General It's a long story, and I'm completely ignorant of guinea pigs care. Please help!

[Conjomen]

So just like the title says I'm completely ignorant as to the care of guinea pigs. I'll try to compress the novel into cliffs notes.
3 days ago a friend of ours showed up at the front door. He was carrying a large cardboard box. Inside are 2 adorable little furbaby piggies looking absolutely terrified. My friend has a side job cleaning up rental houses and apt.s for the landlords. He took a job cleaning up a filthy home and found our 2 guys. He also found about 15 dead guinea pigs. I'm not going to go into all the details I'm sure you all can imagine how bad it was. So since I'm a nurse he figures I know how to take care of ANY animal. LOL it doesn't work like that, but, long story short my family and I are now the proud parents and siblings of 2 little pigs. We also have a rescue dog and cat. We've never owned any guinea pigs, I had a hamster as a kid but that's as close as I've been. Let's see, human family is myself, husband and 2 kids ages 15 and 7years old. Gizmo and Gadget are probably around 3 months old (that's just a guess and not even an educated guess)
Now on to the million questions! There's so much conflicting information on the Internet and I absolutely don't want to do something that's going to hurt them.
First off thank God for Amazon prime and overnight shipping.
I have the 2 boys in a midwest habitat cage with a small playpen attached to it to make around 10.5 sqfeet of space. Is this ok? Will it be ok for good or are we going to have to get a bigger cage eventually? I'm still learning and reading on this site and others but I don't want to make any mistakes.
I have a water bottle attached to the side of the cage. You have to push on a little ball to get the water out. I'm afraid they don't know how to use it so there's also a water bowl in the cage. Is there any way to know for sure if they are drinking from the bottle? I've marked the side but the bottle is big so it would take a while for it to show use. I don't want to remove the bowl unless I know for sure they know how to use it. Are there any risks to the water bowl I need to know about? Anything?
There's no small animal vet (that I'm aware of) here in Corpus Christi Texas that is knowledgeable about guinea pigs. If anyone knows of one here or close by I'd really appreciate it!
Any and all advice, tips, tricks, story, or just plain encouragement is very much appreciated!

 

[bpatters]

Welcome!

Your posts will be much more readable and you'll get more responses if you'll double space between paragraphs. A lot of people will see that one large block of text and just skip it.

First, turn the pigs over and compare their private parts to make sure they're different. If they came from a pet store, there's a good possibility that they're missexed. If not, separate them immediately. Pregnancy and labor are very hard on guinea pig sows, and the death rate is high for both sows and pups. They're also susceptible to a number of genetic diseases that can cause blindness, deafness, deformity, and/or lifelong pain.

That cage won't be large enough for two adult males. One major reason for guinea pig aggression is lack of space. See the Main tab at the top of the page for information on how to build your own C&C cage, and somewhere there's a thread on where to find the materials. I'll post it when I find it, or maybe @lissie will post it. Or, if you don't want to cut and measure, you can buy a cage from www.cagetopia.com.

Here's recommended reading material for all new guinea pig owners:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/113176-Information-for-new-guinea-pig-owners
https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/107827-What-NOT-to-do-for-your-guinea-pigs!

Windsor Park Animal Hospital says they care for exotics, but I don't see a vet on staff with any special training in that. Same with VCA Oso Creek. Dr. Tim Tristan has experience with a bunch of exotics, although not small furry ones. Good luck in finding someone, because most small animal (dog and cat) vets are useless when it comes to guinea pigs, and some are downright dangerous.

 

[Conjomen]

I actually know Dr. Tristan. I'll give him a call. I called several vets office's yesterday and will try again today if Dr Tristan doesn't know piggies. My vet said he can help in an emergency but doesn't have enough experience with guinea pigs. Gizmo and Gadget didn't come from a pet store so I looked at thier bottoms and they look the same to me? Even if I'm wrong and they're not 2 boys I'm pretty sure they are the same sex. Thanks for the links. I've read through most of them and will finish the rest today! Like I said before any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[bpatters]

See www.cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm for more pictures of pig genitalia than you ever wanted to see.

Good luck finding a vet!

 

[jaycriae]

Thank you for taking care of those poor babies, and good luck finding a vet.

Bpatters is right about everything, while the Midwest and playpen are okay temporarily they'll need more space as adults or they will probably fight.

Make sure you're feeding them high quality pellets, hay, and fresh veggies, they're likely malnourished from being neglected.


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[Conjomen]

So I'm not sure if the pellets are highly quality because I got them from Walmart the brand is kacee (sp).It's also the brand of hay they carried. Unfortunately every other store was closed at 8pm on a Friday night and that brand was my only option. Poor babies had to spend a whole day in a cardboard box but from the quick google search none of the cages at the store were big enough for them.
So I ordered the biggest one off amazon and had it overnighted. Also added the playpen and a hammock and about a hundred dollars worth of stuff that they probably didn't need but whatever.

They seem to be doing well and happy in thier bigger clean cage. I haven't had any luck finding a vet who is experienced in guinea pigs but my vet looked them over. Lol he said he read up on the health issues of guinea pigs. I really love my vet he's an old school aggie and I have no doubt he'll do the best he can and admit if something is over his head.
I think we have a handle on the care of our new babies hopefully they can overcome the horrible start they got because we are already in love with them.

 

[bpatters]

Nothing for guinea pigs at Walmart is high quality.

The best pellets on the market are KMS Hayloft (only available online) and the new formulation of Oxbow adult cavy pellets.

You can order good hay MUCH more cheaply than you can buy it at Walmart or a pet store. Try Small Pet Select, American Pet Diner, KMS Hayloft. There are some others that people use, and I'm sure they'll add those names. About the only local hay you can get where you are is coastal, and it's not very nutritious for guinea pigs.

 

[Conjomen]

I'll definitely check out the link.

Do you think it's ok to finish the bags we have? Or should I order immediately and chuck the Walmart stuff? Only reason I bought the one from Walmart was there wasn't any other options that late in the evening. I was told the guinea pigs were left in the house with nothing! I really don't know how they survived. We're not even sure how long they were there without food or water, stuck in a dirty storage tub. Ugh some people are disgusting.

I'll stop ranting now and go check out those stores/brands..thanks again.

 

[bpatters]

You can feed what you've got. It won't hurt them for a few weeks.

 

[Soecara]

As they are coming from a situation of previous neglect it is quite likely they are deficient in vitamin C, which much like humans can cause them to suffer from scurvy. If they are willing to eat fresh vegetables then bell peppers are a good source of vitamin C for them. If they wont eat bell peppers then you might want to consider supplementing them with vitamin C (read this page https://www.guinealynx.info/scurvy.html ), you can get plain vitamin C tablets from a regular pharmacy, the chewable kind is ideal but keep in mind they only need about 50mg per day to treat deficency so you don't want, for example, a tablet that contains 500mg.

If you choose to supplement them make sure you don't put it in their water bottle/bowl as vitamin C degrades rapidly in light, so within a hour all that is left is flavoured water. To give it to them you can instead either feed them the tablet, or if they won't take the tablet then you can dissolve the required amount in about 1cc/1mL of water and use a syringe without the needle to squirt it into their mouth.

 

[Conjomen]

I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my post. My family and I really appreciate the help!

Our situation was unique and we were completely unprepared but we really didn't have any choice either...OMG it's almost impossible to find whatyou're looking for in the stores. There is food pellets and hay water bottles and dishes but that's it. All the cages are too small, most toys are for birds or other animals, after research most treats marketed for pigs are probably dangerous. I've never been as stressed as the last 2 weeks! But the advice I received on this thread and the reading I've been doing on this site has helped soo much!
I seriously might have had a stroke from extreme high blood pressure if it wasn't for you guys.So again Thank you from my family and our 2 new piggies!

English is not my first language please excuse any typos.

 

[jaycriae]

I'm glad things are starting to get easier, and that we could help. Also, your English is fine, I never would've known it wasn't your first language.

I hope you and your piggies are happy together!


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[Conjomen]

I'm glad things are starting to get easier, and that we could help. Also, your English is fine, I never would've known it wasn't your first language.

I hope you and your piggies are happy together!


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YES we are sooo happy! Everyone really enjoying the pigs. They are very cute and do some really funny things already. We've only had them for 2 weeks and ( I'm guessing it's thier personality) but they seem very comfortable with us already. I can't tell you how happy we were the first time we saw them popcorning. I now understand why all of you long time piggy parents love them so much! I don't think we'll ever be without guineapigs again lol.