Possibly recusing a guinea pig this next week.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Thu May 14, 2015 4:06 pm

I've been offered a guinea pig that a long time friend of mine bought for his two girls a few weeks ago and now they are not wanting to take care of it and he says he can't because he works full time and is also going to school full time which I understand so I told him I would be willing to take it and I figure I could put the 120 gallon to use and turn it into the guinea pig's new home the tank would be large enough to pretty much eliminate the need for out of cage play time.I've been doing an insane amount of research on guinea pig care and I think I've got most of it down.I know the poor little piggy needs a companion but that will have to come at a later time right now I'm just getting the basics, my friend is giving me a hundred dollar glass tank and matching stand that he bought for the guinea pig along with the animal, food, water bottle, bedding and other sundry items for free.He says the piggy cost him thirty five dollars on its own and if I don't take it he's just going to end up taking it back to Pet-Smart which I would absolutely hate.I've had mice and hamsters in the past so I'm going into this relatively prepared for the level of care that this guinea pig requires.What I'm really looking forward to is the baths apparently these little critters need to be bathed once every four months or so.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Fri May 15, 2015 5:26 am

Guinea pigs are awesome, but noisy sometimes. They will whistle when they want a treat cuz they get used to the noise of the fridge or bags opening when its time for them to get a treat. Carrots are a favorite and we've had some that would eat Cheetos though I don't recommend that on a regular basis. It was by accident we found that out. Most of the time we would only have 1 guinea pig but there were times we would have 2 in separate cages cuz it would usually be a male and female. Course we would get them out and play all the time.Careful with allergies my sisters daughter is allergic to them if she handles them.We would give ours a bath every 2 weeks - a month though. But we give everything a bath even our hamster.Have fun with it.

paperheartz · Post by **paperheartz** » Fri May 15, 2015 9:07 pm

I've always wanted a guinea pig! There's something about little furry animals that I love. Guinea pigs, rats, hamsters. Thereason are only 2 things stopping me. First of all I live in a backroom on my mom's property. so I barely have room for the hermit crab tank and my kitty erica von stardust without adding a cage somewhere. Secondly, even after we have more room whenever we more to a different place I am reluctant of getting one of these animals because the shortest they live is 2 years and the longest they live is 5. And I am very emotional and get attached to pets very easily. They are like my children they are more than pets so to loose one after 2 years would hurt. Even 5, which is the life expectancy of guinea pigs, would hurt but I don't know maybe when we live in more than one room I might cave. I'm weak and I love animals. I definitely know I wouldn't have been able to turn down a rescue. Let us know how it turns out and if you can post a link to a picture. I hope it doesnt give you allergies like Jenok said they can. Oh and what's it's name? ^_^

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Sun May 17, 2015 3:12 pm

The piggy arrived late yesterday and has already started bonding with me the moment I put my hands in the tank he started cooing at me and allowed me to stroke his back.He is the cutest little thing when your rubbing his back he closes his eyes and sings its so flipping adorable.lolI was mislead the friend who gave it to me said that he'd bought it for his girls two years ago and they'd moved three times during that time span and now are in a house just thirty minutes from where I live but its smaller than what they've had and so the guinea pig was taking up more space than they had available and the girls just stopped wanting to take care of it six months ago and were letting it go basically forgetting about it.Anyway I have him now and because I couldn't remember what his name used to be I just re-named him Harley.He is multicolored white, brown and red/orange.He is pretty vocal around breakfast and dinner time but other than that he has been pretty quiet and he sleeps like a dream which is a plus because his cage is on the bottom level of my two tier stand next to my bed, the forty breeder with the hermitcrabs is above him.lolI can't post any pictures right now because my laptop is giving me fits the CPU usage has been through the roof so it tends to freeze up a lot here lately and I'm working on fixing that and when I do I'll be sure to put a picture of Harley up here for all to see.Guinea Pig's or Cavies(I know that is a hermitcrab species as well)come in two versions long haired and short, I lucked out because Harley is a short haired breed, the long haired Cavies have a horrible time with skin issues, knots and matings and so require weekly baths instead of monthly or so.When you bathe them your supposed to use a small animal shampoo but a lot of Cavie owners just use baby shampoo's like Johnson and Johnson's no more tears which is cheaper and does the same job.After the bath the Cavie then needs to be thoroughly dried either by rapping it up in a towel or using a hair dryer on the lowest setting, once the piggy is dried your then supposed to use a soft bristle brush to brush out any remaining knots, a soft bristle brush is necessary because Cavies have very delicate skin so anything to hard or ruff will damage or tare the skin leading to infections.About once a week your supposed to completely empty out the cage then using a mild dish washing detergent thoroughly wipe down the empty cage to remove any bacteria, allow the cage to air dry and then replace the old bedding with all new clean bedding.Kiln dried Aspen, news papers, shredding paper bedding and hay are all useable beddings.You do not want to use Pine or Cedar shavings because of the phenols and resins they contain these highly potent chemicals are responsible for the aromatic aromas of these beddings and are highly carcinogenic to all small animals and especially to small rodents like Cavies, Mice, Hamsters and so on because of how low they are to the bedding they are constantly inhaling these carcinogens and eventually succumb to respiratory infections and cancer.They need to be fed a good vitamin enriched food blend meant for Guinea Pigs but a high quality hay like Timothy Hay needs to be their main diet component.Since Cavies don't have the internal means to produce or even save vitamin C in their bodies they need a constant supply of it in their diet.This can be accomplished through the use of Vitamin C drops which go in their drinking water every day, vitamin c enriched pellets or through the use a vitamin c enriched food blend.The liquid drops are expensive and the vitamin c quickly breaks down in the water in just a couple of hours so this method may not be for you.The enriched pellets are a secondary food item to the hay and the food blend and should be given only twice a week since the pellets tend to cause gastrointestinal issues if given to often not to mention that the vitamin c in the pellets breaks down pretty fast even if the bottle or package has remained unopened.Your best bet to ensure an adequate vitamin C intake for your Cavie is to use Dandelion Greens, yes if your yard is untreated you can harvest the dandelions growing out there for free just put them in a zip lock bag, you can offer the flower head and stalk all in one with a little bit of their hay once a day.Timothy hay while expensive is the best hay to use though it can be expensive depending on your location. Their water bottle should be emptied daily and the bottle cleaned with a mild dish soap, warm water and a bottle brush to prevent bacterial and algae growth just make sure to adequately rinse the bottle afterwards.There is a lot of misconceptions out there that Cavies are hard to care for and have major requirements when it reality they really don't.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:06 am

I went on ahead and moved Harley into the one-twenty last night after hauling out nearly three hundred lbs of dry sand that was still in the tank.Once that was done I completely wiped down the tank and cleaned it out and then put news paper on the bottom and covered that with a layer of bedding and then added Harley in and he has been running laps, he was in a twenty gallon aquarium for two years because Pet-Smart told my friend that Harley could live in such a small space no problems but after I did four hours of research online that just simply isn't true.Cavies need six to eight square feet of space to live comfortably and now he has it and some.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Wed May 20, 2015 10:29 am

They can get there vitamin c from fresh fruit and veggies too. I think celery is one of the few veggies you don't want to give cuz of the stringiness of it. Can't remember on cabbage, lettuce is ok in small amounts too much can cause diarrhea. We gave ours lots of carrots, cantaloupe and watermelon rinds with some flesh left on, Parsley, Strawberries, and various other fruits and veggies. Just not a lot at one time; more like treats everyday. Alfalfa hay is good for them too. Also we have put them outside to get some greens from the lawn (if its not treated) clover was a favorite when they were outside.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Wed May 20, 2015 2:00 pm

@jenok, thanks for the info.

paperheartz · Post by **paperheartz** » Thu May 21, 2015 8:56 pm

omg! im so glad he is finally happy now and in a better environment than before. <3 tell Harley i say hi! that is such a cute name!!!! i cant wait to see a picture!

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Sat May 23, 2015 2:23 pm

@ paperheartz, yeah he is doing well I just got him a five lb bag of fortified Guinea Pig Pellets to supplement his Timothy Hay, he gets the hay in the morning for breakfast about nine am when I wake up the hay helps to keep his digestive system in check and also helps to keep his teeth ground down so they don't become ingrown which would require expensive surgery.He loves his hay but has taken a shine to his new pellets because they smell wonderful, they are made by a company called Small World which also produces pellet foods for mice, rats, hamsters, gerbils and rabbits and the food is high quality it has a fresh citrus smell to it which Harley seems to be drawn to endlessly.lolIf he hears the bag being opened or even sees just a glimpse of it he starts singing his happy song which sounds like a mix between a bird song/whistle and wheeking sounds is so cute.He even has a dance he does when he sees any kind of food entering the tank, he runs around and throws his head up high and turns semi circles, then he comes over and gently kisses your hand as if to say thank you.He gets his pellets around seven to eight in the afternoon and only enough for him to empty his little bowl once.I am trying not to overfeed him because I do not want him being obese which will happen quickly if I let him just gorge all day long every day.In the coming weeks I intend to offer him things like fresh Carrots as treats which will be fed along with his main staple.After all of the research I've done and one malicious browser redirect I know that your supposed offer different treats every day so I've done Dandelions for the added vitamin C and he's had them so often that he's become bored with them so I've decided to lay off of them for a little while and try other things.He has a ferocious appetite and loves the plain Cheerios cereal but he can't have that more than once a month because Cavies have issues with their livers, they can't filter out the sugar in cereals very well and will quickly go into liver failure if too much is given so he has only gotten the cheerios once this whole week and will not be getting them again for the next four weeks, cereals should be regarded as very very rare and occasional treats and only the unsweetened ones should be offered.Other kinds of cereals like the flakes or the ones that include marshmallows or chunky bits should be avoided at all costs as they will kill a Guinea Pig quickly.Feeding a Guinea Pig while easy to do in that they are always looking for food is also a bit of challenge because there are a lot things that they can't have because their digestive systems only work on grasses, so things like meats, seeds, nuts and legumes should really be avoided because they just can't digest the stuff.I'm working on getting a picture up as soon as possible.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Sun May 24, 2015 5:11 pm

Not concerned about newspapers? I ink? The teacher I was an aide for ran out of bedding for the hamsters and used news paper and the next day the paper was chewed up and both were dead.. perfectly healthy before.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Mon May 25, 2015 5:38 am

@Laurie, no I'm not concerned with the newspaper where its at its covered by his actual bedding I only used it to help protect the bottom of the tank but it looks like the acid in his urine has actually completely dissolved the paper anyway so the whole point of using it is moot.I get what your saying and from what I've read you can use news paper as a bedding but is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination and there are two different schools of thought on the safety of using newspaper at all.Apparently the inks and dyes used in newspapers are considered by a lot of Cavie owners as dangerous or toxic while others believe them to be harmless.The real issue is intestinal impaction as the Cavie really can't digest paper at all if they eat it it blocks their G.I. tract up and if not quickly treated can kill them.I think that may be what happened in your post which is really sad, I'd hate for that to happen to Harley.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Wed May 27, 2015 8:27 am

I think the newspaper thing came about because they used to use a toxic ink. I believe most companies no longer use the toxic ink but some still do. You could probably check with the paper printer and find out.I have had mine in the past accidently chew on papers and cardboard and other paper type products by accident if it got to close to their cage or if I wasn't paying attention when we let them run lose in the house and never had one die from it.PS you may want to consider putting something a little harder than hay in for him to chew on so it keeps the teeth worn down good, personally I don't think the hay will do a good enough job. Remember they are a type of rodent so they can usually have the same chew toys as rats and mice.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Wed May 27, 2015 12:54 pm

@jenok, yeah he has some wood chew toys to help keep his teeth ground down and he loves his wooden orange its literally shaped like an orange.lol

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Wed May 27, 2015 5:08 pm

This was prob 10 yrs ago or a little less when the hamsters ate the newspaper.