Not sure what to do - travelling or boarding?

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emilybanister

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Hi everyone,
I recently posted a thread about my new guinea pigs Boris and Horace. They are approx 11 weeks old. We are going to wales next weekend for a week (we have been offered the trip last minute for free by my boyfriends family) and had full intentions of taking them with us but have realised we may have to make some stops on the way, and aren't sure they will do well with the journey. I don't know how well guinea pigs travel? It is about a three hour journey but we are planning on stopping to see my boyfriends mum on the way (obviously we would take them in with us and not leave them in the car). I have a large cat carrier that I could take them in, and then put the cage in the back of the car dismantled.
Anyway, we will have only had them for two weeks by this point and I really don't want to stress them out by bundling them into the car and taking them somewhere far away. I don't have anyone locally who could come and look after them so the other option would be paying a professional to either come here for them, or take them to a boarding place (there are a few good ones locally with great reviews). If they did go to a boarding place I would insist on them being in their own cage as don't want to mess them around putting them in another cage. I'm not sure if they would also find that stressful though?
I feel like none of these options are ideal really but I wandered what you thought would be best? Not going is not really a great option, as the holiday booking would be wasted which would be a real shame!
 
If you can find someone to come to you/sit in, then that would be good as the piggies then don’t have to go to a new environment.
You’d have to call the boarding places and ask them for their arrangements - I don’t think they will all allow you to take your own cage.
They tend to travel well though If you did want to take them with you - many people on here travel for many hours with their piggies. There are many members on here who make/have made long journeys to see a specific vet in Northampton travelling from as far as Cornwall (@Bill & Ted being one)

Travelling with guinea pigs
 
I took Comet and Blitzen on a car journey from Rochdale to Haywards Heath, with a stop for a couple of hours at someone's house so we could grab some dinner. They had cats so the carrier was left in a different room and I was in and out to make sure they were eating and drinking fine. Coming back it was a train journey to London, then the Underground, then London again up to Greater Manchester and they were much less frazzled than I was by the end of it.

Plenty of hay in the carrier (with extra on hand if needed), watery veg because bottles and bowls are awkward like that, and making sure the cage is kept cool and well ventilated, but they can cope better with these things than we give them credit for.
 
Oh great that is encouraging then, yes I am not massively keen on them going somewhere for boarding, definitely not if they have to use a different cage it is too much change for them! I have asked my friend if she wants to house sit as that would probably be the best option then they don't need to go anywhere, but not sure she will want to.
Sounds like they might be okay coming with us though!
 
emilybanister said:
Oh great that is encouraging then, yes I am not massively keen on them going somewhere for boarding, definitely not if they have to use a different cage it is too much change for them! I have asked my friend if she wants to house sit as that would probably be the best option then they don't need to go anywhere, but not sure she will want to.
Sounds like they might be okay coming with us though!
Click to expand...

Hi

You may find this guide link here helpful as it contains lots of practical tips resulting from experiences and lessons learned by others: Tips For Organising Your Holiday Absence

Personally, after having tried out everything from travelling with piggies needing daily medication to boarding and to pet services coming round to my house (the only way I can do it with my current number of piggies anyway), I prefer a reliable person or a pet service. But you need to make sure that the person is really reliable - being a friend or family doesn't automatically guarantee you reliable care.
 
We have taken our 2 guinea pigs on holiday with us. Often to relatives(4/5hrs), and once to a self catering cottage, this was with prior arrangement with the owners.
Our guinea pigs travelled each time with no problems.
Do keep in mind though that piggy stuff is likely to take up more room in the car than people stuff! We don’t normally have a stop in our journey, other than a picnic stop, toilet breaks, and to check on the guinea pigs. I make sure we have cucumber chunks or lettuce to hand, so the guinea pigs can have a watery snack, every stop. They have a carrier full of hay to munch and hide in.
I would recomend taking some “dirty” bedding so that everything smells familiar to them when you arrive and set up their home away from home.
 
Just to update everyone - I have decided to board them for the week as have found a lovely lady with a degree in animal management who gets brilliant reviews and lives down the road. The journey would have involved an overnight stop half way at our friends, stopping again for a few hours the following day before finally getting to Wales, and I thought it might just be a lot of moving them around. They can stay in their current cage at this lady's house so hopefully won't be too different for them :)
 
I think boarding is fine if you can find someone reliable to take them, but I do take my pigs back and forth the cottage multiple times each summer, it's about a 2.5 hour drive and they are not bothered by it. We got Tomie in late June last year and had her in the car to go the first week of July (with her older, more experienced cagemate) and she was fine. Thus far my pigs have all tolerated the car really well, unlike one of my hegehogs, who used to get severely carsick. We had to give him antiemetics to get him to and from. It's sometimes nice to have pets who are incapable of vomiting like guinea pigs!
 
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