General Guinea Pigs and Household Members

It's just my husband and I, and piggies had him wrapped around their little paws from the first day we got Mufasa. The poor little guy only lived 15 days, and my formerly rodent-disliking husband was crying right along with me.

Hubby is a soft touch when it comes to giving treats. Fortunately, he knows the 'treats' that are good for piggies and gives them healthy veggies when they give him the "you're starving us" wheek. He was the one who force fed Borat for nearly a month because I just couldn't stand to have the little guy struggle and handle him while he was in such bad condition (he's the one who gets stuck medicating the cats, too).

Borat is over the Rainbow Bridge now, so we have Amy and Quinn. Amy is a high strung Abby, so I do better handling her because I'm more low key. Hubby gets along great with Quinn, our energetic youngster. They bonded instantly when we went to adopt her. He loves Amy, too, and gives them equal treats, but in general Quinn is "his" pig and Amy is "mine."

My fiancé sneaks them a slice of carrot/cucumber etc here and there and thinks I don't notice. Little does he know.

He is as 'in to them' as I am, he just doesn't like admitting it so that any time we have an argument where I imply I don't get what I want he can say that I got the piggles while he was'not bothered'. He so is

We each have our own piggy. Sammie gets up on Norm's shoulder and watches TV. Patches soaks in my loving and Trixie, well, she's Emily's and rather tolerant to her picking her up and carrying her around. Trixie will stretch out and relax when Emily just lets her be in her lap. We all feed them depending on who hears them wheek first.

My family members in my house, in order from greatest interest to least:

DAD:

Helps me clip their nails, says hi to each 5+ times a day, sits nearby when I hold them EVERY DAY, gets me food for them when I ask, and feeds them their afternoon and morning meals when I am gone from home on Saturdays.

GRANDPA:

Loves to keep up with how they are, says hi to them a bit, LOVES making things for them out of wood (hideys, hay mangers, etc..)

UNCLE:

Says hi once in a very long while, asks how they are doing each week or so

__

I appreciate any help my family members give me. I only really expected my dad to be the most active one as far as the Cavies go anyway.

So... I've had guinea pigs for just over a month.

My little sister loves them, always wants to hold them and play with them. Doesn't want to clean the cage.

My mom helps me the most... she actually does help me clean the cage. She likes my pigs, yay! Helps me with some responsibilities.

My dad would prefer that our house wasn't invaded by large, smelly rodents. Occasionally he does ask me if I've fed "the rodents."

So I do most of the work when it comes to feeding, nail clipping, more feeding, bathing, feeding. My parents buy the stuff. lol

I do everything that needs to be done (ie. the cleaning, feeding, shopping, grooming and everything else, which is fine because I knew that I would be doing everything when we adopted them). My daughter (10) is learning how to take care of the pigs and tries to help me with everything, but she especially likes to feed the girls their treats that I prepare, watches over them during floor time (with me in the background supervising), and brushes them daily. My husband talks to them as he's passing them, will stop and pet them if they are out of the cage and will hold them if he is given one in a towel. He refuses to call them by their names Bella and Mya (which annoys my daughter to no end). He gave them his own names when they first arrived, cause he thinks he's so funny:crazy:, he calls Mya "Bait" cause she was so small and Bella "Twitch" cause she was so jumpy. It's just his way of pretending that he's not into them.lol

My Mother LOVES the pigs, and will go out to cut grass for them, hold them and feed them veggies, she even talks to them, and they wheek back at her! lol

My Dad is highly allergic to basically everything, so he never interacts with them (Because of the hay in their room) he also doesn't understand much about my love for pets, and such, so he often will talk to me about how he's sure we could find good homes for them if we gave them away. :yuck:

My Uncle, whenever the subject comes up about rodents, just jokes about how one time his daughter had a rat and let him hold it, he dropped it on the ground by accident, and it started twitching. When I asked the one time if they took it to a vet he responded with "We don't take rodents to the vet" Well long story short, he's not allowed to even look at the pigs any more, and whenever I'm near him, I have to have my service dog in training with me to call me down, and control my anger. He does those kinds of things on purpose to get a rise out of people, he knows just how to push my buttons.

My Aunt used to own a guinea pig, so she likes them, though she's a little too loud and crazy for the guinea pigs to like her back. xD She tries to feed them lettuce in their cage once in a while, but they all run and hide.

My mom thought she'd hate the pigs, but she loves them now!

My dad is mildly amused by them, and my brother could care less.

My little cousin was just here though, and he was SO excited to see and play with the guinea pigs. I felt bad for being such an overprotective mommy for them, but I was just NOT okay with taking a chance at letting him pick them up (he was chasing them around their cage!) and he wasn't holding them comfortably. I sort of snapped at him for that. :S

BedfordCavies said:

My husband talks to them as he's passing them, will stop and pet them if they are out of the cage and will hold them if he is given one in a towel.

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I knew my husband had been assimilated into a full cavy slave when he stopped handling them with a towel. He used to be diligent about protecting himself from piggy pee and poop. Now he just holds them and could care less (although thankfully poopies are rare and I don't think the girls have peed on either one of us yet).

In our household i am the main care giver for our two GP's, however my husband will very seldomly interact with them because he never was a fan of the idea of having them in the first place. However my child is absolutely amazing at helping with everyday tasks involving cleaning, getting there veggies ready, putting on gloves and picking up poop. He is excellent at handling them and talking to them softly. I am very proud because it shows that if your a parent who is proactive in raising children to love and respect pets at an early age they can be as good of an owner as an adult....and to think he is only 5. We are planning on starting a youtube channel in which my child will be showing the day to day tasks involved with owning Guinea pigs and the positive affect it can have on not only the pets but the childs self confidence that they too can be the biggest help to these wonderful pets.

mufasa said:

I knew my husband had been assimilated into a full cavy slave when he stopped handling them with a towel. He used to be diligent about protecting himself from piggy pee and poop. Now he just holds them and could care less (although thankfully poopies are rare and I don't think the girls have peed on either one of us yet).

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Mine love to pee on us, so we always have a towel under their bums. Hopefully we'll learn their signals soon, but so far we haven't.

Oh we use those small waterproof baby changing pads that can be washed. We have some random pee-ers and we prefer to wash the pads and not a lot of extra clothes... lol.

i'm the piggy mom for 3 girls and love it....i totally understand @Coconutty about raising responsible children as future pet owners....my kids are 8 and 6....the youngest loves to hold them with a towel on the couch and the older one has become an awesome helper with cage cleaning, feeding, floor time, etc....my kids will point out bad adult pet owner behaviour when we are out so all the talking i do must be sinking in!!
(my dad, a retired tough-guy factory he-man, will come to my house if he knows i'm working a long day just to make sure the piggies are ok and give them their salad on time....)

My mum hated the idea of having a guineapig at first it took me 2 hours to convince her to let us take in my friends pig that she no longer wanted.
Now she does everything for me, cleans the cage, feeds them, put them on grass, rips up weeds(im allergic to the weeds) and baths them. Of course I help to but she has pretty much taken over :/
Dad is amused by them and will make jokes about them, give them a pat once in a while. When ringo had to be put down him and my sister took her as i was in hospital and both of them cried.
My sister kind of likes them, will say hello once in awhile. thinks im nuts for loving so many animals.
My boyfriend loves the guineapigs and mice. I think hes a bit more keen on the mice since they are technically his 'children' as well. We are still teaching him that you have to gently grab the mice and be patient and let them come out of their hidey hole, not make them come out but hes getting better.

My roommate was nervous about guinea pigs as she has only ever had dogs or cats before, but she's come to like them! She still gets frustrated sometimes when they scatter when you try to pet them, but I just remind her not to take it personally, they are just more skittish then cats or dogs. I take care of them but it is nice shes come around to appreciate them for what they are

Since I live alone I don't have trouble with family members here, but my away family and friends just don't "get it" about piggies. They've never had the fun experiences of watching them popcorn, scream for veggies, etc.

No prob.

My guinea pigs love everyone in my family. And everyone in my family LOVES my guinea pigs!!! They feed them treats as long as I say it's okay. The girls love playing outside while we are having a BBQ with the family. I have little play area's in the backyard for them to play. And people who come over love feeding my girls lettuce!

Reggie & Simon are both mine. I do all of the cleaning for them and make sure they have pellets, hay & water. My husband & kids think I am obsessed with them, but I see how they have watched on the sidelines the last few months. The kids have hamsters & now are very dilegent in their care. The kids like to give the boys their veggies when I get their plate ready and they like to just watch them eat. They think it is funny. They also really enjoy holding them and having snuggle time on the couch or floor when they are hanging out in the living room. Even my husband will stand by and watch them zoom around and popcorn. The last couple of week I have caught him picking them up for a cuddle and a scratch behind the ears. He just holds them and talks to them like he does with our other pets now. It's really great to have guinea pigs. They are a joy to all of us (But I'm still the one to do all the cleaning.)