New Piggie family

[NancyPS]

Hi,

We are adopting 3 girl piggies tomorrow afternoon. The closest shelter for piggies is about 1 1/2 hours away, but when we saw these 3 girls online we decided they would fit our family well. My three daughters have been wanting more pets (as we have an 11 year old cat who does not like cats) and we have been researching guinea pigs for a few months now. We are getting three older girls who have all been living together already, so we don't have to worry about them getting to know each other. Two of the girls are 4 and one is 5. We spent the days since Christmas building a cage and getting everything ready and reading everything I could find until all hours of the night. We have built a cage that is 2X5 with a 1X2 extension forming sort of a backwards L. We purchased the puppy pee pads for under the towels and fleece, and made a hide house out of a large wash basin by cutting doors in two sides. We have 2 PVC tunnels and 2 edible tunnels. We have a hay "bin" and water bowl and a few toys. We purchased timothy hay, but have not yet purchased food since we want to get the kind they are already used to eating.

Have I forgotten anything? Do I need anything else? I appreciate all I have read from this sight already and look forward to learning more as we get to know our new girls! (my poor husband will be the only male in a house with 8 females...bless him!)

Thanks for any help anyone is willing to offer!

[Ly&Pigs]

What kind of edible tunnels? If they are those edible alfalfa logs then they are bad for pigs. If they are the timothy hay tunnels, those are fine.

I wouldn't necessarily get the type of food they are currently eating. They could be on some low quality stuff or a mix. Your best bet would be to find some Oxbow Cavy Cuisine.

I hope they are used to eating veggies because that's a very important part of the diet.

[NancyPS]

Thank you for your information! The edible tunnels are being returned to the stores they came from. Thanks for letting me know they could be a problem!

Luckily the rescue people our girls were with was already feeding them Oxbow Cavy Cuisine, so they are already used to it. However, they don't eat very much of it! They do eat lots of hay and veggies, but have not eaten much of the pellets.

They are used to eating red peppers and kale daily and carrots occasionally. We started with these veggies and also will be adding others a little at a time.

They are precious girls and seem to love their new cage and are getting used to all of the different noises (from 3 girls) in our house.

My daughters are getting used to the idea that they will be pooped on and sometimes even peed on and they love holding the piggies in their laps and petting them. They are a great match for our family!

Thanks again for your helpful advice!