of three shy babies is very difficult! So introduction:

We have three females.

Smallest one Teddy wholly Black (she is adorable! And the loudest one) called Cinder.

Middle one Teddy moreless Black, White around eyes and White belly. Called Snowflake.

Third is the oldest one - two months already. She is.. Abyssinian, the one with the curls. I dont know now to translate her name - something like Little Rosset. She will be the dominant one, she was from the same owner as Snowflake. But Snowflake started to spend time near Cinder. Little Rosset is on her own and takes food from both of them so I guess that would be the dominant piggy and not the bully.

Teddies are named after unicorns in unicorn academy 😅 the last one has a name from her breed it is nice in our language as it is :)
Click to expand...
Cute guinea pigs!
 
I rebuilt it a little bit and I think this will be the final size and shape. Mostly "Wood" on the floor and just a little piece of fleece. I had half fleece and half this originally. But this feels more Natural for them. It will just get quite expensive to put so much every week and throw this away.
 

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And I wanted to ask how to make them used to people? Snowflake understands that people are food. So she comes for food to the fence. I feed them through the bars so I do not hover over them but I am on the floor. Little Rosset understands that too but she is afraid. Food is a big motivation so she comes but she is worried. Cinder doesnt Come and doesnt take food from me directly. I was told that I need to pet them each day at least 5 minutes otherwise they will be shy. But it seems little cruel to take them from cage if they are so so shy. What is your experience? I have them 2 weeks and I think they should get some time to adjust and I would like to let them come to me. Or that doesnt work with guinea pigs? Or is Cinder shy because she wasnt pet enough? I am little sad I was given so many wrong information from the beginning. It just feels that they wanted to sell what animals they had because I learned later that females are much more shy than males. And I specifically asked about that and I was told females are better as pets for children :-/ now I am not so sure. But they are just adorable and there is still hope for Snowflake 😅 it is really cute when she takes food, she sniffles it and choose what she wants. She likes lettuce and pepper. Cucumber not so much. Rucola not at all. All of them love celery. So choosy. 😅❤️🙏
 
Honestly, it's just time. When I had Comet and Blitzen, Comet was very comfortable with people almost from the beginning. It took so much longer for Blitzen to come to me for food and it nearly killed me not to whoop out loud when he did it. Patience is what she needs, it might take days, weeks, months, but that's down to her. It's nothing that you're doing wrong 😀
 
I agree with lorcan - it is just time but also their character. It’s not that one sex is friendlier than the other but boars do tend to mellow out as they age.
Two weeks is a very short span when it comes to piggies.
One of mine took six weeks to settle in, another took a year and a half.
The other two were confident from day 1.
It really just comes down to them.
I don’t believe in handling them if they aren’t comfortable with it - I would rather take it as their pace, if they don’t want me to touch them or handle them then I won’t. Patience won the race because they all came round to some extent in time, even if it was only to be able to carry out their health checks.
 
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