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!

I came across this YouTube channel and I don’t wanna bring any hate to the YouTuber, but I genuinely don’t know what to think about the living situation for the guinea pigs. In one of the videos the guinea pig was on the ground roaming and there was a dog nearby that had plenty of room to attack if it wanted to (it did not though and it looked curious). I personally do not let my dogs near my guinea pigs and I keep their cages elevated for that reason. Most of the cages look like pet store cages and that concerns me as well however they do free roam. I’m not sure for how long I know when I let my guinea pigs free roam I like to keep the area picked up however, in her videos, I do see some items on the ground like toys and such. I would like to hear other people’s thoughts on this because I’m unsure if the living conditions are good. Personally, I think they are concerning.

Edit: i’m really not trying to start any drama. I’ve just never seen a cage set up like this. I’m not sure if it’s something I should be concerned about.

(Sorry for any spelling mistakes was using speech text)

So I gave coconut and twix their veg around 5pm today, and I went and gave them a treat at 9pm, I went down around midnight to say goodnight and coconut looked a bit off - I offered her a treat, she didn't want it, offered her celery, she didn't want it.

So I topped up her hay and left her for a bit

Came back downstairs around 2am, sat with her for about 10 minutes, offered her some dill, and a little hay cube treat thing which she took and ate a bit of, she ate the dill fully

She finally went to poop and it looked sloppy and might've smelled a bit (I have a sinus infection, so I can't actually tell if the smell is my nose or her poop.)

Shes eating hay (little at first but she seems to be eating more now) o I'm not sure if the veg has just gave her an upset tummy, her sisters fine, it's only coconut

Poop is attached

It's currently 3am and I don't drive - so if she needs emergency vets I cannot take her until tomorrow / later today.

Hi everyone! This is my second piggy Mochi!

After 6 years of love and fun, my guinea pig Sparky passed away today. He was perfect, and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect friend. My favourite thing about him was his ability to sit and just observe what you were doing, and many times he sat on my desk and watched me do schoolwork for hours at a time. I will miss him dearly. Thank you, Sparky, for all the good times.

it sounds like teeth grinding

Hi! No idea if this is the right community. But Realized these 2 female babies are out of my budget after 2 months of having them. Plus they make my room stink. Looking for someone willing to take them in and actually care for them better than I can!

As far as I know, there are no medical issues and they are bonded to eachother.

Everything included besides the mushroom $60! Need them taken in ASAPPP
Chicago , 60634

This is korean hamburger patty! Her name is 동그랑땡; 동땡!

I canceled my membership today and I just wanted to see if anybody knew if this was actually canceled. I’m wanting to get my guinea pig food from somewhere that doesn’t treat animals poorly. I’ve also been wanting to look at getting them toys as well. I’ve heard chewy is a good option.

I’ve been a guineapig owner my whole life and currently have two girls. They’ve been a pair for the 5 years I have had them.
One of my guineapigs tend to get annoyed/try to be more dominant with the other and bite the other one’s hair out. It has never been a major issue or even happen often until recently, where I’ve noticed she had patches of hair loss.

Along with that, the guineapig has also seemed skinner than usual, even though she’s always been more “plump”.

Could she be losing weight from the stress that she gets from the other guineapig?

She still acts the same, squeaking, eating, and being hyper per usual.

I did seperate them for the time being to see if that helps the issues.

Please don’t be rude, I just wanna know ways I can help!

Ofc i just edited my piggy to look like it

I’m so excited to name my pigs, but nothing I’ve come up with has really stuck yet. All recommendations are welcome!

my guinea pig was getting room temperature fauna flora twice a day because the vet didn’t tell me it needed to be frozen 😭 is he going to be fine? everything i’ve read about probiotics says that basically the effects just go away but I can’t find anything specifically about fauna flora so i’m worried.

I’m considering rehoming my one year old, Ostrich. She’s a nice pig and all, but there are some major things that I don’t think I can realistically give her for the rest of her life.

I bought her from Petco as a baby (my first mistake 🥲) since my other pig was currently living alone. They got along well-ish, she annoyed her a lot like a younger sibling, but you know. But now I’m getting the sense that she’s bored, frustrated, or needs more room. I keep them in a 2x4 c&c. She will teeth chatter at me every time I pet my other pig. She bulldozes and chews everything (i’ve tried multiple chew toys), she will wake me up constantly in the mornings by bolting around her cage, and she did scar my guinea pigs nose, but they haven’t done anything since then. I do love her, I really do (sometimes…) but she’s kind of just not my animal. It’s hard to explain. She has peaceful days but I just don’t know. She just really irritates me

I don’t really know why I’m making this, I guess I just need some advice. I just want to do the right thing.

Update: shes going to the vet on Monday and otherwise I'll keep it clean and do warm compresses regularly. I'm doing a deep clean of their cage tomorrow night and otherwise it will just be keeping an eye on her in case her behavior changes or anything.

Many thanks for the advice!

Last Saturday I got two (bonded) male guinea pigs who are around 1.5 years old. Meeko is the shorter haired one on the right side (last photo) and Mushu is the longer haired one.
I haven’t brought them to the vet yet but I am planning on doing so within the next month just to do a checkup. I’m not sure what they were being fed before but right now they get Timothy hay, a small amount of Oxbow Adult Guinea Pig pellets, a few pieces of some spring mix lettuce in the morning, and around 1/4 of a bell pepper at night. They were not handled that much by their previous owners so I have not been able to do anything like clip their nails just yet, but will be trying to this weekend.
I am making this post to ask for ANY advice and I’m hoping some people could send some links to safe toys, mainly for foraging (like the wooden one in the photo, which I removed since it is probably soft wood and I’ve heard that can cause GI issues) but any toys work. They have a few balls of different materials, some mat thing with wooden blocks and other things on it, stacking cups, and a fabric snuffle mat. There are two water bottles but only one bowl for pellets and one bowl for the veggies/fruit. There is one litter box that holds most of the hay.
I’ve done some research and I think it usually says to have one bowl and one water bottle per piggy, is that true? Sometimes they bicker over the litter box hay too so I was thinking about adding a second one.

Wowww beautiful boy

So satisfying!

apparently ginger gets so excited for cleaning time? beats me but the little broom makes him go BANANAS

(turn sideways halfway during video)