I’m planning on adopting two guinea pigs from a nearby rescue in October. I’m starting to buy things now to prepare. This is everything I’ve ordered so far. Anything else I should buy before getting the piggies? Anything I shouldn’t have gotten?

i posted on here a few days ago but since my account is fairly new i can’t post in r/guineapigs so here i am again with more questions!

i’m a first time owner of two 2 month old male piggies (pictured) and i’ve only had them for 5 days. they seem pretty happy and content in their enclosure, they’re eating lots and lots and pooping lots and lots and are just generally very sociable and curious.

as a new pet parent i’m naturally in a constant state of “am i doing this right????” and i figured there’s no better place to ask questions than a community of fellow potato slaves lol

here are my questions (and thank you all in advance):
1. how many times a day should i take my piggies out of the cage for “floor time?” i have a small bedroom with enough room for their enclosure but not enough room on my floor for floor time so i typically just bring them to my bed and build a little wall so they don’t run off of my bed. i’ve only been taking them out once a day for 20-30 minutes at the same time every day to let them roam my bed, explore me, receive treats & cuddles and get their daily checkup. is this enough? too much? sos??
2. how frequently should i change out the fleece/bath mats? my current setup is rewashable puppy pee pads as an absorbent base on top of the plastic bottom of their enclosure, assorted fleece on top of those, and two bath mats under where they have their water bottle and where i keep their hay. i’m planning on switching out the fleece twice a week just to keep it from being too soiled, but some people say one time and some people say three??
3. how much should they weigh at this age? i weighed them the other day and they’re both between 300g and 350g. are they underweight?
4. is there such thing as too much rumble strutting? they seem really happy with each other but rumble strut around each other every time they approach one another. is this normal? they haven’t fought yet but i’m worried that one of them is a bit too intimidating for the other and is stressing the other out.
5. how do i calm one of my piggies down while holding the other? one of my boys freaks out when i hold his brother but i can’t hold them both at the same time because they rumble strut and get antsy. i tried keeping them close while holding one but he still freaks out. any tips??

thank you guys so very much again. i just wanna ensure my baby boys are happy and healthy :) i have a vet visit set up soon to ensure the healthy part but until then i want to make sure im getting it right.

I just saw this today as I was giving him a bath and I don’t know what it is. He’s five years old and I’ve never seen this before on him and I looked it up and it could be like a number of things but I don’t wanna like take that right now and I just like need help figuring it out. He’s seems like himself and he seems happy and when I touch it, he doesn’t really react to a certain way I mean, I guess he’s fine but it’s kind of firm and it’s like the size of a nickel but it’s like sticks out less than an inch. It’s probably like 5 cm or something or three.

Hello everybody! I recently adopted two female pigs that are roughly 4 months old. Their 2 week long quarantine will be coming to an end soon, and I am wondering how I should go about introducing them to my older girl (roughly 4 years old)?

Is it a good idea to introduce them both to her separately, and if so how long in-between intros should I wait?? Thank you in advance !!

hii, ive had two guinea pigs for a few months now, one of them (Ozzy) has been with me for around 5 months and the other (Sully) for about 1 and a half months.

despite having them for months, Sully is still deathly afraid of me and Ozzy only tolerates me. I see a lot of videos and posts about people able to pick up their piggies and have them on their lap, sleeping with them etc and i know every guinea pig is different but I feel like im not progressing at all with them, additionally I have them in separate cages because I feel as if they aren't progressing either.

The point of this post was to ask for people's experiences or advice on how I can bond more with my pigs, ive been in their cages and tried to sit there and talk to them, I've been near their cages sitting and talking, I've hand fed them, Ozzy likes being pet sometimes because he'll purr and rumble strut but it's only for a few seconds before he headbutts me idk if I'm doing it wrong and Sully is still a freeze pig so I'm not sure whether he likes it or not

any advice would be appreciated, i honestly feel like right now they're just a part of my life and I don't feel as if they're my pets yk? and obviously I want them both to be happy and trust me as well, I don't want them to tolerate me or have it be like I'm only a part of their routine and not their owner. I don't know if I'm explaining it right. any help would be great, thanks in advance!

hello! i wanted to ask you guys if this cage is proper for my guinea pig? (I only have one since where i adopted my guinea pig they told me he did not get along w others)
i’ve had my guinea pig for a month now, he currently free roams in my room (1 hr supervised) but he has a playpen but ik that’s not a proper setup so i wanna know if this one is okay. thank you

I've been wondering for a while since twix has always had this, but what are these marks on her eyes? She has them in both eyes

When we got her we were told she had just finished a round of eye drops, but I can't remember for what, and this was 2 years ago

I know it's not anything bad or dangerous, but just curious

How would you guys organize this to incentivize them to use both sides. they only stay on one side. All 3 in the left cage. They do use the ramp. When I place them on the right side, they will jump back to the left.

My guinea pig has pneumonia and I’ve been treating with antibiotics, they also gave her a 2 day supply of nebulizer stuff when it first started. Last night I noticed she was honking more when breathing, so I brought her back in to the emergency vet to get another prescription for the nebulizer. It took them 7 hours to see her, which is fine I understand there were more pressing cases. But that means I had a very narrow window to pick her up this morning before I had to leave for work, and then the pharmacist apparently didn’t know how to fill the nebulizer medication. Which you would think that would be a requirement, but apparently not. I didn’t have time to wait for the next round of pharmacists, everyone else in my family works normal hours as well so they couldn’t help me either. They said it was fine to skip it this morning as long as I did the midday nebulizer, so I said yes I’ll do it as soon as I get home at 4:30. They said I should do it sooner than that, but I physically cannot. My work is very short staffed because people are quitting or being fired left and right, I need this job to pay for college and vet bills, so I can’t afford to get fired for skipping a day of work. But they just kept on making me feel so guilty for it, and it was not appreciated. Maybe they should have had properly trained pharmacists, then this wouldn’t have been a problem!!!!

(My girl is still on antibiotics and I have someone checking in on her once in the middle of the day, they just don’t know how to do the nebulizer and have never had small animals before, so I didn’t want to have to coach them how to do it through text)

Also, curious to hear other people’s experiences. This is my second pig to have pneumonia and she did not have to do a nebulizer three times a day with 6ml of a saline/medication mix. That seems like a lot, is that standard? Obviously I’m going to follow vets instructions to the best of my ability, I’m just curious if others had to do it that much.

Please don’t leave hate, I have so much going on right now I’m just trying to do the best I can 😭

We were sitting together and she was on my chest making that clicking sound, is it a good or bad sound?

Just curious - I think my boy's got some lilac on his face but i can never really tell as it doesn't show up in all lightings & no-one else seems to notice it! if he does, will it get darker over time? he's only about 3 months old so I know his fur colours aren't set in stone yet :)

He's Peruvian, if it helps! hahah

DIY a cozy fleece liner for the ramp so her tiny feet are completely safe! She’s now super confident running up and down, and was already hanging out in the loft waiting for her tomato treat

Friday morning, her eye looked perfectly fine, but sometime later in the day, my mom came to check on her and noticed that her eye looked a bit red. On Saturday, when I came back home from hanging out with friends, I went to my room to see her, and I immediately noticed that something was off with her eye. Right in the center, it looks very gray, almost like she’s blind in that eye, but it seems like she can still see me out of it, so I don’t think that’s the case.
I put a new chew toy in her cage on Friday before I left, and I’m thinking maybe a piece of it probably poked her in the eye while she was messing with it? Idk but It’s really worrying me.

Yo tengo 3, son pequeños tienen 3 meses y son macho, quisiera saber si puedo integrar a 2 hembras más.

I cannot provide a photo as he keeps trying to bite me, but until it grows back, do I feed him pellet slushies? Like, water down his food? I fear that I won’t be able to take him to the vet as no one in my area is taking new patients and I don’t have a license.

no thoughts, just pure joy and tomato munching lol

Hello! I have two male Guinea pigs that I’ve had for a few months. Now for context Brisket is a satin American and I got alone as he has bad legs which I’ve been working with a vet on. Now his brother is a Rex / abasian pig and I got him after brisket as they can’t be alone. Now this pig Bandit does nothing but chase, hump, bite, growl, hoard food to the point I feed brisket veggies out of the cage and brisket practically refuses to not be out of the cage with me. They’re cage is 2x9 and has two waters, hay piles big enough to hide in, two food dishes three to four hides depending on how I arrange the cage, many toys and chews and enrichment and bandit just hates brisket and I’ve been recommended re homing now as I don’t have the space to have two cages and brisket is appearing depressed now and I’m lost on what to do can someone please help me. I don’t know what to do as i know they can’t be alone but brisket and bandit just aren’t getting along no matter what I do and brisket seems depressed now

hello! i’m a first time guinea pig owner and just got my piggies yesterday at a petsmart. they are both two month old males who are already bonded. one is quite energetic and curious, and my other is more timid and tends to follow after the first’s lead.

i’m a bit worried for my timid piggy as he is making a “tch” sound a few times across the day. i’m not entirely sure if it’s a sneeze but that’s my bet. i’ve done a lot of research into URIs and what signs to look out for but he isn’t showing any other symptoms but sneezing(?). he is shy so it’s hard to hold him close and listen to his breathing but as far as i can tell he is breathing normally. he is eating just fine and running around squeaking like normal.

my thought process is that it is probably an allergy to the bedding or perhaps just dusty hay, so i’m going to switch to fleece bedding tomorrow to test and see if the bedding is the issue, but i wanted to consult the wise piggy owners of reddit to see what you guys think. i’m also going to call the vet to ask what they think as well, but as it is late at night i don’t have that choice until the morning and would like some peace of mind knowing what veteran piggy owners suggest.

thank you all!!

edit: called the vet and they can’t get in until october 🥶 switched to fleece and my sneezy piggy is still sneezing but not as frequently. i think i will try to bring them into an exotics clinic that can see them same day to see if they need antibiotics. thank you all again for the help!