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General A few questions about piggies

HoodedPotato

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Hi there! Around 3 months ago, I took home my beautiful little sow. So far, things have been going well. However, I have a few questions. I'm sorry if any of these have been listed on other threads; I have looked to see if these questions had be posted/answered before, and I found they had not been. So, to help you understand me a little more, here is some background information.

My piggie is currently 6 months old, and lives in an 8 square foot cage. This cage however, is NOT a C&C. I saw it at a pet store, and since it is the right size, I decided to buy it. My girl currently uses Oxbow Young Guinea Pig Food (switching to adult soon) and Oxbow Timothy Hay. She gets plenty of cuddle time every day, and I've been trying to introduce floor time.

Now that you have some background information, here are my questions.

1. Am I introducing floor time correctly? I have been placing my pig on this spot of open floor (it connects 4 rooms) and placing a gate by the entrance to the open hallway. From there I place an igloo, and a pile of hay on the floor. However, my pig just runs into the igloo and doesn't come out. Am I doing this right?

2. I am thinking about getting another sow to keep my piggie company and I know you have to quarantine the new pig. I am aware you must put them in a seperate cage in a seperate room for 2-3 weeks so you can see if any illnesses present themselves. Do you literally just buy a small pet store cage and place it in another room, taking care of the new piggie as normal? Wouldn't the cage be too small?

3. Once two piggies are properly introduced, do you need to check on them during the night?

4. My current guinea pig stays in her igloo all day and is extremely skittish? Is this normal, or is there something going on here?

Thank you for reading. I appologize if any of my questions seemed silly. As I said, I am still new to guinea pigs. Thank you again!
 

CavyTV

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Questions 1 and 4 can easily be solved by getting her a cage mate. Guinea pigs are social animals, and without a partner or several partners, a lone guinea pig will feel unsafe, which is why she appears to be skittish. As for floor time, once you have a second piggie you can try doing floor time again but try to include more hideys or tunnels (they LOVE tunnels) so they have something interesting to do. You can also scatter or hide some lettuce or any other favorite veggies and watch them find it :) That'll get them to explore and they'll eventually start to enjoy floortime since guinea pigs love love love food! When you quarantine your new pig I would suggest looking to find some C&C grids and coroplast to make a C&C cage that's at least a 2X3. Guinea pigs should never be kept in a small pet store cage, even for quarantine. They're just way too small, but the base is perfect for a litterbox! You were lucky to find such a huge cage like the one you described at a petshop :O I've never seen anything as big as that.After a few weeks of quarantine, and if they are properly introduced without any blood drawn, you can then put them together in the same cage. You don't have to check up on them at night, maybe in the day if you wanna do that. I personally don't really “check up” on mine, whenever I need to go into their room to feed them veggies or spot clean their cage is when I see what they're doing. If you have any more questions, don't be afraid to ask, this site is great for answers :)Good luck!
 

HoodedPotato

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Questions 1 and 4 can easily be solved by getting her a cage mate. Guinea pigs are social animals, and without a partner or several partners, a lone guinea pig will feel unsafe, which is why she appears to be skittish. As for floor time, once you have a second piggie you can try doing floor time again but try to include more hideys or tunnels (they LOVE tunnels) so they have something interesting to do. You can also scatter or hide some lettuce or any other favorite veggies and watch them find it :) That'll get them to explore and they'll eventually start to enjoy floortime since guinea pigs love love love food! When you quarantine your new pig I would suggest looking to find some C&C grids and coroplast to make a C&C cage that's at least a 2X3. Guinea pigs should never be kept in a small pet store cage, even for quarantine. They're just way too small, but the base is perfect for a litterbox! You were lucky to find such a huge cage like the one you described at a petshop :O I've never seen anything as big as that.After a few weeks of quarantine, and if they are properly introduced without any blood drawn, you can then put them together in the same cage. You don't have to check up on them at night, maybe in the day if you wanna do that. I personally don't really “check up” on mine, whenever I need to go into their room to feed them veggies or spot clean their cage is when I see what they're doing. If you have any more questions, don't be afraid to ask, this site is great for answers :)Good luck!
Hey!
Thank you for your comment! I really appreciate the information provided. As you may have noticed, I plan on getting another guinea pig (female of course). And I do have one more question. I know how to do the quarantine period now, however, after it is over, you are supposed to introduce them on neutral ground. After they seem to get along, you just put them both in the cage and leave? I'm a little confused about that part. How exactly do you introduce two guinea pigs?

Also (broken link removed) is the link to the cage my guinea pig lives in.
 
Last edited:

HoodedPotato

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Here's the bible on introductions: https://guinea-pigs.livejournal.com/3002707.html.

Do it when you've got hours to devote to it, if needed. Under no circumstances should you rush it.

Thanks so much for this! Very helpful. I'll be sure to refer back to it when I introduce my two pigs (haven't gotten second one yet). When I introduce them however, do you think my dog barking would be frightening and/or negatively effect the process?
 

bpatters

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It will definitely negatively affect the process and the pigs. Find a dog-sitter for the day and night, and let the pigs get used to each other in the cage before you let the dog in the room.
 

HoodedPotato

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It will definitely negatively affect the process and the pigs. Find a dog-sitter for the day and night, and let the pigs get used to each other in the cage before you let the dog in the room.
Hi! I guess to clarify, my "neutral" area is upstairs, and my dog never goes to the upstairs part of the house. She stays downstairs only. I meant more the noise. Would the noise of the dog barking affect anything? I'm not talking about the dog actually being there, since she only stays downstairs. Sorry for the confusion!
 

jaycriae

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The noise might startle them a bit, but as long as the dog isn't in the area it probably won't make a difference about the outcome of the introduction.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

HoodedPotato

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The noise might startle them a bit, but as long as the dog isn't in the area it probably won't make a difference about the outcome of the introduction.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Alright, thanks!
 

bpatters

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Ditto. As long as the dog is in another part of the house, it should be okay.
 
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