New to the forum...Be gentle with me.

[Mistweave]

I just got a guinea pig about a month ago from a lady that was giving them away and I have her/him in an aquarium for right now but it is mostly just for her/him to eat and drink in I have it out in my room for the rest of the time and on the couch with me and everywhere else. I took it to a pet store and they said it was a girl and I named her Kate-Monster but I looked at the pics on here and the umm...equipment on the guinea pig matches the male. I am in the process of building a cage for her (I'ma just pretend it's a girl) so if anyone has any suggestions for me please feel free to e-mail me or post here or leave a PM but I'm not clueless I have books and I read about guinea pigs almost constantly so I know about the balls and the bedding and I read everything on this site before I registered . Hope to get to know you all a little better ^^.

[katiecavyNC]

First step would be to build a better cage, which it sounds like you are doing. If you have read a lot of this site and cavyspirit/guinealynx sites then you are well on your way.

As far as you GP - they like company so once you get a larger cage built then you may want to consider adding a friend for him/her. You can adopt a same-sex pig for your piggy. Just make sure you are 100% clear on the gender of your piggy, of course!

[WEAVER]

Please get your pig out of the aquarium---that is about the worst place a guine apig can live. Not only are they small and narrow, but they get NO air circulation at all. Not good, especially if housing on wood chips (traps the dust), and the pee smell gets trapped in there as well.

As far as telling the sex of your pig, please call a cavy savy vet in your area and see if they are able to sex your pig for you. It is really important that is accurate, not only before you get your pig a friend, but also to properly take care of him/her and look for signs of problems. Some rescues or shelters may also sex your pig for free.

By the way welcome to the forum

[Mistweave]

I thought I had the little one sexed . I thought something was wrong when I saw her hopping around and it looked like her thing was swollen and I took her back to the people I had asked before and they said it was normal for it to look like that on a female and I can see it clearly when she is on the floor just sitting there. I think it's a boy but I get the squirmy guinea pig treatment when I try to turn him over and look so it's hard to examine him in detail.

[cavy-cool-crazy]

http://cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm will help you a bit in sexing your guinea. Then get an opinion from a cavy-savvy (usually exotics) vet to be sure. You can't adopt a second piggie without knowing the sex of your current one!

I agree about the aquarium, even as a temporary eating-drinking station it's too dangerous. (S)he only needs to pee in there a few times for the ammonia fumes to start building up and making it more difficult to breathe.

Another website to look at is Guinea Lynx :: A Medical and Care Guide for Guinea Pigs
There is lots of good info on GL which you will find indispensible.

Have you any pics of your piggie?

Welcome to the forum.

[JennG]

Welcome to the forum. Please, please get him/her out of the aquarium as quickly as possible. I wouldn't get him/her a friend until you know exactly what sex the piggie is. We don't want any accidents. And please read over everything that you can on here, it's a wealth of information.

[VoodooJoint]

Welcome to the forum.

[Mistweave]

I don't have any pictures yet but he looks just like the guinea pig of of Dr. Dolittle. All orange except for a white stripe going from his nose to the top of his head.

[Mistweave]

Oh yeah. And I talked to my mom's ex and he said he still had the rabbit hutch from when I had rabbits so I am going to put the hutch on my porch and cut the way up from the stairs with a baby gate so the dogs can't go up there and harrass Kate (Guinea pig's name unless I change it to a more masculine name). So he can be outside some and I can move it inside until I get the other cage built.

[Mazzy1893]

Welcome to the Forum!
Actually, I would reccomend against using the rabbit hutch as it most likely has wire flooring. Wire flooring can be very dangerous for little guinea pig feet and you should most definetly not use the hutch if it has wire flooring. How about just going to a store and buying the cubes and building a temporary rectangle and using a plastic shower curtain as a base until you can buy some coroplast and completely build your cage? A few people on this forum have used the plastic shower curtain idea, you can look around in the galleries to get ideas, just definetly get that little baby out of the aquarium and DO NOT use the wire-floored rabbit hutch. Good luck.

[Mistweave]

The hutch was built by me and I didn't like the idea of wire on my bunny and I made it with a plastic siding type roof that slopes down so there is shade and the rain goes off easy and it's made out of shelves like some of the cages here.

[HowietheGreat]

Most of us do not promote keeping guinea pigs outside. Is there any reason you cannot keep her (or him) inside? Have you seen the vet yet for a check up? Are you going to get it a buddy?

[C&K]

Welcome to the group!

What size is this hutch? Kate will need a minimum of 7.5 square feet to be healthy and happy.

A lot of boys are mis sexed as girls. I would not trust the petstores opinion. work on getting her a little easier to handle, try sitting quietly with her for awhile, tell she is nice and calm, then see if she will co operate in trying to get "his" equipment out by pressing above / to the side of his / her parts.

It needs a friend, but it is more important first and formost (unless you are getting an altered friend) to figure out the sex.

We do not encourage keeping pigs outside. They evolved in an environment that typically never exceeded 75 degrees during the day, the evenings where cool, but not freezing. Outside temps fluctuate a lot. Also, you always run the risk of mean spirited people tampering with your pet, or animals getting into the hutch.

[Mistweave]

The hutch is big enough for two adult rabbits to have their own space and I can keep the hutch inside but I have the other cage built now so I am using it from now on . And he sits very nicely with me and it is most definetly a boy. I am thinking about changing his name to Riku.

[C&K]

What size is "big enough for two adult rabbits?"

I hope it is a minimum of 7.5 square feet. If it isn't, you need to think about getting a bigger cage.

When I first joined, I had a "large rabbit cage". The "largest" cage money could buy in these parts, and I live in a big city, so really there was lots of selection.

I was upset to learn that it fell short of the recommended size, but made the decision to start gathering the materials for a bigger cage, and get a friend for my girl.

If you are really sure that Riku (love the name) is a boy, then I think you should start looking for a friend too. They really do better with company.

Anyway, what other cage did you build? Did you make a C&C?

[Mistweave]

Yeah I built a C&C cage and he has his own room now so he is quite content and I am checking the rescues for a guinea pig and they said if they got one they would call.

[Pigs4All]

Welcome to the forum. Good to see you have built a good cage.