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cat with hands posted:I've noticed no excessive scratching or biting, nor is the dry patches sensitive to touch. Will try to get some pictures soon. That looks like a scratch mark after a little fight perhaps? I know you mentioned its a bald spot, but my pigs used to get this too after a throwdown even if it was only for a couple seconds.
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Jan 28, 2011 02:00
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spiralbrain posted:That looks like a scratch mark after a little fight perhaps? I know you mentioned its a bald spot, but my pigs used to get this too after a throwdown even if it was only for a couple seconds. Problem is that it started out a lot smaller and has grown a bit. The other two have similar but smaller spots, one on the stomach and one on the neck.
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Jan 28, 2011 02:09
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Serella posted:Interesting guinea pig story to share here, if sad. My parents recently had to put down their 5-6 y.o. guinea pig because he had cancer. Poor folks, they've had an obscene amount of pets with cancers and crazy things like gout/renal failure. In any case, what makes this so odd is that the male pig apparently had BREAST CANCER. Poor lil guy. Not actually all that odd in rodents in general. Females tend to be more likely to get them but I've taken a lot of mammary tumors off of male foster pigs. Generally mammary cancer in guinea pigs is benign and/or well contained so it's pretty treatable as a general rule.
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Jan 28, 2011 02:22
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Rodent Mortician posted:Not actually all that odd in rodents in general. Females tend to be more likely to get them but I've taken a lot of mammary tumors off of male foster pigs. Generally mammary cancer in guinea pigs is benign and/or well contained so it's pretty treatable as a general rule. Well, I know it's not uncommon for females, but I'd never heard of it happening in males, so I figured it was about the same odds as breast cancer in human males. But I think it just didn't get caught quickly enough and he had already started to go off his food. I guess I'll probably encourage my mom to grope her animals more in the future for preventative care. I'm sure it didn't help that he was a fat little pear of a piggy.
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Jan 28, 2011 06:10
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cat with hands posted:Problem is that it started out a lot smaller and has grown a bit. The other two have similar but smaller spots, one on the stomach and one on the neck. That's a really weird set of locations. I can't see enough detail to tell whether there's flaking skin on the bare part and crusty exudate in the hair around the bare area, or if it's smooth skin up to the area where the hair starts?  Here is a not-much better picture of a pig with an advanced mite infestation. You can see the surface damage to the skin in the bare areas under her ear, and in the black area 11 o'clock of the wound you can see the white crusty exudate typical of a mite infestation.So if there's crustiness, it could still be mites despite the odd location. It's not unheard of that bite wounds can cause mite flareups that start as localized breakouts near the traumatized areas, but that's a fairly uncommon presentation. If it's just bare, dry skin, mites are less likely, but fungus can't be off the table. Really I'd get a vet to look at it so they can get a culture growing ASAP. There's nothing quite so frustrating as doing weeks of unsuccessful treatment only to find out from your belated cultures that it was something else entirely. He's a cutey, looks just like my Thor who was one of my first ever pigs. Serella posted:Well, I know it's not uncommon for females, but I'd never heard of it happening in males, so I figured it was about the same odds as breast cancer in human males. All the pig mammary tumors I've ever seen have been in males. It's definitely not quite that rare. Encourage your mom to weigh weekly! That's the best way to spot illness before it's too late. Cancers don't always have to be terminal, either. We took a mammary tumor off a pig and he lived another 4 years (6 total). Last year I took a thyroid tumor off a 4 year old and he's doing great, I'm hoping he'll give me another four years. 
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Jan 28, 2011 16:26
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My girlfriend has a hamster and has recently run into a bit of a problem, I was wondering if you guys could help. She keeps the hamster in a cage very similar to this one:  Unfortunately, the hamster has learned how to open the door. The cage is also situated at the top of a shelf, about 4 feet high, so we really don't want the hamster falling from such a height. Do you know of any ways to secure the door that the hamster can't chew through? Or is it time to invest in an aquarium? Edit: The front door, not the hatch thing on top. That is already ham-proofed.
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Jan 28, 2011 21:22
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If this little enclosure connected to anything else, like a system of Habitrail cages, etc? Because if not that cage looks awfully small to house a hamster and he is probably trying to escape all the time because he is bored to death living in a little tiny box. I'm no hamster expert but maybe you or your girlfriend should consider a larger cage instead of trying to hamster-proof his current habitat.
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Jan 28, 2011 21:29
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The cage does have numerous additions, a bunch of those little colored tubes, ramps, things to climb and keep the hamster entertained. I just pulled a picture of the base model cage off the internet because I don't have pics of hers handy.
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Jan 28, 2011 21:33
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I've never met a hamster who could operate a binder clip, and they fit perfectly over those bars.
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Jan 28, 2011 21:49
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Stalizard posted:
Well poo poo. I don't have any advice for you but I was just looking at getting something like that since mine has already figured out how to open one of the doors of her current Habitrail home (the pink part in the photo). This isn't very good news.  EDIT: Though that's a great solution!
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Jan 28, 2011 21:53
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That actually sounds perfect, we'll probably use binder clips to keep the door shut while we look for more ways to expand the cage and keep her interested. Thanks PI! Edit: It may not be an aesthetically pleasing solution, but we've had very good results simply taping down plastic doors, like the hatch on top in my photo. I'm pretty dissatisfied with habitrail cages overall. In my experience the plastic is extremely prone to breaking, especially the little tabs to hold tubes and accessories. Now that I know that neither of their major designs can actually keep hamsters in, I don't think we're ever gonna get another one. Stalizard fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Jan 28, 2011 |
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Jan 28, 2011 21:53
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alucinor posted:All the pig mammary tumors I've ever seen have been in males. It's definitely not quite that rare. Encourage your mom to weigh weekly! That's the best way to spot illness before it's too late. Interesting about the mammary tumors. I know they would have gotten them removed if it wasn't too late, but I think they just never noticed, especially since he was so tubby. I'll definitely work on her getting to weigh them, but it took ages to get my parents to stop feeding the pigs grapes and they still don't listen when I tell them the pigs need more hay and less carrots. The problem is that they're suckers for the little faces and just want to stuff them silly.
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Jan 29, 2011 23:49
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alucinor posted:As long as you feel confident that the vet check was thorough, that's fine then. Just keep an eye on his weight and if he starts trending downwards you know there may be an underlying issue. I know it's way late, but he seems ok, personality wise, he really seems to like some of the new toys I've got him. I'm slowly trying to bond him to another "unadoptable" I've taken in, and that's going...ok. But it turns out the way I knew to check for hair rings was, well, wrong. So I'm gonna do a proper, thorough check now and see if that's the issue, but otherwise, there really doesn't seem to be anything wrong. I really don't get the impression that there's something really wrong or something that I'm missing, he's just not interested in grooming himself.
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Jan 30, 2011 08:02
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I feel like I should give my piggies some more toys. Besides the essentials, their cage is pretty bare. There is such an enormous amount of variety in suggestions from various sources. My cage has two pigloos, a hay container, a few small wooden blocks and a cardboard tube tunnel. What else should I add in?
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Jan 30, 2011 22:59
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Pigs typically don't play with toys, especially ones marketed to piggies which are just repackaged rat or bird toys. They especially don't gnaw on wooden toys like parrots, rats, or hamsters, mostly because they didn't evolve in an environment where their food or nesting areas could be found by getting inside nutshells or tree stumps; their food and living areas (grass and rock piles, respectively) don't require that type of behavior to locate. Some pigs will learn to bop or nudge toys if it's reinforcing by their owner (a bop on a toy results in food and/or attention), but there's just very few objects which are themselves rewarding to pigs. The only ones I've found are foraging toys or hiding toys, which can all be homemade: * Wrap a baby carrot in a deep layer of hay, stuff inside cardboard toilet paper tube. * Fill a paper lunchbag or cardboard saltines box with hay, pigs will eat their way in and then sleep inside it. * Move the pigloos daily to allow them the novelty of re-exploring and re-learning their environment. Also try rotating between a half-different types of tubes, huts, or pigloos. * Remove their food bowls and only offer pellets scattered in the bedding, allowing them to dig and forage. * Tuck veggies on top of the pigloos, or under hay piles, or woven in the bars. Etc. Really, a bare cage is a good thing, because it allows plenty of room to run around and explore, which is the primary behavior pigs like to engage in. I doubt you need anything else in there.
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Jan 30, 2011 23:12
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I especially like all the guinea pig toys that have bells in or on them. Nothing is guaranteed to drive a guinea pig away than something that makes noise unexpectedly.
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Jan 30, 2011 23:36
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Most of the toys I see at the local pet store are clearly not any good for guinea pigs heh, I laughed when I saw a large variety of toys with bells and other noise makers. Is it safe to put a toiler paper tube in their cage? What about the glue?
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Jan 31, 2011 04:11
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On Habitrail: I owned a bunch of gerbils as a kid, and I hated all of the plastic cages. They figured out how to chew out of every single one of them. Plastic tubes were terrible too. For awhile we tried to do things like reinforce all the little edges they could get out in with various materials, and weigh down any vertical facing doors (since the latches always broke). In the end, we finally went to aquariums and they ended up being infinitely better - both for us and the gerbils. YMMV, but I'd say don't even bother with the plastic cases, unless you like digging through every nook and cranny of your house, trying to find your little friends before they wedge themselves into somewhere unsafe  .
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Jan 31, 2011 06:11
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Diogines posted:Most of the toys I see at the local pet store are clearly not any good for guinea pigs heh, I laughed when I saw a large variety of toys with bells and other noise makers. Is it safe to put a toiler paper tube in their cage? What about the glue? If the glue on toilet roll tubes was harmful, there would be an overnight small-animal holocaust. It's non-toxic to humans and animals and completely edible; I know one company makes theirs out of cornstarch. If there was a really thick blob of glue I'd scrape it off, but the little strips imbedded in the cardboard are fine.
kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Jan 31, 2011 |
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Jan 31, 2011 07:17
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Diogines posted:Is it safe to put a toiler paper tube in their cage? Quotin this again because it best illustrates the only real risk with TP rolls: kazmeyer posted:Sounds like you're doing a good job so far! The only thing I'd say is don't be upset if the stuff you got them to gnaw on and play with goes completely unused; guinea pigs rarely chew on what you want them to chew on and a lot of "toys" designed for them just freak them out. Best toy/chew ever = empty toilet roll or paper lunch sack stuffed with hay. (Just slit the roll lengthwise if your pigs are young enough that they might get their heads stuck in it. I had one of my girls get freaked out when she was a wee one, attempt to hide in the roll, and then run around the cage in terror with it jammed onto her head while I tried to stop laughing enough to catch her and extract her.)
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Jan 31, 2011 15:49
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Hey guys, I want to share my newest family member, Charlie! I adopted him from a craigslist person who had only done half her research. His cage was bare and full of wire and I'm super excited to fill it with fleece accessories and tons of good toys for him. The first thing I did was change his diet and had my husband put together some wooden ledges to get rid of the metal ones with ramps. I love his curly tail and he's such a sweetheart.     Old setup  New shelves 
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Jan 31, 2011 23:50
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This is Daphne. I adopted her about 2 weeks ago from a small animal rescue here in San Diego. I think she's adjusting fairly well, but she still doesn't like being picked up. It's not that she runs away, but the moment I get her off the ground she wriggles like crazy. This also happens when I pick her up to put her back in her cage. I've watched videos, I've read articles and still she freaks out. She's a little heavy (2.5 lbs) so I'm wondering if it's just uncomfortable for her. Any advice? BONUS PICS: After her first bath  Munchin' on hay in a paper bag 
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Feb 1, 2011 05:56
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She's just freaked out to be in a new place and OH GOD WHATS THAT THING IN THE SKY ITS GOING TO EAT ME It would do Daphne well to get her a friend.
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Feb 1, 2011 06:00
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Sirotan posted:It would do Daphne well to get her a friend. This plan is in the works The lady at the animal rescue suggested I start with one guinea pig since this is the first time I've ever had one. I'd like to adopt another girl in probably a month or so. I understand that I'll have to quarantine her and all that so that adds to the time before I can introduce them. Can't wait for two piggies! Wheek wheek wheek
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Feb 1, 2011 06:07
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Yeah, it's a combination of THE CLAW and the unfamiliarity/instability of being picked up; right now she's worried that either you're going to eat her or drop her. I find that if I don't have good support under a pig's hind legs, they tend to be more likely to freak out about being held. It's something you and Daphne will get the hang of. One note, since you mentioned first bath - guinea pigs, especially short-haired ones, don't need regular bathing unless they do something silly like pee and lie in it. I only mention it because I've run into people who bathed their pigs every week and wondered why they had skin issues.
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Feb 1, 2011 11:59
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kazmeyer posted:One note, since you mentioned first bath - guinea pigs, especially short-haired ones, don't need regular bathing unless they do something silly like pee and lie in it. I only mention it because I've run into people who bathed their pigs every week and wondered why they had skin issues. Yeah, I bathed her at the suggestion of the lady at the rescue since she was shedding quite a bit when I first got her. Although it was an "entertaining" experience, I would rather not make it a regular thing.
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Feb 1, 2011 16:34
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Very few things can top the look of outrage and violation that you get when you wash a guinea pig's butt.
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Feb 1, 2011 21:46
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kazmeyer posted:Very few things can top the look of outrage and violation that you get when you wash a guinea pig's butt. Oh dear god I'm doing this for the first time this weekend and I am not looking forward to the smell. We bathe Carl probably three times a year at most, but this will be the first time I clean his butt. I don't think he'll like me much afterwards. INeedANewCrayon: Did you adopt from Wee Companions? I think my pig needs a friend and they look like a really legit rescue.
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Feb 2, 2011 08:48
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Bastard Tetris posted:We bathe Carl probably three times a year at most, but this will be the first time I clean his butt. I don't think he'll like me much afterwards. Bad news: If you have a male, you should do the butt and sheath cleaning like once a week, maybe once a month at the very least. I've rescued pigs who were only cleaned once a year, and they ended up with giant golf ball size poo impactions and giant gross pimples of penile smegma.Interesting (?) pattern I've noticed: Neutered males tend to have filthy sheaths and clean anogenital pouches. Intact males tend to have clean sheaths and filthy anogenital pouches. I'm not sure which I hate cleaning more.
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Feb 2, 2011 15:24
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alucinor posted:Bad news: If you have a male, you should do the butt and sheath cleaning like once a week, maybe once a month at the very least. And this right here is why I only have female pigs. That and I just can't stand looking at their balls. 
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Feb 2, 2011 15:37
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Usually my girlfriend does it but we're going to start divying the poop chute duties up. It's time for a disgusting adventure!
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Feb 2, 2011 17:07
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Bastard Tetris posted:INeedANewCrayon: Did you adopt from Wee Companions? I think my pig needs a friend and they look like a really legit rescue. Yes, I adopted from Wee Companions. The rescue is in a house down in Imperial Beach. When I emailed Fenella she got back to me very quickly and we set up a time for me to meet all the pigs. She's a super nice woman and there are lots of pigs to choose from. There are even more than what's listed on the site, so I suggest just going and having a little lap time with a bunch of them.
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Feb 2, 2011 22:08
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I haven't read the entire thread yet- but I'm sensing an under representation of Degu love. So I'll picture spam. I've got two- They're relatively new though so if anyone has any tips on their care I'd greatly appreciate it. They were brothers given to us by a breeder who had no use for them- Up until 3 weeks ago I didn't know what they were, but I'm so in love with my boys it's insane.  Click here for the full 720x540 image. This one is Pippin. He's ridiculously adventurous and is the first out the door when we open it. You can see my roommate's Dachshund in the background, who loves chasing him in the runner ball. He's got serious attitude and will chirp and chase after her though, which I think is hilarious.  Click here for the full 720x540 image. This is his brother Merry. He's fat and lazy and a big whiner. He'll squeak in protest when I try and coax him out of the cage but he's generally cool once he's out. I actually really worry about his weight- Any tips on how to stop your rodents from becoming obese? He has a wheel and a big enough cage and we take him out for exercise every day...   Click here for the full 720x540 image. Merry likes to chill in my pocket. I give him a few seeds or cheerios and he'll stay in there all day.  Click here for the full 720x540 image. He also loving LOVES chin scratches.  Click here for the full 720x540 image.  
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Feb 4, 2011 18:38
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Oh man, degus are so awesome, thanks for posting yours! I'd love to own a pair one day, but they aren't the easiest critters to find.
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Feb 5, 2011 02:46
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Surprisingly few pictures of my hamster, his name is Reagen, and loves to kick Khador rear end.  
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Feb 5, 2011 06:18
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RumbleFish posted:Oh man, degus are so awesome, thanks for posting yours! I'd love to own a pair one day, but they aren't the easiest critters to find. They have a pair at my local humane society that have been there for over a year, I wish I could adopt them if I had the space. They actually had the male neutered so they wouldn't get the girl preggo.
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Feb 5, 2011 20:40
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At some point in the next month I may have to leave my home at literally a moments notice, well with a little notice but only an hour or two. I won't be back for three days. I have two young adult female piggies. My piggies water bottle usually lasts about 5 days till it gets down to being nearly empty so I do not need to worry about that. I may be able to arrange for someone to come but I want to have a plan just in case they cannot. Can anyone recommend some sort of timed food dispenser I can buy, just in case?
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Feb 6, 2011 15:53
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Diogines posted:At some point in the next month I may have to leave my home at literally a moments notice, well with a little notice but only an hour or two. I won't be back for three days. I have two young adult female piggies. There isn't a timed food dispenser that would work for pigs, I would discourage you from even considering that as an option. What if it jams on the first day? For the same reason, you don't want to place all your trust on just one water bottle because what if they get a bit of hay jammed in the nozzle and it gets blocked/all leaks out? And what if one pig leaps out of the cage and ends up trapped on the floor for three days with no food OR water? (I've seen all of these things happen.) I was in a similar situation last year (grandma in the hospital, needed to jump on a plane at an hour's notice) and this is what I did: I found a reputable bonded/insured petsitter through these guys, interviewed someone, had her come over and meet the animals and go over their needs, and gave her a printed set of instructions and a copy of my key. So when I needed to rush out, I just had to call her and she was able to start coming over that same day. Next best option would be to make a similar arrangement with a tech or someone at your vet clinic. Just leave them a key at the clinic, and you can do all the instructions by phone if need be. If you really feel that you can't do this, your only option is to put like 3 water bottles and half a box of hay in the cage and hope for the best, but I've seen that go wrong many, many times. You've taken so much care to do right by these girls, I'd hate for you to draw the unlucky number this one time, and end up with a tragedy despite doing everything else right.
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Feb 6, 2011 17:20
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I am trying to find someone who will be able to come but I want to be set, just in case. Setting up the water bottles is a non issue. If I left plenty of pellets and hay, what could happen? They have not had any health problems since i've had them, no choking, cage breaking or so on. Do you mean the normal sorts of health risks could happen while I was away, or something else? Can you tell me about some of the stories you've seen from others? Diogines fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Feb 7, 2011 |
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Feb 7, 2011 07:14
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As it happens, I opened this thread to ask about Degus, so I have a couple of questions for you Putinontheritz: I guess the big one is how often they go to the toilet? I have to work in a communal living room, and that's fine and everyone would be happy with any Degus I owned being there, but I'd like them with me while I work but preferably without crapping all over me like many rodents do if out of their cage for a decent length of time. I've always assumed that like gerbils they go quite rarely - is there any truth to this?
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Feb 7, 2011 13:49
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