What are the safest and unsafest guinea pig toys/accessories?
- Thread starter frikmesad
- Start date
Helen82
Teenage Guinea Pig
Betsy
Anniversary Herd
The best toys are the free ones. Loo rolls cut down one side and filled with hay, old cardboard egg boxes with filled with veg and with veg poking through holes in the top. Paper bags with the handles cut off filled with hay or yummy treats, a cardboard box with door holes in filled with hay. You can buy a Carrot Cottage Rosewood Naturals Carrot Cottage Guinea Pig House, Medium: Amazon.co.uk: Amazon.co.uk: or a Hay Cube Rosewood Naturals I Love Hay Forage Cube Treat and Toy for Rabbits/Guinea Pigs/Chinchillas and Degus, Large: Amazon.co.uk: Amazon.co.uk: but make sure they are not the small ones.
Hi and welcome
Please be aware that most pet shop toys are often more fun for you than for the guinea pigs.
There is nothing wrong with the old cheap, tried and tested ideas like in our enrichment guide, which looks at the issue in a much wider and comprehensive way. Specific toys are very much a human concept of having fun. For piggies anything can become a toy if it provides interest for their own senses (which are stronger in different areas than our human senses, like scent/pheromones).
Anything that is connected with food and getting at food is generally a safe bet whereas most chewing toys are pretty much a waste of money. Guinea pigs also have a destructive streak, so providing enrichment that they can happily wreak havoc on is also something that they will love!
Guinea pigs keep their crucial back teeth ground down nicely with a diet of over 80% hay; their teeth and guts have evolved against the very abrasive silica in hay and fresh grass. The self-sharpening 4 front teeth are there for picking up and cutting any food, but not for chewing. If the back teeth are healthy, then the front teeth will be, too! If your front teeth are slanted, jagged or are pointing inwards, then in most cases there is a major problem with overgrowing pre-molars and molars at the back.
That is why chewing toys are not as important as many new owners seem to think. Different varieties of speciality hays served in imaginative ways are a real treat for them, as does dry forage - and it is much more effective dental support than a chewing toy can ever be! Turning normal dinner time into fun time for your piggies is much more effective and satisfying for you and your piggies than expensive shop toys and fattening sugary treats.
Guinea pigs also love touch and to stroke against fabric or sneak through tight places or burrow in a heap of fleece or underneath fleece, as well as in soft (but not stalky) hay. It gives them a feel of safety and comfort as their wild ancestors have evolved in tunnels and thick undergrowth of the South American grasslands, and they haven't lost that primal instinct.
You may find these links here helpful. We have a dedicated guide at the top of housing/enrichment section to collect warnings about deangerous toys. All the threads on a green background are information guides.
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs
Potentially Dangerous Cage Accessories And Toys
A Comprehensive Hay Guide for Guinea Pigs (incl. providers in several countries)
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
All these guides are part of our much extensive practical information collection for new owners, in which are are addressing all the areas that we get the most questions and concerns about to hopefully give our members as good and smooth a start into their pet life. Many of the guides are about good long term care and diet in practical detail; learning what is normal and what not and how to spot illness early on/when to see a vet, as well as understanding guinea pigs and how to interact with them in ways that make sense to them.
Are Guinea Pigs For Me? - A Guide
Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides
PS: Please plan on saving up for vet fees right from the start as part of your weekly/monthly pet cost. Guinea pigs are small animals that cannot wait for days in an emergency. Sadly far too many new owners are not aware that vet cost make the largest life time budget post in any pet's life. There are unfortunately no cheap pets, and there is NEVER a convenient time for illness or an emrgency to pounce! All you can do is being prepared.