Anyone keep these little things?  Looking for some care advice.  My sons now have one each due to a 'friend' being unable to care for them and my sons feeling left out as they don't have any pets to call their own.  So now we have Momo and speedy.  We have shop bought food and they are lovely little squeeky things but we don't know what/how much fresh food they are allowed.  They love carrots and we have been trying other things (apples and cabbage) but they don't seem to like anything but carrots?  Would love as much info as possible!  My sons want to keep them indoors in their cage which I said was fine but we are building them an outdoors enclosure for the summer times.

They need hay every day to keep the teeth down - mine get a handful each every morning along with celery and a bowl of food ( mine like the Tesco one ). And fresh water.
Then at bed time they have green beans, corn on the cob, yellow or orange bell pepper, apple cores, carrot tops or a bit of cucumber. I sometimes give them spring greens and they love a handful of fresh grass each  and thin apple and pear tree branches.
But most of all they love a run in the garden on a sunny day !
Enjoy them - I'd never have a rabbit now, I just love the piggies.

I love piggies! They're fantastic animals - very responsive. Remember that they can't synthesise their own vitamin C so you need to make sure they have some in their diet. They need grass and fresh hay, and a good mix of vegetables - not too much of any one thing, and especially go easy with lettuce.

Many yrs ago I knew a lady that bred them for show and she said they can suffer from vitamin C deficiency and she always gave hers fresh raw beetroot. She gave them raw carrots,cauliflower,apples plus a commercial food. I think she said not to give too many green veggies as it upset their tums.

Just jumping in....what is the best to use for bedding on the floor....can you use horse type wood shavings??
Chris

I put about 3 layers of newspaper on the cage floor with a good layer of shavings then straw.
I buy it from Pets at Home because I read somewhere that if you buy from farmers etc. that it is not treated and so the guineas can get ringworm. Don't know if it is true - I am sure someone will put me right !

Having had 2 suffer terribly  with mites I won't take any chances.
Oh, and I use the cage cleaner. I dry it best I can with kitchen roll in the winter but during the summer I leave it to dry naturally.

>that it is not treated and so the guineas can get ringworm.

Ringworm is a fungal infection, passed from animal to animal. It's more likely to be fleas or mites from hay.

It's best to get dust-free shavings so they don't inhale the sawdust.

V. jealous, I love pigs but am not in the position to have one right now. A true shame as a friend of mine breeds Rex, my favourite!

Agree with all the advice given but would like to point out that guineas should be free-fed hay; much like with rabbits it is more important than most people think :)

Having kept a large stud of 300 longhairs, and breeding, showing and judging for 25 plus years, I have experimented with most foods for them.

The best ever dry feed, that had everything they needed was not commercial guinea pig feed.  I always fed Spillers coarse horse from the local farm merchants.  I am fairly certain that the Cambridge Cavy Trust did loads of research, and I got the tip from them.

Vitamin C was a biggie, and very important if you wanted good skin - which you needed for exhibition.  Mine loved cauli leaves, but, having so many, I used to buy crates of spring greens, cabbage etc.  I never, ever saw a pig with the runs from feeding greens.  It is however, important to note that you should never feed yellowing greens.  It is impossible for a cavy to vomit - so if food isn't fresh enough for yourself, don't feed it to your pigs.

Apples and carrots were fed freely, and if I wanted to put extra condition on the pigs, I bought sacks of beetroot.  Cut it into quarters, as they won't eat the skin.  I always lined cages with thick newspaper, as it made it so easy to lift everything out when cleaning out (used to take me 8 hours!)

I used clean white wood shavings (never, ever sawdust) and heavily covered with sweet meadow hay.  As I fed this in huge quantities, they trampled down what was not eaten, and it made a better bedding for them.  Always give large quantities of hay, it is extremely important to their digestive systems.  And empty stale water out of their bottles every day, and give fresh.  It's important to know that they blow back up the spout on their water bottles.  They can get totally blocked.  I used to soak spouts in hot water weekly, and bought pipe cleaners for cleaning out the muck from the spouts.  If you get them trained, you can let them out in the house, and use a litter tray.  Poos are no big deal, as they are totally dry and can be picked up easily.

I must have been doing something right, as I expected mine to live 9 - 11 years, which surprises people.  The people who didn't feed enough hay!  :-)

I had them as a teenager and bred them too.   Used to buy hay by the bale ( love the sweet smell, takes me right back.)  and free feed it, they always had it as bedding too.  Straw would be too harsh for them and can scratch their eyes ;)

Ours were all house-trained and would use a cat litter tray in the corner of the room :-D   Was lovely watching them run and explore :)  They also had plenty of time in the garden in summer when the weather was dry.

Love the piggies, would have them now but the dogs would think they were dinner!

Mine used to go crazy over basil and lemongrass. They'd squeak and run into the kitchen whenever they heard the rustle of the basil pack!!

I miss my pigs but it's too hot here to keep them outside and my pitbull cross is scared of small animals so I couldn't keep them in the house :(

Great advice everyone.  Thanks!!
They have been getting out to explore the house, as you say, the poo is rock solid and can just be lifted with a tissue.  Although the spiky haired one(Momo) poos for Britain!! The longer haired one(speedy) is still a bit timid but they are just so nosey.  They have started to squeek for us now though which is very fast.  Also, they are still quite small so I think they are still babies(and both girls we have found out!!Thank goodness!) Can't wait to get the outside enclosure built for them as it's such a lovely day today that they would love this sunshine and they are stuck in that cage!!Poor babies.  On another note, my dogs are quite good with them(totally supervised).  I think they think they are pups or something.  They have all had a sniff at each other through the cage and as the piggies weren't bothered about the dogs, I took them out and let the dogs have a good sniff and then everyone got a treat(for not trying to eat a piggie!!lol).  My mainecoon on the other hand has been chased out the room several times.  It's funny cos I walked in to see the cat sitting beside the cage and the piggie standing up against the bars for a sniff!!Argh!
They have been getting plenty of hay(I thought they used is as bedding?) everyday and I give them something fresh to eat too.
This is all really interesting learning about another animal! And my boys are being really good (so far) responsibility wise.  Really taking care of them by themselves which is all I can ask for.