Guinea Pig Pet People

[Tonya]

I saw the cutest freakin Guinea Pig at the petstore today. I can't stop thinking about him. He had funny dumbo ears, and cowlicks all over his fur. His fur was in a total upheaval. He looked like punk rocker. hehe. I want him! I have had hamsters, rats, and bunnies, but never a piggy. Can you all tell me a bit about them?

[cali]

lol well the breed is called abbysinnian, and those cowlicks are called rosetts, they need a larg cage, and to come out for floor time regularly, they must be on a pellet diet NOT a mixed seed diet. they must be guinea pig pellets as guinea pigs cannot manufacture there own vit. C, they need LOTS of greens, dark and leafy, spinnich is great, and so is romain lettace.

well here is the guinea pig basics page my mom made for our piggie site, it includes plenty of helpful links, and info :)

guinea pig basics (http://users.accesscomm.ca/k9furkids/gp/gpinfo.html)

[Tonya]

I just looked on the rescue site. There are so many cute rescues there! Max and Mosley have crazy fur like the one I saw. My husband (jokingly) said that I can have a guinea pig as soon as I get rid of one of the dogs. I'm at my animal limit according to him. I'll have to kiss up a little. hehe.

How are they with dogs and cats? Will they get stressed around them?

[cali]

there cage will have to have a strong cover of coarse to keep a cat out, but I have 5 dogs, the pigs like them, no accually they TEASE them!:p


here is a pic of happy with smudge
:)

[apcrs5122]

Cali has covered the basics I think, but I'll state a few things, but not too many:p


Like she said, pigges must have a pellet diet, not a seed mixture, that can only be givin to them as treat. But you have to be careful because pellets are the thing that causes obesity in piggies, and that's not good. They should always have plenty of hay, all day, every day. They need things to chew on (wood blocks) because their teeth can over grow, just like bunnies. I feed my piggies kale, which is dark green and leafy, and has very hight vit. C content. You can also add vit. C drops to the pig's water, or over their pellets, and I've even heard of someone who gave them special tablets by hand.


If you need any more help or anything, feel free to PM me!:)

[cali]

oh yes I forgot about the part about limiting pellets, you will find a lot of people who will tell you to feed inlimited pellets dont listen to them, those peoples piggies are also fat and have plenty of health problems, you need to limit their pellets, they do need unlimited hay, and they cannot be housed in ceder. yes kale is great, bell peppers are good as well, they can have carrots and apples too, etc.. that kinda thing, feel free to ask if you have any more questions :), oh, I forgot, one thing you can do is feed rabbit pellets IF you add vitamin C drops to the food yourself, we have compared lables on rabbit foods and piggie foods and exept for the vit C they were litterally identical;)

[tatsxxx11]

Here's a link to a previous thread started on guinea pig care a while back! Lots of good info!:)Guinea pig care (http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?s=&postid=70430#post70430)

[Tonya]

Thank you! My husband is still saying no. lol. He's probably right. I do have alot of pets!