New Piggy Owners!!

Awww!!! Look at them! They areao sweet! Pet stores are notorious for mis sexing so you will want o double check twit genders. Will you be making a C&C cage?

Adorable piggies! Cute names, too. Please, please watch them carefully for any signs of illness. You may have read pet store horror stories here, and I can attest that they're true because my first pig, Mufasa, came from a store and died of a URI shortly thereafter. I noticed you mentioned you didn't adopt because you have no breeders nearby, but you don't "adopt" from a breeder. It's from a shelter, rescue, or Craiglist. Breeders are in it for the money.

I hope all goes well with your new additions to the family. It's so easy to fall in love with piggies.

amstar8201 said:

I really wanted to adopt but there aren't any breeders in my area, nor do I have a car.

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Welcome to the forum! Just so you know, getting piggies from breeders is not adopting. Getting them from rescues/shelters is! I don't recommend ever getting one from a breeder. Even though you're saving it, they will just breed more to take it's place and will probably continue to breed since people are buying them.
I love that you named one of them Finn! I love adventure time. lol

Welcome to the forum! I second what @YourSoJelly said, try and get them sexed by a cavy savvy vet, pet stores have a terrible reputation of sexing pigs wrongly! You don't want up to 7 new baby pigs! lol
It would be a good idea to get them checked over by a cavy savvy vet for another reason, their is a good chance that your pigs have come home sick from the pet store.
Reese & Finn are adorable! I would love to see more pictures of them and their home!

YourSoJelly said:

Awww!!! Look at them! They areao sweet! Pet stores are notorious for mis sexing so you will want o double check twit genders. Will you be making a C&C cage?

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AGREED!!! We adopted (or was handed) a returned abused pig from a gardening/pet store. They said SHE was a FEMALE. We adopted HER in Aug. SHE went thru alot of physical therapy and is fine! So - we decided to get HER a playmate - FEMALE of course!! I JUST learned yesterday of the correct way of sexing from this site. (You will LOVE, LOVE, LOVE everyone here!) Well . . . . SHE actually has an extra appendage!
So - I'm sure the piggie population will increase here - however, tomorrow I will call so SHE will have an appointment to be neutered!

They only sell boys at the PetSmart by me, but I will check for sure. We have the Guinea Habitat Plus I think it's about 8q feet.
I never thought to check Craigslist, wish I did at first. There's a vet that's walking distance from me, I think I'm going to get them checked out to make sure they are fine. Right now they are hiding from us lol. I take they need to get use to their surroundings so I'm not bothering them too much.

Welcome to the forum! They are both very cute little pigs!
Taking them to a cavy savvy vet for a check up/confirmation of gender would be a good idea. It can take pigs a while to warm up to new surroundings and people. They are prey animals so they need to figure out you're not going to eat them! I find that hand feeding yummy, healthy snacks helps immensely. It doesn't take them long to learn who the feed-bag is!

ellisa said:

Welcome to the forum! They are both very cute little pigs!
Taking them to a cavy savvy vet for a check up/confirmation of gender would be a good idea. It can take pigs a while to warm up to new surroundings and people. They are prey animals so they need to figure out you're not going to eat them! I find that hand feeding yummy, healthy snacks helps immensely. It doesn't take them long to learn who the feed-bag is!

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Indeed, I'm going to call for an appointment tomorrow to get them checked out. Finn is warming up a little bit to us, he's hiding in the tube but is moving around. Reese on the other hand is pretty scared hiding under the ramp. I was able to give Finn a treat without him high tailing it.

amstar8201 said:

They only sell boys at the PetSmart by me, but I will check for sure. We have the Guinea Habitat Plus I think it's about 8q feet.
I never thought to check Craigslist, wish I did at first. There's a vet that's walking distance from me, I think I'm going to get them checked out to make sure they are fine. Right now they are hiding from us lol. I take they need to get use to their surroundings so I'm not bothering them too much.

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That still doesn't matter. They will mis sex no matter what. Make sure it is a cavy savvy vet. They should be left for 2-5 days so they can gather their bearings.

YourSoJelly said:

That still doesn't matter. They will mis sex no matter what. Make sure it is a cavy savvy vet. They should be left for 2-5 days so they can gather their bearings.

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Indeed! I will check to make sure the vet is cavy savvy in the morning when I call.

Oh, aren't they sweet! Baby piggies are just ridiculously cute!

YourSoJelly said:

They should be left for 2-5 days so they can gather their bearings.

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I disagree. I don't see a reason why you can't start interacting with them right away. Go ahead and try to feed them some veggies from your hand, or talk to them while they are in their cage. They need time to get used to the new routine and the new sights, smells, and sounds -- and you interacting with them is part of that!

By the way, here's a helpful page on finding a cavy-savvy vet: https://www.guinealynx.info/vet.html.

They are too cute! Welcome to the forum

They really are super adorable babies! Welcome to the forum! You have come to the right place for information about guinea pig care! Please feel free to ask questions and to look around.

sdpiggylvr said:

I disagree. I don't see a reason why you can't start interacting with them right away. Go ahead and try to feed them some veggies from your hand, or talk to them while they are in their cage. They need time to get used to the new routine and the new sights, smells, and sounds -- and you interacting with them is part of that!

By the way, here's a helpful page on finding a cavy-savvy vet: https://www.guinealynx.info/vet.html.

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When i got my girls I talked To them and fed them but I didn't take them out and play with them for two hours like a lot of people do. That's what I was referencing towards. Sorry for the miscommunication.

sdpiggylvr said:

I disagree. I don't see a reason why you can't start interacting with them right away. Go ahead and try to feed them some veggies from your hand, or talk to them while they are in their cage. They need time to get used to the new routine and the new sights, smells, and sounds -- and you interacting with them is part of that!

By the way, here's a helpful page on finding a cavy-savvy vet: https://www.guinealynx.info/vet.html.

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Thanks for the link!!

They both are now out of hiding, eating and being nosey especially Finn. He's poking his head around while my daughter was finishing her homework. I tried to hand feed them but they bolted. Reese is a fast little one. However Finn did see me put a few pieces of romaine lettuce in, so he sees where the good stuff is coming from lol.

One thing I do is I read aloud to them. That seemed to help.

It's now 12:32 am and they are having it up in the cage.. The lights are off, and they only noise they hear is me moving around and the faint sound of the tv. They are getting their little squeak on, and Finn keeps coming to the cage door like he's planning a escape lol. I have my eye on him lol.

I"m a new piggy owner myself. I got Meeko and Gypsy from petco the day they came in too and have had them since about 3 days after christmas. they're only a couple months old still.. and they've had a million hundred thousand problems (that's an exaggeration). Check your guinea pigs for lice!!!!! you can't get them but it will irritate your babies. Also take some of their poos in to be checked for Giardia (not sure how to spell it) my babies came with both :/ but both have also been treated. Also pay close attention to them. the may be sneezing. My sneeze all the time. I've been told their okay but better safe than sorry. what ever you do, don't take them back!!!! I've heard really bad things about guinea pigs being taken back to pet stores. Also i'm with you on the saving them thing. I had gone into petco to buy some more supplies and when i got there they just happend to just get Meeko and Gyps in, and they were in a fish tank and i wasn't going to leave them there, and now they will live very awesomely happy healthy lives