Dishes

A water bowl lasted 5 minutes in my cage. I took it out when I saw I had one soggy pig. And this was a mounted bowl!

I the event that I can't have a watter bottle I just wet down lettuce and cucumbers. The only time they can't have a water bottle is when traveling and veggies seem to do them fine.

Where could your pig possibly be for an extended period that there is no place to hang a water bottle? A bowl of water could easily tip over and soak your pig and your bedding. It also can very easily fill up with shavings, pellets, poops and my pigs have peed in their pellet bowls before, so why not in a water bowl? If any of these happen, you need to change the water. And I would think that this would happen quite quickly, especially in a small cage.


Also, you have no way of monitoring how much water is being consumed if you use a bowl. I don't know how important this is to you, but I have one pig whose water consumption I need to keep an eye on.

Basically, a water bottle is much more convient and much cleaner than a bowl. If you browse around a pet shop, you'll find lots of different accessories for hanging water bottles. Maybe one of them will work where the regular hook might not.

Even the hardware store or dollar store has some creative hanging solutions. I've hung water bottles with rubber bands, pipe cleaners and florist's wire in a pinch.

Long strips of velcro for organzing cables on a computer desk work really well to hang water bottles as well. You have to be careful though. If your pigs are as crafty as mine, they will figure out how to undo the velcro.

At first we had velcro doors for Spinel's cage. We though since it kept the other 4 in that it would keep him in. I think it took him all of 5 minutes to figure out how to open the door. I walked it and there he was, running about my bedroom floor.


I guess with velcro it all depends on how determined and crafty your pigs are.

As far as food you will want a high quality plain pellet such as Oxbow, Kleenmama's and if you can't find/get those brands then Mazuri 5664 is suitable. Stay away from brands found in stores/petstores as they have less than desirable ingredients including a harmful preservative in many called ethoxyquin. Among the bad brands are Hartz, 8-in-1 (owned by Hartz), Geisler, Kaytee, Nutriphase and others.

You will want at least 1 cup each of fresh (no frozen or canned ever) veggies for your pigs every day. This includes lettuce of any type except iceburg, bell pepper, chard, zucchini, 1 small/medium baby carrot per pig and cilantro. There are other veggies that you can use on a rotating basis but they aren't good every day foods due to either too much calcium, Vitamin A, phosphorus or oxalic acid. There is a sticky thread at the top of "About Guinea Pigs" called Common Misconceptions..., there is a post in there on what foods can be fed daily, every other day and weekly.

I don't suggest using a water bowl for pigs as you would be changing it every time you turn around. There are many creative ways to hang a water bottle.

I would like to add since the original poster is Canadian, that Pet Valu's brand of pellets are also, though not ideal, a suitable alternative.

How is there not a place to hang a water bottle? Do you have solid sides to your cage? I am having trouble figuring this out. Sorry.

One time when I went on vacation I left my guinea pig with my friend and Zippy chewed through the plastic! My friend was very generous and bought a new bottle, but it had a very low tube and Zippy didn't like it. I had to go to 3 different pet shops to find a bottle (and I don't have a car) so Zippy didn't drink any water for 2 days. That is why I need bowl training.

P.S. I had two bottles! He chewed through both. I also gave him a bowl but he didn't drink out of it.

I would really appreciate it if anyone has some tips on bowl training. I probably will get cubes, but just in case.

Sorry, I have no tips on how to train a pig to use a bowl. I wouldn't even consider it. The mess giving a guinea pig a bowl to drink out of alone would keep me from trying it. Not to mention that to keep it sanitary, it would have to be emptied and refilled several times a day.

zippysmom said:

I probably will get cubes, but just in case.

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You probably will get cubes? To do what with? I can't think of any kind of cage that it would be difficult to attach a water bottle to unless you have your pig in an aquarium.

I meant just using coroplast (higher walls) without any cubes. My friend uses a kid pool for her pigs without walls.

I will get cubes, I have decided. But if the water bottle situation were to happen again, I need backup!

I think you would find that an all coroplast cage would be much more costly. Besides, it would also make it very difficult to see your pigs unless you were looking from up above as many pigs can stretch quite far. Elsa, my youngest, stretches every morning almost the full height of the cubes (14") to get her tummy scratched, and she's the smallest of my pigs.

Your best bet is still to experiment with different kinds of bottles mounted at different heights on your cage until you find what works for you and your pigs and then purchase a few extra bottles just in case. Unless you're around your pig 24/7, a water bowl really isn't feasible. If you truly feel that your pig isn't drinking, you can also wet the veggies before you feed them.

How long would I have to soak vegetables?
I put veggies into the bowl to tempt Zippy but I think the scent is lost in water.

My bowl is pretty heavy so it is never tipped over, even when I used it for food.

You don't need to soak the vegetables. Just rinse them and leave them wet instead of patting them dry before you feed them.

Hmm. How on earth did he chew the bottles? Since they are made to hang outside a cage, mine can't even get to the plastic, just the metal tube.

If your pig is chewing plastic I wonder if he must be terribly bored, really stressed or hungry, needing more stuff to chew on or something.

My boys aren't interested in anything if they lick it and it doesn't taste interesting. They have a big cage and lots of things that are approved like straw mat, hay nests, wooden hidey, wooden blocks, unlimmited hay, cardboard boxes.

My boys go without water during floortime if it's only for an hour or two.

You can get something like(broken link removed) to keep him from chewing the bottle.

Actually I already have one since the incident and it works very nicely.