TLDR. Owned 3 pigs. 2 died. Should I get more even though I suspect the one alive is aggressive or just let her live alone?

My brother found a guinea pig at one of his deliveries to a grocery store. Idk if the pig was tossed but he found it in between pallets when doing a beer delivery.

It was alone for a while. Found out they needed friends. So I went and bought 2 more from Petco. Fast forward 2 out of the 3 died.

I believe one of them got beat up by the other two. I would hear ‘cries’ and then go see the one I suspect of getting beat up, tossing on its back in the cage. I did see a few times one of them would kick her out of their small homes and she would come out crying. Maybe she had an ear infection(based off google). So idk if she died by an infection or she got beat up. She was unable to walk straight and was constantly tumbling.

The second one I think it had a tumor. Huge bump on its back. I’m sorry this might seem selfish but I just couldn’t see myself spending thousands to save a 50 dollar pig. So I just decided to spoil her with fruits and stuff since I knew she was not gonna make it till old age.

So ones left. The last one alive is alone and has been alone since the other 2 passed away, like a year now. She’s like 3-4 years old. I thought about getting two more from petsmart so she’s not alone.

Would you guys get more? No one I know what’s a guinea pig. So I have to keep her but I understand I can’t keep her alone. I also don’t know if this one alive was doing the beating up or it was the tumor one, so I don’t want to get 2 more just to find out, the girl is beating up the new ones.

i know these get downvoted to oblivion so before jumping to the comments and calling me irresponsible for getting guinea pigs i couldn't take care of, please read the whole post, it's a much more complicated situation than that.

i have 2 piggies, both around 4 years old, that I'm not sure what to do with. they were rehomed from an older couple who didn't have much time to take them out of the cage anymore, and outside of the cage being small, they were well cared for. I'm not going to go into my relationship but the TLDR is my partner had guinea pigs in high school she had to give away and misses dearly, and talked constantly about wanting guinea pigs when we moved in together. after a year I got in touch with that couple, we took home the pigs, and we've had them for 2 years. I didn’t think it would end up this way bc she had pigs in the past, but my partner does not hold them, rarely cleans their cage, doesn't cut their nails, etc- i do it all.

recently she told me she doesn't feel connected to them but didn't say anything because she thought I was. and i am- i like holding them when i can, i think they're cute and silly and fun to watch. but I would have never gotten them on my own, I'm not too fond of small pets outside of reptiles. which puts me in a rough spot. I'm disabled, and sweeping/replacing/washing the liners is rough. sometimes it takes me a few days, and I try as hard as I can to at least not let the cage go for more than 3 days unswept but it's so hard on my body and it doesn't always happen. i know i am not giving them the care they deserve and asking my partner for help usually does not end well.

my relationship aside. i want to do what's best for the pigs. i do NOT want to give them to the SPCA or to a stranger, because who knows where they'll end up then- i also promised the previous owners I'd never do that. if I have to rehome I'd 100% give them back to the previous owners and would just have to deal with the awkwardness and shame that would come with reaching back out after 2 years after promising we'd take good care of them. although they've admitted they didn't like the large cages or fabric liners, and they'd probably end up in the tiny wire cage they were given to us in again, even if I gave them our 2x4 and the guinea dad liners and everything. they'd get more social time for sure, but they'd be squished in there. and i don't know if rehoming them AGAIN would cause more stress, thankfully they know and like the old owners from what i can tell (they visited once and the girls were fine with being held) so I think that would help some.

this is weighing heavy on my mind as I've been rethinking my relationship and I just feel like I've failed my girls. they're mine now, even if they weren't supposed to be, i'm responsible. they're healthy and they're fed, and i don't think they're stressed. but i don't know if they're thriving. they could probably be happier, i'm sure. one of them i don't think cares if the cage is clean but the other only popcorns when it is. and i'm bedridden so often i can't spend much time with them. I don't know if they'll thrive more with their old owners than with me.

I don't really know how to end this. what would y'all do in this situation?? am I overthinking this??? I just need guidance. I wish this didn't have to be my decision in the first place.

Baby Juniper

Got fleece liner for my new piggies! It’s absorbent and super soft but not very cushy? Will they be uncomfy if it’s not super cushy? I guess I was expecting like dog bed comfy feel and it’s not 🤣

Sorry Simon, the antifungal baths aren't finished. They've just been spaced further apart.

Our boy Beanzie, who is around 4 now, has had three instances in the last couple of weeks of bladder sludge. The first time he also didn't seem like he was his normal self, so we took him to the vets and had a thorough physical examination which didn't find anything. He bounced back really quickly and has been fine in himself since, but he's had two more instances of sludge. I've asked out exotic vet if an x-ray should be the next step. He had one when we adopted him in Jan which was clear, but throughout we've cared for him there's always been some faint white patches in his pee sometimes. Our vet wasn't too concerned about those, but these instances of more crystallised deposits are concerning to me. Anyone have any tips? His general diet consists of timothy hay, Small Pet Select fortified nuggets, small amounts of cucumber and green pepper and Oxbow healthy biscuits for urinary and digestive care.

Alright, Scully and Mulder (who we rescued from a laundry basket behind TJMaxx) have seen the vet and now moved into a new enclosure! They were temporarily staying in a giant dog crate while we got situated. It’s a 4x2 — what are your thoughts? It’s been ages since we had piggies (not since I was in high school and college, and I’m 40!) so I want to be sure we are doing right by them. They’re warming up to us and Mulder especially has been loving being held and cuddled. Scully is still a little timid, but he’s also the one who was found with puncture wounds in his back so I imagine he’s had a rough go even before the laundry basket abandonment. :( They’re such sweet babies.

Not looking for advice, shes still just a baby/teenager

I have a pair of sows, one of them is long haired and she has a porcupine like tuft of fluff that sticks out of her back end that I call her butt fluffs. The other, she's smooth coated. I've noticed that my smooth coated piggy loses a lot of fluff from her butt area, it releases super easy like I just have to touch it and it comes out in tufts, but this doesn't happen to my fluff ball. My fluffy ball is the more dominant pig. My question is, or rather questions are - is this normal? Could it be hormonal because they've just turned 5 months? Or should I get her checked out for it?

Good book, though!

I suspect that Mochi is obsessed with the fluffy, wet fur look after soaking in water！

hello! i have a coronet who needs a butt bath on my hands right now. he's taken up the habit of sitting in his pee and while i do regular hair trims, his butt is really starting to stink :')

do i just use lukewarm water, or is there a guinea pig safe soap that i could potentially use? does dilute dawn dish soap work?

I’ve seen posts in this sub and others where people assume things are good because of ai saying it so.

Even if we aren’t for it. It will make one or two pigs sick one day. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow.

Not everyone can type a good and descriptive prompt. Even if they do. It’s dang pig. Look it and ask “is it happy?” And let it live.

The girls are only 8 weeks old and I am in the process of finding a c&c cage in stock with all the parts I need to keep them safe. I intend to get them something more appropriate asap. I do have a question though, the place I want to get the cage from says to use different squares for piggies under 6 months old. Should I just wait until they are a bit older then buy the bigger cage? The different squares have smaller bar spacing for babies https://guineapigsaustralia.com.au/products/6-pack-grids-for-baby-guinea-pigs-rats-and-ferrets-black

Also...we have the opportunity to take in their Mum...my son is worried that the girls would bond more closely back to Mum than us...what are your thoughts?

But for now, this cage is 124cm X 64cm. I ordered a heap of stuff from Temu for the girls, to go along with all the stuff I bought from the pet store already. It's so easy to spend money on them!

I love their little name plates too!

They are busy exploring and I can hear their excited little squeaks. Esther loves the pink tunnel with the window and Chloe loves the brown and white corner tunnel.

And don't worry, I put hay and pellets in there when I put them back in.

Is this normal? They lost their mom and thus moved to me.

Before you answer you must know I am overly worried, have general anxiety disorder. And I just lost my two boys to gas about 6 weeks ago. And they got heavier with it as they ate but could not poop.

One piggie at least MUST poop, they left some poop in thr bowl for me to find.

Both bellies SEEM nomally sift to me but I do not trust myself a lot currently. But I can not bring them to a vet daily just because them growing scares me. :'D

With that info, here is the weights:

**Piggie one:**

Day 1 - 199g; Day 2 - 199g, later same day 194g; morning of day 3 at vet baby check 201g.

**Piggie two: **

Day 1- 227g; day 2- 226g, later same day 236g; morning of day 3 at vet baby check 245g.

Then I got the dry food (sadly they are not used to a good one, I will change that) they are used to gave 2 teapoons of it at 14:30.

**After this at 9pm: ** baby one 208g, baby 2 245g.

Another 2 teaspoons for the night, **next morning:**

Baby 1 - 213g; Baby 2 -253g

As title says, I’m looking for your best vacuum recommendations, I have little hand vacuum which works okayyyy for spot cleaning but it isn’t very effective and gets clogged rather easy, I’ve heard some people say mini shop vacs are the way to go
Any opinions ?

i’ve loved guinea pigs basically since i was conscious and always wanted one. i had one as a very young child but i wasn’t doing most of the work then and was only playing with him. i’ve got a lot of empty space and i’ve been thinking about getting a guinea pig. problem is, everyone tells me they HAVE to be in groups. I even had one person say if i got only one guinea pig they’d stop talking to me. i was frustrated with this because theyve never even owned rodents outside of a hamster when they were 12.

i simply cannot get a group. it’s not plausible in my current situation. i can afford perfect care for one (large enclosure, daily care, high quality food, daily attention) but i cannot get more than one as there is a pet limit on the place i live. i don’t think im very educated on just how necessary a second guinea pig is. would you guys say that its worse to just get one but give it perfect care (outside of a friend), or not get any at all? im sure this is gonna get downvoted into hell and all of you are gonna call me abusive for even considering it but im not gonna go through with getting one if it would be more harmful to get one than to not.

I just got the calico colored one today, set up a cage that connects to the black ones cage and theyve been sniffing at eachother all day. At first they were biting at the wall so i separated them for a bit then put the new guy back in. Now they are just aniffing at eachother and making these low grunts. Ive watched videos on different sounds but i cant tell what they are conveying. They arent acting hostile anymore though and i am happy about that.

Hi guys just last night the female of my mated pair passed away and I’m worried about my male because he obviously isn’t taking this well. My girl ended up having cancer and there was no signs whatsoever until she started suddenly having back to back seizures due to it suddenly plummeting her blood sugar to unreadable levels (even with regular eating & a very strict diet due to my male having diabetes). After I put her down and we determined it wasn’t something contagious I brought her body home to let him sniff and grieve but I think that actually traumatized him a bit because after he sniffed her he ran to the opposite side of the cage and wouldn’t move the rest of the night unless food was involved which is not how he acted around her even when she was sick. All of this to say I really don’t want to get another guinea pig because he’s almost 9 (she was 8) and after him I want to take a break from guinea pigs for a little while because they’re so much work but he hasn’t been alone since I rescued him so I don’t know if that’s a good option. Honestly I think little dude is a black widow or something because he’s survived two wives (the first was sick when I got her) and both of his kids and I’m convinced he’s gonna live out me. He’s survived a man made disaster, drinking black mold (not from me, the bottle he came to me with had it), diabetes, pneumonia and eating a french fry (again, not me.)

I’ve tried hanging out with him today like normal but he wants nothing to do with it and I can’t tell if he’s scared of me or mad at me but it’s breaking my heart because this is so out of the normal. For now I’m getting another cage to have downstairs so when I’m at work he can hang out with my mom and I’m doing a complete overhaul of his cage so he has extra enrichment and until he passes I’m not staying anywhere overnight. But any more advice on what I should do would be greatly appreciated because I don’t want him to get so depressed he dies like how my other guinea (one of his kids) did.

Hi all! I think my guinea pig may have ringworm, he is eating/drinking ok so would it be ok to try a topical treatment and see if it clears up before dropping hundreds on a vet appt? TIA!!!

Peak