kazmeyer posted:

Excited guinea pigs are basically the best thing in the world. My girls are growing up, but I'll occasionally still get popcorning and tearing around when I do something as simple as clean the cage or put in an enormous pile of hay for them to play in, and it's always the highlight of my day.

Sirotan posted:

Merry Christmas SA, here's a webcam of my guinea pig's cage: http://stickam.com/tokyotofu

It will only be up for a while, and they just had a few hours of floor time while I was cleaning their house, so they might be pretty lazy when you do see them. But, enjoy for a bit.

Megalodon posted:

Sirotan posted:

Bribe them with carrots. Then when they are munching you launch a sneak attack.

That will work for about two or three toes and then they will wise up.

kazmeyer posted:

They ended up renting an RV and organizing a cross-country piggy train, adopting them out to people in at least a dozen different states.

Part-Time Robot posted:

I don't own a chinchilla of my own, but I take care of my sister's a lot. Meet Sifl.





The other day he made the saddest sound and one I'd never heard before. My sister gave him a treat to chew on and he scurried up to the top of his cage with his prize. Suddenly, after a few minutes of chewing, he dropped it and it fell to the bottom of his cage. He looked down at it for a second and then made a long whine, almost like he couldn't believe he dropped it.

I love chinchilla noises though, especially when he calls for other chinchillas. He sounds like a squeaky toy. He needs a buddy to play with though.

Sirotan posted:

Its so sad. Please help overrun it with pictures of your cute pigs.

RazorBunny posted:

I think it's a little ridiculous to be offended by seeing a picture of a cooked animal that is eaten in many parts of the world, but I agree that the thread has gotten pretty ugly.

Rodent Mortician posted:

Nocturnal, complicated diet, hard to find vets for, requires a fair amount of effort to bond to them. Also assholes try to sell them as fun and easy pets..

Imaduck posted:

My landlord just told me she wants a $350 pet deposit for our pair of guinea pigs when we renew our lease. This sounds absolutely insane to me - when I've mentioned caged pets to previous landlords, they've always just shrugged and said "we just care about cats and dogs." Since our lease is up, I suppose they can do whatever they want, but I was just wondering what other folks' experience has been with pet deposits on caged animals. I'm also trying to figure out how the hell a couple of guinea pigs in a cage are going to cause $350 worth of damages.

Aquatic Giraffe posted:

I ended up going to Petsmart and getting the chin they had there. So far he and Dex have gotten along in their limited encounters so far. They've met each other through cage bars and were generally civil, except for the new one biting Dexter's nose pretty hard once when Dexter was being annoying.

Aquatic Giraffe posted:

The way I see it is that the little guy was still going to be for sale in the store no matter what. Might as well have him go to a home where he'll be taken care of properly instead of continuing to live in a tiny cage in a store by himself or be adopted by people who have no clue what they're doing.

Rodent Mortician posted:

I know this sounds dumb, but make sure you're allergic to the pigs and not to the hay. A lot of people are "allergic" to pigs only to then get a rabbit or a chin and realize it was the hay making them miserable.

drat Bananas posted:

Over time I developed questions that I ended up asking at a mouse-centered forum. I was quickly yelled at for keeping a female mouse by herself - she needed at least one buddy to be remotely happy apparently. But that's troublesome to a college kid who's constantly changing leases and (will be) moving cities. If one in a pair dies you need to get another buddy for the living one, and endless cycle not really fit for me, or anyone who would have been able to take her in (Facebook listing was in a college town, honestly she's lucky not to have ended up snake food)
I keep kicking myself about keeping her as a single mouse for over a year, but I keep reminding myself that I gave her a really good life compared to her alternatives. Mice live 1-2 years, and I had her for 17 months. She was full grown when I got her, so that's a pretty long life right? She was also treated to the best available foods, treats, chews, and snacks thanks to my constant Googling about mouse care. She even was treated for mites a couple months back, something I daresay not many mouse owners would do.

Superconsndar posted:

Pet owners, especially when they group together on pet forums, can be really short sighted and fanatical and nutty.

Superconsndar posted:

I posted there like 5+ years ago. The worst by far has to be the RMCA forum though. They filter out the word "feeder" and ban reptile owners when they "out" them. One of the admins is an animal rights lawyer and is a total nut. This was like 5+ years ago so maybe it's gotten better but somehow I doubt it.

SomeChump posted:

Ah, sorry should have mentioned, they have tons of hay. Every time their cages are cleaned I build them little mazes and dens out of it for them to run about/sleep in. Hay definitely isn't an issue.

Amorphous Blob posted:

Okay I have a couple of REALLY stupid questions about pigs.

The first is if it's normal for pigs to nibble at my fingers, even when they've known me for years. The second is if it's normal for the whites of their eyes to sometimes be visible. Every pig but my first has had those traits, so I'm just wondering if it's a matter of temperament + genetics.

Diogines posted:

How good are guinea pig memories? Will they forget the trauma by tomorrow?

Diogines posted:

I managed to cut all of their nails alone without hurting them or myself, with no experience. I suspect I'll be able to manage doing it alone in the future.

alucinor posted:

How else are they going to explore, except by taking their safe house with them? I think if they could, they would evolve into turtles and take their pigloos everywhere with them.

Sirotan posted:

I think its hard to see in the pic how long her toenails are but yes, their front nails are generally shorter and I do try and keep them as short as I can to prevent them from curling under their feet. It helps on her because I can see the quick through her pink toenails.

Edit:

The rescue got back to me about another pig I will probably end up adopting. Heres the one I wanted, but is now taken:

Such a cutie

This is a litter of two males and one female that came to their rescue when they were only 4 days old. If everything goes how I'd like I'll be adopting the female in 2-4 weeks:

Rodent Mortician posted:

Not actually all that odd in rodents in general. Females tend to be more likely to get them but I've taken a lot of mammary tumors off of male foster pigs. Generally mammary cancer in guinea pigs is benign and/or well contained so it's pretty treatable as a general rule.

alucinor posted:

All the pig mammary tumors I've ever seen have been in males. It's definitely not quite that rare. Encourage your mom to weigh weekly! That's the best way to spot illness before it's too late.

Cancers don't always have to be terminal, either. We took a mammary tumor off a pig and he lived another 4 years (6 total). Last year I took a thyroid tumor off a 4 year old and he's doing great, I'm hoping he'll give me another four years.

Awesome Kristin posted:

I have more cute to post too!

alucinor posted:

If she's not too far advanced I will still plan to spay her next week, but if she's within a few days of popping it looks like I'm going to acquire between two and six new piggies.

alucinor posted:

(this shelter doesn't feed hay)

Rodent Mortician posted:

We had a similar WTF moment with a shelter down here doing rabbit spays and neuters. They killed a female rabbit and then gave me two male rabbits bleeding and half neutered (yep, each one had a testicle left.)

They continued to insist their vet was rabbit savvy and refused to let me pay out of pocket to have our vet train their vet.

alucinor posted:

Don't forget the one being fed dry corn flakes and canned garbanzo beans. Seriously, at this point, a shelter pig being fed alfalfa hay and seed-laced guinea pig pellets is being treated like royalty. At least they are actually feeding food which has a picture of a guinea pig on the bag.

SomeChump posted:

Hey thread, another question! One of my guinea pigs has taken to nibbling me. He doesn't do it in an agressive or annoyed manner but more as if my skin was tasty food. He doesn't do this to my girlfriend, so could it be horemones or diet? It just makes it very hard to have him on my chest as he can't help but sample me!

Rodent Mortician posted:

I've seen pics from other rescues, but it seems to be mainly west coast rescues getting these things (thank God).

Huge Liability posted:

Oh, I'd have no problem with someone working towards breeding a healthy, domestic jumbo pig. It just sounds like the ones people are buying right now are wild and not really suitable pets.

Bastard Tetris posted:

Our smallest pig jumped like six inches vertically when we gave him a bath, it was absurd. How do they jump so high when they are shaped like beans?

Naffer posted:

I see your tin foil hat and I'll raise you lettuce hat. This is Eleanor Jalapeno.

Rodent Mortician posted:

Yeah that's pretty much every rabbit and guinea pig breeder who's set up I've ever seen. Actually a little cleaner than most. You know you can't have "giant" cages because they're too hard to clean.

Fraction posted:

Here's a photo that best shows those ears off: