Oh, do I have a guinea pig!!
My daughter, in college at the time, got one last year. She is now back home after graduation and, of course, we have our little man now. I was very reluctant to have him, but he has really won my heart over. He's a real sweetheart.
It took him a very long time to trust us and he was always freaking out when I tried to pick him up. He was never very relaxed while we held him. But over time, he has matured and gotten used to us and he's absolutely fine now and I think he really enjoys being out and sitting with us.
Now, the facts:
They eat a lot. I have pellets and hay out all the time. Two times a day, we make him a small salad (usually just used bagged Spring Mix or Baby Lettuces). We try to add in high Vitamin C foods like red peppers and kiwi so he gets that.
He poops a lot. Ours never learned to poop in one area. We scoop out at least twice a day. Bedding is completely changed once a week. The stuff we get isn't all that cheap but not horribly expensive.
Guineas need large cages. Mine is probably not large enough.
Guineas are very social creatures and get lonely. It is best to get two at the same time. Not always easy to introduce a second one later.
Guinea pigs cannot manufacture Vitamin C so you must always be mindful of that and feed a lot of foods that are high in Vitamin C as well as supplement with it.
Great job explaining guinea pig needs. We have had 5 guinea pigs over a 4 year period and they were all surrendered and we adopted.
Yes they need larger cages and it is important to give them daily time to run around. BUT they love to chew wires. You have to be very careful because they love to go behind the furniture and one almost chewed through a lamp cord.
Also some are better than others about going back to the cage to pee or poop but if they can hide behind furniture and sleep they will do their business there too.
Yes they do poop a LOT! And even if you get one that likes being held, for the most part anything more than a few minutes you will get wet. I had one that as soon as I picked her up she would pee. I think she learned that would get her put down. Another one would try to warn me with a nibble but for the most part they are not like a puppy that might squirm to be put down.
They do need vitamin C and you really really don't want to forget that. We would do the high vitamin C veggies but also there was a melt in your mouth baby vitamin C that we gave them. BUT keep in mind too much can also give them stones.
Hay is extremely important to help them keep their teeth filed down.
AND Vet bills are extremely costly. You are suppose to bring them to a vet trained in exotic pets.
The one male we got had atrophy in his back legs because the owners never let him out of the cage other than to occasionally hold him. It was very sad to see him try to walk but as we worked with him and let him move around it was super sweet to watch him run to the cage where the females were and pur at them. He eventually was able to walk again. But his muscles in the back area never came back fully and we had to constantly clean him because he would get impacted and peeeew.
I don't regret having any of these rescues. They live between 5-10 years. The last one we had from birth at a shelter just died last month at 7 years old. She was quite the personality. We called her brat. She did not like any other guinea pig in her cage. She was with other females but if they were sick she would pick on them because they couldn't fight back. Once she was our last survivor a friend took her because they had other guinea pigs, and she would not share a cage nicely. So she won her own cage. She also would squeak and make loud noises with her water bottle at 5am to get us (and them) out of bed to give her attention and feed her.
They are very smart and with a lot of attention can be trained. We had Rosie ring a bell to get a treat. But removed the bell when she started ringing it in the wee hours of the morning.
You can not leave a bunch of food in the cage and take off for a couple days. As the previous poster said they need to eat veggies a couple times a day to keep the digestion going. One would argue they have hay, but there is not the adequate vitamins in the hay.
Thanks
Do you let yours out and about? Or leave it in it's cage? Also are they bitters?
Some do bite. I never got bit hard to draw blood but as I said I had one more than the other nip to get me to put her down. It does take them time to get used to you and allow you to pick them up. The only one that willingly let me pick him up with out much of a chase was the male.
Their personalities can be very sweet. But again they require attention my family was not able to give any longer. I don't regret it but it's nice to not be running for hay or to the vet because one stopped eating and was losing weight. When they are sick they lose weight fast. Yes I would weigh them in grams at least once a week. They are prey animals so they try to hide they are sick and weighing them is the easiest way to catch it before they get too sick.
Good luck making your decision.
Oh one last thing, be very careful. If you have a female, if they don't have their first baby before 9 months old they can die if they get pregnant. Their pelvis fuses or something like that. There are so many that are abandoned and in shelters, consider adopting. The shelter I used rescued 150 out of a shed one November. An elder man had been trying to care for them but it got out of control, obviously.