I am new with First Guinea Pig c:

What's his name? First of all, welcome to GPC! There's a ton of great information here, you've come to the right place. Though I do have to warn you this site is anti-pet store. Personally, I see the impulse in getting cute animals and understand where you couldn't resist. Though I'm so glad you realize you need a C&C because really it'll make your pig a whole lot happier. Often building your own and finding the materials yourself vs. ordering a kit is cheaper, so if money is the issue check out Where I Bought mine.. link on the home page of GPC. Once again, welcome and feel free to ask as many questions as you like. I'd recommend adding them to this thread to keep it all together.


Also, I know you mentioned you want to get him a friend. When you do decide to check out Craigslist, petfinder.com, local humane societies in your city, and any guinea pig/small animal rescues in your area. Please do not continue to support petstores when there are so many animals in need out there at shelters, or that are not wanted anymore by their owners.

Give him some time as well to get used to his surroundings, and he will come around to you and be more friendly. A friend for him will help with this tremendously though. Start by trying to give him veggies (start with romaine, red leaf lettuce, some bell pepper) from your hand and he might not eat at first but he will with persistence.

Yes I am mostly anti-pet store but in my small town there is only one place with abandoned animals and they rarely have small animals like Guinea Pigs. So its really my only choice.

I want to make sure the food I am feeding him is all right. The company is Sunaturals, this is what the person at the store recommended but I want to make sure its ok.

I do not have a name yet because even though it said they were all males there was no place for females so I bet they were mixed in, I want to make sure of the gender first. I am going to find a specialized vet to take it to to hopefully help find out its age and if its healthy etc.

I also have read the Guinea Lynx guide to make see all the precautions and grooming options etc.

Where is the link on the home page?

Welcome to GPC!

I do agree with Hilary, as do the vast majority of this site. In my opinion, there is absolutely no excuse for the fact that your town is small. Where there is a pet store there are unwanted pets. Many people even travel several hours to adopt a pig desperatly in need of rescue. And, if you can't travel too too far, some rescues will set up a piggy train to get a pig to a good forever home. With a little searching, you will be surprised at what you can find. There really are no excuses.

As for you other question, no, sunaturals is not a good brand. There are only 4 safe brands to buy. Kleenmamas (online only) is the best. Another comrable brand is Oxbow. Since you got your pig at a pet store he/she is most likely a baby and should get Cavy Performace (alfalfa based) and can be given in unlimited quantity until 6 months old. Mazuri 5664 (and ONLY 5664) can also be given but is also an alfalfa based hay. The other acceptable brand is Sweet Meadow.

I highly reccommend KM and Oxbow above the other two, but the others will do. Once your pig hits six months, however, be sure to limit their pellet consumption to 1/8 - 1/4 cup per day. If it is alfalfa based (like the Performance and 5664) it MUST be limited to 1/8 cup because of the high calcium content. For Oxbow, you can switch from Cavy Performance to Cavy Cuisine after 6 months as the cuisine is timothy based.

I would also check the stickies at the top of each forum to get most of the basic care info. There is a great veggie chart that you can print out in the diet forum. https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...-pigs-diet-read-me-nutrition-charts-info.html(broken link removed)

Hello! Congrats on your Guinea Pig. Here are two great sites(Actually the home pages you were asking for):
(broken link removed)

Saskafrass said:

I do not have a name yet because even though it said they were all males there was no place for females so I bet they were mixed in, I want to make sure of the gender first. I am going to find a specialized vet to take it to to hopefully help find out its age and if its healthy etc.

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I would weight her weekly, maybe more, to make sure she is not gaining weight constantly because if they pigs were mixed in, both genders in the same cage as many pet stores do, if your pig is a she, she could have gotten pregnant and the pet store neglected to tell you. Just to warn you of that.

https://guineapigcages.com/

hilary said:

I would weight her weekly, maybe more, to make sure she is not gaining weight constantly because if they pigs were mixed in, both genders in the same cage as many pet stores do, if your pig is a she, she could have gotten pregnant and the pet store neglected to tell you. Just to warn you of that.

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The reason why I bolded that is because there's probably a 50-90% chance that she's pregnant. Pet stores are neglectent of telling the new owners if one Guinea Pig is pregnant. Get her checked by a vet ASAP! Or if you do not have enough money saved up, make a list of things you need to do and since there's no way of telling what the price would be, say that the vet bill would be like 50-100 dollars. Make sure, that if she is pregnant, to get a seperate cage built for any males that are born. Let's just hope she isn't pregnant and you won't have babies on your hands.

It is hard for me to purchase things online all of the time since it all has to go through my mom first. So any food products I can find in stores or markets are better. I will try looking for the ones you mentioned. I think I will look for Oxbow since Its the better one of the ones you can find rather then going online. I just need to go searching.

I will be getting him a friend from a shelter. Even if I do not find one right away I will keep going and hopefully find one. It may be hard but I want to make sure I find him a friend. I know that they are better in groups. The temporary cage I have for now can only hold one Guinea pig so I am going to get started on my C&C cage as soon as possible.

Saskafrass said:

It is hard for me to purchase things online all of the time since it all has to go through my mom first. So any food products I can find in stores or markets are better. I will try looking for the ones you mentioned. I think I will look for Oxbow since Its the better one of the ones you can find rather then going online. I just need to go searching.

I will be getting him a friend from a shelter. Even if I do not find one right away I will keep going and hopefully find one. It may be hard but I want to make sure I find him a friend. I know that they are better in groups. The temporary cage I have for now can only hold one Guinea pig so I am going to get started on my C&C cage as soon as possible.

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I've seen Oxbow at petsmart and petco even though you are anti-pet store. And good luck on finding a friend for him. Guinea Pigs are lonely unless they get a lot of attention! Which not even one pig can get unless you spent every wakening hour with it but Guinea Pigs do like to be left alone for sleeping and resting and playing times.

Well if I can find Oxbow I will buy it. I will also be buying him lots of good hay c:

I just realized that my sister has an internet account so she can buy things off of websites. So I will be going to her for all of my guinea pig needs.

Saskafrass said:

Well if I can find Oxbow I will buy it. I will also be buying him lots of good hay c:

I just realized that my sister has an internet account so she can buy things off of websites. So I will be going to her for all of my guinea pig needs.

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You can save a lot of money by buying pellets and hay in bulk. Since now you can order online, I'd recommend getting hay and pellets from KM online in bulk. It might seem like a lot of money at first, but believe me it'll last months + months (and even more if you order bigger amounts.) It's way better than paying $10 for a 5lb bag of pellets at a pet store and a small bag of hay.

KM online? IS there a link to this somewhere? I will check the front page.

Ah I found the website c:

So should I buy the Timothy choise pellets?

Since he is from a petstore, he is probably young. So you can buy the alfalfa pellets and give him those until he is about 6 months old. He can have unlimited pellets until then too.

Also I want to emphasize what others have said--make sure you are 100% certain that he is a boy. Pet stores are very often wrong about that. If you're not sure, take him to a vet and have to vet tell you. Once you're sure, then get him a friend.

Yes I know I get paid on thursday so thats when I will be able to go to the vet and buy him the right food and hay etc. I also went to one of the links suggested on here to get toys and pigloos so I will purchase some of them too since his cage is sort of empty right now.

My granpa also has a costco membership so I can go there to buy the cubes for my C&C house. I just have too look around for the coroplast.

I have four months of research done. You looked, and bought a guinea pig. Did you know they are herding animals and do better in pairs? Did you know they need to be taken to the vet, nails clipped regularly, need to be weighed regularly, need baths and grooming, need a certain brand of hay and pellets and not "fiesta" brand or junk like that, they need at least 2 hours of floor time everyday, they need one cup of greens and veggies per day? I bet you didn't. And you didn't prepare with a C+C cage ahead of time. OH YEAH and you bought from a pet store! Haven't you heard, don't shop, adopt? Good going there, could have adopted, but then again, they would be going to "your" house anyway. Once again! GOOD GOING!!!!!

Ok I am sorry that I did not do all of this research until after I bought it. You know people make mistakes and there are ALOT of people who make the same mistake but realize there mistake and fix it. Theres not much I can do right now and I may not have all of the experience but I did do my research once I got home and realized that I should have gone home before buying and researched. I know what I need to do now and I am doing my best to right the wrongs I have done.

There are ALOT of other people in the world who buy pets on impulse and dont even read up about them. Atleast I did right after I got home and now I know what to do in the future. Everyone makes mistakes and I'm sorry.

AllysGuineas said:

I have four months of research done. You looked, and bought a guinea pig. Did you know they are herding animals and do better in pairs? Did you know they need to be taken to the vet, nails clipped regularly, need to be weighed regularly, need baths and grooming, need a certain brand of hay and pellets and not "fiesta" brand or junk like that, they need at least 2 hours of floor time everyday, they need one cup of greens and veggies per day? I bet you didn't. And you didn't prepare with a C+C cage ahead of time. OH YEAH and you bought from a pet store! Haven't you heard, don't shop, adopt? Good going there, could have adopted, but then again, they would be going to "your" house anyway. Once again! GOOD GOING!!!!!

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Wow. Great job.
You know, at least she is correcting her mistakes.
Not everyone researches.
Another thing is they need one cup of leafy greens and about 1/2 a cup of other veggies, not both combined into one cup. And they don't need at least 2 hours of floor time daily. It's one hour. And you don't positively absolutely have to, but it would be best.


ETA-They don't NEED baths. They should only be done every 6 months. And, again, they don't NEED baths.

AllysGuineas said:

I have four months of research done. You looked, and bought a guinea pig. Did you know they are herding animals and do better in pairs? Did you know they need to be taken to the vet, nails clipped regularly, need to be weighed regularly, need baths and grooming, need a certain brand of hay and pellets and not "fiesta" brand or junk like that, they need at least 2 hours of floor time everyday, they need one cup of greens and veggies per day? I bet you didn't. And you didn't prepare with a C+C cage ahead of time. OH YEAH and you bought from a pet store! Haven't you heard, don't shop, adopt? Good going there, could have adopted, but then again, they would be going to "your" house anyway. Once again! GOOD GOING!!!!!

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There is so much I could say to this post. However, most of it would probably get me in trouble. I will say though that you seem bitter and angry at the fact that she made an impulse purchase. Give her a break, she's probably young. Why don't we try to constructively give her the help she needs instead of attacking with anger???

It's good that you're doing your research now and that you are looking to adopt your guy a friend.

I recommend starting a guinea pig emergency fund. Put a set amount of money in it each week or month. Then if you have to take him to the vet you won't have to worry about how to pay for it. If you want to save money, I recommend using fleece as bedding. It's a bit more of a cost up front, but you will save money in the long run. Veggies that are in season tend to be cheaper, and farmer's markets can have great deals. You can make hideys and toys out of things you already have like empty boxes, little step stools, paper bags, and toilet paper rolls (cut a slit in them first).

Have you seen the page on finding coroplast in your area? If not, here it is: Where?