Forum The Guinea Pig Forum

Thought it was about time I posted a pic or two of my current piggies (long overdue). So here we go! Dori (pronounced Dorrie) is the chunky piggy who’s been with me from a baby, she turned 4 in April - really don’t know how that’s gone so fast! She’s my top lady and doesn’t stand for any nonsense from anypig and takes eating very seriously indeed - she knows she can’t maintain her curves without lots and lots of food

I had to put our little Apricot to sleep earlier today - I'd posted on the forum asking for advice about her various illnesses numerous times. It seems strange to think I won't be administering the usual three doses of medicine this evening. You get used to the routines. Apricot's loss comes hard on the heels of the sudden passing of her herdmate Artemis in July, who died at the vets 24 hours after becoming ill. Death can get you slow or it can get you fast, but either way it will get you... Read more

Hello, yet another post about Apricot, who's battling arthritis and ovarian cysts but now has an increasingly bothersome sebaceous cyst. Apricot is on multi-modal pain relief and has had a suprelorin injection for the ovarian issues. She's also started on laser therapy for her arthritis. We've been managing the sebaceous cyst with regular cleaning and F10 barrier ointment, but it has become infected- requiring a course of antibiotics - and seems increasingly distracting for Apricot. Given... Read more

Can anyone advise me / signpost me to guidance on how to safely attempt bonding between a mature adult sow and unrelated baby sow, please? I'm struggling to bond my 4yo and it's been suggested to me that I try her with a 6 to 8 week-old-baby. I have no idea how to do this safely, and I'm concerned about the baby sow coming to harm. My adult sow is a lovely pig, but she can seem agitated and hormonal due to chronic health issues. She teeth-chatters A LOT when introduced to other pigs, and... Read more

We have three boars living together (all around 3-4 years old), a fourth recently died. Two of them are very close and spend a lot of time together, both are quite submissive. The third has been the leader of the pack across a few different boar group compositions. It seems to us that this is not the result of a particularly dominant personality, but a strong urge to just be left in peace by other boars. He never established close relationships with other boars the way all of our others... Read more

Hi I have two sows. We have daisy and rosalina. They were not purchased together, I saw one little baby rosalina at her own in pets At home and I couldn't leave her at just 8-10 weeks old to be a sole piglet (my original four are rescues) i tried to bond rosalina with raichu (boy) & peach (sow) but sadly peach wouldn't tolerate her and rosalina was on her own again. I then had to go out and buy daisy. Who was around 8 weeks old. (No judgement for the purchase of piglets, I only got rosalina... Read more

I’ve always used a great big Henry to vacuum in and around the cage on full clean days. But this is extremely frustrating to navigate a small space while fighting a cable, a semi-sentient vacuum, and the actual hose. I am looking for something a bit smaller and easier to manoeuvre, but that will be able to cope with poo, hair and small bits of hay. As well as doing the floor in the rest of the room. Does anyone have any recommendations? I am happy to spend a little more if it is going to... Read more

Hi, I just wanted to post really to get some support. I’m been feeling like a rubbish pig Mum lately as I have lost two boys this month. I lost my boy Reggie at the start of the month after a long battle with bladder stones and breathing difficulties over the summer. We then had to get our other boy Fudge an emergency friend from a pet shop as he was struggling on his own and not eating. We got baby Gus two weeks ago. He was only six weeks old when we got him. He soon started showing... Read more

I posted on here a few weeks ago about my girl's broken tooth. Today I've found the other one is broken to the gum. I don't know how she's doing this to herself. She's otherwise fine and healthy and I weigh her almost daily. I don't know if it requires a vet visit again. She can eat, I just don't know how she's doing this to herself. I hope it's not something nasty that I can't see, like a genetic problem or something. Obviously I'll take her to the vet if need be, again.

Hello, I have two new piggies - Honey and Coco. I have had them for 2 weeks tomorrow and they are now around 12 weeks old. Last night, Honey was showing signs of a URI, faster than usual abdominal breathing and clicking noise coming from her nose. I called out of hours vet and they were happy for me to wait and take her in this morning as she was eating, drinking and otherwise her usual self. No weight loss, but also very little gain, just a few grams over the past 5 days but this may be... Read more

Hi I've had a pair of male guineas 10 years ago and they got on so well and were very happy to be handled. we wanted to get some new guineas and bought 2 males again. Unfortunately after weeks of escalating behaviour their bond has broken by a fight and we're now trying to do our best to keep them happy. We've separated them into 2 different cages (one is in the ferplast modular 4 we bought for them both, the other in a pets at home 120). We thought about buying an 8x2 c&c cage that we can... Read more

My sweet boy Truffle went on to his forever sleep on Friday evening. He was a senior Guinea Pig, over 6 years old, and he died peacefully in my arms. I take comfort in he didn't suffer and was in the place I would have chosen him to be when he passed. Perhaps the biggest tribute I can ever pay to him is that I can't imagine ever having another Guinea Pig as there will never be another like him. Just after he passed I went outside and the sky looked stunning for a few minutes. I've... Read more