A young lady with two guinea pigs had to leave the country as her visa was expiring. She gave up her guinea pigs ,Poppy and Daisy, to my coworker Maya. She, and her family, were going to Bulgaria for a few months, so We ended up with the pair. We renamed them Poppy(Princess Peanut Butter Cup) and Daisy (Westley the dread pirate).
Like most people that have guinea pigs, we became obsessed with them. They are adorable and it is very satisfying to watch them eat. They do everything with joy and intensity. WARNING: Guinea Pigs can become an addiction. They also require a lot of love, care, attention, resources, and in some cases medical care. If you don’t have the time, energy, or resources. Rodents may not be the pet for you. For guinea pig maintenance see: https://www.youtube.com/@skinnypigs1
Their original cage was too small for two guinea pigs. So we upgraded them to a 2 x 4 store bought cage.
We still considered the 2 x 4 cage too small and decided to build our own 29 in x 6 ft cage. Instructions are on this site. https://www.emogic.com/notes/guinea-pig-cage-create-your-own-our-way/ We also decided to buy fleece for most of the bedding. Of course we bought tons of toys and shelters.
Westley was a girl. Yes, we misgendered a guinea pig! Westley and Princess got along well. Just line any good younger guinea pig, Princess was the caboose in this GP train.
Westley was a joy. Friendly, social, curious, and dashingly handsome.
Westley was the older GP. Much older. We had her in for dental surgery. We believe she she had bladder stones when we got her. Due to her age, we decided not to do surgery. We saw the toll dental surgery took on her. The bladder stones caused urine scalding. We tried or best to and washed her in the sink every night, but it did very little for the blistering. It must have been very painful. But she rarely showed it. She was a trooper. We only had one short year with Westley.
After Westley passed, we decided to not get a replacement friend for Princess. GP are herd animals and thrive better with a friend or two. But GP are a lot of work and we did not want another and another and … So to compensate for Princess being alone, we really began to treat her like a princess.
The daily GP routine increased. The day started with hand feeding a urinary biscuit (recommended). Then around noon it was time to hand feed some split peas. Then throughout the day to see if she was ok and to poke her nose or give another piece of biscuit. After our dinner I would spend 30 minutes cleaning her cage, then bring her out to hand feed some fresh veggies on the kitchen table for about an hour. When she had enough she would rip hay out of my hand, head butt my chest and bite my hand. Then a biscuit piece before bed.
Happiness is watching a GP eat. Take joy in everything you do.
Spring time meant fresh grass, dandelion leaves and clover! She loved her grass. Ironically, if we did not have Princess, we would never have found Clover our newest cat. He was found sleeping in a box of clover for princess that was kept in our garage.
She loved showing off at the water bottle. If you were watching, she would really tear into it.
Look at what I can do
Princess loved her ears rubbed and nose stroked. Se also loved paper bags, edible shelters, and sea grass. Sometimes we would fill he cage with hand shredded paper. She loved that too.
As do most guinea pigs, open fridge, or cut some fruit, she would stand up at the side of the cage and wheek. In her younger days she would also popcorn.
She was actually surprisingly active in her last two weeks. In fact I would say she was overdoing it. She tore up the mat, she pulled down a hanging stick, she wrecked all the toys that were held together by string. There was no hint that anything was wrong.
It was before dinner while cleaning the cage. Everything was going according to our routine. I tell her to go to the litter area, and she does. I came in with clean blanket and she was just was sitting in corner balled up. I took her out for her fresh veggies. She would not eat. She was in obvious discomfort. She pooped a bit so we though she might be coming out of some constipation. We gave her a small dose of metacam. She seemed better but no still no food or water. Just before 11 she was exhibiting slightly laboured and audible breathing. We were going to take her to the vet the following morning. She was alive at 1am but dead when I got up at 7:30 am. I found her stretched out on her back, head back and front arms up in the air.
A clean guinea pig is a happy guinea pig.
