any guinea pig money saving tips?

gettingready

Ruby_Moon wrote: »

I am a little amazed at my guinea pigs.
The lovely girls we have have somehow managed to make 4 more guinea pigs! I wonder if they knit them during the night? :cool:
Seriously though, they are gorgeous little things and not as small as I thought baby guinea pigs would be.
Have to find the culprit now and have him 'done'. Poor lad!

Oh, reminds me when I had 3 female guinea pigs and when in the shop getting them food I saw the most georgeous, all black guinea pig - asked the owner what is was, he said it was definitely a female so took it home.

Not long after I had 3 pregnant guinea pigs at home and one very happy black guinea pig boy (damn pet shop owners) bossing them about....

Seeing guinea pigs being born is quite an experience - they come out in some sort of "sacks" whcih mu needs to break one by one. We had to help one f the piggies as she did not have a clue, the other 2 were fine. In total we had 12 babies, one was born dead and one died soon after, could not feed off its mum, it was horrible to watch... Found homes for all of them and had the boy neutered after.

But my pigs never fighted - I used to let them out in the garden every day while I was there and my then 9 cats (yup, had nine cats then too) were circling around them watching for any predators and chasing any strange cats away - it was so much fun to watch how my cats were "looking after" the guinea pigs... and my rabbit (yup, had a rabbit then too)....



The cage you mention seems small for 2 pigs but you do say you let them run around the living room too so I guess size may not matter that much as long as they are not confined to small space 24/7.

Hope you manage to sort out the fighting but personally I would rehome one of them to avoid any serious damage and maybe get another pig (different sex) - but then having one or both of them neutered ... 2 pigs opposite sex should get on fine...

All the best

top_drawer_2

Ruby_Moon wrote: »

I am a little amazed at my guinea pigs.
The lovely girls we have have somehow managed to make 4 more guinea pigs! I wonder if they knit them during the night? :cool:
Seriously though, they are gorgeous little things and not as small as I thought baby guinea pigs would be.
Have to find the culprit now and have him 'done'. Poor lad!

lol immaculate conception!! its the right time of year too

top_drawer_2

Wol2 wrote: »

At that age, their hormones are just cutting in so there WILLbe a scrap for top piggie. Hopefully it will sort itself out soon provided they have enough space.

However do please check them carefully twice a day - piggies with blood are injured piggies (they don;t scratch themselves and draw their own blood unless they have mites of a fungal skin infection). Chek their teeth/ears, eyes and back/rump especially for injuries as an abcess can arise which is difficult and time consuming to deal with. I have had boars lose teeth, get lacerated mouths and can be pretty bashed up in the space of 2 minutes and I have had females fight and one lost an eye.

One word of warning - if they really start fighting - do not separate them without first putting on heavy duty gloves (My right hand was permanently damaged/tendons severed trying to separate two fighting boars with a large beach towel for protection )

Sadly some piggies won;t bond (I have brother boars who have all ended up in separate cages)......

If that is the case, you can either house them separately with a wire mesh cage divider so they can still see/talk to each other - or alternatively you can get them both neutered and find them female comnpanions from a rescue

And and fully concur with the other posters.....neutering will not change their behaviour. I have one (now lone) male who is so sexaully agressive....he rogers everything in sight ......and even neutering hasn;t stopped him :rotfl:

Good luck
xxx

hi,

They are separated now, at least until their wounds heal properly .... I am at work for a lot of the day so I can't keep an eye on them all the time (not that it stops them to fight when I am there!). I will look at reintroducing them once the injuries have healed - I spoke to [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] people and she seemed to think that separating for more than 4-5 days would encourage independence and make it more difficult to reintroduce them .... is this true??

I will not be getting them neutured and I think I am going to stop asking [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] for advice as this was their suggestion - god help me if I had gone ahead and had them neutured, it wouldnt have changed their behavior and I could have lost a piggie.

Jen

linda.b_4

Hi. If they fought till blood was drawn, thats not a good sign. usually they have dominance scuffles till they decide who is top dog, but if neither will back down chances are you will have to keep them seperate cos they just dont like each other! You could try putting them together again but will have to keep a close eye on them or you might end up with a huge vet bill from abcesses, torn ears etc.

amy104

Personally if the fighting is becomeing a regular event I would seperate permanently and avoid putting them through any more stress. Some piggies will never get on and boys are always a harder pairing.

amy104

Ruby moon baby boy piggies can get mum pregnant from 4 weeks so if you don't know how to sex yourself I'd def advise a vet trip or you'll soon have even more piggies appearing.

Molly41

I have a four year old female piggy (Squeaky) who lost her eye in the summer. She had a very good relationship with a neutered rescue male (Ollie) who sadly died 8 weeks ago. I was looking for another rescue companion when I was unexpectedly given a young female (Mistletoe). I put the two together properly and whilst they did not get on like )Ollie they rather seemed to ignore each other. They have been together for about three weeks but I had to separate them yesterday as Squeaky has been continually bullying Mistletoe who spent the past two days hiding in a corner. When I got Misty out to see if she was ok I put her back in the main part of the cage only for Squeaky to chase her back making a funny noise.

Did I do right to separate them and what should i do about companions for them? I dont think it will too much of a problem as i can get a young female to go with Misty but not sure what to do for Squeak?

many thanks,
Molly

Rummer

Hhhhmmm not sure what you should do for the best, we had a group of girls and they squabbled but we just left them until they settled although it sounds as if you have tried that. Maybe add another female into the mix, keeping them all together and see if that works. failing that you could put them in cages next to each other so they are separated but still in sight/smell contact.

There_Goes_Trouble

Can you split the cage so that they can see and smell each other but not actually have contact? If so, give them time to get used to each other through the barrier (some sort of wire?) Then, after about a week of this start changing them over into each other's side every day so that they get used to each other's scent. After a week or so of this then try mixing them again on neutral territory. (I find the bathroom works quite well for this, not sure why but who cares why?)

If they were actually fighting I'd say not much chance, but as they're not actually ripping each other to bits then there's hope!! You just might need to take things more slowly than expected.

Molly41

Hi,
Thanks for your comments. They are quite close to each other and will be next to each other when i can organise their space better. I thought I would put them together again soon and see what happens but don't think i will leave them together as they are at the top of the house. I will have to get another partner for Misty as she is so young. I think Squeaky still missing Ollie but will see if I can find her a rescued mate more her age and size - she is a huge piggy whereas Misty is tiny in comparison.
Molly