Hello I dunno what to say for an intro really.
I had a gp when I was a little kid who I adored. When I hit 20 I ended up getting back into rodents and getting rats. I like them, but not quite as much. They don't live long enough =/ A while back I decided that my current 3 will be the last ones I keep(at least for the foreseeable future.) I go to one of the local chain stores a lot though and they quite often have pigs that people have gotten tired of and dumped up for adoption. I've been considering getting a couple/few of them for my "rodent fix" but it's been so long since I have owned one that I have questions about better care.
How tall does an open top cage need to be? I've got the bars to 2 cages that would be good to use(1" bar spacing, powder coated bars) that I can make a lot bigger by tearing them in half at the joints. They'd make the house about 15" tall. Would that be too short? Also, what can you use for the bottom? Is there anything cheap and easy to find in most places(I live in the states) that is good to use? The base on my current cage is only 18x30" so not enough room to just use that.
Also, with food. I know the store-bought foods are usually garbage(ALL of them that I can get locally have SOME sort of added garbage like ethoxyquin with the exception of zupreem, which is mostly corn, and I've read that corn based diets aren't good for rodents) For the rats I have been making my own food for a while. It's a mix created by a vet so I know it is a good one. Is there any sort of homemade diet I could use for the pigs?
Also, when I had mine as a kid, she didn't have any toys except a wood chew and me. My parents(which translated to me) didn't know she needed any. Besides a hut of some sort to hide in and a couple of tunnels, what can/should I have? Do they need chew sticks/blocks?
Thanks everyone
I had a gp when I was a little kid who I adored. When I hit 20 I ended up getting back into rodents and getting rats. I like them, but not quite as much. They don't live long enough =/ A while back I decided that my current 3 will be the last ones I keep(at least for the foreseeable future.) I go to one of the local chain stores a lot though and they quite often have pigs that people have gotten tired of and dumped up for adoption. I've been considering getting a couple/few of them for my "rodent fix" but it's been so long since I have owned one that I have questions about better care.
How tall does an open top cage need to be? I've got the bars to 2 cages that would be good to use(1" bar spacing, powder coated bars) that I can make a lot bigger by tearing them in half at the joints. They'd make the house about 15" tall. Would that be too short? Also, what can you use for the bottom? Is there anything cheap and easy to find in most places(I live in the states) that is good to use? The base on my current cage is only 18x30" so not enough room to just use that.
Also, with food. I know the store-bought foods are usually garbage(ALL of them that I can get locally have SOME sort of added garbage like ethoxyquin with the exception of zupreem, which is mostly corn, and I've read that corn based diets aren't good for rodents) For the rats I have been making my own food for a while. It's a mix created by a vet so I know it is a good one. Is there any sort of homemade diet I could use for the pigs?
Also, when I had mine as a kid, she didn't have any toys except a wood chew and me. My parents(which translated to me) didn't know she needed any. Besides a hut of some sort to hide in and a couple of tunnels, what can/should I have? Do they need chew sticks/blocks?
Thanks everyone