New to Guinea Pigs

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

Hi to all,

I have many animals at home, 6 dogs (5 rescued) 3 cats (all rescued) and 2 parakeets. I work with my dad and his 5 horses on the side after work. I ride western style and have a blast riding in the moonlight with one of our old retired horses who does has no idea he is an old man now at 23 yrs old.
I live with my 2 sons, 11 yrs and 8 yrs and one husband...I need to be rescued...

.
We are about to add a guinea pig or two to our humble home. My 8 yrd old son took a big interest in them after holding one at a Local County Fair.
We have had pet rats in the past and loved them during their short life times of 2 - 4 years. Now we are ready to adopt guinea pigs into our lives.
We have limited space in our home for a cage, but we want our pets to be comfortable too. We are looking for a cage prior to adopting a new family member or two.
I am open to any two story cage ideas, care for guinea pigs, guinea pig family stories...their personality traits, socializing them with other animals etc.

Thank you
Janet/Angel

bromers · Apr 18, 2006

Hi and welcome to the forum, I feal like there are millions are newbie now adays, Can you fit a 2x4 anywhere? That could be comfortable for two guinea pigs. If you like it you could always build upwards insted of out I think slap_maxwell's cage would be best to look at its huge!

Anyway it's good to see such an aminal lover here who adopts.

Western riding im jealous I have always wanted to try that I think it would be more fun then your normal house riding.

sweetjay6891 · Apr 18, 2006

www.petfinder.com is the place to go to find your cavies!

You must post pigtures of them when you get them!

Welcome!

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

Thank you for your reply. I think a 2 x 4 would be good and up is better than out for me with a cage. My 8 yr old son and I are good at building things, we are the fixer uppers around the house so I will look at the pictures for great ideas.
I am excited to adopt the new family members some time soon and be in contact with others who share the love for these critters too.

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

Thank you, I will definitely look at pet finders to see if I can rescue a couple of guinea pigs who need a loving home.
I will be happy to post pigtures when we get our new family members.

Ly&Pigs · Apr 18, 2006

First of all welcome to the forum. When you adopt, please adopt a pair of piggies as they are very social creatures and love having another of their own kind to play with.

If you start with a basic 2x4 C&C, you can always add lofts or another story to it later to give even more room. If you were to adopt a pair of sows, they could live comfortably in a 2x3 but bigger is always better. If you adopt boars, well they are more territorial and need more space so you would need at least a 2x4.

It's great to see people doing research and getting their items together before actually adopting. Kudos to you!

bromers · Apr 18, 2006

My 8 yr old son and I are good at building things

Well the good thing about cc cages is that they may be the easiest things in the world to build.

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

Thank you. I am looking at different cages on line. I did not think about gender personality traits yet. I will research the differences to decide what is best for our household.

jdomans · Apr 18, 2006

I hope you mean you are looking at 'our' different cages online. Just checking..anyhow welcome aboard. Put store bought right out of your head. You can make a CC cage for about $35 +-.
My daughter lived in Tucson some years back and apprenticed at Al-Marah for 2 years. She is a certified riding instructor now with her own barn.

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

Cool about your daughter. Riding is so much fun. My dad has taught me the old fashioned way since he was raised on a farm. He is teaching my boys too.
I will and have looked at cages on this website and really like the different ideas. I am looking at price too. I really like this site and will be happy to do business here.

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

I also like the idea of having the flexibility to build on to the cages sold from this site. Shoot it may become so big in my son's room he and the parakeets will have to move in with the guinea pigs. Just kidding.

Slap Maxwell · Apr 18, 2006

The cubes are availble at your local Target for about $15 and you can get coroplast at your local sign shop for about $15-$20. For a total of $30-$35- you can make a 2x4 cage with an upper level easily!

Costs a lot less than the pet store cages. I bought a pet store cage for $65 that was 1/4 the size of a 2x4 C&C cage! What a ripoff!

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

Thank you for the cage advice. Cost effectiveness is important to my budget, so I am listening/reading.
I am getting excited about adopting soon. I just gotta make sure my son holds up his part of the bargain with his room clean so we have room for the cage and it is a win, win, win situation for my son, us as parents and the pets. Do not worry, if his room gets messy AFTER the guinea pig adoption, we will keep them and my son as part as the family. He knows how to clean.

VoodooJoint · Apr 18, 2006

janetangel said:
Do not worry, if his room gets messy AFTER the guinea pig adoption, we will keep them and my son as part as the family. He knows how to clean.

I like you already!

Your line "and my son" made me laugh. We hear way too many times about animal being "got rid of" because they were given as a reward for clean rooms, good grades or behaviour and then when the child slips back into their old habits the animals are the ones to suffer.

Kudos to you for being devoted to keeping the GPs. You may change your mind about your son though.:mischievo

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

Hi
There have been many many times I have wanted to get rid of the kids and husband and just live with the animals. The animals are so much more loving and very forgiving for working later than planned, not taking a shower first thing in the morning, forgetting to put away your laundry and they never make fun of you for falling off your horse and landing in a huge manuer pile. My horse even dropped the subject.
I will still give my family a chance to live with me and the animals. BUT only a chance.

LilSweety · Apr 18, 2006

Sorry for laughing but It's a normal human reaction! (I just laughed.)
Must have been very embarrassing!!

janetangel · Apr 18, 2006

If you laughed at the manuer fall...I was actually happy to land in the manuer pile since it cushioned my fall. And I wished there was a video camera filming it, because it sure felt like I did a beautiful flip from the saddle, over the horse's head and flat on my back in the manuer.
I am kinda proud of the flip.
When I complained to my dad I had manuer going down my pants and wanted to get off the horse NOW, he told me that is where it belonged. See why animals can be nicer to be around than family sometimes?

jdomans · Apr 19, 2006

As Slap told you, the cubes are easily gotten at target. Look in the yellow pages of your phone book and see what sign shops are around. You may also want to consider what I do and that is build the cage on a table. I bought folding tables from Lowe's and I store GP stuff underneath. It also saves your back when it comes to clean out time and the piggers are up at your level which makes it more likely you will reach in to visit with them. Sorry we can be so overwhelming but it is so much fun!

janetangel · Apr 19, 2006

Thank you for the info. Oh my gosh! I had so much fun chatting with everyone yesterday, my work day flew by. Yes, I got work done too. I was thinking of using a table, I use to work at Lowe's and I know there are a few sizes I can choose from. Target is my favorite shopping store so I will have no problem going there for the cubes.
My husband and I shared the website with my son last night. My son is so excited he is barely staying in his skin. He told me we will build a cage for the birds and the piggies. I told him it is a good idea if they share the room, but not the cage. He said that was fine. He just wants to make sure the piggies home is two story like the birds. I wonder if I should put in perches too like the birds. Just kidding. Although piggies are angelic, I do not think they fly and perch.

VoodooJoint · Apr 19, 2006

You said you have parakeets right? Just use caution with the GPs and the birds. I doubt the Keets would actually harm the Gps but they have been known to go after mice, finches, doves and other small animals and birds. They may be small but as you probably know they can pack a punch.

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