Cheapest place to buy guinea pig accessories

muddlingmywaythrough

We are planning on getting our 9 year old a couple of guinea pigs for xmas (this has been asked for and discussed since the beginning of the year so not a rash decision). We have a small dog that (give or take) costs us about £50pm so I was a bit shocked to hear that the pigs could cost about the same! With this in mind I am keen to shop around and wondered if anyone could recommend any companies/Web sites that are good value for food, bedding, hay etc? I use pet supermarket for the dog but they only cater for cats and dogs. Any suggestions would be appreciated 

lcc86

If you have somewhere to store stuff i would buy in bulk. Timothyhay.co.uk is great for buying hay in bulk. Megazorb is good for bedding, you can get that from horsey shops or also online. Don't buy bedding from high Street pet stores as they are so expensive. For toys I would say ebay or somewhere similar.

lcc86

Also with food, try to get a nugget based food rather than cereal based as they will pick and choose their favourite bits and leave the rest. Choose a food with low calcium as piggies can be prone to bladder stones which can be fatal if left untreated. 

Emmia

Do provide them with something other than just the nuggets, carrots, broccoli stem etc. (The nuggets would be like you eating dry cornflakes, for every meal for the rest of your life). Also do you have enough garden to move the run on a daily basis (they'll also eat the grass etc.) or are you planning to let them roam in the garden freely? Guinea pigs are wonderful little creatures which will live for many, many years if cared for properly, so I really hope you're not planning on either putting them on concrete or keeping them in a hutch 24/7.

Some guinea pigs also don't get on with water bottles, so a low dish of water may work better for them.

Trina90

well for the cage I recommend googling C&C (cubes and coroplast) cages and doing a bit of research on them. Most (if not all actually) outdoor hutches and indoor cages are too small for guinea pigs. 
I've never heard of a guinea pig not getting on with using a water bottle, and I've had over 50 guinea pigs in my lifetime! First time I've heard that.

Trina90

well for the cage I recommend googling C&C (cubes and coroplast) cages and doing a bit of research on them. Most (if not all actually) outdoor hutches and indoor cages are too small for guinea pigs. 
I've never heard of a guinea pig not getting on with using a water bottle, and I've had over 50 guinea pigs in my lifetime
I second the Megazorb recommendation.

muddlingmywaythrough

Thanks for all the replies. Apologies I can't seem to get the quote button to work so I'll have to address everything in the same post!
Thanks for all the helpful advice. I will definitely look at the sites recommended. We do have a large conservatory which we don't use at the moment but will be ideal for keeping the hutch in in the winter. In the summer we will keep the hutch outside. We have a large garden and I was planning on getting a large run/pen etc (sorry, not quite sure what they're called!) so that the pigs can have a large area to run around in. I'm not sure yet about letting them have free rein of the garden, I would worry about them escaping! We did dog proof our garden before we got our small dog but the pigs are so small I would worry. 

And no, they won't be in a hutch all the time. Like I say, we have a fair size garden for them to use and they can have the run of the conservatory when they're indoors. 

muddlingmywaythrough

I'm a bit worried now  . I've been looking at cages, runs etc and I'm not sure how they will work with the hutch we've brought:
https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/pets-at-home-small-animal-blossom-rabbit-and-guinea-pig-hutch

I know it's not massive but I had planned to have a much bigger cage set up around it with toys, food bowl etc inside and all this will be kept indoors or outdoors (depending on the weather) and then I was going to get some runs/a pen etc to put on the grass in the daytime for the pigs to nibble on grass, have a wander around etc. Will this work or have I got it wrong already? 

muddlingmywaythrough

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VivaPet-Outdoor-Octagon-Protection-Assorted/dp/B0064NOR5G/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=guinea+pig+run+outdoor&qid=1601293198&sprefix=Guinea+pig+run&sr=8-3

What does everyone think of this as a cage for the garden? Too big, too small? Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated

muddlingmywaythrough

Looking at all this again, would it be okay to have a pen (link above) around the hutch we've bought (again link above!) too so that the pigs could use the same run indoors and outdoors? So if they used it in the garden in the day I could bring it in at night to put around their hutch and they can run around in it then too? Sorry for all the questions, but I want to get this right. I have just remembered that we've already brought a basic run (the triangular type that sits on the floor) so we've got that to work with too. 

Emmia

muddlingmywaythrough said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VivaPet-Outdoor-Octagon-Protection-Assorted/dp/B0064NOR5G/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=guinea+pig+run+outdoor&qid=1601293198&sprefix=Guinea+pig+run&sr=8-3

What does everyone think of this as a cage for the garden? Too big, too small? Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated

Can you move it to different areas of your garden (lawn) on a daily basis? As they'll be munching on the grass as well as whatever food you give them - I'd also say there's not loads of shelter, guinea pigs do a lot of snoozing and like a spot or two (depending on how they get on) to hide away (especially in the winter or if it's wet)

Something else you may want to consider is that it won't be fox proof (although virtually nothing will be) - so if you have a visit it will be bye bye to the little guys.