any guinea pig money saving tips?

Rummer

Not even a glimmer although my guinea pig is getting quite grumpy (as am I!), she is huge and seems to be getting noticably bigger everyday. Oh I am so impatient, I really thought they would have come by now :mad:

Tarry

They like to keep you waiting don't they?

foreversomeday

Awww baby guinea pigs are sooo cute, I remember when we let ours breed, they were so tiny! And the mum was so huge, she looked like a pear or a lightbulb!!

It will be worth the wait, don't forget to take loads of pictures especially against people so you can look back later and squeal over the size of them! Also love the way they can eat solids from birth, they used to sit *in* the food bowl...

Did you know you can get the males neutered by the way? Sometimes unneutered males don't like sharing a cage so this might help.

Rummer

Tarry - they certainly do!

Foreversomeday - That is good advice I will need to dig out the digital camera so that I am ready for them arriving. I didn't realise the males could be neutered I thought they would be too small for the surgery so I will look into that if I get lots of boys. Funny you should mention the food bowl, earlier today I went to check the hamsters and they were both sitting in the empty food bowl gazing lovingly at me!

I will keep you all updated, maybe see if I can get a picture of the mum to be to let you see how huge she is!

~Chameleon~

Be very careful if buying bales of hay intended for horses as they can often contain weeds or other plants which might be toxic to guinea pigs. Also, poor quality hay will be very dusty causing respiratory problems and could also contain mites. It might be better to look at the sacks of alfalfa and readi-grass type products (for horses) as these will be much higher quality (gestating guinea pigs will benefit from additional alfalfa in their diet) and dust-extracted, but still a lot cheaper than buying "pet shop" hay.

If you have any racing or competition yards near you it might be worth asking who/where they get their hay from as this will be much better quality than normal run-of-the-mill hay bales.

Good luck with the piggies, can't wait to see pics

PS Ask your local feed merchant about getting sacks of guinea pig food. It's likely that he can get hold of them for you even if he doesn't usually stock them. The best food to buy is Supa Guinea Pig Excel made by a company called Burgess which also makes horse feed

Rummer

Chameleon - Thank you for that advice, I think the bags of alfalfa will be best and it will be easier to store. Never though about asking if they could order the guinea food although now I come to think of it they do sell big sacks of cat and dog food.

Still no babies!

Tarry

Alfalfa is ok for nursing and young guinea pigs but remember it's too high in calcuim for guinea pigs over 6 months, so you know in the future.

I've never had problems with hay bales (touch wood!) and I would think there shouldn't be any "dangerous" weeds in it as quite often they may be posionious to horses as well as piggies. I get my hay from a wholesalers where I get my guinea pig food and rabbit food from. You can normally check yourself whether a hay is good quality by the smell of it etc and the colour.

parisjordana

singlehouseholder.....Hi Iv had guineapigs since I was 11 and that was a long time ago let me tell you....Iv bred and showed them but thats another story,well done you for rescueing this lil piggy,I have 7 peruvian ones at the mo they are the most sweetest animals and will reward you with lots of squeaking and love...I ivomec mine (but its not called ivomec now) every 6 mths and this keeps away a lot of the nasty creepy crawlies........i buy bales from my local farm at £2.50 a bale and that will last me months with 7 ,the above poster is correct in saying by smell and colour will indicate wether good hay,the best pig food is Allen & Paige but its finding a local stockist and a sack is roughly £12 .....they love grass,I have mine in a run in the garden....havnt had time to read the whole thread just a few pages but love the piggy pic the other poster on here put up...dont know how to do that .
Runner....baby guineapigs are born with fur,eyes open and squeaking and running around once mum has taken the sack of them....sometimes she forgets and in the past iv done this for her as shes got to tired,cant wait to see pics of them oh baby piggies are delightful.

Tarry

If any of you are interested in Jolleys a 15kg bag of Wagg Guinea Pig is on offer at 7.12.

saila

We have always wanted to get some guinea pigs but we have cats so can't...

We know quite a few people who have free roaming guinea pigs and have had no problems. I think this is rare though