GraceWilson99 Introduction

[GraceWilson99]

Hello All!

My name is Grace and I'm a 19 almost 20 yr old college student from Tennessee I am majoring in Psychology with a Social Sciences focus and intend to get my doctorate and eventually work with the VA...but enough about me!

I have three sows as of current and two who crossed the rainbow bridge at the beginning of this year. I will admit that, with the two who have passed (Hazel and Bianca), I was not as educated of an owner and I did not interact with them nearly enough, nor did they have an adequate cage and these are still things that I regret to this day. I had them for three years (got them for my 16th birthday) and made it my mission after they passed to give better lives to other rescue pigs, so here I am!

My three current lovelies, in order of age, are Ruby who is an American Crested(roughly 14 months old), Opal who is an Abyssinian (roughly 10 months old), and Jade who is an American breed (roughly 7 months old). Ruby is by far the sassiest and is the dominant personality in the cage. She was a lone pig for about three weeks before I got Opal and Jade. The day after Bianca passed away from the grief of her friend passing the day before (they both also had very advanced URIs), I got a message from a person I used to go to school with telling me that Ruby needed a home right away, and I couldn't resist! While she was happy and got plenty of love as a lone pig, I knew that I definitely needed to build her a little family, so I found a breeder who only had two guinea pigs left and was selling them for cheap "because of their red eyes and age" (ridiculous, also kept them in a cage with rabbits. So glad I got them out of there!). So I got little 3 month old Opal and 3 week old Jade. Ruby and Opal fight occasionally but nothing bloody and they still sleep in a hut together. Jade is a bit of a loner and likes to act like her sisters didn't have to teach her how to drink out of a big girl water bottle (she was so little when I got her I had to syringe her water). As a whole, they're a little antisocial. I have a suspicion that Ruby was thrown a lot at her prior home because she's terrified of being picked up. Opal is the easiest to pick up and Jade just likes to be chased around by whoever is with her during floor time.

I got a 2X4 C&C cage as soon as I could with my meager refund check at the beginning of the semester and I plan on expanding this coming semester and adding in fleece cups and maybe trying a guineadad liner (if any of you have it, is it good? Do they popcorn like crazy?).

That's about it! If you have any questions feel free to ask

 

[GraceWilson99]

That's great! I'm sure you're excited to graduate. I'm fortunate enough to really like school but it's still as stressful as can be.

That's a good point! I'll try to work more with petting her while she's in her cage since it's C&C and open top, and I'll work with treats What treats would you suggest? She's not always receptive to fruits and I know that the premade treats aren't exactly healthy in most cases since they contain oats and whatnot.

 

[Smileandnod]

@GraceWilson99 ...welcome!

I have some of the guineadad liners. They are good at first, but they unfortunately shrink like crazy even when I only hang them to dry. I have had multiple sizes. I do like the 2x2 size near hay bins though because they shake off hay better than other fleece liners.

I prefer making my own or buying from guinea pig market or piggybedspreads. They last longer and don't shrink like the guineadads do. You can also get some great clearance liner deals on piggybedspreads and they offer promo codes as well to save more $.

 

[GraceWilson99]

I will look into getting some from that brand, then! I use oxbow pellets that I have on autoship so maybe I can add some treats to that

 

[GraceWilson99]

Thank you for warning me! I definitely would have been sad if I payed the 60+ dollars for the guineadad liner and then it wasn't the quality that it should be with that price. I'll look on that website and see if they have anything that'll be good for my cage