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After expressing my disappointment in not having a guinea pig thread while talking about my Porky, I and a few others have decided that PI needs a thread for ALL rodents. Rat owners, of course, have their own thread, but you're just as welcome here.  As always, feel free to go crazy posting pictures of your little guys. Any questions can hopefully be answered by the experienced rodent keepers. I'll toss in as much advice as I can regarding guinea pigs, but I know we have tons of people here who know their stuff, so we can get a nice thread going with a lot of good information. That being said, I'd love to start off this thread with some hamster basics. I don't have hamsters, so I'm going to leave that up to somebody more experienced than me who is willing to contribute. I have a feeling that the majority of these little guys are impulse buys, so let's get some facts to help everybody learn more about their adorable little friends.  As for what I can contribute... Guinea Pig Basics First and foremost, there are a bazillion shelters out there with homeless guinea pigs. If you are looking into introducing one of these little guys to your family, please check your local shelter first. Chances are they're better taken care of than those at the pet store, and you'll be helping a pig in need. Also, guinea pigs are social animals that do enjoy having other guinea pigs around. Please consider adopting a bonded pair. If you already have one pig, chances are you're already getting the itch (like I am), so let this thread act as an extra little push to get you out there on your pig-search. Pigs are not grumpy, people-hating animals. They are skittish in nature but can be very lovable when given the proper amount of socialization. Porky still scurries off when I walk towards the cage because I am a giant human approaching her little house and that will likely always be scary to her. It takes only a few seconds for her to realize who I am and be cool with it. She loves to be held and petted and she shows her appreciation by making the cutest sound you've ever heard in your life. That and licking. Pigs need to eat, and should get a constant supply of timothy hay. They also need to have a quality pellet as well as fresh veggies everyday. Oxbow hay and pellets are both very highly rated on PI, and can both be found at most feed stores, Petsmart, and likely other places that I don't know of. Pigs also need a regular source of Vitamin C. They are unable to produce it on their own, so it must be supplemented to prevent problems from occurring. This is the number one thing to remember when feeding your new buddy. You can purchase vitamin C drops and tablets (again, Oxbow is recommended), but a quality diet is best. I make sure that my pig always has extra bell peppers each day, as they're rich in vitamin C. Guinea pigs, unlike many other small animals, are not prone to litter training. They tend to poop wherever they stand, often as they're eating, or when they're relaxing. About 90% of Porky's turds are found in her pigloo or around her veggie dish, with scattered piss. Fortunately, their poop isn't especially offensive and is easy to clean with no noticeable smell (to me, at least). Providing your pig with its own cage may seem expensive at first, but a popular and inexpensive way to do this is to use wire cubes that can be purchased at Target and other stores with home improvement sections. I use these, and they do an awesome job. Also, the price on there is bullshit, as I paid $16.99 in the store. Unfortunately, most Target stores now carry a newer version with two different sized squares that are too large to accommodate a pig. If you're lucky enough to find the old version, on which all of the squares are the same size, you're good to go. Otherwise, heavy duty wire shelving (below) can also be used. You can purchase this at Home Depot, and hopefully somebody who has built a cage from this can add more information on how to go about it.  Okay, that's all I have for now. Feel free to contribute more and even correct any mistakes I may have made so I can edit it in. I'm still new to this whole rodent thing myself. That's it! Ask questions, give advice, and most importantly, POST PICTURES!  P.S. Rodents are cheap to buy, but VERY EXPENSIVE to properly care for. Fresh veggies are a pain in my rear end to purchase every few days, and exotic vet bills are extremely high. Make sure that you're financially (and mentally) prepared to pay ridiculous amounts of money to care for a hamster/guinea pig/chinchilla/whatever should it need medical attention. Just because they're cheap doesn't mean they're disposable.  Additional PI member contributions  Peristalsis' Guinea Pig FAQ Resources For all the best and latest guinea pig info available, check out guinealynx.com. Some other good sites for guinea pig information: pigloo.net cavyspirit.com guineapigcages.com (this is specifically about building your own guinea pig cage, and I think it's affiliated with cavyspirit) cavymadness.com The first site above, guinealynx.com, is probably the most authoritative, but can be a little weird in terms of the way people there treat each other. I think they've described themselves as a bunch of bitter, middle aged women, and that sums it up pretty well. That said, the info is top notch, and if you aren't a dick, you'll be fine there. Pigloo.net was started by some folks at guinealynx who got tired of the catty bullshit and snitty behavior after some particular incident. It has a subset of the same information and expertise available, but has never caught on or grown the way guinealynx has. If you're too fragile to handle the bluntness of guinealynx, this could be a good place to start. Cavyspirit.com grew out of the web site for a specific rescue, I think. I don't know that much about it, but it's always mentioned as a reputable source of guinea pig information. I'm not sure how active it is these days; it may be fine, I just never got in the habit of hanging out there. Cavymadness is sort of known as a much more newbie-friendly site. I haven't been there in quite some time, but again, at least it used to be considered a decent source of information. I'd use it as a stepping stone to the other sites. Sort of a gateway site for your cavy addiction. These sites have varying degrees of militancy about adopting from shelters and rescues, but I doubt that you'll find many people on any of them who condone breeding pigs or buying them from petsmart. Veggies The right veggies are very good for guinea pigs, but you have to be careful. Some veggies are actually toxic to them, and others are only good as occasional treats. See this for more details and additional links. Hay In my opinion, Oxbow hay hasn't been as good the past couple of years as it used to be. It's still better than Kaytee or Hartz, and occasionally it's still awesome, but it just seems dustier and less fresh than it did a while back. If you can get hay here instead, you won't regret it. Alfafa hay is NOT okay for most pigs most of the time. Good orchard grass hay and bluegrass hay are okay, if you can't find good timothy hay. Some alfalfa can be good for young pigs or nursing mothers. Pellets If you decide to feed pellets, use high quality pellets from Oxbow, KM's Hayloft, or another reputable company. Never feed anything with bright colors or seeds in it. Check the ingredients - it should only have compressed hay. Growing young pigs, elderly pigs, and sick pigs can benefit from pellets, which have a lot of calories, and can help the pig put on or maintain weight. However, pellets do not help keep their teeth worn down, and are NOT SUFFICIENT FOOD BY THEMSELVES. You HAVE to feed high quality hay. I generally only feed pellets as an occasional treat to healthy pigs, and as a weight-maintenance food for sickly or old pigs. Bedding If you can afford it, use carefresh. If you can't afford it, you probably shouldn't have piggies anyway. Don't waste your money on the designer colors - your pigs won't notice or care that they're pissing on a fashionable substrate. Some people swear by using a washable fleece substrate. It's fine if you can keep up with the cleaning and the water bills, but I've never done it, so I'll let someone else comment on that. I've also seen Yesterday's News used, but I didn't really think it was soft enough for pigs. It's probably okay, but it doesn't look very comfortable. You can also use aspen shavings. IN A PINCH, you can use kiln-dried pine shavings. Never use pine that hasn't been kiln dried, and NEVER use cedar. Cage For one or two pigs, your cage needs to have at least 7.5 square feet of usable space on its bottom level. THIS IS BIG, and it will make a real dent in your room. Don't get pigs if you can't make enough room for them. See the guineapigcages site for details, and examples of good cages. The sides of the cage should be fairly high - a few inches isn't enough. I have seen a panicked pig jump over the grids of a C&C cage. It was a very light pig, and an odd situation - I don't want to scare anyone away from using C&C cages, but you shouldn't use anything lower than that for containment. Pigs also like to have places to hide. Pigloos are a popular choice. If you have a pigloo in the cage, I recommend moving it from place to place every day. It helps encourage the pig not to sit in one spot in its own waste for too long. Medical Ugh - where to start? Find a good exotics vet before you get a pig. You WILL need one. Also, make sure you know where your nearest emergency vet is for those weekend and late-night illnesses. And make sure you have some money saved up for vet visits. Exotics vets are expensive as hell, at least for the good ones. If you can't afford vet care for your pig, you can't afford the pig. Your pig needs at least annual checkups, and you can probably plan to spend $250-$500 per year per pig on vet bills. Pigs are prey animals, and hide their illnesses pretty well. By the time they're showing symptoms, it may well be too late. So, you need to get to know your pig very well. You need to notice if it isn't eating as much as usual, if its poops are looking deformed or scant, or if its demeanor changes. More than once, I've taken a pig to the vet for general listlessness or something just not seeming right. One thing you must do is weigh your pig(s) regularly. Significant weight loss is a sure sign of a problem. Some common pig problems to watch for: Mites - many or most pigs will get mites during their lives. Check the web sites above for info on treating it, or take your pig to a cavy-savvy vet for treatment. It's generally pointless to test for mites - if you suspect mites, the treatment is easier, more reliable, and less painful than the test. DO NOT IGNORE MITES OR OTHER SKIN CONDITIONS. THEY ARE SERIOUS ISSUES. Bladder stones - for some reason, pigs are prone to bladder stones and bladder sludge. I've lost a pig to this, and it was a pretty horrible death. If you've had kidney stones yourself, you'll understand. This is where feeding the right foods is important - alfalfa hay and some veggies are thought to be associated with increased bladder stones. It's all about the calcium and phosphorus, I think, in the foods. Bumblefoot - Weird, swollen sores on the pads of their paws. Once they get this, it's awfully hard to get rid of it completely. You may need to treat it for the rest of their lives. Tooth problems - Both the front and rear teeth can get too long. When the back teeth grow too much, they can actually trap the tongue down. The back teeth are also hard to examine, which is why you need a good vet who knows what the hell she or he is doing. It's very sad to see an otherwise healthy pig starve to death because its teeth are preventing it from eating. This is also why you must include copious hay in the diet - hay helps keep the teeth ground down in ways that even pellets don't. cancers - Some can be treated, but many are a death sentence. You have to be able to make the call to euthanize when the time comes. arthritis - Mostly in older pigs. All you can really do is try to manage the pain with medication. If you have a male pig, you'll need to clean out its pouch periodically. This is not fun, and reeks in a way you wouldn't think possible. Older pigs may lose their ability to groom very well. Keep an eye on their rear ends, to see if they start getting dirty, staying wet, or getting poop-dreadlocks. While you won't generally need to bathe pigs much (if at all), an occasional, quick butt bath to get the crud out of the fur of your older critters can be nice. Long haired pigs are prone to crud in their fur - it can be useful to trim their hair, preferably before it gets gross. With good care and regular vet visits, many pigs live 5-7 years, some longer. If yours keep dying by age 3, you're probably doing something wrong. Breeding Just don't. It's very bad for the mother pig, it can produce lethal whites or other deformed animals if you don't know what you're doing, and it's pretty loving reckless, given the number of existing pigs that need homes. RumbleFish's Gerbil FAQ How long do gerbils live? Typically 2-4 years, though some have been known to make it to 5. A gerbil is considered elderly once they hit the two year mark. How many can I get? Gerbils are extremely social animals, so you MUST get at least a pair. Gerbils can be kept singly, but it reduces their overall quality of life and I'm willing to bet they don't live as long because of it. Females do best in pairs; males can be kept in groups of 3-5 if you so desire. So should I get males or females? I suppose it depends on what kind of personality you want from your gerbs. Females are the dominant sex, so they're more active and tend to be more aggressive with each other, which is why it's only safe to keep them in pairs. Males, on the other hand, tend to be very easygoing and are a bit lazy. (My guys are chubbier than my girls ever were!) Of course, as with anything else, there are exceptions to the rule: my female pair never fought, and my oldest pair of boys had a lot of problems before they reached adulthood. So I guess it comes down to personal preference, but generally speaking, the risk of de-clanning (viewing the other gerbil as a strange threat and fighting) is larger with females. What should I do for housing? Generally a 10 gallon aquarium is adequate, though if you're keeping a group of males, a 20 long would be ideal. I'd say that floor space is more important, but gerbils do seem to enjoy climbing. There are some neat wire "toppings" that you can get to extend a 10g vertically if you'd like to go that route. As for wire cages, I think they'd pretty much be a horrible idea for gerbils. Gerbils dig around in their cage constantly, so the floor around them would be a perpetual mess. They're also big-time chewers, meaning many of them would gnaw relentlessly on the cage bars. But then again, I'm sure some people have had this arrangement work out for them. What about substrate? This is a universal rodent truth, but absolutely NO pine or cedar; the aromatic oils can irritate their respiratory systems and make them sick. Aspen or Carefresh are your best bet. I prefer aspen because it's cheaper, natural in appearance, and my guys love shredding the chips to line their nest. But either of those is a solid choice. Also, since gerbils have very strong digging instincts and love to create tunnels/burrows, I'd recommend putting in a good 4-5 inches of substrate for them to play in. They'll dig to their heart's content no matter what, but I like to give them a little extra. Cages should be cleaned every 2-3 weeks. So what do I need for cage furniture? Aside from your standard small animal water bottle, I'd recommend a ceramic food dish. Gerbils are constantly rearranging their environment, so a heavy dish like that won't be tipping over and spilling their food every five minutes. They also can't chew on it. Like most rodents, gerbils prefer a safe place to sleep/nesting box. There are tons of products and choices out there, but I'd recommend a sturdy, wooden house. The igloos are adorable, but gerbils are relentless chewers and will destroy it. They'll chew up a wooden house too, but it'll take them much longer to do any significant damage. Be prepared to replace their houses every so often. What about toys and other stuff? I like to provide my guys with a wheel. I've heard that some gerbils don't understand it or care for it, but all six of mine have loved it and get some serious speed on those things. Likewise, I have a couple hamster balls around that I put them in when I'm cleaning their cages. A few of mine go to town, but others just kind of sit there and try to dig their way out. Your mileage may vary, but I considered it a good investment regardless. Oh, and one last thing about wheels -- make sure you get one that is wire mesh. Gerbil feet and tails can easy get caught in the standard metal wheel with slats. A solid plastic wheel is safe, but won't hold up well with their chewing habits and tends to be more loud. Wire mesh is not only safe, but the squeaking can be easily corrected with a bit of Vaseline. As previously mentioned, gerbils are huge chewers. All rodents need to chew to trim their teeth, but in my experience, gerbils are the most ravenous chewers by far. They will chew and destroy anything and everything they can that's within reach. You can make this easy for them by tossing in toilet paper/paper towel tubes, which is a cheap and instant classic for them. I also get wood bars/blocks from the pet store, as those take much longer to chew and are probably a better workout for their teeth. Gerbils are master nest builders and will use whatever they can to bulk up their burrows, so you can offer them some nesting fluff. Be careful, though -- I wouldn't give them too much of it or too often. One of my hamsters got a stray cotton fiber wrapped tightly around his foot, which cut off the circulation and made it swell. Thankfully, I noticed before any damage had been done, but I'm sure it was still an unpleasant and traumatic experience for him. I haven't had anything like this happen with my gerbils, but it's something to be mindful of and watch out for. The safest bet I've found is scraps of fabric or the batting used to back quilts. One of the best part about having gerbils is giving them sand baths. Because they are desert animals, they clean themselves in the wild by rolling and twisting around in dust. Domestic gerbils enjoy this too, and it's very fun and cute to watch. The sand used is the same as chinchilla sand, and rather than keeping the bath in their cage, I offer it once a month or so. (If I kept it in there all the time, they'd chew it and just poop in it.) You can tell when a gerbil needs a bath -- their coats start to look slick and greasy. What about food? I suppose this can be a bit of a controversial topic, but gerbils can be fed lab blocks, which is probably as nutritionally sound as it gets. I prefer mine to have more variety in their diet, however, so they are on a seed mix called Ecotrition. (Another high quality seed mix I've seen is Gerri Gerbil.) The important thing to look for in seed mixes is the ratio of fatty seeds to the other, more healthy bits. Ecotrition is my brand of choice because there are NO sunflower seeds and only a smattering of pumpkin seeds in every bag. My gerbils love it too -- they seem much less picky than the hamsters I've had. Gerbils also enjoy a variety of vegetables, but I'd stay away from anything that has a high water content, as it can give them fatal diarrhea. I've also offered mine some fruit, though citrus fruits are toxic and it seems the list of gerbil-safe fruits is much smaller than that of the vegetables they can eat. So more often than not, I just stick to classics like carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. For treats and other stuff, I like to give mine alfalfa hay every now and then. I also give them Yogies, but very sparingly since it's pretty much rodent McDonald's. They love unflavored/un-buttered popcorn too. Anyway, I'm not particularly well-versed on the ins and outs of gerbil nutrition, so someone else with more expertise is welcome to add their input. So what are the pros/cons of gerbils? Gerbils are VERY clean. They have got to be the least stinky rodents I've encountered. Because they don't drink very often, they don't produce urine very often either, which is really what makes rodents reek. They're also active off and on throughout the day and night, so you'll see them out and about quite a bit and they're fun to watch. In my experience, gerbils are also very friendly; I've never been bitten by one of mine, even when I deserved it. As for potential cons, they're fast-moving and sometimes flighty creatures, so handling them can be a bit of an adventure sometimes. They're not often content to just sit and chill in your hands. They can also keep you up at night with their frantic digging and chewing. This has never bothered me, but I'm sure it would drive some people crazy. Megalodon fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Nov 19, 2009 |
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Nov 17, 2009 06:18
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 14:41 |
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Sorry, I haven't been around to edit the OP. Peristalsis and RumbleFish's contributions are now added. Thanks a ton, and keep posting pictures! Everyone's little guys are so cute.
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Nov 19, 2009 05:27
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To MollyMonster, how social are chinchillas? I know nothing about them other than they're extremely soft, but have always been under the impression that they're pretty aloof. Gus is super cute. Also, my pig goes nuts whenever she hears me chopping. It's the cutest thing ever.
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Dec 13, 2009 17:32
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RumbleFish posted:When it comes to the plastic habitats/cages, I've never cared for them. Well, I did as a kid, which I think is the intended audience. But they were fairly difficult to clean and take apart, and in my experience, they were extremely escape-prone. One of my hamsters was particularly determined and had little trouble bending wires or chewing through plastic when he set his mind to it. This is my experience as well. I used to always have those colorful plastic cages as a kid, and my hamsters managed to chew their way out every time. An aquarium is going to be a lot easier to clean and probably cheaper.
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Jan 12, 2010 21:50
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Porky is getting big now, and I have a question about spaying. I've been looking online a lot and the majority of resources say that I shouldn't have her fixed since she in an only pig. I worry about the risks of surgery but I also worry about the risk of ovarian cancer. Can anybody give me more information of the potential dangers of both? She's an only pig and I intend to keep her an only pig.
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Jan 23, 2010 03:30
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Sirotan posted:You should really think about getting a friend for her. Guinea pigs are heard nerds and they do best in groups larger than 1. No matter how much attention you can give Porky, you can't be there 100% of the time, and a piggy friend can give her constant companionship. She will be happier with a friend, trust me. Thanks for this. As I've been reading, it looks like I am going to pass on spaying her. As for getting a friend, the boyfriend is very against this as we tried to get a friend for our bunny and we now have two separate bunny enclosures. He also doesn't want anymore animals, period. I, however, am not against it. If we decide to get another in the future I'll make sure to get another girl. Thanks for the advice.
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Jan 23, 2010 04:33
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Decided to update you all with some photos of the original inspiration for this thread. Here's Porky today, three months after we rescued her from the flea market. She's now four and a half months old and she's doing awesome. Super happy and really just so much more lovable than I ever thought a guinea pig could be. I took some comparison shots of her next to the photos we took when we first got her. Here's the pig! Day 1: .JPG) Click here for the full 1024x682 image. Now: .JPG) Click here for the full 1024x682 image. Day 1 (obviously, very sick): .JPG) Click here for the full 512x768 image. Now: .JPG) Click here for the full 512x768 image. Now, looking cute as ever: .JPG) Click here for the full 1024x682 image. Now, claiming the cat's sleepy sack for herself: .JPG) Click here for the full 1024x682 image. Thanks again to everyone here who gave such great advice and encouragement while she was still sick. I honestly don't think she'd have made it without the million tips you guys gave me. I know it's overly sappy, but I actually got a little teary when digging through her old baby photos.
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Jan 27, 2010 06:22
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Blackmage Yapo posted:EDIT: Screw it, just ordered 5lbs of Timothy. Its really not as bad as I expected price-wise. It's super worth it. I spent about $70 on a 45 lb box over a month ago. I only have one pig and two bunnies but it was the best deal, and I'm glad I bought it. The hay smells super good and is really fluffy. Not tough or dusty like the stuff I've purchased in stores, and I only used to buy Oxbow. I got 3rd cut timothy, and the little ones go nuts over it.
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Jan 29, 2010 04:58
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Sirotan posted:Find a farm feed store, buy yourself an entire bale of hay for $5. Is this really okay to do? We have a few feed stores around here and the hay is dirt cheap, but according to the woman who runs one of them, it's not especially good for small animals. I'll do that when my batch runs out if it's alright, but the general consensus was that KM and Oxbow are a significantly better quality.
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Feb 3, 2010 04:14
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Blacknose posted:I've watched them spend ages failing to get any water out of it. It has a really weird design which doesn't use a ball but rather a small rod that pushes in and I guess they've just never seen one before. I tried one of these and even my full grown bunnies couldn't figure it out. I returned it the next day and picked up the traditional ball release bottles. Bear still can't figure it out and instead uses a bowl. 
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Feb 7, 2010 02:17
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Gotta stop reading this thread. The boyfriend is never going to let me get a hamster but you guys are making me want one so bad.
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Feb 8, 2010 17:03
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Mouse question! Somebody dropped off two male mice at my work a few weeks ago. She got them for a class project with no intention of keeping them after that.  That being said, they're males, and I have no way of knowing if they're related. I took them in and they currently reside in these sweet digs. Click here for the full 480x720 image. I'm having a big problem, though. I originally only had the top cage pictured. They bickered from time to time, so I expanded it to give them some more space to spread out. One (Texas Toast) is extremely submissive while the other (Cheese Sandwich) is the complete opposite. Toasty seems to enjoy human interaction while Cheesy runs and hides from me any chance he gets. Anyway, after expanding the cage, things got better. They'd cuddle up together and groom each other and were just so happy. Overnight, however, Cheesy has been kicking Toasty's rear end. Within days, he went from looking perfectly normal, to having a huge patch of fur missing from his butt covered in blood. Everything I'm reading is telling me to either separate them ASAP or not separate them ever, as they'll be miserable in solitary confinement and unable to ever be introduced again. I moved around their stuff: tubes, bowls, huts, in the hope that it will mix up the smells a bit. I'm super worried, though. Toasty doesn't deserve this.  I know they should be separated but I don't want to doom them to living alone forever.The mice in question (Cheesy, left. Toasty, right):  Click here for the full 720x532 image.
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May 14, 2010 05:59
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Thanks guys. As much as I hated separating them, it wasn't fair to Toasty. I sectioned off the mouse pad, so they now have separate condos. I've been noticing that everywhere I'd read said to give them enough space to claim their own spots, but Cheesy was claiming EVERY spot. Anyway, thanks for the advice. I think my little guys will be much happier now, and I'll put the cages next to each other in case they ever want some company. Oh, and I'm going to go to the store today to pick up LOTS of toys. Quick update: I changed the bedding in Toasty's side so that it doesn't all smell like Cheesy. He's exploring areas he was never able to before. He already looks so much happier.
Megalodon fucked around with this message at 17:04 on May 14, 2010 |
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May 14, 2010 16:55
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 14:41 |
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Garnett posted:I am watching my girlfriend's Guinea Pig this week and was wondering if putting it in a bathtub is a good idea. My tub is much larger than his cage and I figure it would give him some running around room. I've done this before and while it worked, it was a huge pain to clean. His cage would probably be easier, and you can always let the little guy out for some exercise.
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Jun 26, 2011 05:38
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