Great House Pets (Guinea Pig)

Member Name: cloudbuster

Product:	Guinea Pig
Date:	21/05/03 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great, loving, talkable

Disadvantages: Very chatty at times (during the night), nails grow long and are tricky to cut when GP does not want to sit still, Upsetting when they die

We all have been slaves to our GPs. I have had them since I was young and am now in my late 20s. My husband became a convert in 1997 when we bought Toffee and Fudge. As a general rule you can not keep two boars in the same hutch but after speaking to an expert we learnt that if you buy two young men then they grow up believing they are brothers. You do get a natural pecking order and at times that can be distressing to hear - spitting, the odd fight and ear biting but as long as you do not interfer then nature allows them to sort out disagreements and find their place within the pack.

As such after a week of I'm bigger than you we (humans and GP) all settled down to living together.

GPs are pack animals and form strong bonds with their group. We were lucky enough to be classed as GP by ours and were accepted into their group. Toffee and Fudge were spoilt and lived in our dinning room in a home built run of about 6ft by 2ft. They had a bed of shavings and ate soft hay, GP mix and Vit C drops (GPs cannot make their own Vit C).

At night they would curl up together and in the summer would flop over on their side in true male fashion.

First thing in the morning they would run up to the side of the run (all sides were green soft mesh so they could see out of and use the wires to climb/stretch up) and rattle the mesh and squeak with delight at seeing us. They knew when the fridge door was open and could tell the difference between a bag of carrots and a bag of other food being open.

Ours were constant chatter boxes and loved to fall asleep on our laps and rub noses with us.

When we moved into our farm house they came with us and moved onto the landing. They loved free roaming but you have to watch that they stay out of trouble as they are really curious.

Toffee and Fudge died in 2001 within months of each other. We were warned that this would happen as they pine for their lost pack members. Both were good
ages though and had a quality of life that many out door GPs do not see.

I would reccommend them to everyone but they do need interaction and cuddles even if they do not live in doors. One word of warning despite what some pet shops say GPs and rabbits should never live in the same cage. Vets and GP breeders will tell you many horror stories of liver etc damage and broken legs where a rabbit has jumped around as rabbits do and accidently kicked / caught a GP.

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