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melon cat posted:This dude knows his stuff. I used to work P/T at a pet store back in high school. Even with a fully-stocked store and a good handful of employees the sugar gliders were still very difficult to care for. They also piss all over your shirt during playtime. They're cute as hell and interesting animals, but they make lousy pets. Anything that is both airborne and has a diet rich in fruit, I think, is just asking for trouble.
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Jun 6, 2010 20:26
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Does it look like all the hair is kind of growing out and away from the center of it? If so, that's a rosette, and it's perfectly normal. Pigs with a rosette on top of their heads are called Crested, and pigs with rosettes all over their bodies are Abyssinians. It's also theoretically possible he got barbered by another pig, but that usually happens on the rump. Likewise, mites and other parasites can cause hair loss, but that almost always starts on the back or rump area. Most likely it's just genetics.
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Jun 7, 2010 21:20
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alucinor posted:Dude I think you made a mistake, that does not look like a parrot. My Parvati used to love to perch on my shoulder, but it was always when I was in a recliner, for the sake of safety. That game ended abruptly, however, when one night she ran up to my shoulder, burrowed in behind my neck, and pissed all down my back.
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Jun 22, 2010 23:33
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Generally speaking, you should only break up a guinea pig introduction when blood is drawn. Rumbling, facing off, humping, peeing, even the odd nip are all part of the process. You should only break things up if it turns into a furball, and for gently caress's sake use gloves when you do, because a guinea pig will shred you if it's pissed off enough. You can try one on ones, and you can try the perfume trick if they still won't get along. The pregnancy might be a factor as well. Really, it comes down to the personalities of the individual pigs. I implore you, however, read the pages on Guinea Lynx about pregnancy and young pigs, and make sure you separate out any male pups according to their guidelines, or you will have a lot more pregnancies in your future.
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Jul 22, 2010 02:03
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Good. I always want to assume people understand the issues related to guinea pig pregnancy, but I can't count how many people I've talked to that didn't understand you could have a backbred pig in a matter of weeks if there are male pups. Miracle of life, eh? One of the funniest things I ever saw in introductions is when I brought my "problem child" Sita into the herd. She was a terror, ended up starting a couple of furballs, but before that, anytime one of the herd got behind her to sniff her she would piston her little back legs, pop her butt into the air, and spray urine. I called it the "pee cannon", and she actually nailed my ex with it from about two feet away. It was the most ridiculous thing I ever saw.
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Jul 22, 2010 18:10
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Good. The odd bit of fussing now and again is fine and should settle down. Next time you clean the cage, pull everything out, give it a double-dose of a water/vinegar solution to kill scents and disinfect, and put everything back in in a different place. The idea is to get them to think they're all in a new cage instead of it being somebody's "turf". That should help get any lingering territoriality issues out of the way. Also, you might consider extra water bottles/food dishes/hides for the time being, just to ensure that nobody can be crowded out. The idea is to make it as easy as possible for the pigs to avoid each other should they choose, to help them get used to the new living arrangement. In any case, getting past the "about to become a whirling dervish of fur and razor sharp teeth" stage is most of the battle. Good show.
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Jul 25, 2010 06:53
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SomeChump posted:No, we never knew to do that, I'll start from today. And yeah, he eating plenty now and hopping about the cage. I think he might have just been feeling under the weather for a while and I panicked. I'll keep a close eye on him and if he seems ill again I'll definitely take him to the vet. Thanks for the advice Sirotan. Weighing your pig regularly (at least once a week) is incredibly valuable as a way to keep track of their health. Since you haven't been doing it, and his health is in question, I'd recommend weighing every day for a couple of days to make sure he's not dropping weight, if you don't end up taking him to the vet tomorrow. Sometimes they can scare the piss out of you, though. My Shivani used to have the most terrifying coughing/sneezing fits that would last exactly long enough for me to dial the last number of the vet's 24-hour emergency line, then vanish completely without any trace whatsoever. Had her checked out multiple times, never found anything wrong with her, so we chalked it up to her eating too fast and getting a pellet in the wrong pipe.
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Sep 15, 2010 22:37
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Pigs nibble at fingers because they can't afford to ignore the extremely small but non-zero chance that in the ten seconds since they last nibbled at your fingers they may have turned into baby carrots. If you could map out your pig's brain, 95% of it would be labeled "Food" and the other 5% would be labeled "poo poo, run, it's a condor!". Understand that, and you will understand your pigs.
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Oct 27, 2010 02:19
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Diogines posted:Edit: She dragged the apple slice inside! Took a small bite of it. Never though I would be so happy to see a little fuzzy thing eat. Yeah, just give her time. She's really, really freaked out right now. As far as she knows, you're a condor and you swooped in to take her away from her family to be your next midnight snack. Depending on the conditions she was born/raised in - and it doesn't sound like they were particularly great - it'll take her a bit to realize she's safe. Just leave her be, don't spend too much time around the cage for the time being, and watch for pellet/hay/vegetable/water consumption. She'll come around. Once she gets used to the cage as her new home, then you can spend more time socializing her. And yeah, getting her a companion would be an excellent idea. Two pigs really aren't that much more work than one, and pigs with companions do a lot better. A litter mate might be just the thing to thaw her out.
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Oct 29, 2010 21:24
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Seconding everything that's been said; now you've got her a companion, she'll get comfortable with the cage much quicker and you can start on socialization. For hand-feeding, I tend to avoid stuff like baby carrots (I always end up covered in carrot mulch) and go with stuff like sprigs of parsley or leaves of spring mix. Don't be surprised if it takes them a while before they'll eat out of your hand, though. It's all up to the personality of the individual pig how quickly they'll get comfortable with you, and I had one pig who was affectionate as all get-out but the instant I picked her up, she'd freeze solid. I never once got her to take food from my hand over almost six years. (Her sister, however, would stand against the bars of the cage and wheek at me until I'd come over and scruff her behind the ears.)
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Oct 30, 2010 23:06
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It's not hostility. In any herd, there's an alpha pig; that pig gets first crack at food and water and where to sleep. When you put pigs together, they'll have to work it out; even though your two may have been littermates, the new living conditions require a new sorting out of who's boss. Just to give you an idea of how ingrained things are, I've got two water bottles in my cage for my two girls. One day both were kind of low, but I was in a hurry so I went to refill one. As I was heading back toward the cage, I got a call from a client, so I set the bottle down and promptly forgot about it due to all hell breaking loose. The girls drained the other bottle dry, and I came in later to two thirsty pigs. I immediately refilled the dry bottle and put both back in the cage. Freyja, the alpha, immediately walked over and started drinking, while her sister Nanna sat patiently behind her waiting her turn. I rattled the unoccupied bottle. She looked at it, then back at her sister. Being the beta pig was so ingrained in her mind that she was willing to wait her turn to drink, even though there was another bottle right there. Basically, as long as they're not fighting to the point where blood's being drawn, you've got nothing to worry about. It will settle down eventually, especially if they're not both being aggressive. Keep trying on the handling and hand-feeding. Like I said, it may take a while, and depending on the personality of the pig you may have more success with one than the other. As long as they're eating and drinking (and pooping, and pooping, and pooping, and oh my god pooping) everything is right in piggy world.
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Oct 31, 2010 02:12
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Diogines posted:I could not imagined something so small could make so much poop heh. You don't have to use food as a treat every single time, but it doesn't hurt. The more they associate being handled with what they really want, snacks, the quicker they'll warm to it. I always make sure to deliver an extra round of veggies after toenail clipping, for instance, and that seems to give them a couple ounces more patience about being manhandled. Eventually, your pigs should come to tolerate being handled - they'll probably always react like you're a bird of prey when you go to pick them up, but they should settle down once you've got them securely held and can pet and soothe them. As for the crying after the move - likely that wasn't crying. When guinea pigs are freaked out and in a new place, sometimes in their quest to hide, they'll end up violating each other's personal space. I've seen three pigs actually try to hide underneath each other before, it was like a Stooges routine. Likely, they went into the hide, both tried to occupy the same spot, and what you were hearing was a constant barrage of "will you stop touching me?!" kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Oct 31, 2010 |
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Oct 31, 2010 23:13
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Depends on the personality of the individual pig, unfortunately. You'll know you're making progress when, in addition to watching you, they start wheeking at you for veggies.
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Nov 1, 2010 06:08
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Good show. All it takes is time with pigs, once they get used to you you won't have any problems. The first time you have to clip toenails, they're going to act so traumatized you're going to worry you're back to square one, but they'll get over it and from here it's all downhill.
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Nov 3, 2010 06:49
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Diogines posted:Anyone help explain guinea pig psychology to me? I'd say the separation anxiety is probably due to the short time they've been with you. The beta was the first one, right? So you take her from her family, put her in a strange place where she's by herself for a few days, then bring her a friend, which she desperately wanted. Every time you take her friend out of the cage, she has no idea if the alpha's coming back. Eventually, they should figure it out. Can you handle the alpha near the cage, so the beta can see that she's not alone? That might help her get the idea. As for handling, it's weird. Basically, once they click on the cage as home, they really, really don't want to be taken out of it. I've only had one guinea pig who didn't regularly go into full-tilt freakout mode when I tried to pick her up from the cage, and while they eventually get less panicky about it, they rarely grow to like the process. I think it's because the act of reaching in to pick them up triggers some primal condor instinct and they think they're about to be lunch. Once the condor has them, though, they almost always calm down. Once they realize, oh, it's just the big thing without fur that brings me veggies sometimes, it's just not that big of a deal anymore. They realize you're not going to eat them, and eventually they'll get to go back home. (Home is a powerful thing in the guinea pig mind. I remember a time when I let my girls out for floor time and got caught up cooking; I came back to the living room in a panic, expecting to see they'd burrowed into the wall or something, but instead I found them lined up underneath the cage, looking at it expectantly, and not a one even fidgeted when I picked them up to return them.) The mind of a guinea pig can be a strange place. I'm just waiting for one of your girls to turn out to be a chirper, that always freaks people right the gently caress out. 
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Nov 4, 2010 05:34
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Guinea pigs can play. You can usually tell the difference, because chasing for dominance usually involves someone getting nipped on the butt or humped and they're usually pretty vocal about how upset they are with the treatment. It can also be hormonal; if the chaser is running low to the ground and occasionally stopping, making a weird rumbling/chuttering noise and wagging her butt, it's because she's in heat. Sometimes guinea pigs just tear around the cage for no real reason other than to have fun, which is why you shouldn't keep it cluttered with too much in the way of furniture, or at least try to make a lane around the outside to encourage exercise. One of my favorite playtime memories: I had my five girls out in the living room, and I had all the hallway doors shut but I didn't block it off. So there was about 15 feet of dark hallway leading to nothing that they could explore. When guinea pigs explore new territory, they tend to form a single-file line; that way if a condor swoops down and takes the leader, the next pig in line can pick a new direction and run everyone to safety. The girls lined up and decided to explore this new area they'd never seen before. Parvati, my alpha, took the lead, with the other girls falling in nose to rump, and she began to venture down the dark hallway. She got about three feet before she got spooked and bolted, leading the other pigs to scatter in every direction and run back to the living room. About two minutes later, they formed up again. This time she made it four feet before freaking out. And so on, I spent the afternoon watching the girls explore the big scary dark hallway a foot at a time. I think they were vaguely disappointed when they got to the end and there wasn't treasure. kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Nov 5, 2010 |
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Nov 5, 2010 03:37
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Eh, it's an either-or kind of thing. Eventually, most pigs seem to become comfortable with the idea that if they see you through the cubes, you're far enough away/obstructed so you can't "get" them, but if they see you looming over the top of the cage, you're within grabbing distance so RUN! Leaving the blinds up for a bit won't hurt anything, and might help them get used to the new place, but eventually I'd take it down and let them get used to your presence. The more they see you, and the more they realize that seeing you in the room doesn't mean instant condor attack, the quicker they'll stop freaking out.
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Nov 6, 2010 01:32
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Only one problem with using anything cloth: they WILL pee in it, and they WILL sit in it. What's worse is when they poop, pee on it, and then sit in the pile. Although guinea pigs do get a terribly amusing offended look on their face when you have them in the sink washing their nether regions, it's not something you want to have to do often. As for chewing: how much hay are you giving them, and what kind? I buy 25# of bluegrass hay at a time from a farm in Idaho and basically shovel it into the cage willy-nilly; the constant barrage of tasty green stuff distracts my girls from chewing on anything else for the most part. (Although hay-stuffed toilet paper rolls are nice, too, if you get a brand where the paper isn't permanently glued to the tube.)
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Nov 10, 2010 07:18
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Just making sure. Unfortunately, sometimes pigs just decide to be contrary, no matter what you do.
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Nov 10, 2010 17:55
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Nah, no reason. Hand-feeding pigs helps them get used to you. Although once you've got them comfortable enough taking food from your hand during lap time, try getting them to take it from your hand in the cage. That can go a long way towards breaking down the terror of "the claw", if occasionally it reaches into the cage to offer a baby carrot or something else tasty.
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Nov 11, 2010 07:40
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alucinor posted:Maybe also get some exceptional grass hay of a type that they don't usually get - orchardgrass or bluegrass. Have you ever tried Kleenmama's stuff? If not, this is a perfect excuse! Kleenmama's hay is FREAKING AWESOME. I'll talk her stuff up every chance I get. I originally tried out her bluegrass hay because I turned out to be ridiculously allergic to timothy; every time I'd open a bale, if I didn't get the hell out of the room I'd have an asthma attack within minutes. The bluegrass was non-allergenic for me, and what's even better, the pigs absolutely adore it. KM sources from some amazing farms, she's incredibly picky about the hay (she started out as a guinea pig owner just like the rest of us) and she absolutely won't sell any hay that isn't up to her standards. (That can occasionally mean that supplies run low, as she'd rather run out of the stuff than sell inferior product.) If all you've ever fed is that crappy Kaytee stuff that comes in the green bags, do yourself a favor and order a nine-pound box from KM to try it out. She does timothy and alfalfa, but if you can get the bluegrass it's amazingly good.
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Nov 12, 2010 18:39
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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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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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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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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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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? Nah, not really. As alucinor said, pellets are valuable for calories and vitamin C for the most part; some people simply feed their pigs hay and veggies (making sure that they get enough C from things like bell peppers and the like). What type of pellets do you give them? There are a lot of kind of mediocre pellet brands out there (and a lot of really crappy ones); when I switched to high-quality stuff (Oxbow or KM's Hayloft) my pigs became noticeably more interested in eating their pellets. And seconded on the condor thing. I have my cage on a folding banquet table, so it's closer to chest level. My girls have absolutely no problem with me if they're looking at me through the grids, but the instant any part of me appears above the top line, all bets are off. If you can raise them up to where they're viewing you more through the safe and secure bars, they'll probably freak out less upon simply seeing you, but they'll always lose it when the claw comes into the cage.
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Dec 6, 2010 05:35
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Heh. My technique for picking up my girls - putting one hand behind them and spooking them into backing up - has convinced Freyja that her rump is her weak spot, so whenever I put veggies and hay in the cage she'll do her best to eat without letting her butt leave shelter. I've seen her stretch out like a ferret to try to reach romaine while leaving herself covered, and if she can't reach, she'll knock a pigloo around to try to give herself cover. The queen of cage redecoration was my Shivani, though. She used to drag a food bowl inside a pigloo and then turn it so the door was pressed against the back coroplast wall so no one could bother her. One time, though, she managed to jam the bowl against the pigloo in a corner in such a way that she got stuck; I remember putting veggies in the cage and hearing this plaintive wheeking as this pigloo kept frantically banging against the cubes.
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Dec 15, 2010 21:38
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KM's Hayloft is freaking AWESOME. I only get their bluegrass (allergy issues) but it's mindbogglingly good stuff. The first time I put it in the cage, my girls abandoned baby carrots to eat it.
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Dec 17, 2010 03:18
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cat with hands posted:^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ You can actually get the pulp to recede by trimming nails frequently; clip a little bit at a time, and the blood line will gradually shrink. You have to do that for pigs with overgrown nails, or else you draw blood every time.
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Dec 29, 2010 17:57
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alucinor posted:Additionally, having hay in your bedroom is gonna give you allergies like you won't believe. I always thought "I don't have allergies, that won't affect me!" Have you tried the bluegrass hay from KM's Hayloft? Timothy hay makes me wheeze like I've got pneumonia, but since I switched to bluegrass, my allergies have been a hell of a lot better.
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Jan 12, 2011 00:49
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I didn't have allergies, till I got pigs. My sinuses haven't been the same since.
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It's definitely something you have to get used to. By necessity I've had to keep my girls in the bedroom for the past several years, and the first couple of weeks were hard to adjust to, because I'm normally a fairly light sleeper. Having the pigs in the room, as well as learning to sleep whenever due to my wacky schedule, has cured me of that. Now, the only time the pigs wake me up is if someone's being hormonal, and I usually just drop in an extra-big pile of veggies and hay when that happens to distract them. When I move into the new place, however, they're going back out in the living room. (And yeah, KM had some trouble with supply this season, it came down to selling some middling hay or not being able to sell at all. She's really good about offering refunds if you're not satisfied, but even the worst hay I've gotten from her has been better than 90% of the stuff I've seen from other vendors.)
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Jan 12, 2011 02:42
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Silver Nitrate posted:I was wondering if there's any consensus on regular hay vs. hay cubes for guinea pigs. We are considering getting piggies, but we don't really have space for keeping a bale. Definitely stick with regular hay. Hay cubes are made from leavings and poor quality hay, the strands are shorter also so it doesn't promote chewing. You don't have to order 35-45 pounds of hay at a go, although that's the most economical option; you can keep smaller amounts and refill more often.
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Jan 13, 2011 15:25
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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.) And then there's the rather infamous "shoe buffer" incident that Lynx of Guinea Lynx fame ran into... 
kazmeyer fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Jan 14, 2011 |
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Jan 14, 2011 13:58
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How skinny are we talking? Pig physiology is just different sometimes; I had one girl that regularly tipped the scales at 1.5 kilos and another who never broke 1 kilogram in her life. You could always take the skinnier pig out for treats if you were really worried - Oxbow makes these vegetable biscuits that pigs seem to love, and one or two of those a day might make the difference. Also, do you have multiple food bowls? If the two younger pigs are crowding out the older one, a second bowl might help.
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Jan 19, 2011 17:08
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Do your smaller pigs (the ones you're worried about weight on) have difficulty getting around? I resolved to start worrying about Parvati (my 1.5 kilo pig) the moment she started showing difficulty getting around or lessened activity, and she never did. I used to have a hay rack made out of bent grids, suspended at one end of the cage, and instead of eating the hay through the bars she would actually jump into the damned thing and graze. I figured as long as she could manage a vertical leap of about 2/3rds of a grid height, she wasn't too fat. (The hilarious thing is from the hay rack it would have been trivial to escape the cage, but because she was a guinea pig, it never occurred to her to even consider the possibility.)
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Jan 20, 2011 14:43
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Diogines posted:I was told many times that guinea pigs will always fear THE CLAW(TM). Both of my pigs no longer seem to be afraid of me. How unusual is this? Well, by fear of THE CLAW we're really talking about when they realize you're trying to pick them up. If your pigs quietly submit to that on a regular basis, then you're in a position to call Ripley's. Most pigs will eventually warm to the veggie-bringer to the point where they'll start watching you intently to see if you have carrots, coming out to get your attention, etc. and if you've done a good job with socialization, they'll start to lose their fear of the hand in or near the cage. Brush against their rump, though, and all of a sudden you're a condor again. The petting, though, is definitely a gold star - not a lot of pigs will tolerate being touched in the cage, because it's a short jump from petting to grabbing. I've only had one pig that would regularly let me stick my hand in the cage and pet her, and she would even stand up against the bars and wheek at me until I did it. Basically, this just shows you're doing a good job as a pig-keeper and you've got one especially personable little pig.
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Jan 25, 2011 17:30
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Yeah, but I've never seen a case of mites that started on the nose; the ones I've seen have always been either a general thinning of the fur or a bald patch on the back or rump. (It's entirely possible the nose spot is a bite mark or something, and the rest are mites, but yeah, pictures would definitely help with a diagnosis.)
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Jan 27, 2011 20:41
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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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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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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 17:42 |
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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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