New to GP & Questions

[beve]

We recently adopted a GP fr SPCA. I'm surprised at how gentle & sweet it is. Anyway, he's being sterilised & we collect him this weekend. I'm preparing all the stuff for him & need some advice.

1. Food - I've bought ox bow coz it seems to be recommended here but the pet shop recommends another type that is a lot more expensive & supposed to have more vitamins??

2. Cage - what size is good? My husband wants to get a large cage but I'm worried if this will cost a bomb on bedding. I'm looking at a 2ftx1ft (estimate). Is that a good size? Currently SPCA only has one GP but we've told them to let us know if they get another so we may end up with 2.

3. Bedding - what brand is good?

4. Suppliers? Where do u get your stuff from? I used to buy my stuff from Serangoon North when I had hamsters and rabbits more than 5 years ago (b4 having kids) so now a little out of date.

I've got more questions but will stick to the basics first.

Thanks
Shirin

[angelic8]

I just saw 1 male gp for adoption at SPCA website. Called Monty..8mths old. Is that the gp u r adopting?

[beve]

Yup, that's the one. We go there on & off with the kids. The kids of course wanted a dog but we thot we'd start off small & we read about GPs and thot they would be a great start for the kids. We were lucky they had one.

[daeee]

for food, most of us here use oxbow. :) for vitamins, you can hand feed our pigs vitamin c tablets. you should be able to get unflavoured ones from pharmacies or GNC. pigs can't produce their own vit c so you have to make sure they get it. don't dissolve it in water coz the vit c content depletes over time. fresh veges are a must, 2-3 times a day. try dark green leafy veges like kangkong, chyesim, sweet potato leaves, and capsicum (but not all pigs like this). carrot can be fed, but regulate the amt coz it may harm their liver...feed your pig carrot on alternate days.

the minimum size for one cavy is 2ft by 2ft...so since you are thinking of getting a companion, you should get a bigger cage. or you can do a DIY cage. www.cavycages.com has plenty of tips on how to do that. most gp owners here do that. you can look up previous threads or click on the user galleries to see what it looks like :)

for bedding...pls pls pls do not use wood shavings. they are dusty and they'll make your pig sneeze. also increase the risk of your pig getting an upper respiratory infection which can be deadly. it's quite safe to say (correct me ok?) that all of us here use breeder celect or back to nature bedding. it's a recycled paper cat litter. less fibrous than wood shavings and very much more absorbant. it's a bit on the expensive side, but it's really good :D very absorbant. just remember to change bedding every 2-3 days, 4 days max. and give your cage a good scrubdown at least once a week. dettol would suffice for this :D

i personally get my supplies from pet lovers' centre at holland v, because it's accessible to me, and the prices are reasonable. also because i have the privilege card that entitles me to a discount when i buy supplies that cost above $15 which happens pretty often ;) i don't know abt the other users, but some use online suppliers.

you can also look up past threads...we have plenty on guinea pig care, illnesses, grooming etc etc. :)

good luck with your new pig! :)

[popcheek]

welcome to the forum BEVE :) glad u start off with GP...they are lovable animals, and can be very fun to have. They made sounds, they jump(popcorn) when happy, they play hide&seek with gp companion, etc.

1)food: any pellets will suffice actually..look out for those with VITAMIN C nourished is better, coz GP canot produce their own vit C....if ur gp is 8mths old, u can go for Oxbow Cavy cuisine. others tt forumers use are Sanko (white japanese packet), Burgess (orange packet), Browns, Labdiet(most expensive). Other than pellets, you can give variety & for more nutrition - dark green leafy vegetables, experiment with different veggy each time, to find out whats your PIG's favorite~

Water: change the water in the bottle everyday :) coz GP drink will spit out some back into the bottle (which result in ... dirty water) so dun get too BIG BOTTLE, dun get too small bottle. just about 300-450 ml average for each pig i think is ok (based on my pig) :P some drink lesser, some drink more, but its average lah :) can aga aga when u observe them for a week.

2)Cage : for homemade cages, u can go to www.cavycages.com a VERY famous website on how to build your own cage, customised it, and no restriction on wad to be included in it :) Materials can be bought from DAISO (IMM Jurong), and corrugated plastic can be bough from Bras Basah/ Artfriend in Orchard. Commercial cage is good too, but will cost more sometimes & it is "fixed" so there is not much imagination involved.

3)Beddings: we use recycled paper cat litter, in pelleted forms. Famous brand is Back 2 Nature, and Breeder Celect. The breeder Celect is more favoured, although they cost the same, and come from same manufacturer :) they come in different bag size, but in beddings case, i think the bigger pack is more economical, coz they wont expire so fast, and its essential. Other beddings can be pet-pampers (absorbent sheets), fleece, newspaper, etc....pls browse forum coz different ppl different preference, but cat litter is the most common choice.

4) Suppliers: you can buy from normal petshops...but there are online as well. Choose the one you think is more convenient for you, coz the 35litre cat litter is .... heavy :p and online shops will deliver to your doorstep (thats wad I LIKE) :D We are not suppose to give out any contacts of suppliers in thread. So u can either private Msg any of us to gain info of our suppliers :)

Other info tt i might left out, pls add in....thx alot.

[beve]

Thanks for all the info. I did like the home-made cages that I saw on the website & went to Daiso to look for the stuff. Couldnt find the plastic base that was big enough tho. Where to get those from?

Also can GPs be toilet trained? My rabbits previously had a huge cage plus open use of our study room. I only used bedding for their litter & they alays did their pee-pee there. unfortunately poo-poo was still everywhere but easy to manage.

[x1AoEVo]

plastic basing, get from Art Friend at Taka or Bras Basah.. it cost slightly more den $6 .. very hard to toilet train gps, pee training quite a challenge.. poo training almost impossible.. lol
How to get membership at PLC ar? i oso always get from PLC holland v.. :D

[daeee]

beve, gp's actually can't be toilet trained, but you'll see them pee at specific spots of the cage. mine pees and poos only at selected corners of the cage...and i didn't have to train her to do that!! :D litter trays don't work on gp's like they do on rabbits.

xiaoevo, you spend 15 bucks and above, and then you ask them to let you sign up...dunno whether you have to pay or not...i got the membership a while back. but as long as you spend 15bucks and above with the card you get a 5% discount. not much, but it's still a discount....saving a bit is always gd coz it's not very cheap to keep gp's :)

[daeee]

oh one more thing beve :) gp floor time must be closely supervised coz they chew on everything...mine has chewed on carpet, car, wood...everything that can be chewed will be chewed. plus they have zero sense of height and direction. :) and zero sense of toilet. mine has pooed and peed on the carpet, and on parquet floor before. so be careful hor ;)

[Pitoto]

sorry arh... can i check what colour is appealing to GP? for example when you all buy the material for the base of C&C cages, what colour do you all choose?

[popcheek]

sorry arh... can i check what colour is appealing to GP? for example when you all buy the material for the base of C&C cages, what colour do you all choose?


I took this from a website:


Senses
Hearing. Guinea pigs hear extremely well, which makes sense given their extensive "vocabulary". They can hear sounds up to 30 kHz in frequency, well beyond the human limit of 20 kHz. As pets, they can differentiate between the footsteps of their owners, and react differently to a particular person's approach. Many animals will become conditioned to sounds related to feeding, such as the opening of the refrigerator door or the rustling of their feed. They also respond very well to certain types of music, which can have a very relaxing effect on them.
Smell. Though they don't smell as well as dogs or cats, their sense of smell is still considerably better than humans. Other guinea pigs are recognized by scent, as are their human owners.

Sight. Like all herbivores, guinea pigs have eyes mounted on the sides of their head, giving them a tremendous angle of vision. This is necessary for survival, as it allows them to spot predators from nearly any direction. Their vision is attuned mostly to movement, and they do not "resolve" objects at a distance. Note that side-mounted eyes provide almost no depth-perception, so guinea pigs have trouble gauging distances and heights, which can lead to nasty falls if you are not careful. They do, however, see in color, and experiments have shown that they distinguish color very well, particularly red, yellow and blue.

RED YELLOW & BLUE :judge:

[Pitoto]

Thanks Popcheek!!! :genie: you the one!! :rainbow1:

[daeee]

oh beve, i forgot to mention this...popcheek didn't either :p

for food, pellets aren't enough. they must have free flow of timothy hay. yours is ard 8 mths old (i checked the spca website :)) so his staple food is timothy hay....alfalfa hay is not reccomended for pigs above 6mths if i'm not wrong.

i buy haypro 2nd cut timothy hay from PLC holland v because it's priced very economically, and it looks fresh enough anyway. other brands to use are APD and oxbow. personally i don't trust kaytee because of what i've read on the net and because i found some non-hay thing inside the packet once. :)

[popcheek]

ooops yeah...most important thing is left out, thx daeee :)
hay is staple food for gp...so although gp can live a day without pellets/veggy, hay & water must be there.

[bearies]

remember to limit the amount of pellets u feed too... or be like me too generous with pellets till i notice their urine whiteish yellow... too much calcium now need to control...

[x1AoEVo]

lotsa info eh.. hahahaha, dun worrie kk! im still picking lots up along the way :) had my first vet checkup for the gp.. some skin irritation and tt's it, yay.. heng ar scared wait got some other scary problems..

[ahwen]

Xiaoevo the check up how much... I still haven't bring J J to vet yet... Hmmm...

[x1AoEVo]

$34 including the cream.. hahaha i went to get npf alfafa hay cubes just now.. gp like onli nibble abit leh.. >.< i wan her to fat fat, now still small.. lol

[popcheek]

last time i ask ppl how to fatten up my pig...most of them say rolled oats...then until now my oats havent finish :x

[ahwen]

Thanks for the pricing. Seems reasonable. One day bring the pervert J J go... And don't worry... You GP still young mah...

[popcheek]

Yup, that's the one. We go there on & off with the kids. The kids of course wanted a dog but we thot we'd start off small & we read about GPs and thot they would be a great start for the kids. We were lucky they had one.
MONTY (http://www.spca.org.sg/adoption/adoption.asp)
hi beve..i just visit the SPCA webbie...
hmm Monty is a handsome piggy :) nice looking, and looks 'guai' :valentine hope ur family have endless fun with it & hope it wheeks often hahaha :slaphappy wheek = happy

[x1AoEVo]

hehehe yah young.. wait next time fatter i dowan how huh lolz kidding =X

[ahwen]

Haha when GPs very young very cute hor? Like when I have J J, wow so mini tiny... Then now looked more ah pek, like wanderer... And when he naughty? I will ask myself, why I like him ah? Haha...

[bearies]

monty very cute leh... hope he wont be tat lonely soon..

[beve]

Thanks so much for all the info. We're all ready to take little Monty home. SPCA has got a 2nd hand cage for us & we've bought everything we need for him from litter to food, hay, shampoo, etc. We'll probably get a new & bigger cage for him once he's more settled him & hopefully find a playmate too.

We went to see him at SPCA today. His sterilisation was done on Thursday so we'll only be able to take him home on Tuesday. He looks bigger than when we first saw him, either that or my memory fails me.

Need to ask another question, how much fresh food do u give like would it be 2 grapes or 1/4 apple or 1/2 carrot?? Not sure coz when I had rabbits if they had too much fruit their poop get rather loose so I always ration the fresh food but unlimited pellets. Does this apply to GPs as well??

Thanks again to everyone here for being so helpful!

Have a great weekend!

[bearies]

8mths old monty pellets need ration too... to about 1/8 cup a day... fruits also ration cos of sugar contents... the only thing u dun need to ration is the hay.

[popcheek]

Thanks so much for all the info. We're all ready to take little Monty home. SPCA has got a 2nd hand cage for us & we've bought everything we need for him from litter to food, hay, shampoo, etc. We'll probably get a new & bigger cage for him once he's more settled him & hopefully find a playmate too.

We went to see him at SPCA today. His sterilisation was done on Thursday so we'll only be able to take him home on Tuesday. He looks bigger than when we first saw him, either that or my memory fails me.

Need to ask another question, how much fresh food do u give like would it be 2 grapes or 1/4 apple or 1/2 carrot?? Not sure coz when I had rabbits if they had too much fruit their poop get rather loose so I always ration the fresh food but unlimited pellets. Does this apply to GPs as well??

Thanks again to everyone here for being so helpful!

Have a great weekend!

good thing u have rabbits b4,
so at least u know what's gd and what's not
like what you said, the stool can be abit 'soft' when they have too much veggy (tt high in water content) & fruits....so just give in moderate amount.

for carrots.....some said too much of it will cause damage...err i forgot is it kidney/liver damage so sorry :p but as for me, i gave carrot every alternate days...just say tt 1 carrot for 1 week, for 1 pig.

for veggy, if its xiao pai chye i gave about 1 bunch per feed...so 1 day is 2 bunch? and for those leaves&stalky ... about 4-6 stalks (spinach/sweet potato leaves type).

i think u can also experiment on how much to give... coz too much wait the veggy get limp & rotten, wasted ma :laughing: and no need to worry they get hungry should u give less veggy/ no veggy that day, as pellets are there, hay are also there... :rootbeer:

[daeee]

actually i dun feed my pig fruit at all because of the high sugar content. some of the veges she likes are sweet enough already anyway (carrot, capsicum) so i dun really think it's necessary. as far as veges go, a small handful of leafy green veges is one serving...plus a few large strips of capsicum. maybe a couple carrot coins every alternate day. otherwise her poo tends to go a bit watery.

[x1AoEVo]

yup.. try not to overfeed the fruits and pellets.. i just learnt todae that gp cannot have pellets in their cage 24/7.. not good for em .. hehe

[Pitoto]

oh... cannot have pellet inside everytime one arh... that means the dry mix too?? that means they only eat hay lor...

[ahwen]

I only give two chinese spoons of pellets per day for my GP. But till the next morning or late evening, is already gone. But recently, purposely leave out the Vit C tablet, so AP leh.... He wasn't like that before. But next morning wake up, the tablet gone... Haha...

[x1AoEVo]

oo.. ahwen give vit c tablets ar.. hmmm, so tablets bettter or syrup form better?

[ahwen]

Yah I give tablets, just put in the pellet bowl and can go out straight... Most forumers use the sryinge method, though I dunno how...

[x1AoEVo]

i tink must make their mouth open, forced or voluntary, den squirt the vit c in.. lol like so can2 ren2 .. hehe

[ahwen]

can2 ren2? Yah must open their mouth and since I bought the tablets so use that method loh.

[x1AoEVo]

hmm okok .. i just scared my chooby dun eat the tablets.. bought alfafa hay cubes for her ytd.. she like nve bite at all, sigh.. hope she will eat tho, dun wan waste my money.. abt $13 lehh!!

[bearies]

i alway give my gerger more pellets then boiboi... pregnant pigs need to eat more ma... ration of pellet doesn't apply to pregnant pigs rite??

[x1AoEVo]

hmm i tink pregnant ones.. just give them as much as they want.. lol how old ur gps ar, bearies?