ashleemelda
Junior Guinea Pig
Last week I made a post about how my family and I will be taking my two guinea pigs, Moira and Rose, along with us from Virginia to Illinois for the holidays, as there are no boarding facilities nearby and the people I would trust to watch them also go on vacation. It is an approximately 9 hour and 15 minute drive, not including stops at gas stations, rest areas, and drive-thrus for food.
Since that post, I have started traveling short distances (30 minutes or less) with them in the travel cage I will be using in hopes of getting them more used to the car. I have the cage lined with towels, filled with hay, and have a fleece hideaway velcroed to the towel for them to burrow in on top of the towels. Rose, in particular, does not do well with car rides, and even these short distances and when we travel to the vet she prefers to just wedge herself into the fleece hideaway until it's over and doesn't seem to show much interest in the hay that is provided. Is this something that will work its way out as she gets more used to the movements of the car? What can I do to ensure she gets the proper nutrition and hay intake over the course of the trip?
I am also curious about when I should feed them their vegetables. Due to my schedule, I feed them each a rotating slice of red, orange, or yellow pepper; one slice of cucumber; 1-2 leaves of green leaf lettuce; 1-2 sprigs of cilantro; one chunk of celery; and one green bean once daily at 3:30pm. We will be traveling at that time (and about 2-3 hours from our destination), and especially with Rose's travel anxiety, I worry that she would not eat her vegetables. Do you think I should feed them their vegetables before we leave, or keep to the schedule that is familiar to them? I plan on keeping some watery vegetables in the cooler for moisture when they do not have direct access to their water bottle.
Since that post, I have started traveling short distances (30 minutes or less) with them in the travel cage I will be using in hopes of getting them more used to the car. I have the cage lined with towels, filled with hay, and have a fleece hideaway velcroed to the towel for them to burrow in on top of the towels. Rose, in particular, does not do well with car rides, and even these short distances and when we travel to the vet she prefers to just wedge herself into the fleece hideaway until it's over and doesn't seem to show much interest in the hay that is provided. Is this something that will work its way out as she gets more used to the movements of the car? What can I do to ensure she gets the proper nutrition and hay intake over the course of the trip?
I am also curious about when I should feed them their vegetables. Due to my schedule, I feed them each a rotating slice of red, orange, or yellow pepper; one slice of cucumber; 1-2 leaves of green leaf lettuce; 1-2 sprigs of cilantro; one chunk of celery; and one green bean once daily at 3:30pm. We will be traveling at that time (and about 2-3 hours from our destination), and especially with Rose's travel anxiety, I worry that she would not eat her vegetables. Do you think I should feed them their vegetables before we leave, or keep to the schedule that is familiar to them? I plan on keeping some watery vegetables in the cooler for moisture when they do not have direct access to their water bottle.
