Trying to right my wrongs

[mariavictorious]

I did all my research from pet stores and I bought 4 guinea pigs from petco and one died 2 weeks after. after reading some information from this website I started to believe maybe he was too young for them to be selling anyway! I've become addicted to this site in learning things to do to make sure my guineas are healthy because having one die was really heartbreaking.
I recently took in a new guinea pig (as a gift from someone who's guineas gave birth since I am NOT going back to Petco) and just bought a c&c cage so I definitely have plenty of questions since I am completely new to this whole abandoning the pet store idea. Since my guineas will be leaving their commercial cage as soon as the cage gets here, can someone tell me how their piggies react to the change and what I should look out for?
P.S. I'm also getting rid of their carefresh bedding which I've also been ordering from pet stores because i've recently discovered that they carry MITES, so my piggies will be going through a LOT of change. What should I do to make this easier for them?

[suzilovespiggie]

Welcome to the forum and the world of piggies!
For your c&c cage you will need 13 sq. feet or 2x6 for four piggies. Are all four of them the same sex?
As for bedding, many on here use fleece. You can do alot of reading in the bedding section on fleece. I myself use towels and puppy pads. I have to change the cage every 2 days but it has worked out for me. I have used carefresh in the past and have had no mites. Mites come from stress and being exposed to others with mites.
Do your piggies have mites now?
Feel free to ask all the questions you need. We are here for you and your piggies.

[kananaka]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I am really sorry for your loss, and happy you are learning about and changing the life of your piggies in a most positive way.

We had piggies in a small pet store cage (they were in when we adopted them) and made the switch to a C&C. Ours LOVED it. The ran around exploring, poking in and out of their hideys to explore more. We had a good hour of watching them explore till they settled in. I bet yours will love it 2. The one thing I will recommend is have 1 hidey for each pig. You have 4 pigs so you will need 4 hideys. We did not have enough at first and our 2 began to fight over the 1 hidey, even when they did not fight over the 1 hidey in their small cage . To help them adjust make sure you have plenty of hideys, hay, water, and pellets for them and putting in fresh veggies (their favorite) wont hurt either when introducing them to their new cage.

What bedding are you changing to?

[PetsRLife23]

Ok first off 4 Piggies need a 2x6 C&C cage. Use fleece as bedding. You can use carefresh just freeze it for 24 hours first. I started to do this recently (I use carefresh in my kitchen), but I never had any problems with mites before.

Get them timothy hay and a timothy based pellet like Oxbow Cavy Cuisine or Kleenmama pellets, you can order them online. If your pigs are under 6 months they need an alfalfa based pellet and alfalfa hay. Oxbow and kleenmama have alfalfa too. I use Kleenmama hay myself, I like it better than anything and you can buy it in bulk for a great price. Give them fresh veggies everyday and fruit a couple times a week only. NO store bought treats. Veggies are a much better treat for them.

Make sure they ALWAYS have hay and water. Let them have floortime everyday for at least half an hour more is better. Brush long haired guineas everyday and short hair once or twice a week with a soft bristle brush to keep their coats nice. Trim their nails as soon as they are full grown and their nails sort of curl over. You will probably trim them every 4-6 weeks.

Make sure they get vitamin C!!! Fresh veggies provide this. Red bell pepper is really high in vitamin C, but should only be given once or twice a week. You can look up online what veggies have vitamin C. I like to use oxbows vitamin C tablets. I either smash them and mix it into their pellets or break it into four pieces and give it right to my pigs they love it.

Lastly Check them every week for lumps and weigh them once a week. Unless your piggie is overweight they should never lose any weight. Weightloss is the first sign of illness. With 4 piggies you should put money away every chance you get for emergency vet funds. Guineas are expensive. Make sure to find a vet that deals with them in your area. Most important, ALWAYS RESEARCH!!! I still learn new things all the time. And the cage changes shouldn't really upset them, just make up for it with lots of laptime and fresh veggies. Sorry for your loss

[mariavictorious]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I am really sorry for your loss, and happy you are learning about and changing the life of your piggies in a most positive way.

We had piggies in a small pet store cage (they were in when we adopted them) and made the switch to a C&C. Ours LOVED it. The ran around exploring, poking in and out of their hideys to explore more. We had a good hour of watching them explore till they settled in. I bet yours will love it 2. The one thing I will recommend is have 1 hidey for each pig. You have 4 pigs so you will need 4 hideys. We did not have enough at first and our 2 began to fight over the 1 hidey, even when they did not fight over the 1 hidey in their small cage . To help them adjust make sure you have plenty of hideys, hay, water, and pellets for them and putting in fresh veggies (their favorite) wont hurt either when introducing them to their new cage.

What bedding are you changing to?

I'm switching to fleece bedding, though I'm not quite sure which kind to look for or how much. And it wasn't exactly the care fresh that was carrying the mites, it was shipping it that was picking up the mites, and care fresh is too expensive to buy from the store.

[mariavictorious]

yea I've downloaded an app for iPod that tells me which veggies are ok and which are high in sugar so that shouldn't be a problem.
I'm not sure how old the first 3 piggies were when I bought them, though I know the one I just got is 3 months old. Is there a safe amount I can feed my older piggies since I'm not sure if they should be taking it or not?

[CavyMama]

Mites cannot survive on bedding. They need a host (a living critter). If the pigs got mites, it did not come from the bedding.

[Mishkapop]

I'm so sorry for your loss. I assure you, the c&c cage will make a big difference. Our girls live in a 3x7 and they have been much happier since the move. They are able to run laps and explore, they chatter constantly and at their recent vet check, he applauded what great condition they were in, even going so far as to put photos on the vet's corkboard. I know that a large portion of this was down to their healthier living enviroment.

In terms of the fleece, anti-polar is usually the one, but basically, you're looking for one that's 100% polyester. Have enough so that you can have one in the cage, one in the wash at least, and buy a long enough piece that it not only covers the bottom of the cage but also so you can smooth it up over the sides of the coroplast and tuck it over. That way you can clip it into place (I use bulldog clips) and they can't get under it. Make sure you have lining underneath the fleece, such as towels, newspaper, puppy training pads etc. And before you put the fleece down, boil wash it at least twice in non scented, softner free detergent, to make it wick away the moisture properly. If you follow this link you'll find a great guide for setting up fleece in your cage:

http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...ect-study.html

[pinky]

Shipping Carefresh doesn't transmit mites. Most guinea pigs carry mites but don't show symptoms until they're stressed. You should treat all of yours for mites if any shows symptoms. I'd also make sure you have all males. Pet stores have been known to mix-sex their guinea pigs.

[Heeen]

yea I've downloaded an app for iPod that tells me which veggies are ok and which are high in sugar so that shouldn't be a problem.
I'm not sure how old the first 3 piggies were when I bought them, though I know the one I just got is 3 months old. Is there a safe amount I can feed my older piggies since I'm not sure if they should be taking it or not?

What app have you got....sounds very useful? Ta!

[bpatters]

I have no idea what your iPad app is like, but here's a very good chart for guinea pig nutrition. You have to pay attention to more than just sugar in the vegetables.

http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...ants-list.html

[mufasa]

Welcome to the forum, and I'm so sorry for your loss. I feel your pain, as my first piggie was from a pet store. I got Mufasa before I found this forum, and he died 15 days later. Now I have two happy, healthy adopted piggies.

Sounds like you're on the right track to give the remainder of your herd a healthy life. I swear by the chart @bpatters posted when putting together salads for my pigs. I don't think your piggies will be stressed by the cage change. From what I can tell, piggies generally enjoy environmental changes. I switch things around for mine a lot, swap out different toys & tunnels, etc, and they love it.

I use Carefresh and have never had mite problems, but I Googled it after I read your post and did see some reports. Hopefully there's no direct connection. I don't want to go to fleece until I finalize my piggies' cage (they're in two separate cages right now till my boar gets neutered).

You definitely came to the right place for great info. and you're really going to enjoy your little cavies. They're such great pets.

[mariavictorious]

The app I've been using is called guinepedia. It's pretty basic and just something to have in my pocket if I'm at the store to see if a certain fruit or vegetable is even safe for guinea pigs at all, and then I have to do further research to see how much I should be giving them.

that's a really good chart thanks!

I LOVE that you named your piggie Mufasa. I've named all my piggies after the Happy Feet movie 'cause when I first saw a guinea pig popcorn, the name seemed to fit well.

[CritterLuvva]

In terms of the fleece, anti-polar is usually the one, but basically, you're looking for one that's 100% polyester.

For clarification, is it anti-polar or anti-pill? Or were you talking about polar, which is the most common (according to the link)? I just got done reading that recently and I thought I read anti-pill, but you refer to it as anti-polar? I'm not yet familiar with fleece- or much of any sewing, really- so I honestly don't know what it's called. And how do you know what you have in your hands? Is all that info on the end of the bolt?

[kananaka]

I'm switching to fleece bedding, though I'm not quite sure which kind to look for or how much. And it wasn't exactly the care fresh that was carrying the mites, it was shipping it that was picking up the mites, and care fresh is too expensive to buy from the store.

You can find out about fleece bedding here http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...ect-study.html . It will tell you all you need to know, but if you have any questions a lot of us use fleece and will be happy to help!

[jm_1234]

Welcome! I made the same mistakes as you. I bought 4 of my piggies from Petsmart and had problems with all of them. They will probably love the new cage and you will see them more happier then you have ever seen them. Atleast thats what mine were like when I first put them in. Its all changes for the better so you really shouldn't stress to much about the changes.

[mariavictorious]

Thanks @kananaka that really does help! But I'm not quite sure how much fleece to get. & If I have a 100% polyester sheet set, would that work as well? because I want to have a deck, so someone gave me the idea that I could use the pillowcase to cover the deck, and the actual sheet to cover the base, but I'm not quite sure if it would make a difference...

[kananaka]

The sheet instead of fleece? I dk if it will work or not. The fleece is used to wick away the urine to the absorbent layer underneath (towel, u-haul pad, or what ever you would use), not sure how well the sheet would work, I would imagine it would stay pretty damp, and the fleece drys pretty quickly.

[Mishkapop]

Ah blerch, you're right there Critterluvva! *pulls a derp face* Anti-pill is the one, polar is the other popular one, (I was half asleep when I was typing, oops hehe). If I remember rightly the difference is polar has a downier texture, quite fluffy, the anti-pill is the smooth one. I ordered mine offline so all the info about the type of fleece was in a little list of specs next to the ordering fields. TBH I think these days most fleeces are 100% polyester, certainly the ones in the price range people like us are looking at, and it's the poly bit that's most important, as it's that which enables it to slurp away the pee and keep odour away. Moist wool stinks (Our dog used to have a wool blanket...) so avoid any that are blended, though to be honest so far I haven't seen any in my fleece shopping. I know from my experience fabric shopping (I sew a lot) at very least the width specs and fabric composition should be on a lable on the end of the bolt.

From my experience btw, we have both types, and while the polar looks more comfy, it's also harder to sweep/vacuum out as all those fluffy fibres help the hay stick. Also, the girls seem rather prone to tearing bits off and eating them...