Hi there! New Piggie Enthusias With Lots to Say! :)

Hi and welcome! This forum is wonderful, has anything and everything guinea pig so Im sure all of your questions will be answered! Can you tell us a little about your guinea pig? Whats she look like? How old? Do you have pics?
As far as the scratchign, it could be many different things. Mites, fleas, lice, ect. Try and get a really good look inside her fur and see if you can see anything. Also, she might be dry, does she have flaky fur? Check her out and see if you find anything, if not, a vet visit for a check up might not be a bad idea.
I do know some guinea pigs chew on the metal tube that dispenses the water to get it out, thats just how some do it. Look at the amount of the water and see where its at then check it later tonight and see if its gone down any, if it has, shes getting water, if not, she probably isnt getting anything. You can take the bottle off and work with it, try and see whats going on. (if the metal ball is stick, ect) I would squeeze the water bottle while shes drinking cause you dont want too much water going into her mouth and some of it making it into her lungs. That would be bad.
As far as the pine, I think kiln dried pine is fine. It has the bad oils dried and heated out of it. But its the un-kilnd dried kind you have to worry about. If you want to use a wood type bedding, go with aspen. Its cheap and easy to find. I use it sometimes
Your cage is very small. Make sure to give her tons of play time out of her cage running around. You can put her in the bathroom or play pen. Do you plan to make a C&C cage like the ones shown on the forum?
I wouldnt use those vitamin C drops. They are the best for them actually. I would give parsley daily instead, it has twice the amount of vitamin C and is healthy and natural. My pigs LOVE it!!
You can also make your own toys and things, just have a look around the forum, you should find everything you need. If you have questions, please ask.

There should be others in here to answer these questions too.
Best of luck to you and again, welcome!!

Well I am not sure how old she is but she is small and is brown and white. Is there a way to guess? I can't get good pictures of her because she is pretty leery of me still. She is starting to come out and explore the cage more, but she still runs back into her box when I get close for any length of time.

I can't check her out because she won't let me pick her up. She runs away from me, and once I finally got her to try and look her over she started squealing and scampering

I know my cage is small, it is a 3 story originally intended for a degu. Once I started researching guinea pigs I realized this, but it won't be forever and I am just happy to see her in something with more room than those stupid starter cages from the pet stores. I see pics of guinea pigs in those all the time on craigslist.

I have been looking for one to adopt but I'm not having much luck. I do plan on getting her a playpen and letting her roam around, also planning on putting her in the tub, but again she will not let me even pick her up yet.

"I wouldnt use those vitamin C drops. They are the best for them actually."

Do you mean they aren't the best for the pigs? I was thinking of getting some chew supplements, not drops, but if Parsley is a good source than I will go for that!

You can tell by size or weight. Do you have a vegetable kitchen scale? You could weigh her with that. A pic comparison could help us with her age though.
As far as picking her up, guinea pigs are usually all skidish to some degree because they are prey animals. You have to pick up your piggy at some point, skidish or not or she will never trust you and will stay scared. Even though she runs and hides, pick her up anyways. And when she squeels, calm her and hold her against you. Make it known that your her mommy/daddy and not a predator. Sit with her cuddled in your lap and pet her a few times. Then start checking her over and looking threw her fur. That should work without scaring her too much. Try this every day, she should slowly start trusting you. You HAVE to interact with your pig. You cant just not hold or pet her or she will always be scared and skidish around you.
And sorry about that I meant they are not the best for them. Use parsley Much better!
As far as the cage, what do you plan to do?

Hi logansmomma1228 ! Welcome to GPC!

Actually parsley is high in calcium and should not be fed daily. You can give them cilantro daily. Here's a veggie chart you can follow.
https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...g-nutrition-charts-poisonous-plants-list.html

Sample menus:
https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/diet-nutrition/24770-sample-veggie-menus.html

Edit to add:
Green bell peppers are also good source of vit C that should be fed daily.

Maybe it was cilantro I was thinking of..I know parsley is good for vitamin C though

Well I have been checking out some of the build discussions going on around here. I am interested in building her a nice cage with the grids, however I don't know where to put it. I have a 2 year old and a cat (cat doesn't seem to mind her) so I don't want it on the floor or anywhere child height.

Right now it is on top of my entertainment center in the living room. I have been keeping an eye our for a type of stand I can get to put the cage on. I could put it on my table, but even then it would be too small.

Do guinea pigs like multi level cages? I noticed some of the pictures have different stories, maybe I could build a 2 story cage that is longer? I know she needs exercise. I am off to try and hold her now... hopefully it will go smoothly.

Thanks for the quick feedback, I really appreciate it! And thanks for the veggie guide, I can go pick some stuff up from the store today.

I did read that you shouldn't pick them up the first few days they are settling in, though? That's probably why I am so nervous to hold her.

Parsley daily is not a good suggestion, it is really high in calcium. Cilantro is fine to feed often, but is not appreciably high in vitamin c. Don't be fooled into looking at just one thing, like vitamin c content, while ignoring others, like oxalic acid, calcium content, and calcium to phosphorus ratios.

If you are looking to supplement with a safe, high vitamin c veggie, go with green bell pepper. This is much safer to feed often to your pigs and has great nutritional value.

Well that was awesome! I finally caught her and once I soothed her she started making little noises at me, IDK if she was still scared or if she was talking to me. She snuggled up with me for about 5 or 10 mins, enough time to get a couple pics of her. I didn't put her on a scale yet but I will once we get a little bit more used to each other. I don't want her to get out of my hands and get lost somewhere in the house.

As you can see, her cage is still kind of bare. I have some bedding (took most of it out because I was scared it was bothering her) and some hay. Her water and food is in another corner along with a chew stick and I put a fleece blanket around the edges to a) keep some of the mess in the cage, and b) help her feel more secure/have something to snuggle with.

I will be making a list of thing to get when I go to the store later so that I can add a little bit for her. She also started going up on the ramp and checking it out a little bit on the 2nd story.


She appears to have some light dandruff in her fur. She is longer haired, Abysnnian I think she is? Not sure if that is the right spelling. I would like to get a brush for her tonight as well.

logansmomma1228 said:

Well I have been checking out some of the build discussions going on around here. I am interested in building her a nice cage with the grids, however I don't know where to put it. I have a 2 year old and a cat (cat doesn't seem to mind her) so I don't want it on the floor or anywhere child height.

Right now it is on top of my entertainment center in the living room. I have been keeping an eye our for a type of stand I can get to put the cage on. I could put it on my table, but even then it would be too small.

Do guinea pigs like multi level cages? I noticed some of the pictures have different stories, maybe I could build a 2 story cage that is longer? I know she needs exercise. I am off to try and hold her now... hopefully it will go smoothly.

Thanks for the quick feedback, I really appreciate it! And thanks for the veggie guide, I can go pick some stuff up from the store today.

I did read that you shouldn't pick them up the first few days they are settling in, though? That's probably why I am so nervous to hold her.

Click to expand...

It's your two-year old that you need to worry about, so your cage needs to be up on a table.

You need to find the space for at least a 2x3 grid cage, so you'll need 30" by about 42" of table space. A 2x4 grid cage would be better, but regardless, you need to find/make the room. It is job one in guinea pig ownership. You cannot go up to make the space. You have to provide the basic space required on the ground level. Upper decks are just bonuses.

Yeah no matter how many levels you have on a cage, you need room to run laps, ect.

she's adorable by the way

She is beautiful! Sounds like she's already warming up to you a little. It takes a while for them to get adjusted to you and feel safe so be consistent in holding her and as gentle as you can be. It is their natural instinct to run away. You could put the scale in a bathroom or something and close the door that way if she does run off she can't get far.

Most of the treats and chews you see at the store aren't very good for guinea pigs. If there is anything in the ingredients that you can't pronounce, you don't know what it is, then don't get it! Play it safe. The best treats and chews are the ones with very few, simple, all natural ingredients.

For your cage, you could build a stand with grids or use a foldable table like these



Congratulations on your new piggie!! They are so much fun, really!!
It looks like she may be an abyssinian, Do you see "rosettes" on her? like spots where fur goes in all different directions? It looks like her fur just sticks straight up.

Thanks I hope to have a good relationship with her.

EDIT:

Thanks for the cage info! She does have rosettes on her, I had a hard time sorting through it to see if she had any skin issues.

I love the idea of a cage on top of the cubes like in your first picture. That would give me additional storage too! Now the space thing... the only place I have room would be in my dining room which is pretty far from the door/sunlight. She would still be around activity as it's connected to my living room, but I don't know if she will like being in the corner? That actually might be better for her.

*Plans for a sweet cage are already going through my mind *

Would this type of cube be ok? Provided it isn't plastic? It says metal frame but I am starting think the rest is plastic.. .

It's a guarantee that the rest is plastic. It just looks pretty imposing. You could use them, but I don't think you'll enjoy your cage as much. The air flow will be cut down somewhat for the pigs. I personally would only use them if you are desperate.

Which store is selling them?

I had those grids for quarantine (couldn't get regular grids at the time I needed them). It's made of plastic and the pig chewed some off. I don't think it's suitable for a permanent cage.

I got mine from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

lissie said:

I had those grids for quarantine (couldn't get regular grids at the time I needed them). It's made of plastic and the pig chewed some off. I don't think it's suitable for a permanent cage.

I got mine from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Click to expand...

Did BBB sell the regular grids in addition to these or were they are a replacement?

They were just different style, all same type in one box. I bought mine when I adopted Rocky in 2009. At the time they were out of the regular grids. I think they have regular grids now.

This was the cage I built from those grids.

I was fortunate enough to find a set of 6 cubes on sale for 16.99 at meijer. They are exactly 1.5" . I will probably be able to rig them somehow to make the spaces even smaller if I can. I am thinking about tearing the cage apart that she is in now and seeing if I can use that to add anything.

I don't know what to line it with, though? I was looking at some plastic car mats but I didn't know if those would be dangerous/she could chew through them or not.

I do have some of the pet liner and fleece blankets/bedding, so hopefully things will go smoothly. I am off to look for some things I can make toys out of for her, and tomorrow I will start looking for ways to set up her new cage.