The Holidays

The holiday season is upon us! This is one of the busiest times for pet stores all over the world. Lots of people buy guinea pigs to give as gifts to young children. Guinea pigs are fuzzy, cute and usually sweet, but think before buying. Guinea pigs are not toys! They are living creatures with brains, and they require a loving, responsible home! Please remember this during all the holiday commotion.

Cavy Health Problems

Hi everyone!

Today I'm going to talk about guinea pig health problems.

Common Ailments:

• Too long teeth. Guinea pig's teeth grow constantly through out their life. If your piggy is not given hard things to chew on, his or her teeth will grow too long and curl. Curled teeth in a cavy can lead to starvation. 

• Obesity. Guinea pigs who are feed unhealthy food and/or do not get any exercise will develop obesity. 

Please take good care of your piggies so they will live long, happy, healthy lives.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been pretty busy.

Marshmallow and Licorice are doing fine, and so is Holly. Holly has lost a little weight which is good considering how obese she is.

Yesterday I gave each piggy a little piece of raw corn on the cob. They were so happy! The boys ate theirs' down to little bare nubs. And Holly ate the entire thing! I looked all around Holly's cage but I couldn't find the cob. So I guess they really enjoyed it!

The boys have a really big tupperware container full of hay in their pen. They dug tons of tunnels through all the hay. :)

I brought home Oreo yesterday. I changed her name to Holly. She's very sweet and loves to cuddle!

Holly:

Oreo

There is a new guinea pig at my local animal shelter. Her name is Oreo. Oreo came to the shelter with another piggy named Cinnamon. Their previous owners did not take good care of them and feed them junk. Cinnamon is seven months old and Oreo is two years old. Cinnamon has already found a loving home but Oreo is till at the shelter. Oreo is on hold for me and I will be adopting her soon!

Hello again!
The piggies have been very happy lately! Marshmallow's now litter trained and Licorice is working on it. Their birthday is coming up on October 2nd ( still a little while away) and they will be one years old.
A happy "hi" from the cavy gang!

I'm really sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been really busy lately, mostly with the guinea pigs. In my last post I said that I was going to try to bond another pig. For a while I didn't have time and now it's probably too late. :( So I'm not going to work on bonding them. To avoid a fight, of course.

Here's a pic I took recently of Licorice.

I have exciting news! I might be adding another piggie to my clan! You see, the person I got Marshmallow and Licorice from (a friend of mine) had a guinea pig that had babys and that's where mine pigs came from. My freind kept one of the siblings and sold the rest. Toffee(the one she still has) is becoming very depressed because he misses his brothers so much!:( So what we are going to do is she'll let me borrow Toffee for a while to see if they fight. And if they don't then she'll let me have him! It's like a sixty forty chance that they'll fight. Sadly the sixty is that they will fight.:( But we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Wish me good luck!

I know that I said I would post a pic everday of a guinea pig up for adoption, but I got kind of behind and missed two days. Well, here's todays pic:

This here is a very special little piggie who needs a lot of extra care. If you don't have the time or the money or for any other reason you can't adopt her, (she isn't actualy up for adoption yet) then please click the button below to donate!  
                                  http://www.cavyhaven.org/special_needs_senior.html

Ginger - Female - Adult

Ginger is a four year old sow abandoned at the Long Beach Animal Shelter. She is a classic example of a piggy who was not well cared for and now her health is poor. She has infected foot pads from improper and possibly unclean caging. She has cataracts in both eyes and one eye has an ulcerated cornea. Ginger has an upper respiratory infection and a UTI (also probably from a dirty cage). Her heart is slightly enlarged so there are heart medications in her future. She also has a sebaceous cyst on her shoulder that will need to be removed when she is feeling better. We appreciate any help for Ginger's medical care. Because OCCH takes the neediest pigs first, we depend on donations to care for them. Thank you for your support!

I have decided that each day I'm going to post a guinea pig from a shelter somewhere. I'll put a picture and a little info about the piggie! Here is todays guinea pig:

                                                                       Frankie-Lynn              
                                                       
Sex: Female

Color/Type: Tri-Color/Short hair American

Age: 3 Years , 1 Month

Altered: Spayed

This sweet guinea pig was found abandoned in a park and avoided being eaten for lunch by a hawk when a dog chased the bird away and his good samaritan owner took her in. Lucky for us that she survived this horrific ordeal - she is a charming guinea pig who will capture your heart with her demure ways and laid back attitude. Please give her your heart and a home as she will reward you ten times over with her devotion.

Please click the link below to go to The Metrepolitan Guinea Pig Rescue site(where Frankie-Lynn currently lives).

http://www.mgpr.org/newsite/Adopt_Foster/available_gp.cfm

Click on this link to watch a video about how to care for a guinea pig:

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<a href="http://jackiesguineapiggies.com/cyberpetadoptions.html" target="_blank"><img src="url of" jackie's guinea pigs"border="0"></a>

Cats can make good friends for guinea pigs! I've tried putting one of my guinea pigs near my cat, but she just gets scared and runs away. But some cats would like a little piggie friend. Just be careful and always supervise your cat and guinea pig when there in the same room together! It's a good idea to put your cat on a leash and harness when there first meeting. That way if your cat tries to pounce or attack your piggie you can quickly pull the cat away. Make sure to be very careful when having your cat around your guinea pig! Because guinea pigs smell a lot like mice, so your cat's instinct might be to pounce! Here is a picture I found on google of a cat hanging out with a guinea pig:

                                                          Photo courtesy of Baby-Gaga.com

Q & A about cavys continued

Continued from previous post

Q- Are guinea pigs rodents?

A- Yes and no. They are usually considered a rodent, but some scientists think otherwise. They are actually a subspecies of rodent known as hystricognath rodents (porcupines, chinchillas, capybaras, mole rats, guinea pigs, etc.).

Q-  Is it normal for a guinea pig to eat their droppings?
A- Yes! They have important nutrition's that a guinea pig needs.

Q- What does it mean when a guinea pig "purrs"
A- It means that they're very happy!

Q- Can a guinea pig live in a cage outside?
A- Yes, but I would strongly NOT recommend it! Because predators and bad weather can harm or kill a guinea pig. They do make cages that are especially for outside, but even seeing a wild animal such as a fox or coyote can kill a guinea pig. Because if they see a predator they can get very scared, have a heart attack, and die!

Q- Can a guinea pig learn to swim?
A- NO! Never place a guinea pig in water! No matter how many videos on YouTube and other websites you see with guinea pigs being taught to swim, you should never try to teach a guinea pig to swim. Guinea pigs do not have a gag reflex so if they inhaled a lot of water they wouldn't be able to choke it back up, and they would probably die! Also it stresses them out because it's scary for them to be in water. WHAT EVER YOU DO, NEVER AND I MEAN NEVER, TRY TO MAKE A GUINEA PIG SWIM!!!

          

Q & A about cavys

Q- What's the average lifespan of a guinea pig?
A- 8-10 yrs.

Q- How big can they grow?
A- 3-4 Lbs. and 8-10 in.

Q- How many pups in an average litter?
A- They can have between 1 and 10, but 3 or 4 on average.

Q- Do guinea pigs like company?
A- Yes! It's best to have more than 1 piggy because they like friends.




To be continued...

                                   This is a picture of a healthy guinea pig. Note the smooth, clean fur, and the
                                    bright and alert eyes.  

                                                                    He's coming for you!

Hre is a good website to visit for info about guinea pigs and other small animals:

<p><a href="http://www.smallanimalchannel.com/" title="Small Animal Species" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.smallanimalchannel.com/images/link_exchange/LinkExchange120x90.gif" border="0" width="120" height="90" /></a></p>

10 Foods You Should Never Feed a Guinea Pig!

Knowing about a cavy's needs is part of owning one. So I have decided to include information about guinea pigs on this site. I'll start off with there dietary needs.

                                              10 Foods You Should NEVER Feed a Guinea Pig

1. Nuts
2. Candy
3. Coffee
4. Soda(this one should be pretty obvious, so should candy!)
5. Bok choy 
6. Raisins
7. Potatoes
8. Avocado
9. Milk
10. Bread    

Marshmallow

                                                              Hi! My name's Marshmallow!

Cuddle Time

One of their favorite pastimes-cuddling!

                                                               HI! I'm Licorice!

Greetings! On this site you will find stuff about my guinea pigs (Marshmallow and Licorice), cute photos, and info about guinea pigs. So start exploring now!:)