Taking care of class pet since pandemic shut down schools
Hi everyone,
We were the family that signed up to take the class pet home the weekend school shut down. He is a male boar and is probably 9months old. He was very little when we first hosted him in the beginning of the school year. I noticed his pee seemed to be leaving white stains and realized he might have too much calcium in his diet and switched him to kms pellets and veggies that are not high in calcium. He just loved Romaine lettuce so I kept giving it to him along with spinach, dandelion greens, parsley, an occasional carrot, all higher in calcium it seems. He’s always rejected every color pepper, but is good with cilantro, endive, red lettuces and of course cucumber bits. Is there a special diet recommended for pigs that might be sensitive to calcium and prone to kidney stones? I just looked at the general lists of veggies and they never mentioned watch out for too much calcium...but through various internet searches it seems like this may be a common problem.
Does anyone else have an accidental pandemic piggie? I don’t want him to be a class pet again as that seems stressful since he was going home with a new family every week. Turns out the teacher is no longer going to be teaching, sooo... Since we have hosted him this long I feel somewhat obligated to adopt him permanently. I was prepared to give him back as a single boar so I did upgraded his cage to a Midwest 47x23. If we keep him, do I need to find him a friend to live with? If so will I need a larger cage? It seems small for 2 piggies. I had no idea how much work piggies are, does it get easier as you figure it out? Also I have a 6 year old dog who is very jealous of the attention we give the guinea pig. Has anyone else had a dog who eventually adjusted well to piggie siblings? I know this is a lot of random questions for just an introduction, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much and I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s posts and responses on this site.
MJ
We were the family that signed up to take the class pet home the weekend school shut down. He is a male boar and is probably 9months old. He was very little when we first hosted him in the beginning of the school year. I noticed his pee seemed to be leaving white stains and realized he might have too much calcium in his diet and switched him to kms pellets and veggies that are not high in calcium. He just loved Romaine lettuce so I kept giving it to him along with spinach, dandelion greens, parsley, an occasional carrot, all higher in calcium it seems. He’s always rejected every color pepper, but is good with cilantro, endive, red lettuces and of course cucumber bits. Is there a special diet recommended for pigs that might be sensitive to calcium and prone to kidney stones? I just looked at the general lists of veggies and they never mentioned watch out for too much calcium...but through various internet searches it seems like this may be a common problem.
Does anyone else have an accidental pandemic piggie? I don’t want him to be a class pet again as that seems stressful since he was going home with a new family every week. Turns out the teacher is no longer going to be teaching, sooo... Since we have hosted him this long I feel somewhat obligated to adopt him permanently. I was prepared to give him back as a single boar so I did upgraded his cage to a Midwest 47x23. If we keep him, do I need to find him a friend to live with? If so will I need a larger cage? It seems small for 2 piggies. I had no idea how much work piggies are, does it get easier as you figure it out? Also I have a 6 year old dog who is very jealous of the attention we give the guinea pig. Has anyone else had a dog who eventually adjusted well to piggie siblings? I know this is a lot of random questions for just an introduction, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much and I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s posts and responses on this site.
MJ