2 Guinea Pigs from Hong Kong

**FurryPal** · #1 07-27-05, 08:39 pm

Fluffy and Baby are from Hong Kong.

We love them like kids!

**Wildjem** · #2 07-31-05, 02:35 pm

Nice blog! Your pigs are VERY cute!

**FurryPal** · #3 08-07-05, 09:04 am

Thank you Wildjem. Do you have any G. pigs? The blog is more like a diary for our pigs and we set it up to share the news with our many nieces and nephews all over the world.

12 years ago, I got my 1st guinea pig and mistaken it for a hamster! At that time there was no internet and it was hard to get English books on pets here in HK - so I fed my G. pig lots of lettuce only! I had no idea what G.pigs eat - but once a piece of tissue paper fell onto the floor and my G. pig ate it up very quickly - it was fascinating. Little did I know that G.pigs are grass eaters and mine was lacking in fiber. Later, I did give my G. pig away because I had to leave HK for quite a long time.

Now my 2 G.pigs have lots of nutritious food to eat. They have Timothy grass/hay, Alfafa, chewables, pellets, and other G.pig food (looks good and appetizing :-) They have plenty of fresh veggies everyday and they are very healthy.

**Wildjem** · #4 08-07-05, 12:39 pm

What a great way to share with little ones. Yes, I have 2 guineas that I rescued about a month ago from an animal shelter. They were taken away from their original owners because of cruelty-not sure of the details. I've named them Kiki and Lulu after Wakiki and Honolulu where I was fortunate enough to vacation for the past 2 summers. I think my girls are 2 American shorthairs. I have gained a lot of knowledge from this site and they eat very well. The 2 girls I had before were not so lucky. Pellets and the ocassional veggie treat. I've built a 2x3 c&c cage and almost have the 1x2 upper deck complete. Just need to make a ramp. I really enjoy being a pig owner again and can tell you do, too!

**FurryPal** · #5 08-09-05, 03:48 am

Thanks for sharing. I can only admire and drool over all the fantastic cages and space others have in their living space for their G. pigs. In HK, we do not have such space even for ourselves.

KiKi and LuLu are very nice names!

Have you tried letting your G.pigs swim? I tried with mine because I read somewhere that they can swim and I was amazed mine really could float and swim! I have a picture of Fluffy swimming in my bathtub in my blog. Today, I'm quite nervous about photographing him because I wanted to watch him carefully. It's his first swim. The next time, I'll want to photograph him swimming in deeper water with another of my G. pig, Baby.

**The Magic Taco** · #6 08-13-05, 07:49 pm

My friend's guinea pig was put in a little kiddy pool once and it pretended it was a dog and started paddling around!

**FurryPal** · #7 08-14-05, 12:54 am

Hi Magic Taco. I think guinea pigs are born knowing how to swim. When I have both of mine in water for the 1st time, they floated. One took to water gracefully and seemed to enjoy swimming. The other one could swim but did not like to and always headed for the sides and tried to jump out of the water. It's just so fun to watch them. Different piggies have different personalities and talents.

**kat_0521** · #8 08-14-05, 09:22 pm

Hi FurryPal. I think your blog is very nice and I LOVE the pictures of your piggies swimming! I had no idea piggies were even capable of that! My girls really don't like bath time and try to scramble out.
The one thing I would recommend is not to feed a seeded mix to your piggies. The seeds, colored crunchy bits and some have pieces of corn-piggies don't need any of those things in their diet. They're mainly just fatty. Not to mention they all present a serious choking hazard.
Keep up the good work on your blog and welcome to the forum!

**FurryPal** · #9 08-14-05, 10:01 pm

Hi kat_0521. Thanks for your advice ... I was wondering about those seeds mixture too because my piggies do not touch them. I bought those for them because they were marketed as tasty treats for guinea pigs and oh how I love to spoil my piggies! My piggies much prefer to have grass/hay and fresh veggies than those mixtures and pellets.

At the very beginning, my piggies did not like taking baths and tried scrambling out of the water. Now they knew that bathing can be pleasant and are very cooperative! I always talk to them when bathing them and praise them when they are good.

**Clover** · #10 08-28-05, 01:19 am

I may not be popular for speaking my mind, but I felt very uncomfortable seeing those bath photo's, the water is far too deep!. In the first photo the piggy is clearly struggling to stay above water!

Also, guinea pigs should not be living on mesh because they can hurt their delicate feet. Please think of your guinea pigs well-being.

**FurryPal** · #11 08-28-05, 02:40 am

No problem. The first guinea pig does not like water but he swims, he just wants to get to the sides. The bigger fluffier one loves water and enjoys swimming we think he's a duck - he's a very graceful swimmer and never heads for the sides. Guine pigs can swim.

I have only 2 choices - they live together with their urine and droppings mixed with bedding (which is a huge amount a day ...and like how it was like in the pet shop where plastic mesh was not use) or they live in a clean dry environment like what you see now. They have many hours of floor time a day and a nice towel each to sleep on.

After floortime, I always wipe their feet and underside of the body so that they are not dirty. They never smell and we carry them often. They have the softest pink pads on their feet that looks very healthy - while they used to have crusty feet when they were on flat surfaces in the shop.

These 2 piggies are like our kids and we always have their best interest in mind. They respond to us like dogs more than like guinea pigs. They vocally respond when we call their names. They come to us when we approach them. We talk to them often and they are very active in their cage. There is no sign that the mesh is hurting their feet because they run laps and popcorn often. In other words, we have the most healthy and happy piggies. At one time, we lined half the cage with cardboard but it seems they have no preference for flat surfaces.

**Clover** · #12 08-28-05, 07:15 am

Some guinea pigs may learn to swim, but that dosn't mean to say that they like it .Why have the water so deep? just for your benifit to see if they can swim? Of course the guinea pig is trying to reach the side, its terrified and its not surprising because the water is so deep!

As for the mesh,they can badly damage their feet or nails. You don't have to completly clean a cage out every day, you can just pick out the wet patches and most of the poop and do a top of woodshavings (whatever you use) and change any soiled hay everyday. That way they arn't living on their own waste. Throughly clean it out once a week. A few poops in the cage won't do them any harm and by removing most of them each day, they will stay clean.

**stitsy&codyPig** · #13 08-28-05, 10:13 am

They are so adorable! I'v never heard of a swimming guinea pig, that is so cute!

**Clover** · #14 08-29-05, 01:18 am

Its not cute when a guinea pig is fighting for its life and is terrified of drowning!

**FurryPal** · #15 08-29-05, 07:20 am

Guinea pigs have preferences. Some like water some don't. But I truly believe that land animals like that (which cannot fly nor climb nor leap) are in danger of drowning in the wild during a flood and nature would never let it happen because that may spell an end to the species. So I have confidence that guinea pigs have the innate ability to stay afloat. Before I try letting them in deeper water, I supported them and only tried in shallow water. They showed me that they can float but one is scared of water while the other loves it.

I read somewhere that while mice can swim continuously for 50+ hours, guinea pigs can only do it for a short while - and so their swimming sessions are always watched by 2 adults. The one who does not like swimming will swim no more. The one who likes swimming now prefers swimming than be held in water.

I realized something interesting about my guinea pigs. Once they have learned to do something, they always remember how to do it. Like how to escape from the enclosure while having floortime, how to shift their ceramic feeding bowls so that they can have the corners - and for Fluffy, he likes swimming :-), that is without a doubt.

But I'm not suggesting everyone try to let their GP swim. Some GPs do not like water at all and bath time is a stressful event to them, not to mention swim. My little piggie who does not like to swim actually enjoys bathing.

**Clover** · #16 08-29-05, 09:25 am

In a situation like a flood I can understand land animals trying to swim for their lives out of desperation. But under normal circumstances, why put a guinea pig through that awful ordeal when you don't have to? Household guinea pigs do not need to learn to swim, its not in their nature to swim, they arn't like Otters who have web feet. Why put them through such a frightning experience when you don't have to?

I can see from your blog that you have many aspects of being a caring guinea pig owner, but I think your views about guinea pigs swimming is very clouded to say the least. Most guinea pigs don't enjoy shallow water, so in deep water they must feel petrified.

I'm relieved to hear you won't try and force the guinea pig to swim again. Seeing that photo of Baby was very upsetting for me because he was clearly trying to escape and fighting for his life.

Please think more about whats best for your guinea pig and not yourself. They don't have a choice about being plungged in deep water, you do.!

I needed to give my opinions for two reasons, one because I thought it was cruel and upsetting and reason two, any inexperienced guinea pigs owners reading this thread may think its ok to plunge their guinea pig into deep water and watch it struggle to stay above water.

Its taken a while for you to say ' But I'm not suggesting everyone try to let their GP swim' This thread was made in July, so many vistors have seen the thread already. I found your blog at another forum that someone had posted, so thats even more visitors who have seen that awful picture.

**pennick** · #17 08-29-05, 10:17 am

I can't understand how anyone can allow their piggy to endure such terror. To fill up a bathtub and plop a piggy into it without any way of escaping is just plain abuse. To say that a piggy is enjoying it or learning how to swim is hogwash.

I would concede to someone placing a piggy in a bathtub as long as there is an escape route for them otherwise its just plain wrong.

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