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I built a little castle for the gerbil when I socialized him today, and he really loved it. I could barely get him to come out of it except by dropping bits of his food outside, at which point he would come running out to investigate. He's very cool. The guinea pig, who has only been there for two days, was really freaked out, however. She was moved into a carrier by the volunteers cleaning her cage, which might have contributed to her being nervous, but she huddled in the corner for the entire time after I put her into the socialization area, looking way tense, not moving and eventually peeing on the floor. I pretty much just left her alone to relax, talked to her calmly and eventually petted her a little when she didn't seem so afraid of my hand any more. Is the peeing something that just happens sometimes or is that something I should be alarmed about? Also, if she's as nervous next time is there anything I can do to make it a bit easier on the lady pig?
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Jul 11, 2010 20:54
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Karatehamster posted:Is the peeing something that just happens sometimes or is that something I should be alarmed about? Also, if she's as nervous next time is there anything I can do to make it a bit easier on the lady pig? Guinea pigs have the bladder control of drunken frat boys, they basically pee whenever the urge hits.
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Jul 11, 2010 21:44
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Can a guinea pig who is really freaked out by water get used to bathing or is it better to just avoid the stress and a use a wet towel? I'm aware that you shouldn't wash a pig for no reason. However, getting fed all fresh plants means a lot more urinating in the cage and even though I clean it more often they still get kinda icky. It's great that they only go no 1 in the corners, if only they didn't sleep there too! I tried using a clear plastic container placed in the cage with about 1,5 inches of lukewarm water. First one didn't have a problem at all, second was ok as long as I held him but the third kinda panicked as soon as his feet got wet. cat with hands fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Jul 12, 2010 |
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Jul 12, 2010 11:53
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TLG James posted:I may or may not be spoiling a ground squirrel that lives under my porch in my apartment. LOOK at his cheeks! He's stuffed full of fun. AW!
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Jul 13, 2010 06:00
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I'm switching my mouse to a lower-protein food for hamsters and gerbils to see if the sore on her back is a hot spot and might now go away. (After weeks of treatments for mites, she has stopped scratching but still has a big sore that hasn't gotten smaller). The problem is that she LOVES her new food. So much that if I try mixing the old food with the new food, she eats the new and ignores the old. I decreased the ratio so that she'd eat more of the old stuff if she got hungry, but now she's eating her POOP instead of the old food. Any suggestions on making this transition without upsetting her system? Or should I just abandon ship on the old stuff altogether?
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Jul 13, 2010 15:11
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cat with hands posted:Can a guinea pig who is really freaked out by water get used to bathing I've never met a pig who was happy with bathing. Being freaked out is perfectly normal, don't worry about it. Just hold them tight so they don't wriggle out and fall. I recently met someone who came up with a neat solution to wet bedding. She got some egg crate louvers - these are plastic grid panels meant to cover fluorescent light fixtures - and cut them to the size of her cage. She lays a layer of carefresh, then a louver, then another layer of carefresh. The wet stuff goes down to the bottom layer and the top stays dry, and the pigs aren't actually walking on the gird. A similar solution could involve a layer of bedding, the grid, then a layer of fleece on top, if you preferred using fleece. drat Bananas, can you post the exact types of foods you're using, or the ingredient list/nutrition breakdown?
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Jul 13, 2010 15:20
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Old food: "Carefresh Complete Mouse & Rat" http://www.carefresh.com/products/pet-food/mice-and-rats/ Protein 18% Fat 4% ...mixed with this because a friend gave me it when his mouse died: "8In1 Pet Products: Mouse/Rat Food" http://www.walmart.com/ip/8In1-Pet-Products-Mouse-Rat-Food-Premium-Pet-Mouse-Rat-Food-1.5-lb/10318434 Can't find the percentages online, but I think the protein was something close to 16%. New food: "Brown's Tropical Carnival Hamster and Gerbil" http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754662 Protein: 13% Fat: 9.75% The fat content is really high but I'm picking out the sunflower seeds which should lower it. This was a direct recommendation from the forums at thefunmouse.com which is the most comprehensive mouse site I've found. The protein is low which is what I was looking for in treating the hot spot.
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Jul 13, 2010 16:52
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drat Bananas posted:New food: There's nothing wrong with keeping her on the lower protein diet, although as you've seen, the fat is way too high. Typically, breeder diets recommend something in the range of 18% protein because that's a range found to be suitable for maximizing reproduction in colonies; even TheFunMouse says that's too high for pet mice. Lower protein has been found to be associated with increased longevity, a lower fat content is associated with a decrease in tumors, and therefore lowering both is better for maintenance in a non-stressed, non-breeding animal. My source is full of jargon and scientific studies which may not interest you, but basically it recommends less than 18% protein and no more than 5% fat. It's probably easier to find a rat diet with the ideal balance than it is to find a proper mouse diet, but a rat diet should be fine.
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Jul 13, 2010 18:47
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alucinor posted:I've never met a pig who was happy with bathing. Being freaked out is perfectly normal, don't worry about it. Just hold them tight so they don't wriggle out and fall. I tried it again yesterday and this time everyone was OK with it. I just put them down slowly in the container so they got their feet on the bottom and then let go. They didn't panic or move around a lot until it was time to go back up. Thanks for tip about layering the cage, I'll see what I can come up with. When they were mostly on pellets and hay some newspaper under the fleece was usually enough. Now when they are getting everything fresh even triple the usual amount of paper isn't doing the job.
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Jul 13, 2010 20:29
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cat with hands posted:Can a guinea pig who is really freaked out by water get used to bathing or is it better to just avoid the stress and a use a wet towel? My pigs actually kind of seemed to enjoy being held under the water when I would rinse them off. They kind of just relaxed. There's a certain way of holding them where your palm is cradling there underside that makes it a lot easier for washing them and they tend to freak out less too. I would say get them used to it by bathing them together and making sure the water is not too deep or they will freak out. Always give them a treat afterwords.
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Jul 13, 2010 22:41
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Ok this is driving me nuts - One of my gerbils lives in a good-sized and super-awesome aquarium skull. He sleeps in it, lives in it, hordes in it, but he scratches on the inside of it RELENTLESSLY to the point where I have to take it out. Is there a reason he's doing this aside from his natural digging tendencies?
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Jul 14, 2010 22:28
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I was thinking about getting some degus and browsing for cages, and I see the recommended bar spacing for degus is 6mm (1/4 inch). That just seems absurdly tiny, is that really necessary or would a nice 9mm (1/3 inch) be just as good? Surely they can't possibly squeeze through that. Anyone?
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Jul 16, 2010 14:23
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Gustav posted:I was thinking about getting some degus and browsing for cages, and I see the recommended bar spacing for degus is 6mm (1/4 inch). That just seems absurdly tiny, is that really necessary or would a nice 9mm (1/3 inch) be just as good? Surely they can't possibly squeeze through that. Anyone? I imagine that it's more for making sure they can't poke anything through and then not get it back out.
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Jul 16, 2010 15:30
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snortleface posted:LOOK at his cheeks! He's stuffed full of fun. AW! I feed them some hamster mix. I figure that is close enough to whatever they eat that it is ok. I had no idea that they stuffed their cheeks so full of food. I've gotten them to come in about 2 feet inside my apartment so far. I don't think I'll go much further than that because they seem to want to explore too much!
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Jul 16, 2010 15:42
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Our air conditioner broke on Thursday, and as a consequence of the heat, we lost a guinea pig this evening. We feel bad as piggie parents, and have decided that our surviving pig, Crinkles, might need company from the pigs of another owner, rather then us getting another pig. Anyone within driving distance of OKC and can handle another pig? You'd be welcome to our C&C cage as well, and our fleece/towel setup or at least the cubes if you can't haul the coroplast. StrugglingHoneybun fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Jul 19, 2010 |
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Jul 19, 2010 05:54
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End of Life Guy posted:Anyone within driving distance of OKC and can handle another pig? Poor thing, that's a shame. You might also want to post on Guinea Lynx in the placement forum. There aren't many pig folks in that area but there might be a few who'll step up.
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Jul 19, 2010 15:04
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Welp, figured I'd post my second guinea pig experience, which was much better than the first (pig basically sitting in a corner hyperventilating and then peeing and that was it). When I went back to the shelter yesterday, the lady pig had been adopted, but we had a new, male guinea pig. He was up for some fun, though. Raced through the little obstacle/play area like an idiot, hid in tunnels and played peekaboo, pushed around the gerbil in his exercise ball and just generally was the most entertaining little guy on the planet. After the first guinea pig, I have to admit I was kinda wondering what the hell could be so great about them. Now I know.
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Jul 19, 2010 16:57
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Got 2 100 liter bags of timothy/clover hay for only 4€, harvested just a few days ago. Took out all the fleece and put a thick layer of paper in the bottom, covered entire cage in hay. Piggies now in heaven. EDIT: I've had quite a few different pets in my life, but I can't think of a sound cuter than the bubbling of a happy guinea pig. cat with hands fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Jul 20, 2010 |
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Jul 20, 2010 03:14
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All these piggy stories make me sad. I found out the hard way that I am super-allergic to guinea pigs and will probably never be able to own one myself.  Good thing chinchillas are hypoallergenic. I hope I can get one of my own when I finally move out of my dad's place.  Click here for the full 485x604 image. Sifl really likes my head.
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Jul 20, 2010 07:03
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Part-Time Robot posted:All these piggy stories make me sad. I found out the hard way that I am super-allergic to guinea pigs and will probably never be able to own one myself. I know this sounds dumb, but make sure you're allergic to the pigs and not to the hay. A lot of people are "allergic" to pigs only to then get a rabbit or a chin and realize it was the hay making them miserable.
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Jul 20, 2010 11:58
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Rodent Mortician posted:I know this sounds dumb, but make sure you're allergic to the pigs and not to the hay. A lot of people are "allergic" to pigs only to then get a rabbit or a chin and realize it was the hay making them miserable. No, it's definitely the pigs. I was given a pig to hold, nowhere near a cage, and I simultaneously broke out into hives and swelled up. I'm near my sister's chin's hay all the time and it never bothers me. Just another one of nature's cruel jokes on my body, I suppose.
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Jul 20, 2010 18:08
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Part-Time Robot posted:No, it's definitely the pigs. I was given a pig to hold, nowhere near a cage, and I simultaneously broke out into hives and swelled up. I'm near my sister's chin's hay all the time and it never bothers me. Maybe you're just allergic to cute? Pigs are a lot cuter than chins after all.
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Jul 20, 2010 22:53
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Rodent Mortician posted:I know this sounds dumb, but make sure you're allergic to the pigs and not to the hay. A lot of people are "allergic" to pigs only to then get a rabbit or a chin and realize it was the hay making them miserable. Also keep in mind that chins need dust baths, which irritate a lot of people with allergies.
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Jul 21, 2010 00:25
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Alrighty, so I posted earlier in the thread that I was afraid of getting some guinea pigs and stuff, well shortly after my girlfriend and I did and have had a small herd of three for a couple of months. They seem to get along a pretty well and are all fairly young, the oldest two being about seven months and the youngest about two months. Now one of the older ones was pregnant when we got her and is about two months into her pregnancy. She does seem a little crankier than the other two but otherwise everything goes smoothly for the most part. The younger one seems to get pushed around by the pregnant pig but we are assuming it is because of the pregnancy, and the younger one may a bit of a retard. Now about a week ago we went and rescued another guinea pig, this one is about one year old and is fairly large compared to the other three. She was housed with some other pigs but outside of that we don't know much of her previous home. Well today we decided to have introductions and first we aren't really sure if we are supposed to introduce them one on one or everyone all together. But we decided to go for it and turned everyone loose in the usual floor time area after it had received a good scrubbing. They all got along kind of alright for about ten minutes until the pregnant pig found her and lots of teeth chattering and rumbling occurred. They did try to fight a few times and we broke it up. Right now the regular herd is at home and the new pig is in her quarantine cage. And now I bring this to you beautiful people of the internet. Should we just try again later? In a different space completely? Perhaps after litter is delivered? One on ones? The perfume trick? or something else?
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Jul 21, 2010 23:41
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Generally speaking, you should only break up a guinea pig introduction when blood is drawn. Rumbling, facing off, humping, peeing, even the odd nip are all part of the process. You should only break things up if it turns into a furball, and for gently caress's sake use gloves when you do, because a guinea pig will shred you if it's pissed off enough. You can try one on ones, and you can try the perfume trick if they still won't get along. The pregnancy might be a factor as well. Really, it comes down to the personalities of the individual pigs. I implore you, however, read the pages on Guinea Lynx about pregnancy and young pigs, and make sure you separate out any male pups according to their guidelines, or you will have a lot more pregnancies in your future.
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Jul 22, 2010 02:03
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Aye, I have done my homework and there are no males in the herd so we have pretty much just been waiting and commenting that "Yep, feels like a guinea pig inside that guinea pig" while we wait it out.
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Jul 22, 2010 02:43
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Good. I always want to assume people understand the issues related to guinea pig pregnancy, but I can't count how many people I've talked to that didn't understand you could have a backbred pig in a matter of weeks if there are male pups. Miracle of life, eh? One of the funniest things I ever saw in introductions is when I brought my "problem child" Sita into the herd. She was a terror, ended up starting a couple of furballs, but before that, anytime one of the herd got behind her to sniff her she would piston her little back legs, pop her butt into the air, and spray urine. I called it the "pee cannon", and she actually nailed my ex with it from about two feet away. It was the most ridiculous thing I ever saw.
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Jul 22, 2010 18:10
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cat with hands posted:Pigs are a lot cuter than chins after all. Them's fightin' words. Anyhow, I have one standard grey male chinchilla. He's Diego. He has a sweet bite mark in his ear and he's a dick that hates everyone but me. Hating:  Click here for the full 604x453 image. Loving me:  Click here for the full 604x453 image. Wishing he could go back to Chile and the mountains: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TZAUuZXt2g My room mates have one female chinchilla each. One is violet and the other is a standard gray. Their names are Chin-chin and Su-Su respectively. Those two live together while Diego keeps his own cage. Originally we considered breeding them, but I found an ad on Craigslist for 2 white 11 week year olds. My room mate and I are going to look at them tomorrow afternoon, so what I'm getting as is: What questions should I ask? What signs should I look for in a healthy/unhealthy baby?
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Jul 23, 2010 16:40
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I've read through the thread and haven't seen much on it. After I sell some things from my room and actually have room, I was planning on getting some pet mice. As I'll be moving to a bigger place in about half a year or more, I wanted to get rats in the future. As the owners of the lovely pets that you are all, I was wondering if someone could inform me of whether this might be a bad idea? Clearly, they wouldn't be really kept in the same cage. But would there be any foreseeable issues? I've never had any rodents as pets, so I'm not too clear on the "rules" as of yet. Research hasn't given me much on it, either.
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Jul 25, 2010 00:39
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Madel_Face posted:I've read through the thread and haven't seen much on it. Rats are predators and will gladly eat your mice if they get the chance.  If you get them, make sure they never, ever come into contact with each other even for a second. They can be caged in the same room, but that's about it.
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Jul 25, 2010 01:00
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Superconsndar posted:If you get them, make sure they never, ever come into contact with each other even for a second. They can be caged in the same room, but that's about it. I think this would stress the gently caress out of the mice, just from being able to smell the rats. Maybe it's an old wives' tale, but I was always told that mice instinctively avoid areas with rat populations because of predation and that they are repelled by the scent of rat. Maybe in separate rooms, but I don't think I would keep them together closer than that. Plus the fact that an escape artist of either species could cause some serious havoc...
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Jul 25, 2010 02:36
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Mice are stinky, get gerbils!
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Jul 25, 2010 04:02
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Nereid posted:Mice are stinky, get gerbils! I'm with this guy. After reading up on Mice and Rats and the amount they they pee and stink up the place, I'm happy we ended up with gerbils.
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Jul 25, 2010 04:13
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RazorBunny posted:I think this would stress the gently caress out of the mice, just from being able to smell the rats. Maybe it's an old wives' tale, but I was always told that mice instinctively avoid areas with rat populations because of predation and that they are repelled by the scent of rat. Maybe in separate rooms, but I don't think I would keep them together closer than that. When I was breeding mice for show, I kept them in the same room as my rats. They seemed happy and ran on their wheels and bred easily and didn't cannibalize their babies, and they were in my rat room which contained 40+ rats at a given time. v  vI think ideally it'd be nice to keep them in a separate room for their sake, but if space is a huge issue they can still thrive if they have to be kept near each other.
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Jul 25, 2010 04:17
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*update on the guinea pigs* We went ahead and just put the new girl into a bathtub and added one pig at a time until waiting for tensions to calm down between each pig ending with the pregnant girl. They are all getting along pretty decently now and living in the same cage, some occasional nipping but everything seems to be going fine now. Might get some pictures up a little later.
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Jul 25, 2010 04:35
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Good. The odd bit of fussing now and again is fine and should settle down. Next time you clean the cage, pull everything out, give it a double-dose of a water/vinegar solution to kill scents and disinfect, and put everything back in in a different place. The idea is to get them to think they're all in a new cage instead of it being somebody's "turf". That should help get any lingering territoriality issues out of the way. Also, you might consider extra water bottles/food dishes/hides for the time being, just to ensure that nobody can be crowded out. The idea is to make it as easy as possible for the pigs to avoid each other should they choose, to help them get used to the new living arrangement. In any case, getting past the "about to become a whirling dervish of fur and razor sharp teeth" stage is most of the battle. Good show.
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Jul 25, 2010 06:53
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Superconsndar posted:When I was breeding mice for show, I kept them in the same room as my rats. They seemed happy and ran on their wheels and bred easily and didn't cannibalize their babies, and they were in my rat room which contained 40+ rats at a given time. v Well, that's good. Maybe domestic mice are enough dumber than wild mice that the smell won't bother them 
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Jul 25, 2010 20:44
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Nereid posted:Mice are stinky, get gerbils!
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Jul 27, 2010 02:20
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Do you guys know what this thread needs more of? More chinchilla questions! - How much attention do they require? Let's assume I have a pretty standard 9-5 schedule, and I do stuff in the afternoon. I might have an hour or two at home with the pet. Would the chinchilla still be cool with my company only for a couple of hours a day if I make sure to buy whatever toy it wants to stay busy while I'm not there? - What exactly do you get for chinchillas so they can entertain themselves while you're away? I'm guessing some poo poo to chew on, and then a wheel? Anything else? - How much supervision do they need around the house? From what I read from you guys, you can't seem to just let them run around the house without actually checking on them to make sure they're not chewing through a cable / door / guitar / tv set or trying to kill themselves in the toilet. Is that true? Can you let them run around a room for a while without bidding farewell to all cables? - When let outside of the cage, do they often decide to do n.1 and n.2 right there, or is there a way of training them that the cage is where that kind of business happens? - Male or female? Is there a big difference for a solo chin?
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Jul 27, 2010 08:27
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DreadCthulhu posted:Do you guys know what this thread needs more of? More chinchilla questions! http://www.chincare.com/ will answer all these questions and more. Chins need lots of attention, but they don't often like to be cuddled, so it often means supervising and interacting with an animal that will bark for attention and then run away with no interest in being petted. They do far better as bonded pairs rather than solos but bonding can be a bitch; plus you can't risk an opposite sex pair because they'll produce more unwanted babies. They're hugely active and need a wheel as well as daily time outside the cage. They can't be potty trained so you're gonna be constantly picking up little turds. They will destroy everything in your house in an instant and they can leap huge distances, so containment in a chin-proofed play area may require 4' fences. I'd strongly recommend against getting a chin.
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Jul 27, 2010 14:55
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