New here plus pigtures!

[moongrrl]

Hey all, new here but not new to guinea pigs. I am an avid fan of cavies and have been a piggie mommy since I was eight! Here's some pigtures of my current pair of girls:

Maggie, showing everyone what she does best:

AND
Abbie, whom I call my crazy fuzz-face!

I look forward to getting to know everyone here.

 

[DocDolittle]

Oh, your pigs are absolutely beautiful!And may I be the first to say welcome! Have you built your pigs a C&C cage yet? Are you planning to? Tell us more about the little darlings!

 

[joab97]

What cuties you have!!!! Welcome to the site. Look forward to hearing about your cavy girls.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

First of all welcome to the Forum here. You have a couple of real cuties!

From the looks of the 1st picture your pigs are not in a C&C cage and I really hope you will consider building them one to give them tons of room to run and play in. They will love you even more for it.

 

[moongrrl]

Yes, they aren't in a C&C cage, but they also don't live together. Unfortunately, Abbie is great with people, but is very aggressive with other guinea pigs(to the point of drawing blood). I think that it comes from being in a pet store situation with many other pigs in too small an environment. Before I am admonished for buying her, remember that I have only started really doing guinea pig research online about a year ago and was entirely ignorant of the existence of guinea pig shelters until then! I joined this forum to learn more about C&C cages and designs, esp since I live in a rather small apartment with my fiance. They are in the largest size Marchorio cages I could find and are able to see each other, which they seem to like.
I try to give them as much floor time as possible, using most of the living room for their puttering. I can usually put them out together, since when Abbie starts food guarding or getting aggressive, I can move Maggie away from her until she calms down.
As for more about my girls, Maggie is 4 and I first had her as a solo pig during my last year of college. She is very bonded to me and loves nothing more than timothy hay to stretch out in and munch. Abbie is 2 and is the quirkiest pig I've ever had. For example, she can only eat things from the tip down. If she picks up a piece of hay in the middle, she painstakingly nibbles it around until she gets to an end before she munches it down.

ETA the cages are 36" long and 19" wide.

 

[DocDolittle]

Once you get into a larger home, if you are planning on it, you should opt for a C&C cage with a partition in it. That's what I have to do for my two boys, but I'm hoping after one goes through puberty they'll get along!

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Please don't think I am admonishing you, although some people here on the forum will tell you to adopt rather than buy and I agree with that but I am guilty of buying as well.

I really admire you for wanting to do what is best for you girls. This really is a great forum to participate in. I hope you enjoy being here. I think it is great you provide lots of floortime for them. Some pigs can get quite quirky. I have one that does pretty much the same as your Abbie does. When she goes to eat her lettuce, she grabs a piece, drops it and picks it up by another side then wolfs it down.

Your cages aren't terribly small and since you have only one pig in each cage they have more room than 2 would have in one. Maybe you will find a design for a C&C that will help you in a small apartment.

If you haven't found this site already, here is a good place to check out.
www.guinealynx.info They have alot of great medical info as well as general info.

Again welcome to the Board and I look forward to hearing more about your girls.

 

[Poohbear]

Welcome ur piggies are sooo cute.

 

[Denise]

I, too, had an aggressive girl and had to separate them. I just put a grid divider between them using zip-ties and after a month or two they were used to each other and I just removed the divider. It's nice that they could still touch and sniff a bit without inflicting harm. Give it a shot.