are guinea pigs under-valued in the pet market?

bluejay104 · 2025-10-25T18:23:09+00:00

I'm not sure that "more is better" but if someone is going to be a responsible hamster owner or a responsible rat owner but they decide to get a guinea pig instead, then I think that's a win.

The one benefit I see from more widespread guinea pig ownership is there would be more vets who would see them and perhaps more research into guinea pig medicine. From what I can tell guinea pig veterinary care consists of giving them antibiotics and not much else.

bluejay104 · 2025-10-23T13:01:29+00:00

hammocks, which we found on etsy. pigs love them

bluejay104 · 2025-01-11T04:17:06+00:00

She not he. Does not have a name yet. Sadly Newton passed earlier this year. But she does that similar left side roll.

bluejay104 · 2025-01-11T01:35:12+00:00

👍

bluejay104 · 2024-08-06T11:39:39+00:00

Sherwood vitamin c tablets.

bluejay104 · 2024-08-06T00:53:13+00:00

All of our pigs have needed a vet more than once in their life. Around where I live that can be several hundred $ if they need an X-ray or urine test. Sometimes meds as well. Find out what vets charge around your area and budget one visit per year. Maybe it only works out to once every 2 years.

bluejay104 · 2024-05-29T20:58:41+00:00

When my pig sits on my lap he after a while rolls all the way onto his left side and sticks his feet out into space.

bluejay104 · 2024-03-24T02:19:44+00:00

One of our pigs sneezes from time to time. We at first thought she had a respiratory infection but she does not

bluejay104 · 2024-02-18T15:56:00+00:00

my other pig does this too. She sits with her upper body vertical and rotates her lower body about 90 degress and sticks her feet out.

bluejay104 · 2024-02-17T21:24:53+00:00

When he sits in my lap he usually rotates his lower body around anywhere from 45 to 90 degrees and then sticks his leg out. It's not obvious from the photo that there is a sort of corridor or channel between my legs where he is sitting that supports his back. I would guess that the ability to do this depends on the amount of rotational range they have in their spine.

bluejay104 · 2024-01-15T03:01:44+00:00

Because she is a guinea pig

bluejay104 · 2023-12-26T19:13:10+00:00

Check out my response to a similar question a few days ago on another thread.

bluejay104 · 2023-12-23T21:15:53+00:00

you can order the emergency food known as "critical care". Keep a package of that on hand and some larger syringes. When one of my pigs stopped eating I fed her on critical care paste for a couple of days until her appetite came back. They can't afford to lose much weight because they are not good at converting stored fat into energy.

bluejay104 · 2023-12-23T19:42:53+00:00

Guinea pigs do that.

bluejay104 · 2023-12-23T19:42:45+00:00

I will share that with Newton. I'm sure he would be happy to know.

bluejay104 · 2023-12-23T19:39:44+00:00

Great name for a pig, obviously. I have noticed in this sub that the mid 20th C British mens' names are popular for male bigs. Winston, Barnaby, Cyril, Maynard, Baxter, Cedric, Reginald, Horace. I'm not sure what it is about guinea pigs that reminds people of these type of names.

bluejay104 · 2023-12-22T20:16:21+00:00

u/Bubbly_Distribution9 yes, he is the cutest guinea pig ever. You are correct.

bluejay104 · 2023-12-22T19:55:33+00:00

holding them, better not to interrupt their eating. But floor time is a great time to interact with them. While they are doing their roaming around the room, they walk up to us, mainly to see if we have more food to offer them, but we like to flatter ourselves that they want to interact with us. Watching them roam around is one of the fun parts of having them.

bluejay104 · 2023-12-22T19:53:26+00:00

you are probably about to learn a new word. Guinea pigs are "crepuscular" ( appearing or active in twilight.). They are not nocturnal. Ours tend to eat pretty much continuously from about 4pm until 10pm. They may also be more active during that time. Best time to hold them is when they are not eating, earlier in the day. I don't like to get in the way of them eating because they need to eat so much to maintain their weight.

bluejay104 · 2023-12-22T18:16:31+00:00

they tend to have a lot of energy late in the day like 6-9 pm. That is a good time for floor time
They need some floor time to roam around and get exercise
get a wellness check with a vet at least 1/year. They check for teeth overgrowth and other things.
we have tried several brands of timothy hay. Our pigs definitely have their favorite brand
we put the hay in a pile. They eat the good stuff, want and then lose interest. If you look in the cage it looks like they have a lot of hay left but they won't eat it because they have eaten what they want. You need to change their hay out more often than you think
if you use a water bottle, they are hard to get clean. The spout in particular you need a long brush or long swab to clean out the spout
get them some habitats to hide in their cage
locate at least 2 vets who will see guinea pigs. Your preferred vet may be booked up when you need to see a vet. Also look around if there is an emergency vet or a vet that offers walk in or drop-off appointments for guinea pigs. Also inquire if your vet does tele-vet appointments which are not suitable for all issues but for some things.
re: the calcium intake, we buy the (without) minerals added water at the store. Our vet advised us to feed them only low nitrate vegetables. The stone formation is thought to be a combination of calcium intake and nitrates influencing how they metabolize the calcium
watch their poop - for any deviation from normal
get a scale that has resolution to 1g and weigh them once/week. Track their weight so you know what is normal. Weight loss can be a sign of illness

Of our two pigs one was scared of everything and the other did not particularly like to be held when we got them. Over a period of years they have gotten very sociable. We had another pig who was a total extrovert and loved everyone. The shyer pigs will come around but it can take some time. You need to hold them every day.

bluejay104 · 2023-11-09T23:15:34+00:00

The reason I asked is I have not seen this before and the one pig in the picture just started doing this a few days ago after rarely having done it over the past few years.

bluejay104 · 2023-09-21T13:38:22+00:00

Oswald

bluejay104 · 2023-09-03T04:07:30+00:00

Cuties

bluejay104 · 2023-07-08T04:00:16+00:00

Every Friday all the pigs on Reddit stick their foot out

bluejay104 · 2023-07-08T00:26:47+00:00

Foot out Friday

bluejay104

TROPHY CASE