Hi All!

[gpigmommato2]

HI all,

I'm Sal, and I'm a wife and mom also a mom to Jake ( 20), TJ (15) and Katie (10)! I do daycare in my home, and have always been a GP lover!

I'm allergic to fur, and so my kids have never had a furry friend, but as a child, my parents had a few gerbils and then got a few guinea pigs over the years. Not sure how people feel about using aquariums, but we have a 3 foot by 2 foot aquarium (bought it at the pet store and it's used for lizards) and my own children and hubby are NOT allergic so "spooky" gets time with them each day outside to run and be spoiled.

We don't have a "run" yet, but we have a large kid's pool that we use just for her to run and then we let her run in the grass at times too.

I'm sure it will seem strange that we have to do certain things so that we can keep her, but I would be breaking out ( eczema) and sneezing and wheezing if we didn't do some of those things.

The aquarium is necessary so that we contain what we can of what she kicks up, and we have an air purifier near the cage, to "get" what we can out of the air. We have the ventilated lid off as often as we can.

Spooky came from a hoarder's house, we bought her from one of our local pet stores and she is the nicest little thing! we got her a month or so ago, and she adjusted sooo well here! She loves to wheek and does it often of course, sometimes even if we just move! My kids and hubby are NOT allergic to her, so many times if she wheeks, they will go up to her and pet her and 2 times a day they give her a carrot.

I learned sooo much on how to raise GP's, and have to admit, my parents made some pretty big mistakes. One is they had our GP in a 20 gallon aquarium! The other is, they only fed her pellets! ACK! They didn't know they were supposed to have a larger aquarium and feed her hay! I can tell they feel really bad learning what they did wrong.

Sorry this is sooo long. Please don't be mad that we do things differently! I look forward to learning all i can here so we can have the happiest and healthiest GP's possible!

[abbypig]

Welcome to the forum!

There is a lot of diversity when it comes to keeping pigs, so (within reason) there is no particular right or wrong answer, she sounds like a very happy piggy!

[Kayleigh]

Welcome to the forum.

Your pigs sound very happy and we all have different ways of keeping pets.

An aquarium isnt ideal for guinea pigs as they hold a fair bit of moisture and this can cause URI in the pigs. Also 3ft by 2ft isnt big enough for two pigs so this could cause some tension between the sows. Saying this if you keep the tank clean and dry and well aired this should be ok. I would advise getting a bigger cage though for the guinea pigs benefit. Removing a hidey like you mentioned in your other post may cause the sows to become very possesive, which could end in one sleeping in the hidey and the other left out.

A very good solution to allergies with regards to guinea pigs is to keep them on a fleece bedding, this means you can vacume/sweep the poops up daily and this will pick the hair up too. You could also try using a different bedding, megazorb or such.

I myself come up in a red itchy rash when the pigs snuggle under my neck and their hay makes me sneeze like crazy if i forget to take my antihistamine but i put up with this for the sake of keeping my beloved pigs.

Welcome to the forum again.

Kayleigh

[gpigmommato2]

Jul 22, 2011 19:12:31 GMT Kayleigh said:

Welcome to the forum.

Your pigs sound very happy and we all have different ways of keeping pets.

An aquarium isnt ideal for guinea pigs as they hold a fair bit of moisture and this can cause URI in the pigs. Also 3ft by 2ft isnt big enough for two pigs so this could cause some tension between the sows. Saying this if you keep the tank clean and dry and well aired this should be ok. I would advise getting a bigger cage though for the guinea pigs benefit. Removing a hidey like you mentioned in your other post may cause the sows to become very possesive, which could end in one sleeping in the hidey and the other left out.

A very good solution to allergies with regards to guinea pigs is to keep them on a fleece bedding, this means you can vacume/sweep the poops up daily and this will pick the hair up too. You could also try using a different bedding, megazorb or such.

I myself come up in a red itchy rash when the pigs snuggle under my neck and their hay makes me sneeze like crazy if i forget to take my antihistamine but i put up with this for the sake of keeping my beloved pigs.

Welcome to the forum again.

Kayleigh

Hi Kayleigh, thanks for the advice! How do you make fleece bedding? We do plan on getting a bigger cage for them. So eventually, should we take one of the houses out? If they sleep together on a regular basis?

Right now we use freshcare for bedding.

[Kayleigh]

A fleece bedding is as simple as it sounds, You place a layer of newspaper on the bottom then a cotton towel these two layers absorb the urine and keep the fleece dry and odour free. You then place a wicked (washed) fleece, the type many people keep on the bottom of their beds or use if they get cold. You could also find a way to attach a hay rack in the cage, this means less mess/hay over the fleece bedding and no hay is wasted.

I would keep both hideys in the cage so they can sleep seperate if they want too. If the sows are getting along very well and sleep in the one then you could take the other out, Just watch their behaviour.

Kayleigh

[gpigmommato2]

Jul 22, 2011 19:48:46 GMT Kayleigh said:

A fleece bedding is as simple as it sounds, You place a layer of newspaper on the bottom then a cotton towel these two layers absorb the urine and keep the fleece dry and odour free. You then place a wicked (washed) fleece, the type many people keep on the bottom of their beds or use if they get cold. You could also find a way to attach a hay rack in the cage, this means less mess/hay over the fleece bedding and no hay is wasted.

I would keep both hideys in the cage so they can sleep seperate if they want too. If the sows are getting along very well and sleep in the one then you could take the other out, Just watch their behaviour.

Kayleigh

So it goes newspaper on the bottom, then cotton towel on top of that, then the fleece? Also, the hay rack, would there tend to be less mess then with the ball?

[Kayleigh]

Yes thats how i used fleece bedding. The paper and towels absorb all the urine so the fleece remains clean and dry.

I havent used hay balls as i dont feel they hold enough hay. But if you have a couple of them i dont see why that wouldnt work.

Kayleigh

[zoeae]

welcome to the forum. i see that everyone else is offering you good advice.