6 replies to this topic

[SquidSisters]

Ive been concidering getting guinea pigs as a pet for awhile now, and i recently saw two guinea pigs in an extremely small cage listed near me for free on craigslist. I feel so awful for them and I want to get them out of there :(
My birthday is coming up, so my mom might say yes.

Do you guys know any good guinea pig enclosures or know any guinea pig care youtubers i could watch?
I used to study on guinea pig care back in 2017. I forgot alot and im assuming what i do remember is outdated.

For those of you who might know about guinea pigs:
Is the midwest guinea pig habitat by itself a good enclosure?
Where would i buy fleece made for guinea pigs or make my own? Is it cheaper than bedding?
are they expensive?

[ajuniceuhamsters]

Ive been concidering getting guinea pigs as a pet for awhile now, and i recently saw two guinea pigs in an extremely small cage listed near me for free on craigslist. I feel so awful for them and I want to get them out of there :(
My birthday is coming up, so my mom might say yes.

Do you guys know any good guinea pig enclosures or know any guinea pig care youtubers i could watch?
I used to study on guinea pig care back in 2017. I forgot alot and im assuming what i do remember is outdated.

For those of you who might know about guinea pigs:
Is the midwest guinea pig habitat by itself a good enclosure?
Where would i buy fleece made for guinea pigs or make my own? Is it cheaper than bedding?
are they expensive?

Hello!

 

For youtubers I'd recommend Guinea Pig Jungle!

 

One midwest cage is just under 8 square feet, and the 'minimum' for a pair is 8 sq ft. For a pair of boars (males), I'd recommend 12+ square feet just because they tend to fight more than two females. For any piggies, I do think bigger is a LOT better. Generally, I'd try to go for over 12 sq ft so the piggies have more room to do zoomies. 

 

A good cage I'd recommend is building a DIY C&C cage! These are usually a lot cheaper, and you can customise it to your space! I'd recommend building one yourself as they aren't diffucult at all. I'd aim for at least a 2 by 4 c&c grid cage if you do decide to make one. 2 by 4 will give you just over 10 sq ft of space. I'd also recommend building a loft, as many piggies like going up to second levels! A 32 pack of grids on amazon is $25, 

 

Guinea pig dad on Amazon makes great cage liners! If you are unable to buy these, you can just sew a towel in between two fleeces to make them more absorbent. I say that bedding is a lot more expensive than fleece but it's easier to clean. You'll need to do a full change for bedding every week, and for a 8 sq ft+ enclosure the price will get very high. For fleece or cage liners, you'll need to shake them out outside before putting them in the washing mashine to prevent hay or poop getting stuck but they're a lot cheaper. I'd recommend using litter boxes under the hay rack/with hay in them with bedding because some tend to pee when they eat. I'd also put a little bedding in each corner since they tend to pee there.

 

Before you get piggies, I'd recommend making sure no one in your family is allergic to grass hays and guinea pigs themselves. They also poop A LOT, and it's hard to train them to poop in the litterbox, though training them to pee in the litterbox is rather easy.

 

If you have any gp questions feel free to ask! I hope this helped

[fluzzyponies]

It's great that you are considering guinea pigs! I had always wanted guinea pigs and I finally got my two boys almost 3 years ago now. They are amazing animals and I know I will have guinea pigs for a very long time.

 

In terms of guinea pig Youtubers, I really like Skinnypigs1. She's very devoted to her guinea pigs and I've learned a lot about guinea pig health issues watching her videos.

 

I wrote up a really long post in this thread, so I'd highly recommend checking that out. I think it covers all of your questions and more. I even included some piggy pictures

 

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I love guinea pigs and love to chat about them.

Edited by fluzzyponies, 23 April 2021 - 09:19 PM.

[Morag]

I hope you can save them! I haven't had guinea pigs for so long, but my favourite resources were GuineaLynx and GuineaPigCages.

[ChinchillaDude]

I have a Midwest in storage now I’d give it to you if I could lol


Nothing against those who own them, that was mine but I got a cxc 2x3.5 now and I like much better. I am getting more grids as we speak you can customize them so many different ways!

I love the look of fleece but mine kept soiling it non stop if I knew I could train them to go in a potty area I would. I admire owners who make fleece work though as it is beautiful IMO.

Scotty’s Animals on YouTube Is my favorite.

[Whitewhiskers]

Little Adventures is my favorite guinea pig youtuber! She’s helped me so much

 

What gender are they? If they are females, I’d recommend the Midwest guinea pig cage as a minimum, and if they are males, I’d get something a bit bigger!

 

sorry if I’m not much help here with guinea pig cages, but I can probably help with other things!

 

Yeah, as long as you keep it flat on something, if you don’t or any part of it is hanging off, it’s gonna fall apart and it’ll look weird.

 

Guinea pig fleece is pretty expensive, but if you go to a craft store that sells fleece you can just get some of that, I recommend having at least 2 pieces to use interchangeably, so when one is dirty and needs to be washed you have another piece you can use so you don’t have to wait for it to clean, and vice versa. I think so, I haven’t had to buy bedding for them and bedding is pretty expensive so yeah it is cheaper then bedding.

 

Well yeah, you have to buy bags of hay, bunches of veggies, pellets, toys, treats, hides, etc. out of all my pets, the guinea pigs are the most expensive. They can wipe out your veggies in like a week!

[dinesmohamm]

First of all, read the articles about the proper nutrition of a guinea pig. They are susceptible to food, and believe me, and if you do not give something in the right amount, it can cause significant harm to the guinea pig. But do not be afraid. You just need to read a couple of articles about what a guinea pig can eat or not. I recently discovered for myself that guinea pigs could be given any amount of grapes. They adore him! But once grapes poisoned my dog, I had to go to the vet and treat my pets. But it's good that everything went well and now everything is fine

Edited by dinesmohamm, 21 September 2021 - 11:04 PM.