guinea pigs as pets

A question about : guinea pigs as pets

I'm thinking about getting 2 or 3 guinea pigs, girls sounds like the best option, but theres so much info online i'm getting a bit lost. Has anyone got/had guinea pigs and can help me out?
How can i keep costs down, i've read using fleece for bedding can work, but not sure how it would work, just a fleece blanket, or strips, how often would it need changing washing?
Whats the best to feed them, i ask because it seems most cat food really isn't that good for cats, so is it the same for guinea pigs?
Any other tips?
:-)

Best answers:

• Guinea pigs can be great pets I used to have a couple so here is my advice...
  - try to get some from rescue rather than a pet shop. Like cats and dogs there are plenty of guinea pigs looking for a forever home.
  - I always used Excel food along with a good helping of fresh stuff.
  - fleece is good - it has wicking qualities that draws moisture away from the surface so they stay nice and dry. I used a layer of newspaper, a layer of towel and then a sheet of fleece on top. I cleared out any pellet poops daily (they produce a lot!) and then changed the other bedding every few days to top smells - the newspaper and the towel doesn't dry. You can wash the fleece and towel easily, you'll just need to make sure you have a 'one on, one in the wash' approach to bedding.
  - like all animals they need space and shouldn't stay confined to a cage / hutch the whole time. Letting them run around in a safe room (no hanging wires, nothing they can get behind) with a wipeable floor is a good option. You could also look at outdoor runs and maybe even customise an indoor cage - there are loads of tips online.
  - take your time, guinepa pigs are prey animals and ground dwellers so not massive fans of being picked up to human heights. Get them used to cuddles slowly.
  - I had two boys...they never really fought at all but they did get tetchy with each other now and then. If you go to a rescue they will probably have bonded pairs of either sex that you could choose from.
• guinea pigs are great pets but yes there's lots of advice out there, a lot of it conflicting!
  Essentials are : a large habitat, look at guineapigcages.com for ideas and size guides, they can be indoors (easier to care for and you see them so much more) Or outside, less smelly but they do need keeping warm and safe from predators.
  Food:Hay veggies and guinea pig food as they eat so many veg and hay the pellets/muesli part of it isn't so essential as it is with moggys
  Bedding: so many options and opinions but go with what suits you best, fleece looks great but is a lot of upkeep, you will need an absorbent pads underneath or ready made online.
  HTH Michelle (Owner of 4 guinea pigs and three cats!)
• As for rescues, if you're not sure where to start try here: https://www.guineapigrehome.org.uk
• Thanks, conflicting advice is so true, from what I'd read 2 boys is asking for trouble.
  So if I give fresh hay, (any advice where to get it cheap but good quality) and fresh veggies daily, they dont really need the pellets, how can you be sure its the right amount of what?
• Best to shop around a bit for hay...I found prices varied quite a bit from the compressed packages you can get from places like Pets at Home to more fresh and loosely bagged stuff you could get from farm shops or independent pet shops.
  Markets can be good places to buy cheap veg.
  Try having a look at Pet Forums guinea pig sections...ive found loads of great advice there.
• Two boys only works if they are together from a very young age, essentially brothers, and there are no females to fight over.
  Guinea pigs live a long time. My eight-year-old piggy died last summer.
  They shouldn't be outside in temperatures of less than 10 degrees. Giving them extra bedding when it's freezing out is not enough. Especially as they can't spend their whole time in bed.
  The main food for guinea pigs is grass. Heaps of fresh grass every day. And hay too.
  Some people don't realise that hay is fresh green grass that has been dried with all its goodness. They should never be given straw as they cannot eat it and they risk eye damage from the sharp ends.
  (Edited to add) guinea pigs shouldn't be given tomatoes or citrus fruit as these can cause sores around the mouth.
• I'm planning on getting a 2 story cage for inside for the cold weather and hopefuly a 2 story one for outside, where the bottom layer has grass growing through the bottom, but how much grass would they eat, would the cage need to be moved around? We dont have much lawn left, mostly mud patches from the kids running, so i'm planning on getting a couple of rolls of grass to put under the hutch just for them, would that work? If i give lots of hay too?
• Guinea pigs are not climbing animals. They are easily injured by falls. Most of the multistory cages I have seen are dangerous for guinea pigs. The ramps should have side walls and the stair well should have a wall around it too.
  Many (most?) guinea pig owners fail to provide any/enough fresh grass. That's why vitamin C drops are recommended. Yes, an outside cage on grass would need to be moved to another spot, perhaps every two days. I would worry about preditors burrowing in where we are. Our neighbours chickens were killed by something small like a stote or a mink. I only put my piggies in a run on the lawn when I'm there to keep an eye on them. I wouldn't go out and leave them.
• I dont have a lot of space for a big cage, so thats why i was thinking of a 2 story cage, but thanks for pointing that out, i've never read it anywhere, so i'll be sure to keep that in mind with ramps. So a huch on legs or with a solid bottom is better with either handfuls of grass picked everyday, and/or time in a grazing ark. Should i still give vit c drops, or can too much bd bad?
• We have a big grassy area outside our place where dog walkers wander past, my neighbour has a tortoise who my girls pick dandylions for, but she says not from the grass outside in case a dog's weed on it and it makes the tortoise ill. Might ghat be true for guinea pigs?
• I avoid any grass that might be contaminated by dogs, and also by weedkiller that the council sprays on the edge of the pavements. There's still plenty of scope to collect grass though. Hay is good too. They each eat a ball of hay the same size as their body every day.
  I don't give vitamin C to my pigs. I do give fresh veg a few times a day - lettuce, cucumber, peppers, apples. But never citrus fruit or tomatoes as these cause sores round the mouth.
  I came across a Facebook page for the "World's Oldest Guinea Pig" (now passed on) who was 15. My oldest was 8. Still a big long commitment to take on.
• Hello, just come across your post - a bit late but never mind. My son found a guinea pig in the park many years ago and he became a much loved pet until he died at the age of 7. They are great characters but don't be fooled into thinking they are cheap to run just because they are small. Our one cost a small fortune in fresh salad - he had guinea pig dried food during the day and grass if he was outside in his run and in the evening I would make him a fresh mixed salad of cucumber, carrot, lettuce (he particularly liked lollo rosso and dark fancy leaved varieties), melon skin, celery and various other seasonable veg. I think he was a bit spoilt but he loved his salad and would stand up on his hind legs when I bought his dish out and would make excitable squeaking noises. Fresh dandelions were also a favourite during summer but make sure they have not been sprayed or contaminated. One thing we also found was that an awful lot of hay was needed for bedding and eating. Bedding should be changed daily as they tend to wee anywhere rather than in a corner like a rabbit. I found the most economical way of buying hay was to go to a local stables or farm or somewhere that sells animal feeds to farm animals. I would buy a whole bale of hay for about Ј5 which I would pull apart and break down into large bags and keep in the garage until needed. This would last all winter. Considering a small bag of hay from pet shops is about Ј4 I think this is a real bargain. One last thing, as one of the other posts suggests, guinea pigs do not like to be out when it is too cold - I used to bring ours indoors in the winter. This is not very convenient but if you have these pets you just have to look after them! Anyway, good luck with your little piggies and I hope you have many years of guinea pig fun with them.
• Megazorb you get a large bag for around Ј7 we used it for our two G pigs GJW Titmuss is the site we found it on
• I have 6 guineas, 4 boys and 2 girls, all rescues! Mine all live in pairs.
  We did use fleece for a while, and if you do use it, you really need a specific wash bag otherwise your washing machine will completely clog up with hair and bits of hay, ours did! We used fleece for about a year, with puppy pads underneath. Cleaned three times weekly, and the cage was still a bit smelly. Switched to hay and newspaper last month and the smell is gone, and we only need to clean once a week.
  Definitely start them on nugget food. Most of mine ate museli style food in their previous homes and its SO SO difficult to wean them off it onto nuggets. Nuggets are all round so much better for their health. Excel is good and they have different flavours, mine go bonkers for the blackcurrant one!
  Girls are easier than boys, easier to bond and less likely to fall out, although less chance of that the bigger the cage you have. Two unrelated adult males can get along, but its not common. I did it last year when my 3 year old boy lost his companion, I found another 3 year old boy and they bonded nicely and adore each other. I recommend no smaller than 5ft in length.