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Sirotan posted:The next day, I let the whole herd share the leftovers: My insides shriveled up from the cuteness here. It's like mini Edible Arrangements! I need to try something like that with my bearded dragon but sometimes he poops in his salad  Thanks for your thumbnail help, I'll resize my pictures more next time. A question for chin owners: where is all the good wood at? I miss Pet Products by Nature, especially the grab bags and mixed woods. They were pretty inexpensive too. I'd like to buy drilled coin and whirlies grab bags, and not pay $15/lb for each type he likes. CnH hasn't been a big help.
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May 14, 2012 13:41
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anima posted:My insides shriveled up from the cuteness here. It's like mini Edible Arrangements! I need to try something like that with my bearded dragon but sometimes he poops in his salad I get most of my wood from Ronda on CnH. I wouldn't trust anything Superpet makes.
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May 14, 2012 17:04
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So I have questions about guinea pig introductions and when to intervene. Me and my partner have had our 9mo guinea pig (Eve) since she was 3mo old. She has always been rather shy, and sits in her house a lot when she isn't eating. We've been trying to get her a friend for awhile. This is where Lila enters the picture. She is a 2-4yo Guinea Pig. She came from a neglected house. This makes her rather protective of food, but otherwise she seems normal. So we tried introductions, and this is the first time I have ever introduced guinea pigs. They started off with all the typical introduction showboating. When we introduced food into the mix Lila would charge Eve away from the food, but that would be it. However just a little while ago we tried again, putting them in a neutral environment and they were much more violent than before. It got to the point where they were biting, and some fur came off of both, but no blood. At that point I pulled them apart. I'm concerned that this won't work. We can return Lila to where we got her (not the neglecting owners), but I want that to be the last resort. I am just wanting any general introduction help, but more specifically when should I step in to intervene and when should I let things play out. Do I just need to man up and let them work it out? I want this to work. We also have a new 2x6 C&C cage that we hope will be a completely neutral environment for them. We'll try a buddy bath before we try to put them in it.
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May 15, 2012 00:20
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You should put them together and leave them that way, and not interfere with them unless they are fighting to the point of drawing blood. Letting them interact briefly and then separating them again isn't really going to do anything, you have to just put them together and let them sort out their new herd hierarchy themselves. Of all the pig introductions I've done (it's a lot), only once have they ever continued to fight bad enough that I've had to make a semi-permanent divider in the cage and swap in/out the offending pig. Luckily I only had to do that for a couple of months, because after a while they came to accept one another and peacefully coexisted forever more.
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May 15, 2012 00:39
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Well tried again with Eve and Lila. There was more fighting. During the third fight Eve was squealing loudly and I pulled them apart (I assume this caused the bleeding I noticed later). They fought one more time, but after that Eve tried to avoid Lila. When they would meet it would result in lots of burring. Eve initiated most meetings after the fight, and would go up fur rigid and swaying, but when burring started she'd back down. Then there was another 2 fights and I noticed Eve had a small bit of blood next to her nostril. Only a surface wound, but we decided to end the interaction there. We figured we give it one more shot when the new cage arrives after bathing them. If that doesn't work does a divider in the cage work at all, or will these pigs be like North and South Korea?
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May 15, 2012 04:52
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Yeah dividers in the cage work great. I got a half-dozen or more pairs of older intact males to bond after a year or two in divided cages, and even had a couple of pigs who had to live as singles for behavioral or health reasons (one very aggressive female, another little girl who lost all her teeth before I got her) and they were much happier when they were able to at least talk to another piggy through the bars.
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May 15, 2012 15:35
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I've had a lot of luck with scent masking. Bathe both pigs in the same shampoo before your next introduction. If that doesn't help, try getting some weak perfume or cologne spray, put some on your hands, rub most of it off until there's just a tiny ghost of a scent left, then wipe your hands down the back of each pig. You want to slightly alter their scent without overwhelming them. My Sita was a righteous terror when I tried to introduce her to the herd, she chased and fought and peed everywhere until I thought there was no way it was going to work. I did the cologne trick, and the next introduction was five slightly confused pigs all wandering around checking each other out and then instant acceptance into the herd. "You smell like me, therefore I guess we're related or something."
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May 15, 2012 18:39
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I recently lost my guinea pig of 7+ years. I miss her dearly, she was such a sweetheart and now we have four guineas buried in the backyard.  on the bright side, I got a rat last friday. she's darling! she likes to hide in my hair and between my breasts: *Edited out the photo* and she'll eat out of my hand after only four days. I named her hoshiko, although my mum's like UGH NO (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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May 15, 2012 20:56
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I bought my hamster a new hidey house, since I felt the old one was taking up too much floor space in the cage, but she doesn't want to use it. I bought it two days ago and both yesterday and this morning she's rebuilt her nest in a corner of the cage near her wheel. She seems to be sleeping fine, so I guess I'm not worried about that, but is there anything I can do to convince her that the new house is safe? I put some of her nesting material in there along with her favorite chew stick and a treat. I started putting the treats in there yesterday and she seems to go in, take them, and go right back out.
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May 16, 2012 13:54
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McCloud24 posted:I bought my hamster a new hidey house, since I felt the old one was taking up too much floor space in the cage, but she doesn't want to use it. I bought it two days ago and both yesterday and this morning she's rebuilt her nest in a corner of the cage near her wheel. She seems to be sleeping fine, so I guess I'm not worried about that, but is there anything I can do to convince her that the new house is safe? I put some of her nesting material in there along with her favorite chew stick and a treat. I started putting the treats in there yesterday and she seems to go in, take them, and go right back out. The chinchillas take a while to adapt to their houses too. Give her time 
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May 16, 2012 17:25
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So I tried the buddy bath with Eve and Lila. They are actually coexisting in the same space. Eve is totally none confrontational, and runs when Lila gets close. Lila charged her a few times, but is now mostly ignoring her. We're going to monitor them for awhile just in case. Lila even went up towards Eve without chattering her teeth! (Didn't stop Eve running away). I have hope. We will probably mask them with cologne for awhile as well, just for good measure. Thanks for all the good advice everyone.
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May 16, 2012 23:17
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I'm not new to owning rodents... I had a guinea pig named Kaylee for about three years before she passed away. She was healthier than a horse and was the best birthday present ever. Until two months later, when my ex-husband started yelling for me to come into the living room because he thought Kaylee had gotten under her pigloo somehow and cut herself in half. Nope, what he thought was two halves of a full-grown peeg ended up being two baby pigs because the pet store didn't know how to sex their pigs. Luckily, Wash and Book were both adopted out to a very nice family who still sends me updates on the boys. I'm also NEVER buying another pig and am going to look for a rescue when we're ready for another one. My big question is about chipmunks. They're illegal to keep as pets here in California, but it was legal in Texas when I lived there. One of the rescue places had a domesticated Siberian chipmunk that I really wanted to take home, but I STILL know nothing about raising chipmunks. We're not going to live in California forever, so this is something I'm still pondering. Does anyone know anything about keeping a chipmunk for a pet? Any good resources out there for people?
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May 16, 2012 23:40
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Sirotan posted:This thread has been around long enough that this is now my third post celebrating the birthday of my bestest ever pig, Fuji. She 'turned' 7 on Friday! (It's more like the anniversary of the day I got her, so she's probably more like 7yrs 2mo at this point.) I've had guinea pigs for close to 20 years now and despite my best efforts, I'm lucky to keep most around for 5 years, let alone 7. Fuji is a trooper and I hope to have her around long enough to make another post like this next May. That is cuteness overload  I like how they all get a piece of "cake".
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May 16, 2012 23:55
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I seem to have solved both my house problem and my floor space problem in one stroke. I bought a lazy lookout attachment for her cage, which she loves the ever-loving poo poo out of. Up and down the tube all night. I put some of her nesting stuff in it, so I'm hoping that when I wake up in the morning I find her asleep up there. Since it's connected to her cage from the outside by a tube, she has more room since there's no need for a house on the floor. Edit: Worked perfectly. She's snoozing away up there right now. McCloud24 fucked around with this message at 13:07 on May 17, 2012 |
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May 17, 2012 04:44
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The mice on their wheels are so very, very noisy. I know that people advise oiling the wheels (though I'm not sure what part to oil), but I don't know what kind of oil to use or if it'd be okay/safe for them.Lolitas Alright! posted:We're not going to live in California forever, so this is something I'm still pondering. Does anyone know anything about keeping a chipmunk for a pet? Any good resources out there for people? I had two when I was about fourteen. They need a ton of space (I had mine in a decently large bird/rat cage and I don't think that was enough), and can be pretty crazy. One of mine was a nightmare, and I didn't like her that much, but the other was the cutest, cuddliest little thing. They got about an hour a day to free-roam across my bedroom. If I had them now I'd probably set them up in a cage or outdoors enclosure of a suitable size for a parrot, have them out for several hours a day, and feed them much more variety than I did at the time (they were on a crappy, basic chipmunk mix that didn't have enough protein and stuff imo). They are adorable and amazingly fun to watch though
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May 17, 2012 14:18
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What kind of wheels do you have for them? I bought the rats a large Wodent Wheel and it's all but silent. They're not the cheapest model on the market, but they're very solidly constructed and designed to not have any dangerous points for pinching feet or tails.
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May 17, 2012 15:48
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It's the wheel that came with the cage. It's actually not a bad wheel, solid plastic and ridged inside, it just squeaks a whole lot. The cage doesn't really have a ton of room for things that stand on the floor, so I can't use my flying saucer anymore. I'm not sure how much room a wodent wheel would take up compared to a saucer, though?
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May 17, 2012 16:09
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Is it normal for hamsters to chirp/squeak/click? My syrian(Cherry Vixen von Hamsburg the 3rd, because I had to give her a stupidly long name because she's so small) has started doing this recently, I usually notice it when I'm holding her, and she hasn't always done it, so I'm worried she's getting scared. She's noisiest when I'm wearing this sort of fluffy cardigan, and she's trying to make a nest in it, so perhaps she's excited? Sometimes I hear her do it when she's noticed you're by her cage, and she's getting out of her nest to see what you're up to. I'd be surprised if it's aggression, as she's never bitten anyone ever in the almost 2 years I've had her.
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May 20, 2012 19:00
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Finally got a picture of my hamster, Daisy, that's worth uploading. She's about seven weeks old at this point, and I've had her since she was about a month old, though I've known her since the day she was born. I got her from the little independent pet store I work at, where she was born to a golden mother and a grey teddy bear father. You can see the grey around her cheeks, and she also has a big grey spot smack on top of her head. This is her eating a treat off of my fiance's hand; this was her first time ever meeting her, so I figure it says good things about her. She's not terribly keen on being picked up yet, so I usually take her out via her ball, and we work on our handling after she's had a bit of a roll-about.
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May 20, 2012 19:45
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a couple things about guinea pigs (and now rats!!) that will save you money: - replace wood shaving or paper bedding with fleece blankets and plastic underneath. - guineas only; they can live in big cardboard boxes on the floor. mine did for years and years. if you can find a cardboard box kind of thing, with short (maybe a foot or less) sides and about 3 x 3 feet or larger, you can line it with plastic and fleece blankets. or find produce boxes and cut one long side off of each, and tape the long cut-off sides together. guineas like to chew on cardboard, they loving love it. you can replace the boxes when they're chewed up or pee-stained. it's hard to describe, if I still had my guineas I'd show you guys what I mean. - they also love cardboard boxes, like ones you can get from sam's club, that had produce/etc. in them for houses, instead of expensive pigloos. mine ate them regardless of the ink that was on them, but I'd recommend ones with as little ink as possible. - if you own a house with a yard, grass is a cheap/free foodstuff that guineas love, and my rat loves clover. just make sure it's not from the side of the road, fetilised, chemicalised or anything.
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May 20, 2012 20:55
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dweebgal posted:Is it normal for hamsters to chirp/squeak/click? Odette (my syrian) goes on a chirping rampage at least once a day. This has been observed in many states and at all times of day/night: while she's in her nest sleeping/fussing with the bedding, trundling around after a mid-day pee break, grooming, waking up/stretching/yawning, and when I'm holding her. The other hamsters I have owned have been essentially mute by comparison. Since there's no real logic/pattern to when she vocalizes, I am forced to conclude she is just a noisy motherfucker. Sometimes I chirp back at her.
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May 20, 2012 21:00
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artless barbarian posted:she is just a noisy motherfucker I think that might be what it is. I put some lettuce in her cage earlier (by hanging it from the bars to give her a bit of a challenge to get it) And once she had it, she pranced about the cage with it in her mouth chirping about going "look at me, gots ma lettuce" I sometimes make a clicking noise back at mine, and she'll scramble up to my face to investigate. Which is real cute until she decides she's chewing on my lip ring.
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May 20, 2012 22:04
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I was handling my hamster just now (as I said in the post above, I take her out of her cage via her ball and then after she's run around for a little while we work on our handling) and she started nibbling on my hand. I say nibbling because, while she did bite me, it didn't seem to be out of fear, as she didn't make any noise, and didn't try to run. She was just sitting on my palm and started nibbling on the area of fat between my thumb and index finger. I'm thinking it's because my hands were sweaty (it's hot out) and therefore salty, but I put her back in her cage afterwards in case it was due to stress or fear. I'm not too concerned about it, I'm just curious if I'm wrong about the fear issue; I've been working really hard on taming her, and I feel like I've been making some progress. Just a few minutes earlier she nibbled off of a treat in my other hand, so I know she's getting more comfortable. That said, she does seem to be a bit more skittish over the past week, though she doesn't appear sick or hurt in any way. Again, she's a Syrian, approximately seven weeks old. Edit: I should also say, perhaps, that she didn't pee on me or anything during the entire time we were playing. Double Edit: I just sat by her cage with the door open for a bit while having a phone conversation and she walked out and onto my hand, so I think she's fine now, even if she was scared before. She's just never bitten me before, so I was a bit weirded out. McCloud24 fucked around with this message at 04:47 on May 21, 2012 |
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May 21, 2012 02:55
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After a few years of no rodents outside of what I feed my snakes, I got Dexter, a rescue guinea pig from up north. Pics to follow. It's been a while since I've kept cavies, and they are pretty straightforward critters, and Dexter is loving awesome because he is the only pig I've ever had who will sit on my lap and fall asleep there. That said, is there really any reason to feed him the standard cavy pellets? He gets a ton of greens because we keep tortoises too, lots of grass, and hay. The pellets are a staple, I know, but does he need them for health or will he be fine with greens and grasses from the backyard?
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May 21, 2012 04:02
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Rodents nibble your fingers on occasion because they can't afford to ignore the extremely small but non-zero chance your fingers have turned into baby carrots. Most of them quickly come to understand the difference between a cute little nibble and something that might require stitches, but until they do, you definitely want to be careful with them once they start licking you. As for a pelletless diet for pigs, yes, it's absolutely possible as long as you're covering them on vitamin C. (Pellets generally contain stabilized C and are a good way to make sure your cavies don't get scurvy.) You'll want to pay attention to their nutritional balance, however; Guinea Lynx has some good stuff about calcium/phosphate ratios that can help you avoid stones and sludge issues on a veggie-heavy diet.
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May 21, 2012 13:52
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Does anyone else's chinchillas bark at absolutely nothing? Dexter and Smokey will start barking for no drat reason, and never at the same time. Dexter likes to wake me up at 3 AM barking at the darkness, whereas Smokey finds random things during the day to bark at. Could they be hearing some noises from outside or from my neighbors that I can't? Dex seems to start barking in his sleep, could he be dreaming of something scary? I'm trying to figure out if there's something in my apartment that I'm not aware of that's making them upset, although they do it both at my apartment and when I take them to visit my parents at their house. Smokey's never been to my parents' house before so I can understand him barking, but this is Dex's favorite place ever because he gets spoiled by my mom and he has a huge room all to himself to play in for hours every day. In other news I just ordered a second chinchilla mansion cage so Smokey can upgrade from the SuperPet cage once I move in a couple weeks. Dex is too territorial about his cage for me to be comfortable leaving them alone in the same cage together even if I totally rearrange and bleach it (I think he was a bachelor for too long and enjoys being the man of the house), but I think I can definitely get them to the point where they can play in a neutral place together since they seem to enjoy each other's company as long as they don't have to share anything. I haven't tried putting them together yet, especially since Smokey is kinda freaked out because he was at a rescue for a month or two, then with me in my apartment for a month then I moved him to another new place while I'm running around getting ready to move across the country. He's only got one more move to go, poor little guy. I feel kinda bad because when I adopted him I thought I was only going to move across town which wouldn't be too stressful, but then I got a kickass job offer across the country and the chins are staying with my parents being spoiled rotten while I house hunt and pack and everything, so I don't feel too bad for them.
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May 22, 2012 05:19
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kazmeyer posted:Rodents nibble your fingers on occasion because they can't afford to ignore the extremely small but non-zero chance your fingers have turned into baby carrots. Most of them quickly come to understand the difference between a cute little nibble and something that might require stitches, but until they do, you definitely want to be careful with them once they start licking you. And licking is a good thing? I assume it isn't quite the same as with dogs, but a lick here and there is a pretty regular occurrence over the last few days.
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May 22, 2012 05:56
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McCloud24 posted:And licking is a good thing? I assume it isn't quite the same as with dogs, but a lick here and there is a pretty regular occurrence over the last few days. When I had guinea pigs I had a few that liked to lick my hands. My best guess is that my hands probably tasted a bit salty from palm sweat.
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May 22, 2012 06:15
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I've had my hamster since December last year, my friend said everybody who lives on their own should have a hamster Her name is Graham (my hamster, not my friend). Yes, she is a girl, my friends hammy is a girl and called Jeffrey.
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May 22, 2012 14:44
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Does anyone else's chinchillas bark at absolutely nothing? Mine does this usually at night. I think it happens mostly when he's sleeping and has a nightmare/gets startled. He used to do it in his first home, except then it was more like a "woman being murdered" screaming. I've never figured out why exactly.
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May 22, 2012 21:09
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Does anyone else's chinchillas bark at absolutely nothing? Oh god yeah! Cinnamon was barking a lot the other day. Vincenza was barking at me because she was mad though! 
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May 23, 2012 00:20
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McCloud24 posted:I was handling my hamster just now (as I said in the post above, I take her out of her cage via her ball and then after she's run around for a little while we work on our handling) and she started nibbling on my hand. I say nibbling because, while she did bite me, it didn't seem to be out of fear, as she didn't make any noise, and didn't try to run. She was just sitting on my palm and started nibbling on the area of fat between my thumb and index finger. Vincenza the chinchilla does this! When chins do it the theory is they're grooming you. She's learned how to pull that skin without hurting me. She also finds all the dry patches on my hands
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May 23, 2012 00:23
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SmellsOfFriendship posted:Vincenza the chinchilla does this! When chins do it the theory is they're grooming you. She's learned how to pull that skin without hurting me. She also finds all the dry patches on my hands Dex is a fan of grooming my eyebrows if I put my face close enough to his cage.
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May 23, 2012 02:02
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Let's play find the chinchilla in her mansion. Ideally this will house both Vincenza and Cinnamon. For now Cinnamon is the lady of her own manor. Vincenza is making it difficult, she's pretty aggressive for being the baby. Cinnamon is watching TV. She is fascinated.
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May 23, 2012 17:04
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She doesn't try to chew the stuff on top of the cage? I swear Oscar will eat anything. I can't leave anything within reaching distance or it will be destroyed. He even ate the freaking wall behind the cage. THE WALL!!!
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May 23, 2012 19:23
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She can't reach it Yeah, Vincenza tore apart some curtains 
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May 23, 2012 19:25
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Man, Dex's cage looks absolutely barren compared to Vincenza's. All he's got is a fleece hammock, the standard shelves, and a house in there. Is that fleece at the bottom? I have Carefresh in Dexter's but he likes to throw it at people and generally get it everywhere. He also throws hay at people. He's a little rear end in a top hat. Smokey likes to dig around in his Carefresh and also get it everywhere, so if fleece works I think I might change to that. Do you have any padding under it? How do you keep it nice and flat?
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May 23, 2012 23:48
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Man, Dex's cage looks absolutely barren compared to Vincenza's. All he's got is a fleece hammock, the standard shelves, and a house in there. It is! I guess there's some controversy about Carefresh. Chins have eaten it and got impactions in the past. For peeing we have dishes with aspen pine bedding, they figure it out since they only really like to go in one corner anyway . Some like to pee on ledges though. Because they are assholes.Ours stays flat because there's stuff in the bottom of the cage holding it down (chiller marble, house, pee dish) but you can get velcro and other things to attach it to the cage. I get a lot of my stuff from Camphor Chins, she made that one and I think she'll provide velcro too.
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May 24, 2012 00:55
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Awesome, I think I'll try that. It'll hopefully solve Dexter throwing Carefresh everywhere, but I don't think there's a way to stop him throwing hay at people. If you sit anywhere near his cage you will get hay thrown at you. I've watched him do it, he'll pick up a piece, bite it in half, hop over to the edge of his cage and throw half at whoever happens to be closest and then eat the other half while staring at whoever he threw the hay at. I'd like to think he's trying to share his hay, but I'm pretty sure he's just an rear end in a top hat. Once I'm settled I might go a cage accessory buying spree for the fuzzbutts as a reward for them putting up with a 22 hour car ride with me
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May 24, 2012 01:07
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Awesome, I think I'll try that. It'll hopefully solve Dexter throwing Carefresh everywhere, but I don't think there's a way to stop him throwing hay at people. If you sit anywhere near his cage you will get hay thrown at you. I've watched him do it, he'll pick up a piece, bite it in half, hop over to the edge of his cage and throw half at whoever happens to be closest and then eat the other half while staring at whoever he threw the hay at. I'd like to think he's trying to share his hay, but I'm pretty sure he's just an rear end in a top hat. Awww! That's kind of hilarious. Vincenza just stares. And stares. And stares.
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May 24, 2012 01:43
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