Any tips for guinea pigs?

sock-knitter

thanks blossomhill, i will get the new girl to meet my pair on neutrel territory, am upgrading the cage from 120cm, to 14o cm, so lots of space, plus they will have a room in flat all to themselves to play in.

lozza1985

O no I meant small apple branches not just random branches lol, we got a load from Dh grans apple tree for the buns who love them, just wanted to check they were ok for pigs

Ok I'll just give lettuce as a bit of a treat then if greens are better

anniemf2508

My piggies live indoors all year round (with a run outside in summer if we have the weather for it).
I have three boys....our old boy GHD is nearly 5 and came from the Rspca, a result of one person ending up with over 100 piggies. He is very set in his ways and is very boring when it comes to food, he loves carrots and celery.
My 2 other are peppa and porky, i rescued them from a family where they had been bought for the kids but they'd got bored, there were maggots in the cage and they weren't happy boys. They are extremely vocal, porky will eat pretty much anything you give him, parsley is his fave tho, peppa is alittle bit fussier, liking carrots and lettuce best.
When we first got the younger 2 they all lived together quite happily, but then they reached adolescence and Peppa got a bit pushy,so we had to seperate them. They now live in a 2 tier cage in my dining room and they all are as happy as Larry.
Everytime you walk through to the kitchen they let you know its food time (even if they've just been fed).

A good tip i found last year was to sow lettuce as soon as the last frost has gone, its ready to eat in about 3 weeks and you just keep reseeding all season. This saved me a fair bit last year.
Tesco in late evenings aswell, i could get a weeks worth of veg for them for about a £1 (including parsley carrots, celery etc).

Kaelea

I don't think anyone has mentioned to keep an eye on their teeth too, sometimes they can become overgrown ..

sock-knitter

plenty of wooden toys to gnaw on does help to keep their teeth down, but as poster above says keep an eye on them

lozza1985

Yeah there the same as buns with their teeth so used to keeping an eye on them and making sure they have plenty of stuff to chew

blossomhill_2

With buns the teeth problem is often due to them being given food that is better than they are designed to eat - they are designed to graze almost non-stop and this keeps their teeth down. If they are given fancy food such as commercial feeds they dont need to eat for as long a period so their teeth don't get enough wear - so feeding them low value foods such as grass, hay and bran is actually good for them.
Also if they don't need to graze so long they can get bored and chew things they shoudln't, so keep them occupied with low value foodstuffs

Guineas are similar but not quite as simple as bun's causes - and with guineas the teeth you need to worry about aren't visible from peering into their mouths (cheek pads get in the way) so you need to check other things like looking for abnormal jaw or ear movements

lozza1985

Which is much the same as buns, you can't check all of their teeth at home you have to take them the vets to have them looked at. When I said it's the same as buns, I meant in terms of being aware that they can have teeth problems if they don't have the right sorts of food etc to keep their teeth in check. I've had buns for 11 years with no problems, but never had a piggie before hence all the questions to find out more about them so I can do a good job looking after them to