Guinea pig problems
By lonarari
@lonarari (46)
United States
March 7, 2007 2:53pm CST
We inherited a guinea pig and he is becoming unbearable. Wait, I think it's a she. Anyway the cage had two heavy bowls in it for food and water. We tried to put a water bottle on the cage, but there is really nothing to hook it to.
As soon as she gets her water she dumps it out, same with food. She refuses to leave it in the bowl. This has just become a problem in the last two weeks. We've had her for about 2 months. It's like she's going nuts or something. She just wants to dump it all out and then whine for more. And she whines, a ton lately. Now I'm wondering if guinea pigs go into heat because she is acting strange in the last week. The last two days are unbearable to the point that my husband is like I don't like this animal.
Remember, we inherited her not went out and purchased her. If not for us, I don't know what would have happened to this animal, so we are trying to do the right thing, but she's driving me batty.
4 responses
@cassidy22 (2974)
• United States
7 Mar 07
There is nothing wrong with her dumping her food. You may need to get a little creative about hooking up a water bottle. A wet cage is a BAD IDEA, that's why they make those self feeding bottles, because rodents often dump their bowls.
COnsider asking someone at petsmart or petco or your VET about her behavior, they would have better answers.
@cavywench (69)
• United States
9 Mar 07
It sounds like you have a very young pig. Do you having any idea of the pigs approximate age? Young pigs are usually pretty spunky, popcorning and wild racing.
Pigglies knows her stuff! :-)
I strongly recommend a bigger cage. Those cages off cavycages.com are simple, cheap and are super convertable for any space. The supplies are easily had here in the US - I get my grids from Target. The bottom can be a bit of work, but if you have a sign shop in your town, something like FastSign you can get a piece of coroplast from them. An alternative is getting a sheet of vinyl flooring, cutting it and tapping it to shape. If you have other animals, I'd recommend putting a top on it using wire shelving material. Coincidently that also can be used to make a cage! Give that site a peek and see what you think.
I personally use small slant sided cat food bowls for my boys' pellets. They can stand on the edge all they want and it will not tip over - everything else they tipped right over. I'd also go with a water bottle. If you can't figure out how to use the wire hook-up thingy use maybe a rubberband or a piece of wire. I've had to improvise before when traveling with my guys.
Sexing you pig is easy. Hold your pig with it's back to your front, place two fingers right above the genitals (towards the tummy). Press gently while moving your fingers from side to side. If you feel a ridge, that would be the penile shaft and you would have a male. If not, then you gots a girlie! I would do this before getting a buddy.
Buddies are very important to animals such as these. They are very social little guys and they are so fun to watch interact. Their personalities really come out. Plus you don't get the guilts if you don't have the time to spend with them all the time. You won't be sorry!
I also want to say, YAY You! for taking this little guy in. So many people think nothing of just dropping animals off at a shelter with no thought to what will happen.
So Yay you!
1 person likes this
@lonarari (46)
• United States
7 Mar 07
The food I don't care so much, the water is the issue that bugs us all. The bedding is wet, etc. She's thirsty, I get it. Ok first of all my cage is pretty large. Now, bare with me I had a guinea when I was 14 so that was some time ago. As I remembered that one was much calmer than this one. The one I had could be let out to roam about my bedroom floor while I cleaned his cage and all was well as long as there was some celery down. This one seems a bit more spastic. She doesn't like to be held very much. Yet, she loves my 4 year old and any contact with her at all. So the hesitation on my part is I don't want to take either of them from each other. They seem to get along very well. The cage is a plastic bottom cage with a wire casing around it. It seems like it's larger than what I had for mine when I was smaller and she's not a very big guinea pig. So I think size wise we are good. They had the little generic plastic dishes included in her stuff when we got her. In her cage they had ceramic dishes. They are quite heavy. When you fill her water she puts her feet in it and tips it over completely. Like she wants to submerge her head while drinking and can't just take a sip. I think any type of water bottle system would be better for this pet than a dish.
Part of my problem is that we don't have large pet stores here. We've got smaller ones that are just "home" owned but I'll deal with this til Saturday and I'm going to PetCo an hour away and seeing if there are better alternatives then what we have going on.
And I had no clue that they were social creatures. One thing that always miffed me is that she has a little igloo. Actually it's a big igloo and she won't go in it.It seems to take up a ton of room in the cage, is this a necessity and/or is there some other alternative I should be providing her for a "house" instead of that? She's not interested in the igloo but to chew it up.
Thank you so much for all the info!
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
7 Mar 07
It sounds like you need heavier bowls. Try thick ceramic bowls. Another alternative would be to put those plastic bowls in the cage that screw onto bars.
Why doesn't the cage allow a waterbottle to hook on? What are you using as a cage?
Another question, how big is the cage? Is she accidently running into these bowls? Do the bowls take up too much room?
Guinea pigs don't "go into heat" so to speak, but they do have a certain time where their mucous plug dissolves. But it shouldn't affect them that much.
It sucks that some people can't take responsibility and learn before they get a pet. Now you've got her and weren't prepared because the last owners weren't prepared. Not your fault. But perhaps it would be in her best interest to rehome her? Guinea pigs are social animals and she could be crying out because she doesn't have a friend. But I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want two when one seems bad enough. But that's just how guinea pigs are, they are meant to be social creatures.
@LadyLeene (584)
• United States
7 Mar 07
You have the wrong kinds of dishes and water bottles, that's all! You can buys ones that have hooks attached to them. You just slip it over one of the wires, and there you go! I don't see why this should be such a problem unless you do not have the right kind of cage for a guinea pig.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
7 Mar 07
Those dishes are generally made for birds actually. I wouldn't use the ones that have the wires because guinea pigs could still rip those off and injure themselves. There are heavier duty dishes with a screw on the back to attach to wire cages (even like the nice cubes and coroplast cages, so they don't necessarily need to be your standard pet store cage to work).
@3angelsmom (4)
• United States
23 Mar 07
Our guinea pig dumps his food dish also! We thought buying a heavier dish would fix the problem, but it didn't. For some reason he prefers his food on the floor of the cage.
The water is worrisome, the guinea pig can't drink the spillt water.
Is your cage wire? We used a piece of wire shaped like a U to attach a water bottle to the cage. Hopefully you can find a way to attach one, the spilt water would be a huge mess and dangerous too, how can she drink if she's always spilling? If your cage is more like an aquarium you should look into getting a wire cage. It's recommended not to keep guinea pigs in aquariums because of lack of air circulation. (or something along those lines.
As for the whinning, well they are very social little creatures! Have you noticed yours making many different sounds? Each sound as a meaning, it's how they communicate with you.
I found this website very helpful in distinguishing what all the sounds mean. www.mgpr.org/MGPR/Guinea%20Pig%20sounds.htm
Our guinea pig is friends with the cats, so at night while we are trying to sleep, they are carrying on like crazy!! My daughter found that playing with him before bedtime would help him be quieter at night while we tried to sleep.
I hope you find some of this helpful. Guinea pigs can be fun pets, it just takes some time to get to know them and their ways.
