Thinking about getting a guinea pig? Stop. Wait. Read these 5 things you MUST know before bringing home your sweet cavy. If you don’t think you can handle them, a guinea pig may not be right for you.
Two years ago, when I welcomed Krystal the Guinea pig into the family, Mike (the super knowledgeable PetSmart guy) spent a long time going over the basics with me. I had a good idea of what I was getting into, but as with any living creature, even an hour of guinea pig boot camp doesn’t cover all the ins and outs of their care. He gave us a few more tidbits of advice when we added Charlotte a month later, but we still had a lot to learn.
Over the last two years, we’ve spent a lot of time researching the guinea pigs. Between that research and actually raising two happy little pigs, I’ve come up with what I think are five things you MUST know before getting a guinea pig.
5 Things to Consider before Buying a Guinea Pig
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They shouldn’t be alone. This is probably the most important thing to consider: you can’t get just one unless you can truly commit to spending quality time with your pig every day, plus plan to keep her in an area where she can see all the action. Guinea pigs are social animals. Stick one alone in a cage tucked away in your son’s room and she’ll be miserable. This is why we have two. Krystal and Charlotte keep each other company when we can’t play with them. You need two girls though, not two boys. Also, not a boy and a girl unless you want lots of baby piggies!
The cage you’re thinking about getting is probably way too small! Since you now know you’ll need two pigs, that habitat you’re looking at on the shelf is too small. In fact, the biggest one on the pet store shelf that you’re looking at is likely too small. They need room to run around and get some exercise, especially if you can’t take them out often.
We started with the rabbit starter cage, actually, because it was bigger. The standard guinea pig cage is just insanely small, in my opinion. I’d say it’s a fair size for a mouse! We upgraded to a house that is about 2.5 times the size for surprisingly less than I thought it would cost! I think it was about $125, including shipping.
We ordered from GuineaPigCages.com. I’m sharing them not only because they’re highly rated on guinea pig forums (which my mom frequents), but also because I’m impressed by their customer service. My mom thought they sent the wrong thing and blasted them in an email. They called us five minutes later, even though it was close to 10PM. Turns out my mom misread the directions, but they were still quick to respond and super nice.
Basically, if you go with an itty, bitty cage, you’re not only being kind of cruel to your piggy, you’re actually setting yourself up for more expenses. How? When the cage is tiny, the pigs have no “bathroom.” When they have space, they designate a spot as their potty spot. If they go everywhere, you have to do more full-cage cleanings. Bedding is crazy expensive! Which leads us to the next point.
Guinea pigs cost more than you probably think. I spend probably close to $60 a month on bedding alone. That’s the recycled paper bedding sold in stores. Despite the fact that it’s sold in the same section, pine and cedar bedding are NOT good for your pig. They contain insecticides. Then you have the hay. Your pigs need hay pretty much all the time all the time. They constantly chew to keep their little teeth from growing into their sweet little skulls. My pigs are picky and prefer a specific type of Timothy hay. It’s $.025 more than the other cheaper brands, so I get it. Hay costs about $20 a month. We’re at $80 a month and we haven’t gotten to their salad bill yet!
A word about bedding: you may be able to get that cost down. You can make your own fleece bedding and just commit to washing it frequently. Some people say Yesterday’s News litter works well. You could also try recycling your own paper by shredding it. I did that once, but it wasn’t coming out soft enough and it didn’t absorb the urine well. I am still looking for the right paper to use. If any guinea pig people happen across this, I’d love your input on the bedding issue, as that’s where the bulk of my money goes.
Pellets and a piece of fruit aren’t enough. If you’re just feeding your pigs the pellets and the minimum quarter orange a day, you can get by only spending about $10-15 a month on food. However, that’s really not enough to be truly satisfying. Guinea pigs LOVE fresh fruits and veggies. That’s what they eat in the wild. My girls go nuts at breakfast and dinner time!
They really should get one cup of fresh veggies per guinea pig per day. We break it up into two servings. Lettuce (NOT iceberg) makes up the bulk. I buy romaine or endive, as that seems to go the furthest. Baby carrots, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and other veggies in the evenings. Some fruit mixed with veggies in the morning. Happy Cavy Blog has the best resource for knowing what you can and can’t feed them. I have their list printed out, saved on my phone and on my computer.
Cage location matters. Just like Goldilocks, your pigs don’t like things too hot or too cold. The room needs to be between about 65-75 degrees once they reach maturity (a bit warmer when they’re babies). If it gets too hot, they could have a heat stroke. They also can’t be in drafty areas, as these little piggies are very susceptible to respiratory infections. So think about where you have the space to put it. We just rearranged Jacob’s entire room to make space for the new habitat that we bought our piggies.
Thinking of getting a guinea pig? Check out these 5 things you MUST know first!If you’re cool with all of those things, though, guinea pigs really are fun creatures! Mine are so smart, they know exactly when I’m coming in to feed them. They squeal exactly like little piggies! Charlotte and Krystal have such totally different personalities, too. Charlotte is my spastic pig while Krystal is pretty mellow. I love my guinea piglets and I’m so glad we got them, but I really do wish I had known more about the overall cost involved. It was quite a shock!
I hope this helps you decide if you are ready for a guinea pig! If you have any other questions about guinea pigs, feel free to ask. I’m not an expert. This is all based on what I have learned over the last two years. If you have tips on how to lower any of the associated costs, definitely tell me!
These are excellent tips! I wish I had known about them before my ex decided to get a guinea pig for our oldest son’s birthday. I honestly don’t think some people realize guinea pigs actually require more attention and responsibility than a cat…maybe more than dog too!
Thank you! You know, I have dogs and cats too, and I’d say that my piggies require at least as much attention and work overall, if not more sometimes.
Um not to be rude or anything but you can get two boys in the same cage. They actually bond way quicker. I have shared guinea pigs with my friend Alison who is also my neighbor we have 2 boars and 2 sows. The boars are bonded and so are the sows. We plan on getting the boars fixed so they can be with the girls they are bonded with the girls too they are our tiny herd. So dont ever say you can only get 2 if they girls it doesnt matter the gender and I’m quite certain petco sells fixed boars cuz one of the boars hangs out with my girls often and the other spent 2 years with my sow before we got her. And theyre all from petco
As a previous owner of a guinea pig, I think this article is terrific! My brother wanted the school pet, the guinea pig. Well,my mother and I wound cleaning the cage, feeding the guinea pig, changing the water, etc. It’s more work than most people think. Great, great informative article!
WOW! Guinea pigs need to be cared for and spend time with. They are so cute and I did not know that they are such social creatures and need to be touched and loved a lot. It is so important to make sure that they are treated properly and given much love. Thanks for the great tips!
Nice article. You may be able to save on bedding if you can buy online. I buy from petmountain.com, who often has coupons, and if you can buy 6 at a time the shipping is free. The price is half that of the chain stores.
This was really interesting and really helpful, thank you!
My granddaughter has a guinea pig named Bacon. I have tried to tell her that I think his cage is too small, especially with everything she has in there. The exercise wheel, a feeding bowl, the water bottle, & I forgot if there was more. She does let Bacon out at times in his exercise ball, but they also
have 2 dogs & a cat – so we have to make sure Bacon won’t be their bacon 🙂
I am going to PIN this so she can read this article, because the other points are really helpful too – thanks for sharing!
Sue E, you really shouldn’t have an exercise wheel with a guinea pig! They have extremely fragile backs that cannot bend the way animals such as rats, hamsters and gerbils can. No exercise wheel is safe for guinea pigs and those that claim to be safe are obviously not made my companies who are well educated in piggie needs. Please get rid of the wheel immediately.
Please research how bad the wheels and balls are for GPigs! They have very fragile spines and those things are NOT made for them. They’re for rats and hamsters and ferrets and others but not GPigs. They need a big cage and floor time. Guineapigcages.com has a great forum full of great info and they sell bug enough cages or teach you where to buy the stuff to make your own (that’s what I did).
Thanks!
Lots of articles discourage the exercise balls and wheels because of guinea pigs spines don’t bend easily like hampsters
This is very helpful information, I know someone who’s thinking about getting one, I’ll pass this along to her!
I absolutely loved this article! It is a great starting point for anyone looking to get guinea pigs. I am still astounded when I see people getting piggies but have no clue of a piggies needs. The poor things often end up being shoved in a corner and neglected. However, one point I cannot agree with is not allowing two boars to live together as you have stated in your first bullet point.
I have had guinea pigs for over 10 years and it is a complete MYTH that boars cannot be housed together.
Yes, boars may fight, but females do too. It is a matter of piggies having different personalities just like people. Every single one of my piggies have been boars and they have all gotten along beautifully. Never had any fights. If you have two dominant pigs (regardless of whether they are male or female) they will fight from time to time until they establish a hierarchy between themselves, very rarely do pairs need to be permanently separated. That being said, some boars will just never get along due to similar dominant personalities, incorrect first introductions, or just careless ownership on the humans part (e.g having sows in heat nearby that the males can smell and will subsequently fight each other for the right to mate even if they can’t physically reach the females).
At home I myself have a 4yo boar and 4mo boar, and despite the large age difference, they get along wonderfully. 4yo Colonel has taken up a fatherly figure for little Sid who is very shy, and still becoming used to being handled. Colonel was very uninterested in Sid and irritated by him when I first introduced the two as he was still mourning his friend Diego who passed away a few weeks earlier but I was patient, gave them time to acquaint themselves, sort out any differences between them, and now they are best buds. Within an hour of being introduced, Colonel was falling asleep (an old man needs his naps 🙂 ) with Siddy grooming him.
Some sites with extra info on housing boars together…
http://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm
http://jackiesguineapiggies.com/Companionship.html
https://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20131017162706AAtk7Tg (Yahoo answers, I know. I’m not a fan but this answer is spot on, her sources are fantastic)
http://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2972
Thank you so much. My store only sells the boars and I was scared about getting 2-3 as starting off.
Two boars are ok together. No GPig should be alone unless you seriously can spend lots of time with it. Boars do wonderfully together if you simply research how to do introductions properly and know what to expect while they’re establishing dominance. They will bicker and even fight but you MUST let them work that out (unless blood is drawn) and once dominance is determined they are fine other than occasional pestering each other almost like two kid brothers will do ?.. Boars for sure need plenty of space in the cage and enough caves/huts to separate get away from each other when they need.
I have two boars together. They are pals. You need to have a really big cage (mine have 23 square feet of space which is a lot). Not all pigs will get along male or female but it takes time for them to bond sometimes.
I’ve been wanting a Guinea pig for a while and thanks for the info they take a lot of effort but there funny adorable and a fun pet for kids and adults
I must’ve had an odd guinea pig! He did not like to chew on hay, and he was perfectly happy in pine bedding. I actually found him to be quite a low cost pet. He was cuddled by his humans daily, and was never far from family action. If we let him run around the room, he would hop right into a small open tray of bedding to do his business, & never made a mess on the floor. The pellet food I purchased was alfalfa based, and enhanced with Vitamin C (since they don’t produce their own). One large bag was around $12 and kept him fed for 2 months. I removed droppings a couple of times a week and fully changed his bedding once a week, so that was about $10 a month.
Whenever we had salad or veggies around, I would share some with him, but he never ate more than a couple pieces at a time – definitely not a whole cup full. He lived for a wonderful 7.5 years, and was loved by all who met him. Would definitely recommend a GP as a pet, they are snuggly and adorable! Personally I found mine to be quite a low maintenance pet, and he was the perfect little guy for when I lived in an apartment.
I think your first two points are the most important! I got my first guinea pig from a friend who turned out to be allergic! Her old owner insisted that she would not do well with a companion. I did as she said for a few months and did not get her a companion, and boy was it an up hill struggle. This guinea pig was always biting me, chattering her teeth at me, and just hated me in general. I couldn’t even spot clean her cage without losing a little blood. Finally I decided enough was enough and bought her a companion. Now she is the sweetest little critter around. Instead of biting, she licks! Instead of chattering her teeth at me, she begs for hay and lettuce!! She has even welcomed a third little pig into her herd and is happier than ever. So the lesson I learned!
This article is good, but the main important thing before you do anything else is, DO MORE RESEARCH!!!
There are so many things the above mentioned links can provide in addition to this article.
ALSO before giving any money to a pet store, check out small animal rescues, or exotic animal rescues. YES Gps are considered exotic pets. They have guinea pigs in desperate need of homes. I purchased my first two, then joined Guinea Lynx and did more research. When one of my males died, I adopted a spayed female from EARPS in Indy (Exotic Animal Rescue and Pet Sanctuary). They lived very happily together for 3 more years. They were both past 6 when they died. I’m on my second set ofadopted Male and Female. Again, she is spayed. Most rescues will spay and neuter them before they adopt them out.
As personal choice, I use fleece and towels for bedding. It does have to be changed more often, but I spend $10 on a weekly basis to launder them. It cost in the beginning to build up the stash, but I have enough on hand to do several weeks of changing before laundering. I bought towels from Good Will and used my own as I bought new for family use. The fleece can be scraps from fabric stores. It’s almost always 45inch wide. I’ve also collected quite a few of those cheap fleece blankets to fold up for beds.
Another hint I love, drape a fleece over the side or corner of the cage. The pigs will use that has their hidey. They don’t really like being out in the open since they are prey animals. They like to have someplace to hide.
Thank you so much for your comment and added tips! We actually recently switched to fleece bedding. My mom (who lives with me) started making them out of the inexpensive fleece blankets that are always on sale, with a backing made from those UPS blankets (the kind they have in moving trucks I think?). Now that we have a nice stock of them, we’re saving SO much money on bedding. SO much.
I’m also really happy to hear that your piggies lived past age 6. My son started freaking out the other day when he asked how long guinea pigs live and I told him between 4-6 years. Our piggies are now both three. But we take excellent care of them and feed them an incredibly well-researched diet, so I’m hoping they’ll make it to the farther end of the life expectancy. We have a 19-year-old cat and two 14-year-old dogs, so animals in our home do tend to live long lives.
Again, thank you VERY much for all that wonderful input!
How well does the UPS/moving blanket go through the wash?
For the food, when we had piggies, to save money on veggies and such we just gave our pigs left over strawberry tops, lettuce ect. The average life span of a piggie is about 2-3 years. Ours lived about 7!
That is so awesome to hear! I hope my piggies live that long. I’ve gotten pretty good at shopping sales for fruits and veggies, and sticking to what I know they like. I have that long list and think “gee, my piggies must be getting bored, let me buy them this exotic fruit for $3 to switch things up!” Then they hate it, lol. So now I just go with what I know they like.
Great article we have 3 cages and 5 guineas for 2 yrs and we do use the fleece bedding, it saves us a ton!
Hey there,
please help me about that!!! i was visiting a pet shop and i saw my guinea pig kinda uncomfortable in the cage with the others. I couldnt leave him like that nd bought him. He was so afraid and almost traumatic at the beginning. Happened to be that he is blind. He is not comf. With other guineapigs around. Shall i get one more for company? Plse email back ([email protected])
I dont wanna be rude but the male guinea pigs can’t get along, is just a myth. I have two male abyssinian guinea pigs that I adopted from my local Petsmart. It actually depends on the personality of the guinea pigs, in other words guinea pigs have different personalities so some males won’t get along with males and some females won’t get along with females.
Remember there are so many guinea pigs who need homes, so before you purchase a guinea pig from Petsmart or Petco please try to adopt thru craigslist or a local guinea pig rescue/ animal shelter. If you can’t for some reason adopt just make sure the pet store you buy guinea pigs from is clean and the animals are healthy
Hi Elizabeth! You’re not being rude at all. 😀 I appreciate you letting me (and my readers) know that about male guinea pigs. So much of what I read (and was told) said that they don’t like each other, but it makes sense that it would depend on the personality of the pigs. Also, back when I wrote this, I had no idea that so many guinea pigs were awaiting adoption. Definitely adopt before you shop! Thanks again, I always appreciate input from my readers, even if it contradicts what I said. That’s how we all learn new things! 😀
Great tips about guinea pigs, I really hope lots of people read this before not thinking and just picking up a couple of piggies and sticking them in a corner, they live for roughly 6 years so think that the little child you got them for are not going to be so little in a few years time and the excitement does sometimes wear off, with with the most interested children! so it’s then down to the adult to care them.
They are so sociable and inquisitive, so gentle if handled well and just thrive on company, we had two beautiful piggies that have now sadly Passed ☹️
The best little pet if everything is taken into consideration.
Shredded paper can be a good add in under your expensive paper bedding. Be very careful to remove staples and cellophane windows. I halve my cost this way
These are good points but have you considered what advocating only getting girls might mean for all the male piggies out there? Inevitably male pigs will be born and if nobody gets them, where will they go? It is perfectly possible to bond male pigs together with the right knowledge.
I have 9 guinea pigs, and they don’t cost me nearly that much each month. For all of them it costs about $45, that’s because I do things the smart way. You can get giant bags of kiln dried pine for about $5 each at Tractor Supply. Kiln dried pine is perfectly safe for guinea pigs because the kiln drying process removes all the harmful pheromones from the pine, leaving it perfectly safe. One bag of this lasts me about a month, and my guinea pig cage is 32sq feet. So if you have an 8 or 10sq foot cage it’ll last you a few months easy. Now onto hay, guinea pigs do need orchard or timothy hay. However, if you’re smart about it it won’t cost you anywhere near $20 a month. You can get a 50lb bale of timothy or orchard grass hay from Tractor Supply for $20 and it lasts my pigs about 3 months. If you buy the tiny bags of hay than yes, it’ll cost you $20 a month, or you can buy a bale and it’ll cost you about $5 a month. Lastly is veggies, our pigs all get 1 cup of veggies per pig per day. In total it costs about $30 a month in veggies, and that’s for 9 pigs! They go through 3 heads of lettuce a week, 3 green peppers, and 3 colors peppers a week plus some cilantro or carrot tops, or any other veggies we want to mix in for variety. 2 pigs would go through much less. I get a 25lb bag of timothy based guinea pig pellets for about $18 a bag. Each bag lasts about 3 months, so it’s like $8 a month on pellets. Guinea pigs can cost a lot, but if you do your research, find the best deals, and don’t have a ton of pigs it’s not that expensive.
Appreciate all your advice. We tried the paper bedding for a while but because of the way they poop, piggies can get paper bedding stuck in their anus and infection can set it. We almost lost our first boy to this. After that we went to thrift stores and bought up cheap, used baby quilts (the size for a crib is just right for a 2×3 C&C cage). We also bought about 30 used hand towels (about $0.25-50 EA). The baby quilts form the base of our bedding and then wherever our cavies per the most we fold a towel in half to absorb. We change the wet towels daily and the base every 3 days. It works great and no more illness and only about a load of laundry a week. Huge savings.
Hope this might help someone! I bought meters of fleece from a fabric store when they had a winter special on the go. Under that is a layer of old towels and under that a thick plastic layer, almost like the vinal table cloths you can buy.
I have 2 sets of towels and fleece so I can change everything and get the place ready without waiting for all the washing to dry. I usually do a full clean out weekly but I can push it to 2 weeks if the piggies have kept to their usual corners for toilet time. I am convinced I can only let it go that long because of my extra layers in the corners/hiding areas.
I’ve built up a supply of cheap toweling nappies (diapers),which I fold in quarters and place in the corners or under hiding areas, with another, cut to size, layer of fleece on top. They like the corners as there’s extra padding to lie on and either a cardboard box (no bottom) or a branch from the garden, or a piece of material hung over as a roof.
Most of their poo and wee lands up in these areas, so I do a daily quick shake off of the corner fleeces into a bin or the garden and replace any wet nappies, with another fleece piece on top. The dirty nappies and little fleeces get put in my outside laundry sink to soak, and it all gets chucked in the washing machine when there’s enough for a full load.
It sounds like, and probably is a lot of work but I use the clean up time to say hello and watch them investigate what I am up to and sneak a cuddle,so it’s time I would be spending with them anyway.
It’s a great way for me to switch off from work before starting with the evening round of dinner and so on. I have 3 females, all from a rescue organization and all have been neutered.
Thank you for sharing this! We use a similar system and let me just say that the extra work is totally worth it compared to the amount of money we were spending on bedding. Also, really, if you think about it, it’s not much extra work because scooping out all of that bedding is definitely a pain! Hmmm, now that I’m really thinking about it, it’s actually less work than the bedding. 😀
Wow, this has been the best thing I’ve read so far about getting guinea pigs! Thinking about getting two for my family. Thanks for sharing!
Romane is not recommended due to high calcium, I recommend red or green leaf lettuce. Bell peppers green or yellow but not orange and red which are too sweet. As for the bedding, I used two layers of winter fleece which underwent a wicking process prior to sewing, between the two layers of fleece I inserted u-haul pads cut to fit, sewed together. Amazingly absorbant. Cage cleanings take about 4 mins using a little hand held broom to sweep the waste off the pads. I change my pads every three days and launder when I have enough for a load. Do not use fabric softener and make sure your detergent is the baby stuff.
I completely switched over to red and green leaf lettuce after the recent Romaine scares. I find that I actually get more “usable” lettuce anyway with those, if that makes sense.