I would love to hear about your experiences with guinea pigs. I did not grow up with anything like that and would like to hear some personal experiences. They have one in DS' class and he is bringing it home this weekend to babysit. He REALLY wants one, but I'm just not sure. Please tell me the pros and cons.

Thanks!

Kim

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Kim

I had one as a kid and have great memories of her. She was a great pet. We would take her outside and let her eat grass, if we petted her backwards she'd squeal, she didn't require a lot of care other than to clean her cage occassionally and make sure she had food and water. They're pretty easy, as I recall. We had her in a cage that stayed open, but set in a larger low sided cardboard box. I remember she used to run around the outside and then run inside the cage to hide. We always had a small box in there, they like to hide in tight, dark places.

We have a hamster now and I think the care is very similar.

Lisa

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I never had any as a kid but we now have 5. Two boys and 3 girls. We do not keep them together. Guinea pigs are very skiddish but once you catch them you can hold them for a while. They do need exercise so it is recommended that they are taken out of their cages to run around in a pin everyday. My DH built them a huge 2 story cage so they run around in it a lot. We also take them out every other day or every day. Depends on what the kids are doing. All the kids in the neighborhood are over here a few times a week to play with them. They also need fresh greens and veggies every day as they do not metabolize Vitamin C. You also have to put drops in their water. It may sound like a lot of work but they really are very good loving pets. I would recommend them.

Growing up I had one that knew the sound of the refrigerator door, because that's where his "goodies" (fruits/veggies) came from.

So each and every time someone opened that door, he would squeel and squeel!

Very easy critters to take care of!

I've never had one, but many teachers have them as classroom pets. I think they are pretty easy, and that being the reason that many teachers pick them. The only down side, I think, would be cleaning their cage. But I really don't think that is even very bad.

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As long as YOU don't mind cleaning the cage they are a great pet. lol We has two guinea pigs and they were both very sweet. You have to keep their nails clipped so if you are not able to do it yourself you will need to take it somewhere to have it done. I think they are much better than hamsters, and they live longer too.

Great pets! And so cute! Just be careful, we got 2 *females* for the boys and ended up with 15. We never had any trouble finding good homes for the babies.

As 3togetready said, be sure that you're prepared to take care of them. Read up on guinea pigs first. They need large cages and prefer to live with at least one other pig - they are social animals. Don't get one of those tiny cages that the folks at Petsmart or Petco will tell you is appropriate.

My experience is that kids beg and beg to get a pet like this and then, more likely than not, get tired of it, and it becomes your responsibility. You have to make sure they always have fresh food and water and a clean place to live. Kids are really bad at changing the water daily.

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My oldest daughter had Miss Charlotte. I thought Miss Charlotte was going to live forever! We didn't do anything special for her (no drops in water). She had a nice cage, plenty to eat and lots of love. She was a part of our family for many years. The only drawback was that you do need to keep the cage clean because the odor is strong.

we had three at one time, 2 girls and a male. had to keep the girls apart from each other cause they would fight. The youngest of the girls loved my husband and everytime he'd come home she'd run as fast as she could around and around in her cage til he came over to pet her. The male didnt want anything to do with anyone unless you had food otherwise he wanted to be left alone. tried holding him since we brought him home but he wanted none of it. mine I had as a kid would also wheek at you everytime they heard the fridge door. kinda like kids can hear saran wrap from across the house lol

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Thank you all so much! I appreciate the thoughts. I've already considered the probability that I will be the one cleaning the cage. I've heard that you need to clean it at least every 3 days to avoid the odor. I guess we'll see how he does with Mr. Snuggles this weekend. Any more advice or thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Kim

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Kim

I wanted to add that my girls "know" when it is time for their fresh food. When we come downstairs in the morning they hoot and holler until they are fed and if we are a minute past 4:30 pm feeding them for a second time they get very vocal until fed. They are so cute when they get vocal.
Also for the bedding, you do need to change it alot. And we have found that the males smell much more than females.
They are social animals and do not like to live alone. That is how I ended up with 5.
As for clipping their nails we just bought a few of those walking stones and Lowes and put them in their cage for them to walk over and help file their nails.

Both our piggies lived past 8 years old. That is ancient for a guinea pig. Average life span is 3-5 years. Like hashbug said, they require fresh veggies high in vit. C. However, you need to watch their calcium intake as too much can cause bladder stones and other ailments. You must buy pellets specifically for guinea pigs. They can't have rabbit pellets. They also need to have timothy hay daily. I used to buy it at Target. You can buy timothy hay pellets, too, and they are much better for them than the cheap store-bought alfalfa pellets. Oxbow is the brand I used to buy. They also don't do well in extreme temperatures and really should be an indoor pet. We don't have air conditioning and when it would get really hot, I would freeze a 2 liter soda bottle filled with water and lay it in the cage. Both piggies would lay right up against it to keep cool. They are hysterical when they run around their cages, wheeking and popcorning! Good luck!

Oh Yeah forgot the fresh hay. Must be timothy and we use Oxbow too. If you decide to get a guinea pig Pet Supplies | Dog & Cat Supplies, Pet Meds | DrsFosterSmith.com Pet Products has the best pricing on hay and pellet food, this included shipping and it was much cheaper than buying form a local store. Good luck. They are hysterical when they popcorn and wheek! Crack me up.

Thanks for all the guidance! I really appreciate it. I have a question, though... what is popcorning??? Trevor's teacher mentioned the squealing sound they make, but I'm unfamiliar with the other term...

Thanks!

Kim

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Kim

YouTube - Toasty (Guinea Pig) Popcorning!

they jump around, look like their having a fit hhehe

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Kids need pets, but you can tell the minute you enter the door that a classroom or a house has a guinea pig. I don't think 3 days is often enough to keep your house smelling OK. It is work and a committment - and the things that they need add up monetarily.

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Donna

My roomie had one in college and it was fine.

The piggie, Stella, was pretty easy to take care of. She lived in a large(2'x3')plastic crate that was about 12 inches high and solid about 4 inches up with holes in the upper part. She couldn't climb out and the solid part was high enough to keep the bedding in. She was able to put her front paws in the lowest holes and look out over the top of the crate but she couldn't escape.

She had one of those water bottle things so she couldn't spill her water and it needed filled every other day. I don't know how often roomie cleaned the cage but there was very little smell and living in a small dorm there would have been lots of people complaining if there was much smell. Not to mention that pets were illegal and housing would have found her pretty quick if she was stinky!

She ate guinea pig food, hay and fresh veggies. She learned the sound of the fridge door and would squeel something crazy when you opened it until she got some goodies. Very friendly and we petted and played with her a lot, she had lots of friends on the floor.

I'd say go for it. As far as pets go, piggies are easy to care for, not very expensive to buy and maintain(let's not talk about how much my cats have cost me over the years), don't take up a lot of space, can be rehomed pretty easily if you have to and have life spans that are long enough but not too long so you won't be saddled with a pet that will outlive you.

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I don't know that they are that easy to rehome. There are a number in the shelters around here. In fact, maybe the OP will consider a shelter pig. In my opinion, if you're thinking of getting a pet with the idea of rehoming it in mind, you shouldn't get one at all.

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- Stephen Colbert.

maybe able to find one on freecycle, though if you rehome it through there dont give it to just anyone since the people with snake look there for free food critters for the snake.

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I didn't mean that you should want a pet that's easy to rehome, it's just something to add to the list of pro/con when considering a pet. If you MUST rehome a pet, how hard will it be.

I've never rehomed a pet, but it is something to consider before becoming a pet owner. You never know where life will lead you and what place you might find yourself in.

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I got one for my children when my dd was 3 and my son was 10. We lived in an apt and could not have any pet that was not in cages. He was a great pet. We took him out all the time so he was not skiddish like some others that I have seen. "Benji" was like a member of our family. I honestly did not think I could love a rodent, but he had so much personality he was so loveable. My dd use to put her toes in his mouth when she was 3 and make him bite her toes. He lived just to be a bit over 5. And it was so sad. I still cry about it and that was 12 yrs ago. I think about him every time I get out salad or anything in a bag that makes noise out of the ridge. He would squeak whenever he heard the fridge door followed by a salad bag. I think if you have time to socialize them they can be really great companions and not skiddish at all.

Thank you all for the info. We did have a nice weekend with him and are evaluating whether a guinea pig would be a good addition to our family. I know that our home isn't really set up for a very small animal to have free access. He got under multiple pieces of furniture and we had to move those often. He also got under one and starting trying to chew some wires. After that, we kept him in a sort of pen that one of the teacher's husbands had made. It gave him a chance to run around, but not really get into trouble. We did get to experience popcorning. I hadn't yet read the response on here about that and quite literally thought he was having a seizure. It was very concerning until I got online and realized what was happening. After that, it was very cute! He did it quite a bit. We'll talk about it for a while and make sure it is right for us. Thank you all again for all of the insight and info.

Kim

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Kim

hehehe I meantioned that, and I thoguht the same thing when i first saw it. if you have a big enough space, you can sometime find a mini plastic wading pool <like what youd get kids but this one smaller> at petsmart or something like that its for dogs to play in so it's smaller for him/her to play in. there's also in the pet area at walmart they have a long line of wire panels folded in a box that's like the big outdoor playpens for kids, made for smaller pens like G.P's.

We had one girl that'd sit on my desk beside that mouse and it looked like she was just watching whatever i was doing on the screen. when she'd get bored she'd try to nibble on the mouse cord so i'd put her back, but she'd stay on my desk a long time before shed nibble

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Ok, first off I can't really remember how big they are, I know they are bigger than white mice but don't remember how much. When my daughter was a teenager she had a hampster and got it one of those clear balls they you can put them in that has air holes and they can roll around the house unencumbered. The hampster really enjoyed it as it was out of the cage, but it was easy to keep track of and it couldn't hide in furniture. Course we also let it out when we had time to sit and play with it and keep track of it, but it was a hoot to put him in his ball. He would follow you all thru the house in his in it, while being completely safe and I didn't have to worry about him chewing any cords or anything like that. If it is small enough for the ball, that way with the way kids get distracted and don't pay close enough attention to a pet that size, it would make the animals life and yours a lot easier.

they have balls large enough for guinea pigs, but it's bad for their backs, they dont bend and twist like a hamster

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Ok, didn't know that.