Hello and help!

[tyamar]

I feel like a new mother, and a bad one at that! I bought my Little Bill before finding this site. Don't get me wrong, I had done some research, but obviously not enough! I bought him from PetSmart, and their "deluxe" model starter kit to go along with him. I realized right away that I would want better accommodations for him, which is what led me to this site. I made the mistake of believing what they told me at the store, and now I don't know what to believe. I feel like I've done everything wrong so far. I don't even know if he is really a "he" now! I'm going to try sexing him once I get home from work tonight to find out for sure. When I asked them how old he was, they didn't know for sure... just that he was somewhere between 4 months and a year. Is there any way to tell, now? I bought him some timothy hay, but now I don't know if maybe it's too "staw-like". I bought the Animal Planet brand. I also bought him a plastic house. I've been putting the vitamin drops in his water, but now I'm not so sure I'm supposed to. Maybe just vitamin C ones? What about his food? I'm using a "gourmet" type. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Forget everything Petsmart told you. You need to throw away the gourmet pellets and the multivitamins. They are very bad and can be harmful to their health. You never add anything to their water.

Oxbow pellets are a much better quality pellet that you can usually find locally. If you can order online, Kleenmama sells high quality hay and pellets.

Please read over : Guinea Lynx :: A Medical and Care Guide for Your Guinea Pig for proper care info.

[seagirl96]

Hi Tyamar! You're going to be a great piggy Mom because you care enough to find out what your baby needs.

No vitamin drops in the water. Nothing in the water but water. Timothy hay is good. There are better quality brands available but the Petsmart kind will tide him over until you can get some Oxbow or Kleenmama or maybe some good local hay. If he is a baby, he could use some alfalfa too, until he is full-grown. The store should know where they got him from and when he arrived. Maybe you could call back and ask for a manager for more info.

Check out the list of vegetables he will like on the nutrition thread. This is where his vitamin C will come from.

A plastic house is good. Most of us have pigloos for our wheekers.

The cages that people on this forum have built are marvelous. You will probably want to build him his own personalized cage but it doesn't have to be done today. Little Bill is already moving up in the world by moving out of Petsmart and moving in with you.

Everyone here will tell you that your piggy will be happier with a friend so keep that in mind. And please think about adopting a rescue piggy instead of buying from Petsmart.

[tyamar]

Thanks, both of you!

rabbitsncavyluv, the link you provided is very helpful, loads of info.

seagirl96, I've already started looking for a friend for Little Bill, in fact, I've got a lead on a 12-month-old named Wiggles from my local shelter. Male, of course! Unfortunately, I really can't look to getting another until I have a good (large) home built. Plus I'd have to convince my husband. He is not the animal-lover I am. As for building a house, I e-mailed my local sign store as well, and they got back to me right away. They will sell me a full 4 x8 sheet for $20. That's a pretty good deal, right? 100% profit for them, but hey, they've got a business to run.

Thanks for the confidence!

[seagirl96]

The coroplast deal sounds good. I had to pay $35.00, but everything costs more in Conn. Wiggles? I love the name. I hope you can get him. Tell your husband the trouble and expense are about the same, but the fun doubles.

[Piggersrule]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I would wait on getting another piggy until you can get a cc cage set-up plus, you should wait at least 3 weeks to make sure Little Bill is healthy and free from mites. Sounds like you are headed in the right direction with caring for Little Bill. If you have any question please ask no matter how trivial you think it might be, we are here to help.

[TheSnufflenoses]

These 3 sites cover practically anything you need to know and are extremely reliable/knowledgeable. Anything you don't find answers to through them, feel free to ask here!

http://www.guinealynx.com/
Index of /
Guinea Pig Cages, Your Cavy At Home

Definitely build the cage and be sure Little Bill is healthy before you get the 2nd pig, as piggersrule already said.

[tyamar]

Well, I hate to say it, but after checking out Kleenmama and Oxbow's horrendous shipping charges, I'm going to have to find a better alternative. I could understand if the shipments were oversized, but I asked for the smallest amount of pellets and hay. Oxbow charges 100% shipping, whereas Kleenmama is something more like 200%. That is absolutely ridiculous. I live in Texas, so I hope I can find a much cheaper local alternative. I don't mind paying a lot for a product, but I'm not going to be padding someone's pockets just for the heck of it.

Just plain highway robbery.

[MilwCavyMom]

I thought it seems like a lot too for shipping but then you have to think of it this way. For Kleenmama you get a 25 lb bag for $13plus shipping which for me comes to $16.50. So that is $29.50 all together for 25 lbs. Now I do feed my 2 little guys unlimited hay as you should, but even then a 25 lb bag should last me at least a couple months.
Now if you go to the store, you can check out: Oxbow Pet Products for places that have Oxbow in stores nearby, but anything you buy instore is going to be anywhere from $4-15 depending, but I've never seen anything bigger than th 40 oz bags, and those only last a week maybe 2. So you can figure out the math, but it seems for me at least you pay less for ordering the hay online than you would getting in the store, and you know, with Kleenmama its fresh. My 2cents.

As for everything else, good luck with getting your new home built and winning your husband over. I can tell you from my experience, I had to win my boyfriend over on the pigs. He thought they were smelly dirty infectious animals. (rolling eyes). He now pets them, brings them a treat of a carrot stick or lettuce leaf and will put them on his lap. They've really grown on him and I'm happy. Your husband may come around too.

In the meantime welcome to the forum and I hope you can find the answers to your questions. Good luck! Oh and one of our informal rules is to see pictures (when you have time).

[tyamar]

If I try to get a 25 lb bag for $13, it tacks on another $23.93 for shipping. That's a total of $36.93! I live in Texas. I live across the country from the company, not across the world! How are you getting such cheap shipping costs? Keep in mind that I'm talking ground shipping here...

I've pasted in a copy of my total from the site, below:

Sub-Total: $13.00 United Parcel Service (1 x 26lbs) (Ground): $23.93 Total: $36.93

[rabbitsncavyluv]

You can buy Oxbow locally.

[tyamar]

I'll looking into getting the Oxbow... but it is quite a way from where I live. Only one supplier in the Houston area - according to their site.

[seagirl96]

At the price you would pay for Oxbow, that's still only 1.48 a pound. I think you will find that the stuff in the pet store is more per pound. Remember there's 16 ounces in one pound so 48 ounces for example would be 3 pounds, so if a three pound bag costs more than 4.43, it's more expensive.

It's not Oxbow getting rich on shipping, it's UPS. The cost of gas is making shipping charges go sky high.

[Susan9608]

I live in TX, too, however i live in Dallas. I have not found any local retail store that sells Oxbow, so I order it online. I don't have pigs now, just chins, so it lasts me a lot longer. When I had 7 pigs, plus the chins, I'd order the largest size of timothy hay available, and it would last me for at least 4-5 months. I'd eventually pay that much (probably more) over a 4-5 month period by buying smaller packages from a retail store ... not to mention the cost of gas and stuff.