Guinea Pigs
Guinea Pigs are very social animals and need daily interaction to thrive! If you cannot provide daily interaciton, we here at Pets Unlimited recommend you get two piggies. We encuorage either two males or two females. However, two males are more likely to fight for dominance. If you do keep two as pets make sure you provide adequate space. One adult will need a cage size approx 36x18x18. As these little guys can live up to 10 year, you will want them to be happy and healthy and the first step is to purchase an adequate cage.
In their cage, you should provide a "hide box" for privacy. If you have more than one Guinea Pig you should provide a hide box for each individual piggie. Chew toys are also a good idea as Guinea Pig teeth continue to grow throughout their life. Having something to chew on can dull down their teeth as to not require Vet attention to trim teeth. 1-2" of bedding should be used and changed at minimiun once weekly. We here at Pets Unlimited strongly recommend paper bedding such as Kaytee Clean & Cozy. You can also get fabric decor to give your piggie something to hide in and keep warm, just make sure you wash it weekly!
Guinea Pigs are herbivores, meaning that they eat plant and vegetable matter. A main course of your piggies diet must be Hay. It aids in digestion and helps keep those teeth dull. For young Guinea Pigs we recommend alfalfa hay and for older piggies, 1 year plus, we recommend timothy hay. However, there a many types of hay and you should chose the one your Guinea Pig likes the best. There are many commerical foods available and most are of high quailty. Here at Pets Unlimited our favorite brands are Oxbow and Kaytee. As always your piggie should always have access to fesh clean water, either in a water bottle or a dish.
Below is a list of some fruits and veggies you can feed you piggie!
Dont Feed!!
Anemone (windflower, tumbleweed)
Autumn crocus
Avodaco
Baked goods (cakes, cookies)
Beans
Bishop’s Weed (Ammi majus)
Black locust
Buttercup
Caladium
Caster oil plants (castor bean, palma)
Cherry trees (wild and cultivated)
Chiles
Christmas pepper
Clematis (virgin’s bower)
Coconut
Coffee, soda
Cycads
Daffodil (narcissus, jonquil)
Dairy products
Daphne
Delphinum (larkspur, staggerweed)
Dicerna (bleeding heart, dutchman’s breeches, squirrel corn, turkey corn)
Diffenbachia (dumb cane)
Elephant ear
English ivy
Euphorbia (annual poinsettia, mexican fire plant, fire-on-the-mountain, snow-on-the-mountain)
Four-o’clock
Foxglove
Garland flower
Garlic
Glory lily (climbing lily, gloriosa)
Golden chain
Goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria)
Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria)
Gyacinth
Hydrangea
Holly
Horseradish
Hot herbs and spices
Lettuce – Iceberg
Iris
Indian spurge tree (pencil tree, malabartree, pencil cactus, monkey fiddle)
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Jerusalem cherry
Jams, jellies, fruit preservatives
Jasmine
Juice
Lantana camera (red sage)
Laurels
Leeks
Lilac
Lily-of-the-valley
Marsh marigold (cowslip)
Matrimony vine
Mayapple
Meadow saffron
Meat
Mistletoe
Monkshood
Mountain laurel
Mushrooms (amanita muscaria&amanita phalloides)
Nightshade
Nuts
Oaks
Oleander
Olives (canned)
Onions
Paprikas
Peppers – hot and chiles
Philodendron
Phytolacca (poke weed, poke berry, ink berry)
Pickled vegetables (dill, pickles, capers, sauer kraut)
Pine needles
Poinciana (bird-of-paradise)
Poison hemlock
Potato and potato tops (leaves)
Pothos
Potatoes
Privet
Pyracantha (firethorn)
Raw beans
Rhododendron (laurels, rose bay, azalea)
Rhubarb
Rosary pea
Seeds
Snowdrop
Snow-in-the-mountain (Aegopodium podagraria)
Soda, soda pop
Spring adonis (pheasant’s eye)
Star-of-bethlehem
Strelitzia (bird-of-paradise)
Sweet pea
Taro
Tea
Tomatillo – leaves and stalk
Tomato – leaves and stalk
Trumpet flower (chalice vine)
Water hemlock
Wisteria
Yellow oleander (lucky nut, tiger apple, be-still-tree)
Yew