You do need to clean the Guinea Pig Hutch regularly

Keeping a guinea pig as a pet is a lot of fun, but it isn’t all fun. There’s some work involved to keeping a happy and healthy guinea pig, much of it to do with cleaning the guinea pig hutch. And you need to pay attention to your guinea pig’s diet as well.

Piggie should be fed twice a day. He needs a range of fruit and vegetables for general health and for vitamin C, which we’ve spoken of before. And he also needs dedicated guinea pig pellets which also, if they are well made and fresh, should contain vitamin C.

Whether it’s cold, or raining, or you just don’t feel like it you need to go out to his cage twice a day, every day, and feed your guinea pigs properly.

And don’t forget to check whether they have adequate water as well.

If you’re guinea pig is suffering from low vitamin C you will notice weakness in his back legs. This is a sure sign that you need to increase his vitamin C intake. In this case you can use vitamin C tablets from a supermarket, crush one up and dissolve it in his water to give him a quick burst of vitamin C.

Of course feeding you’re guinea pig should be a pleasure, not a chore.

But there’s more work involved in keeping the guinea pig hutch nice and clean. Of course guinea pigs leave droppings in the hutch, and these need to be regularly cleaned out. How often this is done depends on how big your guinea pig cage is, of course bigger cages need to be cleaned less frequently.

However as there are many small guinea pig hutches available for sale many owners keep their piggies in very small cages. If this is the case you need to clean his hutch at least every 2nd day if not daily. Read the rest of this entry

Bumblefoot is a good reason to have a solid floor on your Guinea Pig Hutch

If you haven’t heard of bumblefoot before then it might come as a surprise to you to know that your Guinea Pigs can get a disease from wire on the floor of their hutch.

Bumblefoot is a disease that attacks the feet of your Guinea Pig. It’s an inflammatory infection and causes lesions and swelling on the pads of the feet of your Guinea Pigs. It is commonly caused by using wire on the bottom of the hutch, possibly because the wire causes cuts on the pads on the bottom of the feet. Then infection enters.

If  you suspect that your favourite pet has bumblefoot then have a look at the pads on the bottom of his feet. If you can see any dark marks or lesions then take him to the vet. Read the rest of this entry

How to keep your guinea pig all shiny and clean

Yes Guinea Pigs can be bathed just like dogs. You need to keep your Guinea Pig clean, although they are clean animals to begin with.

It’s not necessary to bathe your Guinea Pig too often, every few months will do. If you do it frequently you can dry out their skin too much.

Here’s how  you bath your Guinea Pig. Have a towel handy, a good bowl to bath him in, some gentle shampoo, say baby shampoo, and a hairdryer if it’s going to be cold.

You can use the hairdryer but only on the gentlest setting, and only after towel drying your guinea pig first. If the hairdryer is too hot for your skin it’s too hot for his.

Water warm but not hot. Don’t get his face wet, it’s not necessary.

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