Howdy!

[emeraldsongbird]

Hello everyone!

My friends call me Emmy. I'm a new guinea pig owner. I thought I'd done sufficient research on guinea pigs before I acquired my girls, but I learn something new about them every day it seems. Luckily I work at a veterinary teaching hospital, so I can ask doctors any questions I have or bring my piddies in.

My fiance and I call our guinea pigs "the piddies." This is a long story, but too cute not to share. My fiance's three year old nephew loves to play Angry Birds. He calls the green pigs on the game "piddies" because he can't pronounce his g's properly yet. So as an inside joke we started calling our guinea pigs "the piddies."

We currently have two girl piddies. The first one I brought home was Neolin. I thought Neolin was a boy when I got her, hence her Native American name after the famous Delaware Prophet. She was so very young and very shy, but so soft and sweet when I held her close, and with beautiful colors of caramel, dark brown and white. For a week, I'd take Neolin out, play with her, sing to her, feed her yummy veggies, and she was great except she was so scared and she nipped a lot. This frustrated me. I researched and researched, and decided Neolin needed a friend that would encourage good behavior.

So, a week later, I brought Pocahontas home. We call her Po for short. She's black, tan, and white. She has a little coarser fur than Neolin, and is definitely bigger, but is such a sweetie pie. The first time I held her, she cuddled close. She was just a couple months older than Neolin. I thought her great behavior would make Neolin calm down and be a better piddie.

Well, weeks later, and they're both great. They are very attached to each other. If I take one out and hold her, the other cries until she gets taken out too. I love their cheery chirps in the morning and evening. They are becoming used to my voice and love to get treats. I've consulted with my vet several times and have slowly increased their rate of living, which I'm glad I've been able to do. They popcorn a lot, which I just love. My guineas are so great! I wish my cat would get along with them, but she is too much of a predator, so I've had to keep my guinea pigs downstairs and away from my cat.

It's funny that I got Po to help Neolin's behavior but now Neolin is the outgoing one and Po is the shy one! She still does better with getting picked up though.

The one thing I have not done for my piddies yet is get them a bigger enclosure. I have the stupid SuperPet cage and it's just terrible. My vet suggested one of those big, long mixing tubs that you can get cheap from Lowe's. But ever since looking through different Coroplasts cages, I've decided I want to go that route. Then, as well, I can add more guinea pigs to my little colony

So, I'm going to look around, seeing what works and what doesn't, and create a better space for my piddies. Any suggestions for enclosures, as well as anything else like food or anything like that, would be very helpful and VERY much appreciated.

Thanks!

[nibbler100]

Congrats (: and welcome to GPC! wed love to see pics of your piggies!

[bpatters]

Welcome to the forum! We need pictures!