Bringing Your Guinea Pig Home!

Well, there are a few things you have to remember about bringing your guinea pig home!

REMEMBER THESE:

Guinea Pigs don't know you at first when you take them home.  They might be scared, so what you have to do is firstly DON'T TOUCH THEM.  They don't know you, you don't know them.  If you touch them, they might each jump around and get scared, or not move at all.  These signs can be quite dangerous.

You MUST take them home between 0 - 2 hours because the can die in the little boxes supplied by the store.  Make sure that the trip that your guinea pig makes coming home; is as fast as possible.  When you're in the car, you must hold tightly to the guinea pig, in case of accident, or big turns.  The guinea pig can fall if you are not careful.

When you get home, rapidly set up the cage that you purchased, and make sure the cage AT LEAST includes: Shavings = the beddings, Two bowls: One including pellets/food, nd the other including water.  Or, you can place a water bottle hanging on the cage (If your guinea pig is used to drinking from a bottle).  You must also place in Hay (Or Grass) and a mini shelter, such as an igloo toy that they can hide in for saftey (That's not highly recommended at first, but you can do that).  You can also include fruits (A quater of an apple), or you can pull a leaf off you tree, and place it in the cage.  This is when you place the guinea pig in the cage.  Once it is in the cage, it'll feel free to explore around.  You can then leave the room - allowing it to have peace and quiet, and be on it's own.

Don't make a lot of noise once the guinea pig is in it's new home.  This will scare it, and may cause a heart attack.

Introducing it to you

After about two - three days (This is how long we take), you can then carefully take out the guinea pig, and place it in your lap.  Stroke it gently, and talk to it so that it will get used to you, and will get to know you better.  About after five days or so, you can then place the guinea pig onto the floor so that it'll get used to the environment surrounding it's cage.  Block off any areas that your guinea pig can squeeze through, and watch it so that it does not escape in any missed spots. Once you finish all of this, you can then start taking it out, and having fun with it.  But remember, on day 1 or 2, DO NOT allow other visitors to get near your guinea pig, because it'll get scared with seeing more than one person around it.

Introducing it to another cavy partner

It takes a lot of hard work to place a new guinea pig with an already resident older guinea pig.  What I would suggest you do, is that you place the new one in a seperate cage for about two weeks, or more because there is a possibility that biting, and diseases would spread around by the new guinea pig. After about two weeks - once you find out that your guinea pig DOES NOT have a disease, this is when you introduce the two in person.  What you do, is first you place the two cages next to eachother.  The two animals will sight eachother, and will climb up on eachother's cage and will touch noses together.  Touching noses together is normal.  This behaviour means that they are acting friendly to eachother, and are greeting eachother. Later on, you will then open the cage doors to allow the animals to visit eachother.  This helps them find out what eachother has, and what eachother is like. Next, you can take them both onto your lap, and stroke them both gently.  They will then sleep together, and this way they can get used to eachother which will make everything easier.  This way, they can discover eachother's scent. After doing this, you can then place the animals in eachother's cage - and there might be a sense of biting, snapping or squealing, but that's normal.  But if the old guinea pig snaps really hard, and you hear non-stop squealing, then take out the newcomer and stroke her gently, in order for her to calm down. You can then pet each of them in the cage individually, and they will then sniff eachother's water bottles, bowls, shelter, food, and everything else in the cage.

What to Look Out For

You should make this a serious note.  Remember that, if you place a male in another male's cage, there is a 90% chance that fighting will occur.  Males don't usually get along with the males, so make sure you place the Males in another cage individually. Also, Males and Females in the same cage can cause reproduction.  This isn't that bad (If you want more than one guinea pig) but there were many stories over the internet - that say that when males and females get to know eachother, and purr, etc. there was a chance that their female guinea pig would make birth, and then die.  This happened a lot of times.  That was why we placed Blackie in another cage, and Ginny in his same cage. Females and Females get along just fine.  There can be a chance of some serious jealousy which can lead to fighting, but often - Females and Females can get along just fine.  These two are most recommended to be placed together.  And remember that, the fighting between females can last for a very short period of time. One other thing to look out for, is that, for example: Since females do get along with Females more than the Males, it would make sense for buying a Female if you want to place it in the same cage as a lonely Female at home right? Sometimes the Pet Stores do lie and say, "IT IS A FEMALE! I'M PRETTY SURE!" But really it's a Male, and that had happened to me. After they pushed us into believing them, they wrote on the note, "It's QUARANTINED that it's a Female" And it turned out to be a Male. So always be careful and try checking for yourself! On this site, I will also add a new section about "Checking a Guinea Pig" to find out if it's a girl or boy! It'll be coming up soonn!!! Just remember to supply all the needs and good that a guinea pig needs in the same cage with another guinea pig.  Let them be together, and leave them there alone and see how they do.