Most pet shop Guinea Pig hutches are too small

There is a huge range of Guinea Pig hutches available in your local pet store. There’s all shapes and sizes, some of them being very good hutches.

However the majority of Guinea Pig hutches that are purchased in pet shops are too small. There are several reasons for this but the prime reason is because small Guinea Pig cages are cheaper.

We have seen tiny triangular cages housing 2 or 3 Guinea Pigs, which gives them virtually no room to run around.

As a general rule bigger is always better when it comes to housing your guinea pig.

However it is not particularly important that the hutch be high, as guinea pigs do not require height in their cage.

It is also important to avoid hutches that have wire on the floor unless you cover the wire with a soft material such as hay has guinea pigs can get foot problems, and in particular a condition called bumble foot, from constantly walking on wire.

It is also important that the hutch be put in a position where it is not in contact with damp ground. If your Guinea Pig hutch is placed on the ground in the darkness and cause your Guinea Pig to become sick. It is better to raise the hutch off the ground. Read the rest of this entry

How do you take care of your Guinea Pigs?

Here’s a good collection of videos that give you some tips on Guinea Pig care.

Of course there’s always differences of opinion about Guinea Pig care, but there’s some good general principals.

One slightly contentious subject is washing your Guinea Pig. Some people suggest that you shouldn’t give your Guinea Pig a wash/shampoo more often than once a month or so as it dries out their skin. Some others though suggest every week.

Like everything it’s a case of seeing how things work for you.

Enjoy the videos.

Read the rest of this entry

We love cute Guinea Pigs

We just love pictures of Guinea Pigs. Our own Guinea Pig is a cutie, but there’s so many out there we just had to put this one up here. We love how their ears droop.

We have just built our own Guinea Pig hutch because our daughter has got her own Guinea Pig now. Piggies name is Charlie, and he’s a cutie as well.

It wasn’t all that difficult but it has to be said that we started with a shed that was already there, so it was a matter of just modifying the shed.

We had to make sure that there was a good door on the new shed/hutch. It needed plenty of light to get through so Charlie wasn’t in the dark, so we made it with a large cutout in the door, but we also had to make sure that a fox couldn’t jump through the cutout.

That was achieved using chicken wire on the back of the door to cover the hole. No foxes for Charlie now.

Charlie now has the biggest hutch to run around in that he’s ever had. We got him from a friend who breeds Guinea Pigs and he used to be in such a small Guinea Pig cage before. Read the rest of this entry