Hello from TN

[Belas.human.mom]

Hello forum;

My daughter (and I) just got our first guinea pig. Her name is Bela and she is approximately 2 years old. She is a wonderful, sweet, beautiful girl. The person we got her from had her about 2 weeks and decided she didn't want her anymore. We were able to track down the original person who raised her since she was 6 weeks old, the original person said she was a very wonderful guinea. I have a few questions and am just basically looking for information that will help my daughter take care of Bela. The first thing I want to know is, since we are building her a C&C cage this weekend (ordered grid panels, it should be roughly 4ft long 2ft wide and have an upper loft) what do i need to put down to keep the bedding in it? Also I seen alot of people using fleece, what is the purpose of it as opposed to bedding? Also we plan on getting another female at the end of this month, how should I go about introducing that one into Bela's habitat? Any info will be much appreciated!

 

[cross]

the fleece is neater and less expensive because it is reusable
congratulations on your new guinea pig just let the other guinea in the cage with bela and as long as they are the same sex there should be no issues and she will enjoy the company

Edited by bpatters: Do NOT put the new guinea pig into the same cage as Bela without quarantining her for three weeks first. That will protect your current pig from any diseases, and your pocketbook from the pain of having both of them treated if the second pig is sick or has parasites.

 

[EverGreenly]

Yay! Another fellow Tennesseean! Welcome to the forum and to piggies!!!

 

[madison45]

i use fleece because it is cleaner neater and safe. At the moment i have 2 pieces of fleece ( that is what you should start with) so when you clean out the cage shake it off put it in the washer and place down the clean one. if you do use fleece wash it 2-3 times before you use it so it will absorb better.I say it is safe, because it does not give off dust in other words it won't get in the piggys eyes ( personal experience ) as for the grids make sure the small square spaces are no more the 1.5 inch spaces or it could be dangerous hope this helped

 

[Belas.human.mom]

Yay! Another fellow Tennesseean! Welcome to the forum and to piggies!!!

Thank you Im excited! We have learned a little already. Bela loves carrots, bell pepper, and red leaf lettuce. She has a hay holder that we fill up about 3-4 times a day so it doesn't run out. She doesn't like strawberries or oranges and I'm not sure what else Im allowed to feed her besides the carrots, bell pepper and red leaf lettuce.

 

[madison45]

https://www.guineapigcages.com/threads/22156/
This link has a chart that shows you what you can feed her and how often

 

[bpatters]

Welcome to the forum!

See the Home page of the forum for lots of good cage ideas.

For bedding, some people love fleece and others (including me) hate it. My main suggestion is that you not use fleece until you're very sure your cage is the configuration that you want it. A LOT (maybe most) new owners remodel their cages a couple of times, and if you cut your fleece to fit cage configuration #1, it may be totally unusable for cage configuration #3 or #4. You can use Carefresh, kiln dried pine shavings, or aspen shavings in the meantime.

You need to do careful introductions when you get a new pig. In case you missed my edit of @cross's post, do not just plop the pig in with your current one -- that's a good recipe for disaster. Read Guinea Pigs Social Life -- the introductions section is about halfway down.

Thank you for rescuing Bela, and please adopt from a rescue, shelter, or other family when you get your next pig rather than purchasing from a petshop. Petshop pigs are often sick and/or have parasites and/or are missexed, plus the breeding sows are kept in horrible conditions.

 

[madison45]

Welcome to the forum!

See the Home page of the forum for lots of good cage ideas.

For bedding, some people love fleece and others (including me) hate it. My main suggestion is that you not use fleece until you're very sure your cage is the configuration that you want it. A LOT (maybe most) new owners remodel their cages a couple of times, and if you cut your fleece to fit cage configuration #1, it may be totally unusable for cage configuration #3 or #4. You can use Carefresh, kiln dried pine shavings, or aspen shavings in the meantime.

You need to do careful introductions when you get a new pig. In case you missed my edit of @cross 's post, do not just plop the pig in with your current one -- that's a good recipe for disaster. Read Guinea Pigs Social Life -- the introductions section is about halfway down.

Thank you for rescuing Bela, and please adopt from a rescue, shelter, or other family when you get your next pig rather than purchasing from a petshop. Petshop pigs are often sick and/or have parasites and/or are missexed, plus the breeding sows are kept in horrible conditions.

you are very right about introducing a new piggy for me i have a two cages and i put them side by side so they can see and smell them and i put them together in floor time and soon the cage I say the whole thing takes 2-4 weeks

 

[Belas.human.mom]

Thanks all for the great advice! We plan on adopting our new guinea pig from the same woman who raised Bela. She just had a new litter yesterday so hopefully if any females come out of it, we will be getting one! When I build my new cage what would I use to keep the bedding (I use softwood and have found it to work just fine) contained?

 

[bpatters]

Most people use coroplast, which you can get from plastic sign shops. There's a searchable database on Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Shelters, Veterinarians - Guinea Pig Zone.