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Anonymous
Guinea pigs. How difficult/expensive are they to keep as pets? I've had rabbits before, but I don't have any of the supplies anymore.
>> KZN
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I used to have two...

They're not really high-maintenance animals, work-wise, save for cleaning their cages.

As for expensive, you'll need quite a lot of money for bedding, as guinea pigs can mess their cages rather fast. And I recommend recycled paper bedding; it's soft and not as dusty as wood shavings, so it doesn't hurt the animal's eyes or nose. Keep in mind that this bedding is usually more expensive, though.

As far as feeding goes, mine LOVED Gerty food. It's moderately priced, but very healthy and tasty for the guinea pigs. You can also feed them fresh veggies and fruits, they love 'em. Carrots, tomatoes, celery, apples, grapes, strawberries, etc. Oranges especially, because they need vitamin C.

You need a pretty big cage for them (one level is fine--mine didn't like to climb.) I'd recommend around a rabbit sized cage for one of them; you can combine two cages or get a bigger one if you get more than one guinea pig.

I also recommend you get at least two, because they can get lonely. Make sure if you get two males though, that they were litter mates, because otherwise they will most likely fight with each other. You'll have to separate them if they start fighting, but that doesn't mean they'll hate each other forever. (If you keep them in separate cages next to each other, the territorial tension goes down and they enjoy each other's company.) If you get a male and a female, spay/neuter them if you don't want babies. Two females will get along fine.

When it comes to humans, they're VERY affectionate. They purr and enjoy being petted and held. They're vocal and will squeal at you for attention or a treat. Though they're not nearly as active as rats or mice, so they're content just sitting in your lap and cuddling. That isn't to say they don't have their times of being active and running around, but mostly that energy is used up while they're chasing each other around.

(I'll continue in another post--I typed too much.)
>> KZN
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Keep in mind that they live pretty long for animals their size (5-7 years. They can live up to ten if you take care of them well and you get lucky with no illnesses and what not.) That being said, at any sign of sickness, take them to the vet IMMEDIATELY, because the poor little buggers don't have much of an immune system and they're vulnerable to respiratory and digestive system infections.

All in all, they're enjoyable to have around, cute, cuddly, very gentle with children and other pets. Not too hard to take care of, but that doesn't mean you don't have to be committed. Hope this helps a bit.
>> Anonymous
Cool, thanks. Is it okay to buy them from any pet store, or is there such a thing as a "reputable" breeder?
>> Anonymous
In my experience buying them is pretty hit or miss. We had one years ago who was pregnant when we bought her and didn't live very long past the birth and another who became sick fairly soon after we got her (the baby of the first lasted forever, he was a great pig).

Oh, and I'm not the author of the dissertation.
>> KZN
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>>214489
Breeders are probably better, but as long as the ones in the pet store look healthy (smooth, shiny coat and bright eyes, no congested nose, etc.) they're fine. You'll probably only be able to find males in most pet stores, though.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: They REALLY like chewing, so you should probably get them one of those log houses, so they can chew and have a place to hide/sleep. Those mineral chew rings are good too.
>> Anonymous
petco employee here. don't buy one from us, most of them have upper resp. infections, particularly in winter.
>> KZN
>>214514
Yeah, I've heard Petco's animals are often not healthy. :(

I guess this confirms the rumors.

I got my guinea pigs from PetSmart, actually, and they were pretty healthy when I got them. No problems or sickness, that is, until around 5 years later, one of them caught something nasty, some sort of digestive system thing. We took him to the vet, and did all we could, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. Eventually he got too weak to even drink from a syringe, and he was dead by morning. The other one (his cage mate) was really lonely and depressed after that, and about a month later he got an eye infection from something...it didn't seem nearly as serious as the first one's, but we took him to the vet and they told us what to do. He actually seemed to be getting better but then I was prompted by my family to go on vacation, leaving my neighbor in charge of taking care of him...it turns out he died over night; the neighbor discovered him dead in the morning. I knew we shouldn't have left him.

But they lived pretty happy lives...I just wish it could've been longer. I didn't luck out though. ;_;
>> MiMi
Petsmart bitch.

Most stores will have males, that's true, but if your local one has males, they should be able to call around for you to see which of the stores in their district is a "female" store. Just a thought.

In regards to health, if you can find a breeder, most times they will be healthier... However, 'backyard breeders' often are just people who accidentally ended up with a litter of mini-piggies, and want to sell them. So just be wary.

I do know that at Petsmart, guinea pigs that show any signs of poor or declining health are isolated, treated, and if symptoms persist, are taken to the vet. Given that, I'd buy a piggie from one of our stores with no worries.

In regard to OP's original question, I believe most rabbits (unless you have a particularly large one?) would cost, month to month, about the same as a guinea pig, or perhaps even a pair of piggies. The only thing I really really recommend is getting as big a cage, to start, as your budget allows. The more space they have, the happier they will be.
>> Anonymous
>>214540
That's funny, it's the opposite here. We have one male store, and everything else in the area carries females.
>> Anonymous
I've had one for about a year and its been a really low maintenance pet. You need to have a box or some kind of shelter within their cage because they will often want to hide themselves. I just use a cardboard box. They arent really expensive to feed, probably a 7 dollar bag of food and a 6 dollar bag of alfalfa every 3-4 weeks.

If they do get hurt or sick they are very expensive to care for and usually the medical attention isn't very effective. You'll likely pay 2-3 hundred dollars or more to watch your pet get prodded around by some vets and then die.

So you'd have to buy a cage, a water bottle, food bowls, some kind of cage lining (bedding), you can improvise the shelter with any carboard box, they are pretty
>> Anonymous
Guinea pigs are so fucking awesome, but a lot of the info out there provided by petstores is kind of misleading. They do need a lot of flat space in their cage to run around and the store cages are too small (they stink up pretty fast in store cages but do fine in large cages.) You're better off building your own cage (cheaper and better.)

http://www.guineapigcages.com/

If you want a guinea pig I'd get one from a Guinea Pig Rescue. There are a LOT of them. These guinea pigs are either from shelters or given up to the rescue, but the rescues operate out of private homes where the pigs are given a lot of attention. The people who run rescues donate their time to take care of the guinea pigs and the odds of getting a sick or unsocialized pig go way down when you get one from a rescue. Most of the rescues have an application process, but if you can't pass the app you probably shouldn't get a pig anyway. They just want to see that you're serious about adopting the animal.

I'd surf the net and read up on sites about proper guinea pig care. But I'm seriously surprised that no one mentioned rescues. Breeders and pet stores are SKETCHY...
>> Anonymous
All guinea pig sites will tell you they need a buttload of room, which is true, but they recommend these giant cavy cages - I don't use em. Instead, I have extra large petstore cages with bedding. Trained my piggies to use the bathroom in there by keeping em holed up for a couple of weeks. Then I attached a play pen, opened the door. So now they use the bathroom in the cage and run and chill out in the pen. Since bedding is expensive as fuck (I use carefresh), it's the way to go.
>> KZN
>>214720
Ahh, Carefresh. That's the name I was looking for. It had slipped my mind for some reason.
>> Anonymous
keep in mind that they shit a lot.. I allways had him sit on a towel on my lap:P
>> Anonymous
>>214546They arent really expensive to feed, probably a 7 dollar bag of food and a 6 dollar bag of alfalfa every 3-4 weeks.

If you have an adult guinea pig it should be fed timothy hay, not alfalfa. Alfalfa is a high energy feed and too much will cause obesity and kidney stones (or is it bladder stones?), which is a very expensive problem to fix. And don't forget the fresh veggies!

>>214720
I agree, you don't necesarily need those mega sized CC cages. However, use common sense when you go to the pet store because most of them do have a lot of very small cages that will stink like shit over night. Tradgically, many customers flat out refuse to buy big cages :(

I have three female pigs in an extra large Marchioro brand cage. I think it's like 46"x22x22. It's "too small" if you go by what the major GP sites say, but look and the damn thing in real life and you'll realize that it's absolutly fine. My girls have tons of room, little houses, tons of hay, all the right shit. The cage gets emptied and washed about every 6 days.