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Newbie to piggies-just learning

Dawn1

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Joined
Jul 24, 2012
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Joined
Jul 24, 2012
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Hi everyone! My name is Dawn and I just rescued my first guinea pig almost 2 weeks ago. We thought it was a girl and named it Belleau, but he's a boy...who's name is Belleau. :) He came with a tiny store bought cage and all the "fixings" for a rabbit. We quickly made everything more piggie friendly, but now I'm working on a new cage. I have the walls of the cage (2x5 grid) but not the base yet. Anyone have alternatives for coroplast? I'm also trying to figure out how to litter box train and what to use instead of the shavings. Oh and the easiest way to trim down those nails! I'm loving my piggie and trying so hard to make him happy but so far no noises and he won't eat veggies still. Any pointers?? Thanks!
 

Mocha_Sassy

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Jul 20, 2012
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Jul 20, 2012
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Hello and welcome :) Congrats on your new pig! To your question about the C&C cage bottom you could always use a shower curtain but you would have to make sure your fleece is going up the wall of the cage so you dont get waste kicked out of the cage! As for the nails it is best to buy special nail clippers for them because it is round shaped like their nails human clippers are flat and more painful! I bought mine for about $4.99 at my petstore! And in the litter box hay would work along with aspen or carefresh :) No worries on the veggies he might not be used to them yet because where he was at before didnt give him any but he should come around :) oh and please remember that guinea pigs dont really get fully litter trained :) haha and lastly it would be a wonderful idea to get him a friend a male unless you want babys :) guinea pigs can get lonely even if you hold them a lot they like being in groups and it sounds like you have the right size cage for it so why not i hope i helped and sorry i am a horrible speller :)
 

bpatters

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Welcome to the forum! Give him time, and he'll be wheeking at the cage bars for you to feed him NOW! before you know it.

You can teach him to eat veggies. Pick one, like bell pepper, dice it VERY finely, and sprinkle it on his pellets. Do this every day for a week, then try him with a larger piece. They get accustomed to the taste with the tiny bits, and then usually will accept the larger one.

If he doesn't eat the bigger one, keep on with the smaller dice for another week. Once he'll eat bigger pieces, pick another one to dice for him. And just keep going until they'll eat what you offer them. Mine will eat 12-15 veggies, and I taught them to eat most of those that way.

Another thing you can do, if he eats lettuce, is to slice veggies into matchstick sizes, wrap them in a bit of lettuce, and hand feed them. That's good for lap time and bonding, as well as for teaching him to like veggies.
 

jacquerooks

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Jul 19, 2012
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Jul 19, 2012
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I am a new owner myself and had adopted a piggie, which I thought was a girl and named it Sophie, only to find out that it was really a boy so I changed his name to Stevie. Stevie was not thrilled about eating veggies the first couple of days, but I finally got him to eat some carrots and he loves them. Try either buying the smallest baby one you can find, or cutting them into small strips. I am also using a store bought cage and are trying to buy the parts for a c&c cage. Try looking online and on ebay, I found some for much cheaper than in the stores!
 
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