New to Guinea Pigs!

[stephable]

Hi all!

I'm pretty new to guinea pigs but excited to give mine a good home and learn more! My name is Steph and I'm from Australia.

I recently saw an ad on facebook of someone giving away their 4 female guinea pigs for free and I was worried about them so I took them. I had a vacant hutch as my rabbits have moved indoors for safety from disease. I measured it and it's big enough got 4, plus I have an exercise space (safely enclosed) and a courtyard they can run around in when supervised. I have 4 gorgeous girls now (double checked the sex). I've only had them about 5 days so they're still pretty timid, I'll add photos when they're more comfortable coming close enough. I was told that one is an alpaca and the other three I'm not sure about other than one has longer fur and the other two have some funky whorls.

They're all named after citrus fruits, their names are Pomelo (the alpaca, she looks like a pom pom!), Tangerine (has a lovely flash of orange hair on her head), Clementine (the most timid, a dark brown with white face) and Satsuma (brave girl!).

So far I have them set up with a cooling mat under their bedding (so far it's blankets/towels but I'm in the process of making my own fleece bedding), a bunch of huts/tunnels, 2 heavy water bowls and they get 2 bowls with veggies a day. I was given a "rabbit and guinea pig" mix when I got them but have been feeding them fresh hay mostly. I have high quality pellets ordered to replace the mix when it arrives!

They seem to be doing well/eating well/exercising so I'm pretty happy that they're enjoying their new home.

I also have 2 rabbits so the hay is stocked but the amount of veggies is new to me! I'm probably overdoing it a bit but want to make sure they're getting vitamin C while I'm waiting on the pellets so I'm giving extra leafy greens and capsicum.

I also have a pet parrot and some fish and I raise assistance dogs so my house is a bit of a zoo!

Excited to meet other piggy owners!

 

[Soecara]

Hi steph, I am also from Australia.

Always good to see new owners from Australia joining the forums. An alpaca coat would be a longhair rex, so crinkled and wiry hair that grows very long. The two with the "funky whorls" would probably be abyssinian. The one with the long fur could be any of the longer hair coat types like sheltie, or peruvian if the hair is smooth and straight, or coronet if it has a crest on its head among other longhair coat types.

Your set up sounds good for now, but you may need to plan for a different set up for them before next summer. Temperatures over 28 celcius can and will give them heat stroke so they really aren't well adapted to life without air-conditioning when Australian spring/summer hits. Younger guinea pigs seem to cope a little bit better with warmer temperatures, but once they get their adult fat they really can't handle the warmer weather. I unfortunately had my air-con malfunction (still working but not as well as it normally would) two summers ago and I lost two of my guinea pigs to heat stroke overnight.

 

[TheGuineaPigGal]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[stephable]

Oh absolutely, I plan to bring them indoors when it's expected to get hot! And on warmer days that are still within their limits I'll give them frozen bottles to cool down near Just can't house them indoors perminantly because of other animals and space!

 

[stephable]

These are my lovely girls! In order Satsuma, Tangerine, Clementine and Pomelo!

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Oh, what adorable little things!

Love those little faces!

 

[stephable]

They're super cute! And have such cool personalities too.

 

[GuineaPigQueen1]

They are so cute! Your piggies found at excellent home! If you are still confused about vitamin C my vet gave me a list and dandelion greens and kale are very high in vitamin C and they aren’t high in sugar. Also welcome to the forum!

 

[Kelsie]

What precious little girls! Were those the names that they came with or did you rename them? They are such cute names.

 

[Smileandnod]

Welcome to the forum!

What beautiful girls!

You came to the right place to learn all about guinea pigs! Take your time and read through the many threads...a lot of great information!

 

[SSLee]

Welcome and such adorable looking piggies! lol Looking forward to hearing about their antics.

 

[stephable]

They didn't actually come with names, the lady just gave them to me in a box but now they have names and space and love! I think the names suit them pretty nicely