any guinea pig money saving tips?

churchrat · 17 June 2008 at 9:18AM

we had a fox take one of our hens in the middle of the day--we live in a very built up area. I see him a lot, suppose it was just v hungry. Once they have found the run, they will probably be back, so perhaps best to keep them in for a while.

lostinrates · 17 June 2008 at 9:51AM

The fox has run riot here recently, for the first time ever we have lost hens: and throuh the day time too. Devastating. He's coming back at nights, because we have heard him, bu we have got the few survivors in a high security pron type set up and are keeping them in a mall area of our garden near house windows through the day now.

poe.tuesday · 18 June 2008 at 12:33AM

with foxes they tend to bury under the cages where ferrets with bite their way into the cages, I would think it's a ferret and if it gets in it will kill all of them and it will come back so I would suggest take measures to protect your pets

looby-loo_2 · 18 June 2008 at 12:42AM

A fox came into the guinea pig barn at our family farm at 4.00pm when the farm was open and people were wandering about. Bold as brass it killed about 25 before he ran off. Horrid!

I do agree with above that foxes dig. I would keep them in as it may return - whatever it was

shelley_crow · 24 June 2008 at 1:52PM

Hi everyone, sorry for the random question : if you have guniea pigs, what do you do with the used bedding? I kept them about 10 years ago and can't remember whether you can put the used bedding on the compost bin. It takes up a lot of room in the wheelie bin and just wondered if there's an alternative. Thanks x

jaffacat_2 · 24 June 2008 at 1:54PM

Hi,

we have 3 and use newspaper as the base(put them in the recycling when finished with), with a layer of saw dust to collect all of their droppings/liquid then shredded paper as the bedding (cheaper than hay/straw). Basically recycle paper/leaflets/envelopes that come through the door, your doing your bit for the world(recycling)and also saving heaps of money on bedding.

We ask friends/neighbours for the paper and shred it also get it from work and recycle.

We only get about 1/2 - 1 bag of rubbish to go in the bin from this depends if they go outside in the daytime or not as we will clean them out once/twice

snowman2_2 · 24 June 2008 at 11:11PM

Newspaper on the base, then some wood shavings - not too fine as they can irritate the eyes - with a good quality, green hay. The hay will act as an insulator and is also excellent nutrition but it should be green in colour, not brown.

Swans1912 · 3 August 2008 at 6:06PM

Hi everyone,

We have three Guinea Pigs and buy all their fresh veg from either tesco or asda when we do our weekly shop.

Is there a better place, I mean cheaper place, to buy all my veg from?

Annabee · 3 August 2008 at 9:15PM

Do you have a local market? In ours we find the fruit and veg much cheaper. For instance yesterday managed to get cucumbers for 25p each, whereas in Sainsbury's they are at least 60p. Supermarket prices on f&v are such a ripoff!. Could you grow anything in your garden if you have one? We found that our guineas really liked things growing in the garden, grass (of course), dandelion leaves, and there is a herb called lemon balm (I think the Latin name is 'melissa officialanis' or something which for some reason they absolutely love, and it grows really easily and seeds itself all over the garden.

Jellicat · 5 August 2008 at 3:20PM

My local shop keeps out of date veggies for me. Supermarkets might not do that for you, but small shops might. perfectly OK veg often has to be chucked because of food standards laws, you could try that, or growing your own. I'm sure you can get little pots of grass to grow inside for pets, you could also try that if you dont have a garden.