Hello everyone! My boyfriend and I adopted two one year old guinea pigs about a month ago, and while I have had guinea pigs in the past, I wasn't responsible for taking care of them, so I'm wondering if our care routine is good for them. We currently have them in two separate cages because we couldn't find a big enough cage for both at the pet store, but we've ordered a bigger one on Amazon and we have them right next to each other in the meantime. We clean out their cages once a week and put new bedding in, and I plan on completely washing out their cage in the bathtub every month or so. We took them to an exotic vet and they turned out to be perfectly healthy (there was a scare that they might've had ringworm, but luckily, the tests came back negative). As for their diet, we've been feeding them hay every morning, taking three large handfuls and spreading it throughout their cage. We used to feed them pellets, but the vet told us not to do that, so we stopped. As for fruits and veggies, we've spent the past month introducing them to different ones, and I'm planning on giving it to them in this schedule:
Day 1: Cilantro/baby carrot
Day 2: Cucumber/strawberry
Day 3: Broccoli/parsley
Day 4: Celery/kale
And rotating, giving them the first food item in the afternoon and the second one at night. Does this seem like a good schedule of fruits and vegetables? We also just started taking their weights today; Trish is the bigger one and has been since we got them. She weighs 871 grams, and Lisa Lisa weighs 635 grams. From what I've looked up, Trish should be in range, but Lisa Lisa is leaning towards the underweight side?
(Also: a few days ago, we had a scare where Lisa Lisa, who's normally a hyperactive guinea, was just frozen in one spot of her cage. She would not move a muscle for about two hours, except for when we took her out of the cage and into the living room with Trish. When she was out, she took the lead on exploring the living room, but as soon as she got back into her cage, she completely froze up again. Eventually, she started moving, but extremely slowly, so much so that it looked like she was moving in stop-motion. We got worried and were about to take her to see the emergency vet (it was after-hours), but later that night, she was back to her old self, running laps around the cage in excitement. Was this just a one-off thing, or should we be concerned?)
Oh, and one more thing! I'm a little concerned about their water intake; we have two big water bottles in each of their cages, but they're barely drinking from it. Lisa Lisa has drunk more than Trish, but still, she drank barely a quarter of the water that we gave her in a week. I'm concerned because it seemed like the caretakers for the previous guinea pigs I had changed their water daily, but even in a week, Trish and Lisa Lisa barely drink any. Still, aside from that one scare, they both seem perfectly healthy and active, so is it possible they're getting their water from the fruits and veggies and we shouldn't worry?
Thank you!
Day 1: Cilantro/baby carrot
Day 2: Cucumber/strawberry
Day 3: Broccoli/parsley
Day 4: Celery/kale
And rotating, giving them the first food item in the afternoon and the second one at night. Does this seem like a good schedule of fruits and vegetables? We also just started taking their weights today; Trish is the bigger one and has been since we got them. She weighs 871 grams, and Lisa Lisa weighs 635 grams. From what I've looked up, Trish should be in range, but Lisa Lisa is leaning towards the underweight side?
(Also: a few days ago, we had a scare where Lisa Lisa, who's normally a hyperactive guinea, was just frozen in one spot of her cage. She would not move a muscle for about two hours, except for when we took her out of the cage and into the living room with Trish. When she was out, she took the lead on exploring the living room, but as soon as she got back into her cage, she completely froze up again. Eventually, she started moving, but extremely slowly, so much so that it looked like she was moving in stop-motion. We got worried and were about to take her to see the emergency vet (it was after-hours), but later that night, she was back to her old self, running laps around the cage in excitement. Was this just a one-off thing, or should we be concerned?)
Oh, and one more thing! I'm a little concerned about their water intake; we have two big water bottles in each of their cages, but they're barely drinking from it. Lisa Lisa has drunk more than Trish, but still, she drank barely a quarter of the water that we gave her in a week. I'm concerned because it seemed like the caretakers for the previous guinea pigs I had changed their water daily, but even in a week, Trish and Lisa Lisa barely drink any. Still, aside from that one scare, they both seem perfectly healthy and active, so is it possible they're getting their water from the fruits and veggies and we shouldn't worry?
Thank you!