How much care/time do a pair of (indoor) guinea pigs need?

splishsplash

We had two guinea pigs years ago. They were lovely, very sociable and friendly but OMG they took up an unbelievable amount of time and effort. They were mostly indoor, the hutch had to be cleaned out every second day and that took up to an hour to do. Half of that was cleaning the debris tracked all over the house as well as the cage itself.

They needed lots of attention and playtime and of course, it mostly fell to me to see that they were cared for adequately.

We had had hamsters previously so I thought 'well, how different can they be, just a bit bigger?!'. Completely wrong, they are in a different league altogether. I've had dogs, cats, hamsters, fish, the odd rescue hedgehog and seagull but nothing was as much work as the guinea pigs.

Wannabe2018

Haha! One of my boys is a Peruvian... They don't tell you about that.. nor the boar glue tha tgets everywhere!!!:rotfl:

GwylimT

Two pigs will need a single storey enclosure of at last 140x50cm, more if it is a pair of boys.

Each day you need to
Poo sweep
Remove damp bedding
Clean and refill bottles
Clean and refill bowls
Feed pellets
Feed hay
Feed veg
Handle (little and often)
You will then need to either get them an indoor run (they can’t be exposed to temps below 15 degrees or high humidity) or sit and supervise them running around a room in the house.

Trina90

Hmm, this question is a bit like how long is a piece of string. Some owners will spend a lot of time with their guinea pigs, others not as much as they should. Admittedly, I'm probably more the latter but my girls have a massive 2-level cage and aren't keen on human interaction (although if I spend more time socialising them they might). One is calmer than the other. Guinea pigs are very timid by nature but most can be tamed to enjoy/tolerate being held, but what's most important to a guinea pig is space and food, in my 20+years experience.
Cleaning out regularly is a must. They poo and pee a lot, and it won't be just in one corner (unless you're willing to give corner tray training a try).
People underestimate how much space they need. Store-bought cages are almost never big enough (check out DIY cube and coroplast cages).
Just so you know my experience, I've owned 50+ guinea pigs, as I used to breed and show them.:p