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Nice, thanks. I thought the recipe seemed really high in sugar with honey, and the oil was questionable too. Think I'll skip it and find something else. The hay is a decent idea, I normally bought bales from a local farmer down the road from my parents place, no pesticides or anything, and about as fresh as you can get when you drive down a day after they bale it. I'm really curious if they would go nuts over a different type of hay though heh
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Nov 12, 2010 20:04
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Gaj posted:Ham Health question. My dwarf russian today started coughing all the time when hes active. He makes cough noises the more he moves around and on his back, and get agitated if I do so. This just started today. Im assuming this is an breathing problem, yet I havent done anything super stupid. It could just be a cold - a vet might be able to give you something for it. What age is your ham?
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Nov 14, 2010 23:24
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Question in guinea pig psychology. My two pigs seem pretty well adjusted to their new home. They still run like hell when they see me, but if I carefully try to pick them up from inside of their hides they don't struggle. Both of them will eat out of my hands at this point, though not reliably if they are still in the enclosure. One of them puurs when I take them out and feed them their veggies but they begin to wheek when I run out and continue until I put them back. They do not seem agitated, but they just do not stop. Is that their way of telling me they want more food, or are they upset?
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Nov 15, 2010 03:12
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Basic primer on guinea pig vocalization: WHEEK WHEEK WHEEK WHEEK: "OH GOD FEED ME I'M STARVING IF YOU DON'T GO GET ME MY BODY WEIGHT IN VEGGIES RIGHT THIS SECOND I MAY ACTUALLY DIE!" In the wild this is a cry of alarm; in domesticated pigs it's almost always related to food. It can also be seen as a general cry for attention; I've had a pig wheek at me when she wanted a scruff behind the ears, and I've had pigs wheek at me to let me know the water bottle was jammed. Mostly, your pigs will learn to do this every time they see you/every time they hear plastic rattle. Sort of a general burbling noise as they run around: "I am content." Squeak/shriek rising quickly in volume and pitch: "Will you stop touching me?" Generally reserved for when another pig is violating their personal space. Usually heard when it's one pig's time of the month. Teeth chattering: "I'm angry/I'm in pain." If directed at another pig, it's a sign of dominance. If directed at you, if you keep doing whatever you're doing you may earn yourself a bite. Hissing: "It's on, bitch." Usually only heard in the middle of a furball, making audible identification kind of redundant. Purring: "I'm happy/I'm unhappy." Yeah, I know. You have to read body language on this one. If you're scratching your pig's back, and she's laying flat out and purring with her eyes closed, she's content. If you're doing it and she's hunched up and purring with her eyes bugged out, she doesn't like it. Chirping: "I am communicating with the Mothership." Seriously. Some pigs will occasionally, usually late at night, "zone out". They hunch down, get a blank look in their eyes (believe me you need to be an expert to tell when a guinea pig has a blank look) and start huffing. Eventually, you'll start hearing this squeaking noise that sounds like the fan in your A/C is going out, but it will rapidly turn into full-on "there's a bird in the house" cheeping and chirping. If you interact with the chirper or sometimes even get close to the cage they will usually stop, but if you're quiet and just watch they may trance out and start it again. Nobody has any clear idea why they do this. Not every pig does it, so if you get a chirper, know you've got a special pig.
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Nov 15, 2010 08:59
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CagedLiberty posted:It could just be a cold - a vet might be able to give you something for it. What age is your ham? 5 Months about. He only had a ten minute coughing fit and since then nothing and hasnt acted otherwise differently. I changed his bedding and he seems fine so Im just going to watch him and have moved him to a less drafty area. Still lovlingly pees on me the same.
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Nov 15, 2010 22:23
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What are thoughts on carefresh(other shavings etc) v towels v fleece? I had been using care fresh in the cafe for my piggies but its getting to be expensive, I read on other forums of people using fleece and towels and them lasting a 5 days without issue between washings.
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Nov 19, 2010 18:50
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Diogines posted:What are thoughts on carefresh(other shavings etc) v towels v fleece? I had been using care fresh in the cafe for my piggies but its getting to be expensive, I read on other forums of people using fleece and towels and them lasting a 5 days without issue between washings. Towels/fleece are cheaper, better for the environment (less waste/packaging), safer for the pigs (impaction, ingestion), and easier to deal with (less dust, no shopping trips) - if you don't mind doing more laundry, (increased water/power use) and doing daily spot-cleans. Personally I hate laundry, so I still use shavings/carefresh. But I'm down to two cages so I really should suck it up and switch to fleece. 
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Nov 19, 2010 19:11
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alucinor posted:Towels/fleece are cheaper, better for the environment (less waste/packaging), safer for the pigs (impaction, ingestion), and easier to deal with (less dust, no shopping trips) - if you don't mind doing more laundry, (increased water/power use) and doing daily spot-cleans. At one point we had six pigs and doing all that laundry was just a pain in the rear end and was very expensive in terms of water and electricity use (and the dust gets EVERYWHERE). I recommend getting the carefresh in bulk. I managed to find a local source (KW Cages) that sold it to me about $5 a package cheaper than what the local pet store sold it for. I'd buy them 5 at a time and it would last for quite a while. I don't have them anymore (most of them died ) so I don't miss doing the changes but the carefresh def made it easier cleaning up after them.
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Nov 19, 2010 19:28
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I use a combination of carefresh and fleece/towels. I have fleece/towels down over everything and then a 'hay box' that I fill with carefresh that I put their hay in. They tend to do most of their peeing/pooping where they stand and eat so this way most of their business is done in the box, and I empty the box 2x a week. Keeps the smell down and then I only have to clean the fleece/towels once a week.
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Nov 19, 2010 22:03
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Sirotan posted:I use a combination of carefresh and fleece/towels. I have fleece/towels down over everything and then a 'hay box' that I fill with carefresh that I put their hay in. They tend to do most of their peeing/pooping where they stand and eat so this way most of their business is done in the box, and I empty the box 2x a week. Keeps the smell down and then I only have to clean the fleece/towels once a week. I would be very interested to see how you set this up, care to post a picture?
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Nov 20, 2010 00:28
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I use a thick layer of paper, covering the whole bottom of the cage, and then a double folded layer of fleece over that. Sometimes I spot clean but usually it's enough to just clean the cage entirely 2 or 3 times a week. I have a balcony facing the woods though, so I can just shake off the worst dust and hay before washing.
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Nov 20, 2010 00:32
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Diogines posted:I would be very interested to see how you set this up, care to post a picture? Its a bit of an old picture as I now have that box smack dab in the middle of the second story, but this is about how it looks:  Click here for the full 1600x1200 image. Also I zip-tied thin strips of wood to both sides of the edges of the hay box so they aren't chewing on the plastic of the box. It works pretty well for me.
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Nov 20, 2010 00:47
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Sirotan posted:Its a bit of an old picture as I now have that box smack dab in the middle of the second story, but this is about how it looks: Im a little confused. Is that 3 levels? There is another piggie in the bottom left and I cant tell what level hes on. Otherwise, very nicely done 
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Nov 20, 2010 19:19
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Good idea, working on something like that now. I tried placing in a ceramic cooking bowl with similar dimensions. I can hear one of them nibbling on it a bit, is there any danger to them from it? I do not think they could really bite into it, but they might be able to scratch it a bit.
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Nov 20, 2010 22:17
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spiralbrain posted:Im a little confused. Is that 3 levels? There is another piggie in the bottom left and I cant tell what level hes on. Nope, just two levels. I cleaned their cage today so I took some newer pictures:   Two levels with ramps on both sides. I have thin pieces of untreated pine zip tied to the top level clorosplast because one of my last pigs loved to stand up there and look out the cage and chew on the plastic. The hay box has it as well though as you could see in my other post, it used to be on the bottom level in the left corner, so since I moved it I never got around to putting wood on that one exposed side. You can see how much they've chewed it down. Also that isn't carefresh in the hay box because at a local pet expo recently a new company was selling this recycled shredded paper as bedding and I bought a bundle of it. They charged me $7.50 for 12 cubic feet. I've been using it for three months now and have barely made a dent in the bale. Add that to the hay I buy in bales from local farmers for $5 and fleece sewed to towels as bedding and I think I've got this whole owning guinea pigs on the cheap thing down to a science.
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Nov 20, 2010 23:29
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Do pigs ever break up fights? Last night the black bully was hauling rear end nipping and humping the shy pig for whatever reason. After a while the big fat one who usually is really timid kind of strutted in between them, nose raised and balls swinging. Question is, did I just see him restoring some order to the pack or am I overanalyzing and the thick headed furball just thought all the commotion involved him somehow?
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Nov 21, 2010 13:42
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Sirotan, if you told me just how much my pigs would love the hay box I would not have believed you. I have never been so happy to wake up in the morning and see a big pile of poo poo, almost all of their droppings are in the little pot with the rest in the corner right outside of it and a few pieces around the rest of the cage. You just saved me countless hours of scooping up poo poo with a plastic spoon, thank you!
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Nov 21, 2010 16:02
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cat with hands posted:Do pigs ever break up fights? Pretty much the exact same thing happened with my pigs a few years ago. A very old, fat, and timid pig beat the snot out of a bully that was messing with the runt. The funny thing is that the runt would often nip at ol' fatty and for a while I figured the runt was the dominate one. I guess those little fluffballs are more complex than they let on.
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Nov 21, 2010 18:12
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Things I never said before owning pigs #3 *opening a bag of really fresh hay* Mmmmmmm, delicious!
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Nov 22, 2010 15:38
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Sirotan posted:Nope, just two levels. I cleaned their cage today so I took some newer pictures: Ahhh I see, ok, he was on the ramp 
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Nov 23, 2010 00:30
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cat with hands posted:Things I never said before owning pigs #3 Oh, man, I've been there. The first time I ordered a bale of bluegrass hay from Kleenmama and saw the difference between that stuff and the stringy brown timothy I'd been feeding the girls. I was tempted to chew a piece. (In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't; I was petsitting my mom's idiot dog one night, and he ate a few strands. I found this out because once he got back home, he ended up with a long string of poop hanging out of his rear end connected by said strands of hay, panicked because he thought he was being followed, and bolted all over the place.)
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Nov 23, 2010 03:46
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kazmeyer posted:panicked because he thought he was being followed, and bolted all over the place.) You seriously tell the best stories.  Edit so I don't have to doublepost: Another day, another bladder stone. I'm seriously going to start a breeding program with the goal of developing pigs with urethras too wide to get clogged. Sadie you moron, you're maybe actually gonna live to see 8 years after all.  Edit2:  Lodged in her urethra. Vet managed to extracting by partial catheterization; squirting lube and lidocane around it till she could massage it out. Her bladder has a dozen or so pinhead size stones which she'll hopefully pass once I start overdosing her with fluids every day. alucinor fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Nov 24, 2010 |
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Nov 23, 2010 15:43
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^^^^ Jesus christ  Black Friday pet supply protip: Now is a great time to ditch the carefresh or pine shavings and switch your piggies over to fleece and towels as bedding. Fabric stores like Joann's or Michael's have fleece at 50% off on Black Friday. I'm moving in ~1 month and when I do my pig cage is going to get a remodel so I'll be stocking up on some cute new fleece on BF. I'm lame so buying fleece for pigs will probably be the only line I'll stand in all day.
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Nov 25, 2010 03:03
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alucinor posted:I'm trying to decide whether pigs have really small fluffy heads or if this one is a liquid metal terminator.
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Nov 25, 2010 11:09
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Sirotan posted:^^^^ Jesus christ ^^^^^^^^^^ Ouch indeed. Fleece blankets are pretty much everywhere, in a billion different patterns, often on sale for a couple of € and the usual 180-120 size gives you a pretty large patch for very little money.
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Nov 25, 2010 11:14
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cat with hands posted:^^^^^^^^^^ This stuff is normally $10/yrd and was on sale for $3. PLUS I had a 20% off my entire order coupon. 16 yards for $40:  Patterns for the bottom, solids for the top level. Lobsters
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Nov 26, 2010 20:14
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I'd like to ask for some tips with my 2 new guinea pigs, which I have had for 4 weeks. Summary: I got them as a pair, maybe from the same liter, from a shelter, which had way, way too many young piggies in a small cage. Both are female, I do not know how old they are, I'd estimate they are roughly half the total size of what I have seen as full grown guinea pigs. I have a 3 by 2 grid enclosure. Each piggie has their own pigloo, I have some other hiding places for them and an area for hay which is partially covered, thankfully they do most of their making GBS threads in there. I use a fleece and towels setup which I spot clean daily and replace once a week. They are in the main room of my home, where I spend most of my time. The coroplast walls prevent them from seeing me unless I pass by. They eat plenty of pellets and hay. I feed them veggies by hand once or more times a day. When I do this, I sit down next to the enclosure and hold small pieces of the veggies out so they have to come and they pluck each out of my hand and then run back to cover to each it, then come back for the next piece. I also sometimes hold one large piece, so they go to it out of cover and eat it, they eat the whole thing out of my hand. Whenever they see me, they run for cover. They do not cry when they see me, but they haul rear end. I do not think they are actually afraid of me, but I cannot tell. When I go to the fridge, they cry out for treats. I usually feed them their veggies first thing when I get up, so they squeak out when they first hear me moving around in my bed in the morning. I cannot take one out alone anymore, when I try to do so, the more "dominant" of the two will cry out, the other one will cry out in response and they will keep crying till I reunite them. I sometimes take a large towel and place it on the floor next to the cage or on my bed and feed them veggies, they are fine and happy as long as I do so-one of them will even purr if I pet it while feeding it, but the second I run out they freak out and try to hide under the towel. There was a brief period of time where each was happy to sit on my lap alone even after I finished feeding them but now they always cry out for each other. Any general tips on what to do to help them get used to me? I know the biggest things are time, but surely there are things I can do to help them get used to me.
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Nov 26, 2010 21:05
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It sounds to me like you have totally normal, well-adjusted, well-socialized, adolescent pigs. They'll get too lazy to run from you in a few years. I'm wondering whether maybe you've got a hypothetical image of what a "tame" pig should act like that isn't congruent with pig reality. Are you thinking they are going to stop running for cover when you walk by? - They will, but this takes 1-3 years and they'll still run 1 out of 5 times. Are you thinking they are going to sit quietly with you when separated from a cagemate and without any cover? - Possibly they might, but this takes 1-3 years, and 25% of pigs never out grow this. Are you thinking they'll squeak to be picked up like they squeak for veggies? - Aint gonna happen. Is there some specific behavior you want to see that you aren't seeing? If so I might be able to give some more specific conditioning tips. If not, trust me, you're doing everything right (and I don't say that often). It really does just take time.
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Nov 26, 2010 21:29
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#2, really. Though I am very happy to hear that their behavior is normal. I'd like to be able to take them out of their enclosure, feed them some veggies and just chill when they are done with their food. Even if I take them out as a pair and give them cover, they are unhappy as soon as I run out of food, they wheek very gently if I try to pet them, though they don't care as long as they have food. I guess that is not realistic.
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Nov 26, 2010 21:39
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Wheeking gently while being petting is definitely normal. It's not really fear, or even annoyance, more like a status report... HEY YOU'RE TOUCHING ME. For some reason, HEY YOU'RE TOUCHING ME is one of the most basic of pig communications. They do it to each other, too. Just keep on keepin' on. Eventually, the need to complain about being touched or about veggies being tragically absent is overridden by laziness. After about 3 years, most pigs will eat, complain for a few minutes, then go to sleep on you. They may or may not pee on you at some point as well.
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Nov 26, 2010 22:49
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Yeah, sounds like your pigs are right on the numbers. You will occasionally encounter a pig who's exceptionally brave or enjoys being handled - I had one girl who would wheek at me when she wanted me to scratch her behind the ears - but largely they will always be driven by their incredibly overdeveloped prey instincts. (Honestly, you can't blame them too much; their only real evolutionary adaptation has been unbelievably rapid breeding cycles to attempt to defeat their predators with heart disease and diabetes from eating too many guinea pigs.) You're doing everything right; pigs only ever really learn things in relation to food, and you're reinforcing yourself as the source of food so they like and tolerate you. Eventually, they will get more comfortable around you when you don't have food, because they figure that if they're nice to you you might make food appear. They're strongly bonded because each one sees the other as the only thing in their environment that they can be sure isn't going to eat them; as they get more used to you, you will (eventually) be added to the list. The guinea pig mind is basically a pendulum cycling back and forth between terror and hunger.
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Nov 27, 2010 00:44
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alucinor posted:Wheeking gently while being petting is definitely normal. It's not really fear, or even annoyance, more like a status report... HEY YOU'RE TOUCHING ME. For some reason, HEY YOU'RE TOUCHING ME is one of the most basic of pig communications. They do it to each other, too. I thought that their wheeking as I pet them after they ran out of veggies was fear, learning that it was not the case, i'll continue to pet them even if they wheek a bit.
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Nov 27, 2010 05:00
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Back in the day when I kept guineapigs, they had their own large enclosure in the shed outside. Whenever the back door of the house was open or closed, they used to wheek like crazy incase we were bringing food to them. They loved that enclosure - my dad got an old telephone system, about a metre long by about 6cm high and took the insides out of it. He then put a few lightbulbs inside it. Result: Warm metal for the pigs to go to sleep on. Electric blanket! They loved it, unfortunately they got very lazy and kept pissing/making GBS threads on it.
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Nov 27, 2010 11:07
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Likely a very silly question: Neither of my pigs bite me, but sometimes they nab my fingers a bit when I hand feed them. Today, one of them broke the skin, by accident I believe and I was bleeding a bit. I immediately washed the cut out. I am almost certain my piggies have never been to a vet and never vaccinated but they seem perfectly healthy, I don't have any reason to worry do I? Any reason to worry more than any normal cut? Diogines fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Nov 28, 2010 |
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Nov 28, 2010 03:04
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You don't have anything specific to worry about outside of it getting infected in the normal course of events, no. Treat it like any animal bite, wash it out - guinea pigs tend to keep their mouths full of chewed up hay and food sometimes - cover it, and keep an eye on it. You'll almost always get bitten at least a couple of times early on. I've gotten the "whoops this isn't food" bite, I've gotten the "breaking up a fight" bite (luckily mine didn't require stitches), I've gotten the "you're trying to cut my toenails and being exceptionally ham-handed about it" bite. I also had one of my girls, during floor time and completely apropos of nothing, waddle up to me from across the room and bite the hell out of my hand. You'll get better at avoiding them as time goes on.
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Nov 28, 2010 07:40
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Since i've been hand feeding them veggies they are more willing to come out of hiding and look at me if I stay still, though they still haul rear end if I move. I went to go pick one up and she did run but once I caught her, I sat down next to the cage with her. She purred while I pet her without giving her food I could not be more thrilled. They both got some veggies right after. Diogines fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Nov 29, 2010 |
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Nov 29, 2010 04:04
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I'm new to PI but I didn't think this post was worth it's on thread. I've had mice, gerbils and hamsters before but today I bought a rat. She seems to be very playful so far and she likes to be near me. When I first introduced her to her new home, she sat in the cage and had a look around, then just plumped herself down. I returned with some lunch for myself and ate it just a short distance away from the cage - and she in turn began eating her own food too, and stopped when I finished mine  . She's currently sitting on my lap right now as I type this.The reason I'm writing here is because of two things. The first may have been answered in the thread previously but I haven't noticed it. She has been in her new cage for most of today but despite there being bedding for her, she would rather sleep on the sawdust. Is she still just getting used to the place? Secondly, I need a name for her. I'm thinking along the lines of Fink so far but I'm open to suggestions. Pics:  
a dmc delorean fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Dec 2, 2010 |
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Dec 2, 2010 16:38
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She's gonna need a buddy. Rats are super social! They'll sleep where they're comfy, and generally wherever looks weird.
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Dec 2, 2010 16:51
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Thanks in large part to the wonderful advice from this thread my guinea pigs are healthy and happy, I do have a few new questions though: 1. I feed them plenty of varied veggies daily but they VASTLY prefer the hay I give them to their pellets. They eat the pellets eventually, but not much of it. Nothing to be worried about, is it? 2. Guinea pig psychology question. Why do they freak out if I try to touch them in their enclosure, but are far calmer when I touch them outside of it? They don't freak out when I pick them up outside of it at all. When I take them out of their enclosure and feed them veggies they do not really seem not afraid of me. One to two times a day I take them out and stroke them gently for a moment, feed them a piece of a baby carrot while I hold them alone then put them back. They don't freak out when put back and seem calm. They are perfectly calm once I grab them. I sit down on the floor next to their enclosure and slide a spoon across the floor of their enclosure to pick up feces. They seem calm when I do this, they often come very close to my hand, mostly they just watch. When I finish cleaning I change their hay for the day. Is this the "bird of prey swooping down" on them thing? It seems odd that they see my hand on the floor and come very close it but freak out if I touch them gently, yet do not seem afraid otherwise. Diogines fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Dec 6, 2010 |
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Dec 6, 2010 00:21
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| # ? May 14, 2024 08:48 |
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Diogines posted:1. I feed them plenty of varied veggies daily but they VASTLY prefer the hay I give them to their pellets. They eat the pellets eventually, but not much of it. Nothing to be worried about, is it? Nope. Pellets are, in fact, merely compressed chopped hay, with some calorie-dense binders added. Therefore they're a good source of calories for young, breeding, or elderly animals, but otherwise the additives in them are undesirable. Many of us feed little to no pellets for healthy adult animals - say a half cup per pair once a week. Diogines posted:2. Guinea pig psychology question. Exactly. They've got a mental picture of "sky" of their world, and you reaching in interrupts the picture in a way that is instinctively reminiscent of condors. Outside, they're already at a higher level of alertness, and they don't have as fixed a pattern of expectation in their tiny little minds, so your movements aren't as startling. I have a pair of 4 year olds, born in the rescue. They have never endured any abuse and absolutely associate me with food. Any time I am near, they will come up to the grids and beg nonstop. I can put my fingers through and stroke their noses, and hand them treats, and they show no fear. But if I move my fingers up 2", so I am approaching over the TOP of the bars - all bets are off and they scatter. When they are being caught they scream like banshees - and as soon as they are in arms, they're totally calm and begging again.
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Dec 6, 2010 01:19
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