Pre-Newbie Dad

[JoeyAnyc]

Hey gang,

Joey here. Although I've been signed up for almost 4 years, I've never posted. I had researched in the past on getting piggies. I've been a dad of gerbils for many, many years. I just lost the last of our little. However I'm very grateful that he lived a year past the normal lifespan of a gerbil.

Looking to adopt a new family, I am changing gears in my search for a family that will live longer than 2 - 3 years. I'm pretty much set on these cute little guys.

Right now, I'm reading up on as much as I can before brining in my new family. My game plan is to build the best home possible and have everything set up and ready. I have a local vet at the animal hospital who has been amazing with my little gerbils and had several successful surgeries with them. I will take my new family to her so that she can check them over and start files on them for if/when they get sick.

Any advice anyone wants to contribute, feel free to share. In the meantime, I'm going to start construction on a wonderful home - going by all of the great advice I've found here. I love all of the photos that have been posted as well. It's great to see all of the possibilities. [FYI - I have read and am aware of the Grids at Target.] If there are any other "Alerts" I should be aware of, please let me know.

Random note: I'm allergic to Timothy Hay as well. I will replace it with Orchard Grass. Q?: Are Timothy Hay pellets good as well?

Thanks in advance. I hope to become a regular member here and share all of my photos & stories

Joey

 

[lemonham]

Hi!
I was in your same situation 6 months ago. We have and love hamsters and lost one of our brother hamsters Howard to a stroke this summer. And we decided we couldn't go through the loss anymore. Its just too hard to love them so much. So now we have two GPs!
It's great that you are such a dedicated pet owner (gerbils getting surgery!) and I'm sure shelters will be glad to adopt to you!
As far as pointers go, use fleece in your C&C and use a kitty litter pan to try to catch the pee. Cover the kitty litter pan with an awning so they feel safe using it.
I'm sure you'll do great! They are wonderful pets.

 

[bpatters]

Welcome to the forums!

Thanks for doing your research ahead of time. Timothy pellets are fine, unless your pigs are less than six months of age. Then, they need alfalfa pellets for the extra calcium.

There are several rescues up and down the east coast, a couple very near you. If you don't know about them, post back here, and I'll round up the information for you. They're excellent sources of well-cared-for guinea pigs, and would be great places for you to adopt yours from. (That's a backhanded way of saying "please don't buy from a pet store." )

Keep reading, and let us know if you have more questions.

 

[JoeyAnyc]

@lemonham - Yes, as you may know, Gergils tend to get external tumors on their scent glands. The Dr. at the Rutherford Animal hosptial here in Jersey, specializes in exotic and small animals. She did an AMAZING job with the surgery - neat & clean procedure. She performed 4 all together for me. Fleece & Kitty litter pan: I'm still trying to wrap my head around what this means. I'm looking it up now. I am clear on building the structure of the cage, but the bedding I'm learning now.

@bpatters - Not to worry, I only bought from a pet store last time. I happened to be in the store buying a new cage with the intentions of getting a new gerbil family. I started chatting with one of their employees, and they mentioned someone had called them because their gerbil just had babies and didn't want to keep them. So I arranged with the store to meet with this person at the store after the 6 week period and got my last litter that way. There are lots of places around for piggies and will be adopting. No store bought.

Thanks for the responses

 

[lemonham]

The fleece is used for the majority of the floor of the cage because it is soft and whisks away pee in case of accidents. A lot of people use it because it is much cheaper than using disposable bedding. Just wash it and reuse.
As far as the litter boxes, some guinea pigs can be litter trained. It can cut down on the amount of stink and mess that they make. They can't use clay-based kitty litter but can use paper-base kitty litter like Yesterday's News.
Here's a picture of my girls litter boxes. You can see they have two litter boxes under an awning. This catches 90% of their pee.

 

[Hhbean]

Hi, glad you decided to post! Do you know if your leaning towards getting boys or girls? How big do you plan on your herd getting? We will be expecting pigtures, due to our slight addiction!