guine pig | Imamother

Chayalle

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 10:03 am

So, my kids wore me down. We got a guinea pig. He's actually pretty cute!

Anyone have a guinea? I have some questions I'd love to ask with someone who has more experience. Like:

Is it normal for him to get some white-ish discharge at his eyes? Not often. like once a week. Little tiny, like what I occasionally get at my eyes and wipe off, in the morning.

He eats! All day! You can refill his hay manger several times a day! (and of course it comes out the other end...) is this the norm?

What kind of vitamin C did you give?

Any advice you can think of, please post!

TIA

anon for this

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 10:29 am

I don't have any guinea pig experience, but I see no one else posted yet, so I wanted to let you know that my daughter has occasionally noticed similar discharge from the eyes of her dwarf hamster. She's noted this since shortly after we bought him, which was a year ago, so I don't think this is a problem.

sima

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 10:32 am

hi Congrats!!! we are also really considering one. I think they are cute. In the mean time we have a hamster. Where did you get yours from? While I can't help you with your questions there are some great websites on guinea pig care, just put it into google. As for the food, I think you feed them once a day or maybe twice, but I would think that's enough. And for vitamin c I've heard that they sell certain supplements for them, or you give them certain fruits or veggies with vit c. I read this stuff on the websites. good luck

Chayalle

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 10:49 am

Thank you anon for this! I was hoping to hear something like that. It's only once in a while, so I was hoping it means he's ok.

Sima, my sister hooked us up with someone who was giving theirs away. They gave us the guinea with a nice cage, and their supply of bedding, hay, and stabilized-c treats, plus some toys and nail scissors, water bottle......Really nice!

He doesn't seem to eat so much of the C stuff, so I'm hoping he gets enough. I did some googling too, and tried giving him 1/4 of a kiddie vitamin C, but he didn't go for it much.

He loves shredded carrots so we give him that.

We will likely visit Pet Smart one of these days, to refill supplies, etc...but have been so busy and just hoping we are doing ok by our pet.

gp2.0

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 11:15 am

Yeah they need to chew hay almost constantly. It keeps their their teeth from growing down into their chins and aids the digestive tract I think. And I just used to give vitamin C through fresh veggies.

Chayalle

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 11:20 am

gp2.0 wrote:

Oh I didn't realize that, thanks. He has chew toys but I didn't realize that the hay plays a role there too. Thanks for posting. Guess we will be buying lots of hay!

What veggies did you give? (He love carrots. Didn't care much for zuchini.)

gp2.0

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 12:10 pm

Chayalle wrote:

gp2.0 wrote:

Mostly romaine lettuce. They loved the stuff. They got so excited whenever I gave it to them. Smile

PAMOM

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 1:38 pm

I gave our gp all kinds of veggies. I tried broccoli, string beans, lettuce,etc. google guinea pig diet. But the veggies into small pieces. I gave yogurt drop treats with vitamin C but mainly fed guinea pig food from
the pet store and the veggies and hay.

Chayalle

Fri, Jul 19 2013, 1:52 pm

PAMOM wrote:

Thanks for responding!

Might try string beans, hmm.....

No broccoli in my house as DD is allergic.

ChossidMom

Mon, Jul 22 2013, 4:24 am

We used to have guinea pigs.
We fed them food that we bought at the pet store, as that has all the elements of nutrition that they need. At the pet store they told us not to give too much other food like veggies because it's not that good for them. It's more of a treat. Like giving bamba to kids lol.
We also gave them "aspeset" to chew on. I think that's hay in English. They love that and it's good for their teeth.
I used to give them my left over greens to eat and the ends of the carrots. It's a great way to avoid bal tashchis!

Anyway, enjoy them. I used to love sitting on the couch and relaxing with a guinea pig on me. Unfortunately, they used to relax so much that sometimes they pished on me! Yesterday I took my kids to a small petting farm and they spent a whole half hour playing with the guinea pigs and rabbits. It's a great animal for kids. And if you get them to clean out the cage every week - a great way to teach responsibility!

One more thing - they love to crawl into small spaces. We got a piece of pipe from a plumber neighbor and they loved going in there. Make sure they have stuff to crawl into/under in their cage.
Enjoy!

FranticFrummie

Mon, Jul 22 2013, 5:02 am

When cleaning out the cage, dump everything into your vegetable garden if you have one, or the flower beds.

Hay, shredded newspaper, discarded veggies and poop all make excellent fertilizer!

Jewishmofm

Mon, Jul 22 2013, 9:29 am

great for vitamin c: kiwi fruit. our long dead guinea wouldn't touch the store made "treats". went through hay and greens like there was no tomorrow. Also, we used to put toilet paper and paper towel tubes in for him to crawl in and chew up.

Chayalle

Mon, Jul 22 2013, 11:06 am

Thanks all.

We gave him some cantaloupe today and he loved it!

He hides under his ramp, because he's too big to fit into his hide-out anymore. We should probably get him a bigger one.

He eats hay all day and the droppings are all over the cage! Once a week cleanout??! How about thrice!