Pip's Guide No.3 - Piggie Basic Care

Status
Not open for further replies.
Charl

Charl

Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Messages
916
Reaction score
1
Points
0
Here's another guide of mine, for first time piggie owners. This will be quite a short guide, so your eyes won't forget what they're reading for :{. Enjoy!

I've just brought my guinea pig home. What now?

Well before purchasing your guinea pig, you should have got these basic things:

A guinea pig hutch/cage

Igloo/bed - so they have a place to hide!

Water bottle

Food Dish - pick a nice one!

Guinea pig pellets - I recommend Guinea pig Excel Nuggets

Wood Shavings - to absorb wee

Lots of hay - for bedding & to eat

Veggies - list comes later

Toys

A brush - only if neccessary

and a friend. Another guinea pig. Ideally, guinea pigs should have a friend to live with. If they don't, it can lead to stress and your piggie will become really unhappy.

Making up my piggies bed?

Once you get your hutch or cage, fill the base with shavings. Make sure you have a nice, thick layer so that the wee doesn't stain the floor underneath, and absorbs the wee well. Then place your igloo/bed in the cage, and fill it full of hay. (If you have a hay manger, fill that too).

TIP: Add extra shavings to the corners of the cage/hutch, because your piggie is MOST likely to wee up the corners. Also, put a pile of shaving underneath the water bottle, incase the bottle drips.

One more tip : Clean your cage every week, and repeat what you did ^^
Don't forget to disinfect the cage! (Will come on the list later)

Done!

Making up my piggies tea?

When you get your pellets, put around 30-50mg in your dish. (Of guineapig excel), daily.

As for the water bottle, just make sure to fill it full everyday, so your guinea pigs never go thirsty! (Only let them drink water).

Veggies are essential in your guinea pigs diet. As guinea pigs cannot provide vitamin c for themselves, they need you to provide it for them. A stalk of broccoli each day should do them fine. You can choose what veggies you want to give them out of my veggie shopping list that will come later on in the guide.

Clipping my guinea pigs nails, keeping their teeth down too?

Clipping guinea pigs nails is easy. But you have to be really careful, don't clip their nails too short or they will bleed. If they bleed, don't panic. Cotton wool will do the job. Just dab at the bleeding area lightly.

You can purchase a knawing cube from many pet shops to keep your pets teeth down, as it is very important that you do so.

Pipxxxx's Shopping

I recommend these products to you :

Supa Pet Water Bottle - the glass one is excellent.

Pets at Home products - Guinea pig Muesli, Guinea pig excel nuggets, shavings and hay

Johnsons's Clean & Safe disinfectant

All of these products are fantastic xx

Safe fruit & veggies

Just a few I've picked out for you

Strawberries
Kiwi
Oranges
Raspberries
Tomatoes (no leaves! they are extremely poisonous)
Apples (in small quantities)
Grapes
Cherries (sweet)
Plum

Coloured Bell Peppers
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Carrot
Green Beans
Beet Greens
Parsley
Fennel
Papaya
Honeydew Melon

Hope this helps

Charl xx
 
Last edited:
hiya, another great guide pip :) just one thing : piggie s shouldn't really have shavings,:) hope this helps well done:) also you should clean the cage more than once a week idealy:)
 
Shavings are fine :) Also, once a week is fine for cleaning :) My guinea pigs have lived for over 5 years with shavings. I tend to stay off the newspaper :(

I'm sorry but it's really true! thanks anyway :) xxxxxx I'm reeeeally don't want to sound mean! Don't take this offensively :)
 
Pipxxxx said:
Shavings are fine :) Also, once a week is fine for cleaning :) My guinea pigs have lived for over 5 years with shavings. I tend to stay off the newspaper :(

I'm sorry but it's really true! thanks anyway :) xxxxxx I'm reeeeally don't want to sound mean! Don't take this offensively :)
Click to expand...

Actually woodshavings are now regarded to be one of the poorer beddings. The dust can cause respiratory problems and the oils can cause skin issues including fungal problems and pododermatitis (bumblefoot). If you'd seen a pig's feet burned by them you probably wouldn't be recommending them! A good way to illustrate this is to take a handful of shavings, rub them into your hands for a couple of minutes and feel the irritation it causes - now imagine your face millimetres from that and your bare feet on it for most of the hours in a day - not nice!

There are many alternatives to woodshavings as bedding and there's a thread on them by CCC4 in the housing section.

Fruit should really be fed as a treat and in moderation rather than a daily staple, see the feeding section of the forum for more details. :)
 
i agree with crazyaboutcavys & daftscotslass,

Woodshavings are in my opinion one of the worst the only thing i can say that i hate even more is sawdust,i find it much safer to house on things life soft hay,fleece or megazorb/hay and vetbed,newspaper is safe and good for a base under hay or whatever bedding it is,please consider changing the bedding, what DSL mentioned about the bumblefoot, its not pleasant,its not a risk thats worth taking,i can say with most certainty its ultimately what killed my baby and is not an easily treatable condition either.
A stalk of broccoli each day should do them fine
Pigghies need alot more than this,they need 1 teacup of veg per pig each day to have a healthy balance x
Fruit is only ok in small amounts and i give maximum of twice a week,oranges could also do with a little warning next to it as this has to be given in very very small amounts as a treat because it can cause mouth sores.
Once a week is not enough to clean a cage,mine are done 3 times a week with spot cleans everyday and there cages still get a little mucky,i cant imagine how it would be safe and hygenic for a cage to be left that long,
Longhaired piggies would be an absolute mess unless kept in very clean cages.
Please dont get upset,just constructive critisism thats all xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
Last edited:
Fine then i give up

This is what I've done with my guinea pigs have been living like for 6 years.

I don't want to fatten them up with fruit and veg. And I give them one piece per day.

They live healthy life styles.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with shavings.

My guineapig is 6 years old, and he has had shavings all his life without ANY health problems. So I'm sticking with shavings.

I rest my case.
 
Last edited:
Pipxxxx said:
Fine then i give up

This is what I've done with my guinea pigs have been living like for 6 years.

I don't want to fatten them up with fruit and veg. And I give them one piece per day.

They live healthy life styles.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with shavings.

My guineapig is 6 years old, and he has had shavings all his life without ANY health problems. So I'm sticking with shavings.

I rest my case.
Click to expand...

That's your choice but it IS stretching things to say it's fine because it's worked for your one (or two if you count the other one in your family) guinea pig.

However, many people on this forum have kept many, many guinea pigs for decades and have seen the damage woodshavings can do. Have you seen it personally? It's not nice.
 
Why would they sell shavings with the word 'Guinea pig' on if they thought they would kill a guinea pig? All the shavings I buy are 'super soft' anyway. :)
 
Pipxxxx said:
Why would they sell shavings with the word 'Guinea pig' on if they thought they would kill a guinea pig? All the shavings I buy are 'super soft' anyway. :)
Click to expand...

They sell harnesses and balls for guinea pigs but it doesn't mean they're suitable either.

Unfortunately it does matter if they are super soft, they still have the dust and the oils. Here's some reading for you:

http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/guineapigs/a/woodshavings.htm

http://www.ratfanclub.org/litters.html

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/1/liver-disease.html

:)
 
Why do they sell cigarettes when they kill people, why sell fizzy drinks that make people fat and rot teeth? Just because it's legal doesn't mean its always right.
 
Mine can live with shavings! Why can't yours? If your guinea pig is allergic, fair enough!
 
Pipxxxx said:
Mine can live with shavings! Why can't yours? If your guinea pig is allergic, fair enough!
Click to expand...


Your statement, "Mine can live with shavings!" is YOUR choice.

In answer to your question Why can't yours?
Because I don't wish to use them, i prefer other bedding materials that are widely available & "in my opinion" are far better than shavings.
 
Look, I'm really sorry everyone for what I have done. :(

Niki, Lisajazz, daftscotsclass, Kingboris I must apologize.

I don't know what's got into me today, it's been so stressful for me. I'm sorry for being so nasty.

Please forgive me

xx
 
Well I used to use shavings for my boys but since switching to Megazorb have found them much happier piggies, they're easier to clean out, their little feets seem in much better condition, and they're far less dusty than they ever have been. Their wee doesn't go through to the hutch floors and that definately cuts down on cleaning out time.

It's a personal choice but I won't be going back to shavings.
 
I had kept piggies for a couple of years before I got a computer and found the forum. I had always kept the piggies on woodshavings as this seemed to be the favoured bedding available at petshops. I had never heard of megazorb, vetbed or fleece as alternative bedding. Since gaining a wealth of experience on this forum, I have explored other beddings. Although my piggies do not seem to have experienced any adverse affects from being kept on woodshavings for years, I changed to megazorb and vetbed within weeks of joining the forum as I didnt want to take a chance with their health. I didnt want my piggies to get respiratory problems or skin conditions due to the woodshavings and based my decision to change on other peoples experiences. The forum is a wonderful place to learn all about the welfare of Guinea Pigs and it is a personal choice whether you decide to take on board the experience of others and apply this to your own piggies care.
 
I dont think anyone is at all trying to upset you but if everyone is to read this guide it has to be correct for the well being of everyones piggies,The vege issue is another big one as you know piggies do not produce there own Vit C so of course the have pellets with Vit c in it but that doesnt complete what they need,They also need a cup of veg each day with a mixture of vit c foods and Calcium foods to get the right balance,i know to much calcium can be unhealthy but they do need small amounts of it to be in good health,if you feed i piece of veg each day with no variety or quantity they *** be lacking things and its a miracle that they are still healthy,here is what our piggies get twice a day per pair,
dinner is usually a little less but as you can see this is roughly what they need,i dont know anyone on this forum that feeds 1 peice of veg a day so trust us that they need more.
DSCF6171.jpg

DSCF5947.jpg

DSCF5961.jpg

014-2.jpg

066-1.jpg

Basically this is roughly what your pigs should be having,my piggies get all that veg,almost unlimted pellets apart from olde piggies who have more limited pellets,unlimited hay and handfuls of grass too,
none of mine are in anyway chubby they are all within normal ranges,its very hard to make piggies fat and i know veg isnt the thing to worry about,if your piggy was eating to much more than 50gm of pellets each day then you may have an issue but apart from that it wont hurt you to feed them more x
 
Pip, perhaps you could write about your experiences without calling them a guide, as people new to keeping guinea pigs need accurate advice, and whilst some aspects of care are personal choice, many others as have been pointed out are not. With regard to feeding pellets, I would not say yes or no, there are many different types of food on the market, and the one you recommend is excellent. However, rather than just buy and feed those from day one. The new owner should find out what has been fed so far, and continue with that making the change gradual, if they so wish, to avoid tummy upset.
 
i always used shaving, until i came on here. My indoor piggies are on fleece, and my outdoor, are being changed to megazorb :)
 
Well actually, I don't just feed my guinea pig pellets. I feed him Guinea pig muesli aswell.

I'm afraid I had no intention of giving my guinea pigs more veg, because that's have my parents have brought me up around guinea pigs. Just one or two pieces of veg a day. I usually give them a piece of carrot/broccoli/cauliflower. Sometimes all three and two or three pieces of fennel. My parents think I'm giving them too much. And I don't want them to be mad at me, that's the reason why i don't give them that much. My parents always tell me, 'Don't get too precious with your pets'. It really upset me the other day because as some of you may know, my gorgeous boy, Whiskey, my shetland pony, suffered choke from someone feeding him dry food when I WASNT there. And I told my dad, "I am not putting Whiskey back in the same field, you know I've always hated it as accidents always happen there". But what did he tell me. Yes, the precious thing. My parents think basically that I am becoming like "Paris Hilton with her pampered pooches". I know that sounds rediculous, but I do love to pamper my shetland behind my dads back. I groom him everyday, and now he's finally given in, and let me move him from the field!

Sorry to go off topic.

I guess I will learn from my mistakes, and we can put this behind us all. I will try and tell my parents about the veg problem, and I hope they let me take them more veg into the garage to let the piggies eat. If not, because they don't usually believe things I tell them that are off forums, I will sneek the veg in.

Thanks for your tips xx
 
I do understand that it can be hard with parents who want different things for you and your pets than you want yourself. I'm pleased that your persistance paid off with your pony and i'm sure that it can with your guinea pigs too. If you visit Guinea Lynx website - it's not a forum it's a respected site with the best knowledge for guinea pig health. You can print off a little information from there for them - it's fact then, not your opinion so they can't possibly be unhappy with you for that.

How old are you? Not that it matters but when I was a teenager I personally would have sneaked one or two bits of veg myself if i was sure I was doing the right thing and not harming anyone. I hope you don't need to though.

Good luck - I hope you manage to convince your parents you aren't being precious you are just looking out for their health so you don't have big vets bills further down the line.
 
The only thing I can add to this is, if you are only feeding your pigs one or two pieces of fresh food a day and your parents refuse to alter this, give the pigs very highly nutritional foods. Peppers would be an ideal food, just one small slice is very high in Vitamin C.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top