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ConscientiousPuffin posted:My chins, Apollo and Loki, aren't getting along either (they are both male) I'd say the key is the experience of the vet. I know a lot of rescues are routinely spaying and neutering small animals (guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, and yep, chinchillas). The complications primarily stem from inexperienced vets and vets that are going off of extremely old protocols and not using gas anesthetic. We've neutered a couple of chins that I was fostering and they were an even easier recovery than most of the guinea pigs that we do. But our vet does see and neuter a fair amount of chinchillas.
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Mar 1, 2010 12:57
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kazmeyer posted:Maybe try posting that you're looking for pigs on GuineaLynx? They have an entire forum devoted to cavy placement, and if there's any bunch of people who are expert at getting homeless pigs into homes it's them. Back in 2002, a breeder in Hollister, California got shut down, and there were something like 140 horribly abused pigs that needed homes. They ended up renting an RV and organizing a cross-country piggy train, adopting them out to people in at least a dozen different states. Thanks for the info. Just checking that forum shows that it's pretty easy to import a guinea pig from the states. That's useful info. I'll probably just be patient and wait for some to show up within the province.
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Mar 2, 2010 03:17
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Fishbulbz posted:Thanks for the info. Just checking that forum shows that it's pretty easy to import a guinea pig from the states. That's useful info. I'll probably just be patient and wait for some to show up within the province. You might consider posting anyway. I know there are a few Canadian members, even out in the wilds, and they might know of rescues or fosters that might not be easy to find. Couldn't hurt, and that place is an absolutely amazing resource when it comes to health and medical issues. Just don't ever let them hear you say something like, "Gosh, that's kind of expensive, I mean, this is just a guinea pig we're talking about here." They will never find your body. 
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Mar 2, 2010 03:43
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My girlfriend, through extenuating circumstances, has a hamster she's been keeping at my apartment for about a week since it's owners are A) Away and B) Can't take her back when they come home because they live on a college campus and got caught with a hamster. Shes really cool and fun, but I have to leave for 3 days and I'm not sure if my roommates will be around to check on the hamster. I leave on a Wednesday night and come back on Saturday morning, so it's closer to two days. If I leave a full bottle (or two) of clean water and give her enough food will she be fine for 3 days? The room will be temperature controlled, out of the sun and everything. I'm just not sure how much food I should leave and such. She tends to hoard it, so I don't want to overfeed her.
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Mar 2, 2010 06:29
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I would feed a bit more than usual and then don't stress about it as long as she's got water. I feed my hamster every other day or so because it forces him to eat the food he doesn't like.
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Mar 2, 2010 07:17
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Well, you have to hand it to the hamster for being determined, although not the brightest of rodents. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvTnVI9s4PM
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Mar 5, 2010 17:54
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Hey everyone, My apologies if it has been covered but I didn't see anything in the OP. I have a black hamster named Rampage that is absolutely awesome. He came to occupy a cage that a mouse I caught previously lived in as detailed in the, "I caught a mouse in a 30,000 square foot warehouse." thread. I'm running into a little trouble though that I haven't encountered before. Rampage has nearly quit running on his wheel and likes to chew the bars on his cage. Anyone with the ability to type that into google knows it's bad. I knew some hamsters to do it a little bit this guy is relentless. He has plenty of food, water, and chew toys. He is also completely social as he never bites and likes to crawl around on everyone else in the house. He is asleep when he should be and awake when he should be. Do I just need to buy a better wheel and pop him in an aquarium? I can't understand what is making him such a little bar chewer.
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Mar 6, 2010 23:36
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I posted earlier in the thread about my little bar-chewer - basically he's bored, it's the funnest thing he can think of, despite your offerings of wood, cardboard, cloth, and whatever else you can find. An aquarium with a fitted/locking mesh lid is your best bet. It's a little more awkward to clean, but I haven't looked back since I got mine. Ah, silence. As for the wheel, he may not be able to turn it. Have you seen him try recently? You could try some different styles if he's a picky princess. I like this page for a list of types with reviews, but you can ignore the parts about tails obviously
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Mar 7, 2010 22:40
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Talking of chewing, I really need to expand my gerbil cage. My boyfriend came home from a night shift last week to see one gerbil sat in the middle of the floor... she'd chewed her way out of the bottom of one section. Thankfully, the other gerbil was still inside the cage, and he did manage to catch her (eventually), but still. The hassle of getting in, when sleepy, and having to catch a gerbil is not a fun one. If I had the money, I might consider going down the aquarium route. We'll see. They at least have a cage, for now.
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Mar 8, 2010 15:55
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Reis posted:Well, you have to hand it to the hamster for being determined, although not the brightest of rodents. Haha thats hilarious.
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Mar 8, 2010 19:49
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Hey guys, My husband-to-be and I just got our first pair of gerbils today.  They both seem to be adjusting really well to their new home. They live in an aquarium setup and I noticed they were trying to eat or chew the glue stuff on the edges of the tank. Should I be concerned or is it just something they do at first?
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Mar 8, 2010 23:01
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Funny you ask that, this morning I was doing a major scrubbing of an old tank that held gerbils for probably a good ten years and the bottom panel of glass is loose as they'd worn down all the silicone. The frame and gravity and some odd bits they didn't get to still hold it in place, it just means it's kind of loose when I clean it.
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Mar 9, 2010 00:00
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numtini posted:Funny you ask that, this morning I was doing a major scrubbing of an old tank that held gerbils for probably a good ten years and the bottom panel of glass is loose as they'd worn down all the silicone. The frame and gravity and some odd bits they didn't get to still hold it in place, it just means it's kind of loose when I clean it. So would you say that it's not much of a thing to worry about then? We're just a little worried because we know plastic is a bad thing for them to chew on because of the toxins, and the glue couldn't possibly be much better. (This is Cosmic_Jester's SO) On a lighter note, we haven't yet firmly decided on names. They're a pair of females, one being sort of a sandy brown, and the other a nice black. I'll try and get some good pictures tonight without using the flash on my phone.
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Mar 9, 2010 01:25
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Aquarium silicone is specifically non-toxic otherwise it would leach chemicals into the water. They should be fine. If not, almost every gerbil would be in trouble because an all metal cage and a glass aquarium are about the only things they won't chew their way out of.
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Mar 9, 2010 04:15
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I have a 6 year old Guinea Pig sow ("Squeaky Toy") who is passing blood in her urine. The vet has her on antibiotics for a UTI but also recommended cranberry juice (unsweetened) for her. The problem is she wont drink it neat - does anyone know of a good ratio to dilute it at for it to be effective but not overpowering in taste for her? Thanks
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Mar 15, 2010 07:35
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Setanta posted:I have a 6 year old Guinea Pig sow ("Squeaky Toy") who is passing blood in her urine. The vet has her on antibiotics for a UTI but also recommended cranberry juice (unsweetened) for her. The problem is she wont drink it neat - does anyone know of a good ratio to dilute it at for it to be effective but not overpowering in taste for her? Mix about 50-50 with water. If she still won't drink on her own, you can use a 1 mL syringe to give it to her the same as if it was a medicine. Did the vet do an Xray to rule out kidney/bladder stones? Those are much more common in pigs than UTIs. Personally, in 10 years, I've never seen a suspected UTI that didnt turn out to really be stones. An Xray is a fast way to ease your mind that you don't have a wrong diagnosis. Good luck!
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Mar 15, 2010 14:36
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Cheers for that, the vet didn't x-ray but I'll take her back tomorrow just in case. The pain/bleeding seems to have reduced a bit but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
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Mar 16, 2010 09:31
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Hey some of you guys might remember me and the guinea pig I adopted about 2 years ago. I posted a thread asking for tips on taking care of one and was treated with tons of information thanks to you guys. If you have archives access the thread is here. I've since had Rockstar (had to give her that name because of her look) for almost 3 years, and before that who knows how long she'd been around. All of the vets I took her to said there's no definitive way to tell how old a GP is so I just estimated she was about 2-3 years old when I got her. If my guess was right she'd be right around 6 now. Here's a picture of her from the old thread if you can't see it:  Well, I noticed today that when I walked by her cage she didn't come out to greet me the way she usually does. I'm used to getting a few wheeks here and there every time I walk by but she was sitting inside of her pigloo despite all my attempts to coax her out. I went to pick her up and as soon as I got a hold of her I knew something was up. She normally hates being picked up (at first) but this time she was almost limp, and I noticed her weight had dropped considerably. I grabbed some veggies to see if she had an appetite but she didn't care at all. I rushed over to my dog's vet and asked him to take a look even though he's not an exotic vet (there aren't really any nearby.) He pretty much told it me straight up that it was time for Rockstar to go. Apparently by the time a pig, let alone an elderly one, gets to this stage it is extremely difficult to nurse it back to health. I've always trusted his opinion so I ultimately decided to go ahead with it. I always told myself making the call to put a guinea pig to sleep wouldn't be anywhere near as difficult as doing so for a "higher" pet like a dog or cat but drat it wasn't as easy as I thought. I'm at least grateful that I got to hold hold her in my hands one last time since I keep reading posts here where posters didn't get that luxury for one reason or another (away from home, careless relatives, etc.) And then, not even a half hour later was I on my way home with her body. I decided I would bury in my backyard. She always loved eating the grass out there so it just felt like the perfect spot to let her rest. And now I'm here writing this post wondering how this happened so quickly. I feel like I should have been paying closer attention to her weight and eating habits instead of just assuming everything was fine. Is this just the way things go with guinea pigs? I thought I would at least have a chance to treat her. I guess I'm just amazed at how fast it happened. Anyways sorry for the long depressing post, I just felt I should get it out somewhere and there's so many kickin' rad rodent owners here that this thread seemed like the perfect spot. Hug your guinea pigs, rats, mice, chinchillas, flying squirrels, bats and what have you for me. Rest in peace Rocks. May you feast on all the bales of timothy hay and giant bell peppers you please where ever you are.
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Mar 17, 2010 01:50
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Guinea pigs are amazingly good at hiding the symptoms of illness. Because they're herd animals, the only real defense they have against predators is kicking out the weak and the sick from the herd; therefore a guinea pig will make every effort to appear like everything's okay even when they're deathly ill. Because of this, it can seem like a perfectly healthy pig crashes in a frighteningly short period of time. The first - and sometimes only - warning sign you get is when they start losing weight. The number one thing you can do to monitor your guinea pig's health is weekly weigh-ins. Digital kitchen scales aren't too hard to come by, just make sure it's got a big enough cup or platform to support a pig, and document weekly. A fluctuation of an ounce isn't an issue, but more than two ounces in a week, or a sustained loss of three or more over a longer period means you should sound the alarm.
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Mar 17, 2010 02:05
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Ditto Kazmeyer, although having an exotics vet will typically extend their life a great deal. The symptoms you describe happen with virtually every illness -- anything from simple stasis to bladder stones to cancer to arthritis, even. A knowledgeable vet is the most important tool you can have in keeping your guinea pigs healthy. Basically, guinea pigs are wusses, and virtually everything makes them stop eating. Once they stop eating, they'll quickly "crash", even when their problems are retardedly simple and easy to deal with.
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Mar 17, 2010 04:45
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Just wanted to say sorry Sataren.  She was a cute one.
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Mar 17, 2010 12:47
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May as well add to the sadness of the thread. My girlfriend's hamster died last night. I happened to take yesterday off and go out for the day with my gf and when we came home Crumbles wasn't looking too good. She was really lethargic and weak. We took her out of her cage and held her and then moved her cage to a quiet area of the apartment. When we put her back in the cage, she would just fall over. She ended up falling on her side and her mouth just kept opening and closing, like she was gasping for air or something. That was hard to watch. We took her out of the cage again and my gf held her and some stuff came out of her nose and then a minute later she was gone. Poor little girl. She wasn't even two years old yet. Maybe she caught a cold or something. I just hope she didn't suffer.
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Mar 17, 2010 17:26
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Mr Bike posted:May as well add to the sadness of the thread. My girlfriend's hamster died last night. I happened to take yesterday off and go out for the day with my gf and when we came home Crumbles wasn't looking too good. She was really lethargic and weak. We took her out of her cage and held her and then moved her cage to a quiet area of the apartment. When we put her back in the cage, she would just fall over. She ended up falling on her side and her mouth just kept opening and closing, like she was gasping for air or something. That was hard to watch. We took her out of the cage again and my gf held her and some stuff came out of her nose and then a minute later she was gone. That sounds just like what happened with Rocks. That last question right there is exactly what I'm trying to deal with myself and I don't know if there will ever be a definitive answer. Sorry for your loss.
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Mar 18, 2010 02:15
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Unfortunately, these little guys and girls can't stay with us forever; all we can do is give them the best we can for as long as they're with us. You gave Rocks a loving, caring home for three years and that's a drat sight better deal than a lot of them get, and that's what you should focus on.
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Mar 18, 2010 03:13
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Just as an update, "Squeaky Toy" has copped 2 shots, one as an antibiotic and the other for the pain, plus she's on a daily antibiotic. Two days later she's eating dry solids again and drinking and isn't crying when urinating, plus there doesn't seem to be any more bleeding. The x-ray didn't show stones so fingers crossed that she's over the worst of it. She even grumbled at me this morning when I woke her up changing her food Thanks for the advice and support with her
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Mar 19, 2010 21:57
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You definitely want to monitor her intake and weight while she's getting over this, as medications can screw around with their appetite. But it definitely sounds like an improvement.
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Mar 19, 2010 22:21
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I've got a thread about this elsewhere, but I'm interested in getting a little more specific and this seems like the place. I've got an empty 29 gallon glass aquarium, 30 inches from one end to the other, 12 from front to back, and 18 high. I'm interested in using it to house a hamster. I've got SOME experience with hamsters, but not in an aquarium, so I'm wondering if anyone would even recommend it as a possibility, and if so, what I'd need to get to make it work (I currently have nothing but the aquarium itself that a small mammal might need).
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Mar 19, 2010 23:02
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Using an aquarium works great for hamsters and other small rodents. Honestly, it's all I'd recommend. They won't drive you or themselves crazy by chewing constantly on wire bars and they can't throw stuff out of the cage to make a mess. Aquariums are also pretty drat escape proof and very easy to clean. You don't need to take them apart/put them back together like you would with plastic or wire cages. You'll want to make sure that you get a lid with plenty of ventilation, but these are easy to find in pet stores -- the reptile section, in particular, usually has a good selection of wire mesh tops that you can lock on.
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Mar 19, 2010 23:14
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How many could I keep in there? I assume to keep any together it would have to be females unless I wanted babies or flying fur.
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Mar 20, 2010 00:32
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McCloud24 posted:How many could I keep in there? I assume to keep any together it would have to be females unless I wanted babies or flying fur. I know people keep multiple female robos in a cage together, but I never really understood the point. They're not social animals. Get yourself a big fat fluffy teddy bear hamster and let it have the place to itself 
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Mar 20, 2010 00:39
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Yeah I recently had a pretty bad experience with multiple robos and would advise that whatever kind of hamster you choose only get one of them. It will probably save you a lot of hassle in the future.
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Mar 20, 2010 03:25
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That much easier for me, I just didn't know how social they were. I haven't had hamsters for a long time, and the last time was in a smaller enclosure that I couldn't have fit more than one if I wanted to. Is a hamster going to be stressed out and terrified by a curious young cat who will probably spend a great deal of time staring at it? Our cat does this to our Betta fish, and she's managed not to knock him over yet, but I'd rather have no hamster at all than one whose terrified all the time.
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Mar 20, 2010 04:29
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Speaking of hamsters, I've got a Campbell's Dwarf that is about 5 months old. Ive had her for 3 of them, and she has been fairly social the whole time. However, for about 5 days now she has been sleeping 23 hours a day. She will come out every several hours to have a sip of water or a bit of food, but apart from that she doesnt respond to voices or come out to play. She used to regularly demand to be let out of her cage.. what's up? She doesn't have any visual injuries and doesnt have any physical sign of illness. Seasonal affective?
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Mar 20, 2010 04:43
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My hamster isn't bothered by the cat at all. It's kind of weird. When we first got her, the cat went ballistic and the hammy just looked out occasionally and would sleep through the cat batting at the tank and such. The cat has slowly figured out that he can't get in and leaves her alone now.
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Mar 20, 2010 14:24
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numtini posted:My hamster isn't bothered by the cat at all. It's kind of weird. When we first got her, the cat went ballistic and the hammy just looked out occasionally and would sleep through the cat batting at the tank and such. The cat has slowly figured out that he can't get in and leaves her alone now. This has been my experience as well. Hamsters are the masters of don't give a gently caress. Our cats used to sit on top of the cage my sister kept her Siberian in and I don't think he even noticed, let alone cared. Hamsters don't have the best eyesight, though, so maybe he really just couldn't see that far away from his face. They also have next to no depth perception, as evidenced by repeated attempts to run off the edge of our dining room table.
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Mar 20, 2010 16:40
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Well, I'm sold. It's going to be a few months before I can get my aquarium from home in Wisconsin to apartment in Michigan, but once that happens I think a hamster is going to be the ticket.
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Mar 20, 2010 17:57
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Blacknose posted:Yeah I recently had a pretty bad experience with multiple robos and would advise that whatever kind of hamster you choose only get one of them. It will probably save you a lot of hassle in the future. I disagree. I've had nothing but good experiences with my 4-strong robo colony. People who buy robos or other dwarves should be aware occasionally they need to be seperated but this is an exception to the rule. They are sociable creatures (to each other) and are stimulated by company. However, if you want to be able to handle your pet, get a syrian hamster. And never keep a glass aquarium in direct sunlight! Hams are great animals. Good luck!
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Mar 21, 2010 02:54
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Get back to me when it's 5am, you're covered in hamster blood and trying to clean multiple bite wounds on a robo.
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Mar 21, 2010 03:28
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I've had them for two years already and no problems. Reading more about this, most people seem to suggest pairs of robos as a good number. Mine were all sisters too, so that helped.
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Mar 21, 2010 04:49
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Mighty rodent gods: Please don't eat me. I can't get out to get this little mouse substrate until tomorrow. Can I tear up some paper towels for him tonight or would that be bad?  I always had access to stores for substrate back in the states so I'm not really certain what to do.E: He's just a little white pet mouse about two months old.
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Mar 21, 2010 06:14
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