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Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise
Guinea pigs don't *need* to chew right? My previous pigs weren't big on it but my current ones have made pretty large headway into the entrance to the igloo and even have taken some noticeable chunks out of the colorplast bed on their cage. I think they're bored and I'm not sure what to do about it (they start giving attention bites when you hold them long enough and they want to go back in)

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Zetsubou
Feb 22, 2011

Dead Inside Darwin posted:

Guinea pigs don't *need* to chew right? My previous pigs weren't big on it but my current ones have made pretty large headway into the entrance to the igloo and even have taken some noticeable chunks out of the colorplast bed on their cage. I think they're bored and I'm not sure what to do about it (they start giving attention bites when you hold them long enough and they want to go back in)

Well, I ain't no Guinea Pig expert and have also never had one, but from some googling around it seems like Guinea Pigs teeth don't stop growing, So I am guessing they are chewing on stuff to wear down their teeth. Also from experience rodents can vary personality wise and habit wise so yeah it wouldn't be surprising if your new piggies do different things than your last.

Sirotan
Oct 17, 2006

Sirotan is a seal.


Guinea pigs absolutely need to chew to keep their teeth at an appropriate level. Having access to an unlimited amount of good quality hay goes a long ways to keeping their teeth down but having some things made of wood or cardboard or anything that isn't plastic in their cage for them to chew on is also necessary.

alucinor
May 21, 2003



Taco Defender

Sirotan posted:

having some things made of wood or cardboard or anything that isn't plastic in their cage for them to chew on is also necessary.

:eng101: Interestingly, this is not really true. Hay is the only thing that is truly needed to wear down guinea pig teeth. They don't gnaw through nuts, big branches, or roots in the course of normal foraging or nesting behavior like, say, rats do, so although some of them *will* chew other material, many do not. It's simply not a normal part of their behavioral repertoire.

The hay, though, absolutely is. They evolved to be 24/7 lawnmowers and chew every thin stemmy plant within reach. That helps wear down both the incisors and the molars, although for the incisors it's due more to the cutting action of the teeth against one another, rather than the abrasive action of the plant material.

That's also why pellets or chopped hay doesn't do as good a job as long-stem hay - shorter material is taken into the rear of the mouth by the tongue, and bypasses the incisors completely. And if the incisors overgrow, that spreads the jaw apart and then the molars start to overgrow, even if they have adequate chopped hay to eat.

/nerd

Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise
I give them mountains of hay and a number of cardboard boxes without tape/labels, and they do a number on those. Just sometimes they decide they want to start dragging their house around gnawing on it and I wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong.

Party Boat
Nov 1, 2007

where did that other dog come from

who is he


I just gave my two pigs some fresh mint leaves for the first time. Their looks of initial confusion followed by furious chomping were amazing.

kazmeyer
Jul 26, 2001

'Cause we're the good guys.

The only things my pigs have ever chewed on (that they were supposed to chew on) were hay and cardboard toilet paper/paper towel tubes. Any wood or straw chew from the store, they ignored completely. One did nibble a ton of coroplast, though. But yes, long-strand hay is a must. Pigloo moving is another thing entirely; some pigs just like to redecorate. I had one antisocial pig who'd drag and push a pigloo around so the doorway was pressed against the side of the cage so she could be alone. Then when I'd toss hay or veggies into the cage, there'd be this frantic rattling and wheeking as she tried to get it turned around before the others could eat everything.

As for mint, I tried that once, a long time ago. Put a handful of leaves over the food bowl, and the girls came up to see what it was -- and then stampeded like I'd pepper sprayed them. The bravest one came back, sniffing at the unfamiliar stuff, and then started shaking her head wildly and fled. I guess maybe it was too strong, or they just really hated mint.

Malalol
Apr 4, 2007

I spent $1,000 on my computer but I'm too "poor" to take my dog or any of my animals to the vet for vet care. My neglect caused 1 of my birds to die prematurely! My dog pisses everywhere! I don't care! I'm a piece of shit! Don't believe me? Check my post history in Pet Island!

alucinor posted:



That's also why pellets or chopped hay doesn't do as good a job as long-stem hay - shorter material is taken into the rear of the mouth by the tongue, and bypasses the incisors completely.

/nerd

I dont know much about hay, but whats the kind you find in big box stores? Im familiar with kaytee timothy hay, orchard grass..and the carefresh brand, but other than it being HAY I dont know how to tell what is better for pigs, rabbits, etc.

A Sloth
Aug 4, 2010
EVERY TIME I POST I AM REQUIRED TO DISCLOSE THAT I AM A SHITHEAD.

ASK ME MY EXPERT OPINION ON GENDER BASED INSULTS & "ENGLISH ETHNIC GROUPS".


:banme:

Zenithbliss posted:

This isn't a recent pic but my 3 female gerbils live happily in this Omlet double Qute. I know not everyone approves of them but the girls love running up and down the tubes and they haven't chewed it yet, plus it is fairly easy to clean out



These cages look awesome and I wish I knew about them when I first got my hamsters.

Can you block the middle hole off to separate animals? Is there any easy way to add a less vertical tube?

E: actually no on the tube, because it has that lock thing.

A Sloth fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jul 1, 2013

alucinor
May 21, 2003



Taco Defender

Malalol posted:

I dont know much about hay, but whats the kind you find in big box stores? Im familiar with kaytee timothy hay, orchard grass..and the carefresh brand, but other than it being HAY I dont know how to tell what is better for pigs, rabbits, etc.

Most of that stuff is sold loose in a bag, and is considered "long strand"; those are all fine. Compressed hay cubes and pellets are made out of hay that's more or less been through a blender - that's the "short strand" stuff that doesn't really help the incisors. Also in the short strand list would be loose chopped hay products like this or this - both of which have their uses, just not as a primary hay source for cavies or bunnies.

Zenithbliss
Oct 22, 2007


A Sloth posted:

These cages look awesome and I wish I knew about them when I first got my hamsters.

Can you block the middle hole off to separate animals? Is there any easy way to add a less vertical tube?

E: actually no on the tube, because it has that lock thing.

You can block the middle off but they stupidly made the seal plastic so not good for gerbils, I suppose it'd work for hamsters though.

With the tubes, my gerbs were almost a year old when I got their new home and it took the slowest 3 days to cotton on to the vertical tubes, but soon after that were zooming up and down having a blast.

Bastard Tetris
Apr 27, 2005

L-Shaped


Nap Ghost
I bought some new fleece to hopefully prevent the other pigs from having bladder issues like Carl, and we picked up some anti-pill fleece to keep them dry. We washed them three times as per instruction, and it still holds pee like a motherfucker, there were wet asses all around. Do I just need to wash this stuff more? It's not wicking at all.

Tuxedo Gin
May 21, 2003

Classy.

Bastard Tetris posted:

I bought some new fleece to hopefully prevent the other pigs from having bladder issues like Carl, and we picked up some anti-pill fleece to keep them dry. We washed them three times as per instruction, and it still holds pee like a motherfucker, there were wet asses all around. Do I just need to wash this stuff more? It's not wicking at all.

Are you washing with soap? I read that laundry soap often interferes with wicking. We just wash with vinegar.

suztan
Jul 4, 2012

There haven't been a lot of chinchilla posts lately, so here's Wiki trying to win an award for most uncomfortable-looking nap ever:



I think he's trying to send a hint that I should build him a chin-couch, so he can watch TV and sleep, at the same time, while also not sacrificing comfort. :rolleyes:

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
My hamster regularly sleep with their heads jammed into the corners of their aquariums at 90 degree angles pointing up. It looks like the most uncomfortable sleeping position in the world, but they don't seem to mind.

tentawesome
May 14, 2010

Please don't troll me online
I don't usually hang out in Pet Island, but I feel compelled to share Princess Hamerella with everyone I can.



She's been super active! As soon as I brought her home she was perfectly happy to run around in her cage and on her wheel like it was already hers. She's not at all shy when people come in the room, and my dogs constantly trying to sniff at her cage (they're way too short to actually reach it, though) hasn't perturbed her at all. She comes right out and bites me when I try to hand-feed her so we can be best friends, but I prefer that to running and hiding.

thecommunistotter
May 6, 2013
Hey guys! So i have two guinea pigs, and one of them is losing hair quite drastically. They both did for a while actually, but when we talked to the vet, he said that hers were just from biting off hair from stress, and he also thought that the other one's bald patch was from the one who was also biting herself. He recommended we separate them but my mom is both unwilling and uninterested in buying a completely new cage, so we tried an aquarium separator (which didn't work) and now we have an insertable window screen which has worked very well in this so far. We also had given them separate food and pellet bowls and hay piles, as figured sharing didn't help. Now, the biting one has mostly regained her hair, even before we had really separated them, but the other one doesn't seem to be getting any better, and in fact seems to be getting worse. It's been a couple weeks now and we haven't noticed any regrowth and her fur around her neck seems to be getting thinner still. If you guys need pictures, i'd be willing to provide, but i figured i'd ask you guys before going to the vet again. We researched really well before we got them and we feed them very well and have the proper hay and bedding, so that's probably not a factor. Thanks in advance!

The Heartless
Nov 7, 2006
When all is said and done.
I think one of my mice is dying. :( I found her tonight sitting very still in her little house breathing very fast and hard with her eyes half open. I've watched her and she doesn't move much, isn't interested in food or treats and just doesn't look good at all. I'm going to call the vet in the morning, but I doubt they do rodent euthanasia as they kind of laughed at me when I asked about having her checked out when I found her. I wish there were more options, but it'll be a Saturday on a tiny little island (Guam) with not many options to begin with. It's really bothering me to see her like this though. I don't know exactly how old she is.. I've had her for 6 months, but she was full grown when we found her in our garage so there's no telling how long someone else had her as a pet or how long she lived outside. Are there any options if they don't do euthanasia?

Also, our other mouse Ritzie is about 7 months old and super skittish, we've never been able to handle her.. She fought Ralphie a lot when she was younger and still instigates some little skirmishes every now and then.. I'm kind of nervous about getting another mouse to put in with her. I've read that while they are social creatures and need company, that introducing new mice with an older one could be difficult. If we keep her cage interesting do you think she'd be okay by herself? We leave here to go back to the states in about 8 months and I know I could find someone to keep her to finish out her life if she's still around at that point, but I don't think they'd be too enthused to be taking on another mouse that might live another year on top of it. My friend mentioned seeing if the pet store would take her back, but throwing her in a tank with 10 other younger mice just seems like an even worse idea. I feel like poo poo for writing this whole paragraph but I'm kind of at a loss.

cat with hands
Mar 14, 2006

When I shit I like to scream "WORSHIP THE GOD EMPEROR ON HIS GOLDEN THRONE." Mom hates it.


It probably won't take long, why not let her pass in the warmth and comfort of your home?

The Heartless
Nov 7, 2006
When all is said and done.

cat with hands posted:

It probably won't take long, why not let her pass in the warmth and comfort of your home?

I was hoping she'd pass in the middle of the night but when I came downstairs and checked she's in the same spot, breathing very heavy. She hasn't ate or drank water and her eyes are starting to look very pink around them, one looks like it's coming out and her body just looks swollen. I love the thought of her dying peacefully here, but the thought of her suffering or in pain for much longer really bothers me and I can't handle it. I was able to find a vet who does rodents and will put her to sleep.

I didn't think I'd be this upset about a little mouse I found in my garage.

A Sloth
Aug 4, 2010
EVERY TIME I POST I AM REQUIRED TO DISCLOSE THAT I AM A SHITHEAD.

ASK ME MY EXPERT OPINION ON GENDER BASED INSULTS & "ENGLISH ETHNIC GROUPS".


:banme:

tentawesome posted:

I don't usually hang out in Pet Island, but I feel compelled to share Princess Hamerella with everyone I can.



She's been super active! As soon as I brought her home she was perfectly happy to run around in her cage and on her wheel like it was already hers. She's not at all shy when people come in the room, and my dogs constantly trying to sniff at her cage (they're way too short to actually reach it, though) hasn't perturbed her at all. She comes right out and bites me when I try to hand-feed her so we can be best friends, but I prefer that to running and hiding.

Russian Dwarf? It is a nice coloured little thing. I wanted to adopt one with that colour in its coat but I don't have room for another cage. :smith:

tentawesome
May 14, 2010

Please don't troll me online

A Sloth posted:

Russian Dwarf? It is a nice coloured little thing. I wanted to adopt one with that colour in its coat but I don't have room for another cage. :smith:

Yup! She's so beautiful, and full of a lot of spunk. You should think about getting one if you ever open up some space.

Sumac
Sep 5, 2006

It doesn't matter now, come on get happy

A Sloth posted:

Russian Dwarf? It is a nice coloured little thing. I wanted to adopt one with that colour in its coat but I don't have room for another cage. :smith:

Do you have a studfinder, a power drill, and some 2x4s? Time to hang some shelves. :getin:

e: I'm getting ready to move, but when I'm at my new apartment I'm going to do that for my 3 rodent cages. Some eye-level reinforced shelves hung on the walls with a nice thick lip to keep them from sliding fitted to the critter cages would look pretty great in just about any living room. I've seen someone do it before and it saves a hell of a lot of space.

Sumac fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jul 6, 2013

kazmeyer
Jul 26, 2001

'Cause we're the good guys.

thecommunistotter posted:

Hey guys! So i have two guinea pigs, and one of them is losing hair quite drastically. They both did for a while actually, but when we talked to the vet, he said that hers were just from biting off hair from stress, and he also thought that the other one's bald patch was from the one who was also biting herself. He recommended we separate them but my mom is both unwilling and uninterested in buying a completely new cage, so we tried an aquarium separator (which didn't work) and now we have an insertable window screen which has worked very well in this so far. We also had given them separate food and pellet bowls and hay piles, as figured sharing didn't help. Now, the biting one has mostly regained her hair, even before we had really separated them, but the other one doesn't seem to be getting any better, and in fact seems to be getting worse. It's been a couple weeks now and we haven't noticed any regrowth and her fur around her neck seems to be getting thinner still. If you guys need pictures, i'd be willing to provide, but i figured i'd ask you guys before going to the vet again. We researched really well before we got them and we feed them very well and have the proper hay and bedding, so that's probably not a factor. Thanks in advance!

Just to be sure: what kind of bedding?

Is the hair loss/thinning confined to specific areas, or is it more general? Usually, when I hear about a pig losing hair, it's either mites or lice. Barbering is usually pretty obvious. Here is a good overview of guinea pig mites, including links to antiparasitics; if you're confident in your maths you can actually buy meds and dose your pigs yourself, or you can go back to the vet and request ivermectin. If your vet insists on doing a skin scrape, try another vet; skin scrapes are painful, often inconclusive, and as long as you get the dosage right there's no downside to just treating the pigs with ivermectin and watching for improvement. (I used to treat for mites using a bottle of liquid ivermectin for horses I picked up at a feed store.)

Niemat
Mar 21, 2011

I gave that pitch vibrato. Pitches love vibrato.

Zenithbliss posted:

This isn't a recent pic but my 3 female gerbils live happily in this Omlet double Qute. I know not everyone approves of them but the girls love running up and down the tubes and they haven't chewed it yet, plus it is fairly easy to clean out



Where do you find a set up like that? I'd love something where I didn't have to segregate my gerbils from my cats by keeping them in entirely different sections of our place and visiting each set. :(



As a side question, I noticed my boys fighting over their water yesterday. I put in a second bottle on the opposite end of the cage to hopefully prevent that in the future, but does anyone know if that's a sign they're too hot or a sign they're having dominance issues...? As a related question, does anyone know of a way I can cool them a bit? I started running a fan to get air moving where they're at in the basement, because it did seem a little warm down there yesterday, but I wasn't sure if there was a standard "THIS IS HOW GERBILS COOL DOWN" procedure.

Zenithbliss
Oct 22, 2007


Niemat posted:

Where do you find a set up like that? I'd love something where I didn't have to segregate my gerbils from my cats by keeping them in entirely different sections of our place and visiting each

Just a warning, they aren't cheap and they aren't immediately cat proof as one of my poor girls lost her tail by dangling it out of the wire top area. We cable tied a 2 inch strip of cardboard at the bottom of each top side and that solved the problem.

Go to the Omlet website and search the Qute

Sumac
Sep 5, 2006

It doesn't matter now, come on get happy
So this wheel



has become my robo's one-stop shop for all of his hamster needs, and I'm wondering if I should be concerned. Over the past couple of weeks he's decided that he needs to do all of his sleeping, eating, grooming, running, urinating and defecating from within this little wheel. I tried buying him another one and putting it elsewhere in the cage, I tried replacing the one he normally uses with a new one, and I tried cycling out a bunch of different places for him to sleep in where he might feel secure, but he loves that wheel.

When it's clean he's adorable, since he'll kind of splay out and fidget in his sleep, rocking back and forth in the wheel, but there's the rub - I have to clean this thing pretty much every day because it is his toilet. Should I take the wheel out altogether to train him to use something else, or should I just give up and clean it every day? I've also been avoiding mesh wheels since I heard they can cause problems for robos' tiny feet, but would that be appropriate in this situation?

A Sloth
Aug 4, 2010
EVERY TIME I POST I AM REQUIRED TO DISCLOSE THAT I AM A SHITHEAD.

ASK ME MY EXPERT OPINION ON GENDER BASED INSULTS & "ENGLISH ETHNIC GROUPS".


:banme:
My hamster does that sometimes after I've cleaned his bedding and cage. Just sits their snoozing. He usually makes a nest the next day though and stops napping on the wheel so much. Do you have bedding material in there other than the wood shavings?

I guess you could take the wheel out for a night... he might find somewhere else to get comfy?

MacGyvers_Mullet posted:

Do you have a studfinder, a power drill, and some 2x4s? Time to hang some shelves. :getin:

e: I'm getting ready to move, but when I'm at my new apartment I'm going to do that for my 3 rodent cages. Some eye-level reinforced shelves hung on the walls with a nice thick lip to keep them from sliding fitted to the critter cages would look pretty great in just about any living room. I've seen someone do it before and it saves a hell of a lot of space.

Filled most of the wall space in this goon-hovel-in-parents-house with shelves of books and a TV already. :smith:

A Sloth fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jul 7, 2013

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
Maybe angle the wheel slightly so that the pee and such automatically drains out when he goes in it?

Gaj
Apr 30, 2006
Your Robo is acting fine. I just had to replace my hamsters wheel because he wore out the bearing and spun the thing in two. He hates the new wheel, refuses to use it, and makes his anxiety/distress noises because he wants his old purple silent spinner and this new green one is unacceptable.

Sumac
Sep 5, 2006

It doesn't matter now, come on get happy
Thanks for the tips, I took it yesterday and put it back this evening. He seems to no longer be interested in sleeping in it and is now curled up in a pile of shredded tissue in the corner of the cage, happy and (presumably) no longer sitting in a pile of his own poop.

Clockroach
Dec 12, 2010
Oh dear lord.

There are now six total guinea pigs in my apartment.

#1) is Grendel, who we adopted a year ago by himself, because he supposedly has aggression problems.
#2) is Boogie, our former roommate's pig. She didn't seem to know or care too much about pigs (then why get one? :iiam:) and we ended up doing most of the caretaking, so she decided to leave him with us. Can't get along with Grendel, but they get upset if their cages are too far apart. Supposedly he is neutered.

#3) is Rufio, owned by our new roommate. He's a big cuddle-bug who new roommate thought was female, until his cagemate #4) Anastasia gave birth to #5) Edie in May, but also #6 (no name) today at 4 IN THE MORNING. Since no one saw Edie being born, we're assuming Rufio got her pregnant right after labor.

Just... ugh. Its a mess. We're all going to be moving to a new apartment in August, where we already trying to figure out to organize them. Right now their cages are pretty pathetic pet-store cages- if I'd known she was leaving Boogie with us, I'd have put together a better pen ages ago. Rufio got exiled to an oversized tupperware container when he was found out, he gets lots of attention but he needs a new home.

Grendel and Rufio can probably share a pen. Boogie needs a vet trip to confirm that he's neutered, and we're trying to get roommate to take Annie and the baby too. Mom and baby look healthy enough, the baby is following Mom around (big sister Edie is helping) already, but Annie is not even a year old yet and she's had two babies now, so a checkup's definately in her future.

We'll get it done, but until then in here it is crowded and loud. It seems like the first thing Rufio taught Edie to do was shriek at the top of her lungs like he does, they are both volumes louder than the other pigs when it comes to feeding time.

Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise

Clockroach posted:

Oh dear lord.

There are now six total guinea pigs in my apartment.

#1) is Grendel, who we adopted a year ago by himself, because he supposedly has aggression problems.
#2) is Boogie, our former roommate's pig. She didn't seem to know or care too much about pigs (then why get one? :iiam:) and we ended up doing most of the caretaking, so she decided to leave him with us. Can't get along with Grendel, but they get upset if their cages are too far apart. Supposedly he is neutered.

#3) is Rufio, owned by our new roommate. He's a big cuddle-bug who new roommate thought was female, until his cagemate #4) Anastasia gave birth to #5) Edie in May, but also #6 (no name) today at 4 IN THE MORNING. Since no one saw Edie being born, we're assuming Rufio got her pregnant right after labor.

Just... ugh. Its a mess. We're all going to be moving to a new apartment in August, where we already trying to figure out to organize them. Right now their cages are pretty pathetic pet-store cages- if I'd known she was leaving Boogie with us, I'd have put together a better pen ages ago. Rufio got exiled to an oversized tupperware container when he was found out, he gets lots of attention but he needs a new home.

Grendel and Rufio can probably share a pen. Boogie needs a vet trip to confirm that he's neutered, and we're trying to get roommate to take Annie and the baby too. Mom and baby look healthy enough, the baby is following Mom around (big sister Edie is helping) already, but Annie is not even a year old yet and she's had two babies now, so a checkup's definately in her future.

We'll get it done, but until then in here it is crowded and loud. It seems like the first thing Rufio taught Edie to do was shriek at the top of her lungs like he does, they are both volumes louder than the other pigs when it comes to feeding time.

It's probably considered a noise violation to rustle a bag in your apartment past 10

Zetsubou
Feb 22, 2011
So once again I have a gerbil problem. I really don't understand what is the problem this time though. So long story short, I let my gerbil out for play time and he was completely fine then, but when I went to retrieve him he may ouf had a tiny tumble (I don't really know) but he is somewhat limp and a little non responsive and was making weird noises from his mouth, along with a lot of salivation. It's been 20 minutes now and he is still salivating a lot and just sort of resting. When need though (like when I tried to pick him up) he can go at a pretty fast/normal gerbil pace. I mean it's really confusing, one moment he was fine and now he's just sort of salivating everywhere and resting. At first I thought he was maybe choking on something but he hasn't passed out so that doesn't seem likely. Also I do not keep anything poisoness on my floor that I know of, so right now I am baffled. Any ideas?

Fewd
Mar 22, 2007

#vmp #opsec #kolmiloikka #happoo

Zetsubou posted:

So once again I have a gerbil problem. I really don't understand what is the problem this time though. So long story short, I let my gerbil out for play time and he was completely fine then, but when I went to retrieve him he may ouf had a tiny tumble (I don't really know) but he is somewhat limp and a little non responsive and was making weird noises from his mouth, along with a lot of salivation. It's been 20 minutes now and he is still salivating a lot and just sort of resting. When need though (like when I tried to pick him up) he can go at a pretty fast/normal gerbil pace. I mean it's really confusing, one moment he was fine and now he's just sort of salivating everywhere and resting. At first I thought he was maybe choking on something but he hasn't passed out so that doesn't seem likely. Also I do not keep anything poisoness on my floor that I know of, so right now I am baffled. Any ideas?

How's his incisors? I think too long incisors are the most common reason for gerb to drool. That or some form of seizure / heatstroke. If it's hot over there, it might very well be a stroke too considering the other things you said.

In either case, I'd consult a vet.

Zetsubou
Feb 22, 2011

Fewd posted:

How's his incisors? I think too long incisors are the most common reason for gerb to drool. That or some form of seizure / heatstroke. If it's hot over there, it might very well be a stroke too considering the other things you said.

In either case, I'd consult a vet.

Sadly I can't check his incisors cause he keeps his mouth closed. He does react to my hand and stuff and becomes wide-eyed and movey when I pick him up, but he prefers to stay put it seems. I don't think it was a heatstroke because I don't think it is warm enough today to cause that. Seizure is a posibility, but I didn't really see any signs of one. Basically what happened was he fell under some blankets (and was fine prior to) and them I got him out of them a few minutes later and he scampered off to a corner and then started acting sick. I'm definitely going to take him to a vet when I wake up in the morning but it's just so confusing. I even checked the area he started feeling ill in and I didn't see anything that would make him sick on the floor. The only thing around there were some blankets and my mom's knitting wool. Hopefully he gets better but considering I literally do not know how to deal with this situation I'm just going to keep checking up on him till the morning. Man, I wish my gerbils could just be healthy or something instead of just stressing me the hell out (or maybe I'm just a really bad/unlucky gerbil keeper.) Thanks for the reply.

EDIT: What the heck gerbil, a few hours ago she looked like she was in agony/death's door and now she is cleaning herself thuroughly as if nothing had happened. I mean she could still be doing better, but it's quite a difference.

Zetsubou fucked around with this message at 11:27 on Jul 12, 2013

Uno_king
Jun 21, 2004

<humorous/insulting caption>
First an introduction. These two girls are Zester (left) and Spatula (right). We name them after kitchen utensils, it's fun.


(last years christmas card)

Zester is a tan,brown, and white short-haired "American", while Spatula is an Pink-Eyed White (albino) medium-haired pig with a single rosette on the top of her head (European/American Crested??).

There are two slight behavior issues with these girls.

First, Zester is about 6-months older (or more) than Spatula. When we introduced Spatula, they seemed to get along ok, but there is one weird issue: they won't share a house. We have 3 igloos/barns in their cage at all times. We tried one regular igloo at first, no sharing. We added a large igloo for more space, still no sharing. Finally, we even added in a third house (I forget why, but it made sense at the time). If one girl is in a house, the other will avoid it. She'll walk up, see her sister in there, then walk to a different house. When we give them veggies, they both run to a house with their food, and will sometimes get halfway in to one before seeing their sister, at which point they turn around and move to a different house. Sometimes, when in a mood, Zester will chase Spatula out of a house (the old "That's MINE!" attitude). They seem to get along fine otherwise (they'll eat hay/pellets together, you can hold them together, put them in the travel cage together, etc...), but they won't share a house.

Is this normal guinea pig behavior? This is our first pair of pigs.


Second, Spatula always runs away from us if we move. She'll be eating or drinking or just laying down, and if she's not already in a house and you stand up, walk into the room, etc.., she'll bolt for the nearest house. She'll sometimes stand by the side of the cage when it's snack time, but if you move towards her and she can't see/smell the veggies, she runs away. You can coax her out of the house she's hiding in sometimes, but only with veggies. When we try to pick her up, she goes sprinting around to the far corner (they live in a 4x4-foot square cage, so it's not always fun to chase her around). If you trap her in a house, you have to hold it down so she doesn't sprint out the "back door" while you reach in the front. When we do manage to pick her up, she is completely docile. She doesn't move around a lot, she'll just sit there while you pet her, groom her, feed her, etc... You can set her down on the chair/counter/table and she won't run away (she will run if on the floor though). This seems like classic prey instinct to me ("If I'm captured but not yet eaten, stay perfectly still"). Also, she is NOT scared of the cats. She will tolerate a cat in her cage just fine, no running away or hiding from it. It's just the humans that seem to scare her.

We've had Spatula for over 2 years now, you'd think she'd get used to us, right?

My best guess is that her albinism has affected her eyesight, and she can't see poo poo. When we move, she just hears it, sees blurs, and runs away. You'd think that talking to her would alleviate some of that flight instinct, but it doesn't seem to soothe her enough to keep her from running away. Also, we have to get close to pick her up, you'd think she could smell us, but she'll just sprint away faster than ever. If she is blind though, and movement scares her, why doesn't her sister scare her, or the cats?

Anyone else have a skiddish albino pig? Is it her sight, or does she just not like us? We certainly don't abuse or ignore them, and her sister Zester more than tolerates us, did we just get a shy pig?


TLDR: Do co-habitating pigs share houses or prefer separate housing? Is it normal for a pig to never adapt to handler presence (e.g. movement outside cage, reaching in to be picked up) even when their cage-mate has?

kazmeyer
Jul 26, 2001

'Cause we're the good guys.

When it comes to cohabitating pigs, it just depends on their personalities. Pigs from the same litter tend to be closer; my first two girls were biological sisters, and they were a lot closer than unrelated pigs. They'd share pigloos, and the more alpha of the pair would occasionally pick up hay or veggies and bring them to her sister. My current pair are also biological sisters, however, and they spend their time on opposite ends of the cage. I did have one pair of unrelated pigs that bonded closely, but largely, they kind of like their own space. As long as they're not fighting, it's fine.

As for skittishness, again, it's a personality thing. The guinea pig brain is about 90% "food" and 10% "oh poo poo it's a condor run". Most pigs never really get over their prey instinct, which triggers most strongly when you reach into the cage to grab them. Basically, it's like they like you and they understand you feed them, but they always have the thought in the back of their minds that you might one day just decide to eat them. All guinea pigs do get used to you to some extent, but some always remain more skittish than others. You can try hand-feeding her, or spending time with your hand in the cage not moving to try to get her more used to your reaching into her space, but she may always react with terror when you get too close.

And yeah, most pigs will freak the gently caress out when you're trying to pick them up and then calm down once they're caught. I had one pig who would chatter her teeth menacingly -- usually the precursor to a nasty guinea pig bite -- but once you had her in hand, she was the biggest cuddle pig you could imagine. They're just weird sometimes. :) Hand-feeding of veggies is one of the best tools to ameliorate anxiety; the more you can get them to associate you with tasty snacks, the more you can overcome the fear barrier.

Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise
My guinea pigs are sisters who get along really well but refuse to share a house, unless something startled them and they're hiding. Other than that as soon as the threat passes one will zip out. I don't think either has actually claimed ownership but they just don't want to be in the same house together.

I've draped a towel over one side of the cage so the pig left out isn't sitting out in the open and feeling bad. I just accept that it'll be a thing.

Regarding the running, I've only had mine 6 months but I assume they're going to do it forever. Sitting here they will come to the side of the cage and look at me and squeak and run around, but if I stand up too fast it's guinea pig shaped clouds where they used to be standing.

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Rodent Mortician
Mar 17, 2009

SQUEAK.
Agree with what everyone else said. I've had few pigs that would share houses and cuddle.

Also, most probably your piggie isn't an albino. Pink eyes are naturally occurring (and you get pink eyes in various other colors too), and pink-eyed whites are very common pigs. Typically they don't have any specific health issues with it, and pigs in general don't necessarily have the best eyesight. They're just goobers, and some of them never learn that movement doesn't equal "hawks will kill me".

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