Recommend where to get a Guinea Pig in Dublin

V1llianous

Hi,

I am going to get a guinea pig in the next week. Can any of you owners out there recommend a good place to get one. I would obviously like to get one that has been well look after and not pregnant as I am probably going to get 1 or 2 females. Also a place that can sex them properly would be a big bonus.

Thanks.

Falkorre

Dont know if they still do them or not, but i always found newlands garden center great, guy u need to speak to in there is called Alan.

Bit of advice, only buy the piggie in there, get ur equipment elsewhere, they are usual price for good quality piggies, but very expensive for all equipments.

B

watty

I have NINE piggies...

1) Build or buy a nice hutch and run first.

For two females:
About 40cm x 80cm for a "house" only (no windows only a door)

About 1.5m x 1.5m minimum run with chicken wire top (like a hen ark) to keep cats / dogs out.

They can live outdoors all year, but if it gets too marshy we move run onto the patio.

We buy one bale hay at a time €3.50 for bedding and additional food (they love pulling it out of a wire tube-like toast rack).

Moist Rabbit foods are not properly balanced for Piggies. But the Gloria Guinea Pig mix (we buy a full sack at a time) is abit high in Maize. So we give about 5 or 6 cucmbers and 9 or 15 carrots a week (for NINE pigs).


Pet shops arn't any good around here at sexing them. Google for Peter Gurney and his advice.

Assume a female will be already pregnant (2 to 8 pigs!!!!) and find a friend who wants to keep them too if she is.

You *CAN* keep more than one male together. But we will write the book on that when we understand it.... i.e. We *DO* have three males living together in peace (NO FEMALES). One of them (Pippin AKA "Sideshow" Bob) was determined to KILL a 4th maile we have...

"Ahkmed! We got you a great job at the palace looking after the Kings Concubines!"


He is our original very friendly male so we had him neutered and now he lives happy with the FIVE females (one is his last daughter, the other two males with Pippin the Killer Pig are his last sons).

Neutering will NOT let males "get along", Cavies are not like Dogs or horses. They still think like Stallions or Rotwiellers after the op if they did before.

Any number of females will co-exist, but 3 or more is more stable than two!

It has to be understood that Cavies are colony / social anaimals with a fairly defined heirachy (The Door Guard pig, obviosly at the botttom and mostly outside the "hutch".). The fewer there are, the more human company they need.

The more they are, the more fun!




Fresh Grass!!

xxxxxxxx

My rabbit just eat and **** everyday.

koneko

That's great, xxxxxxxx, do you have anything to add to the thread though...?

V1llianous

Thanks for all your help guys !

I got great service from The Orchard Garden Centre in Celbridge, and have now introduced Marmalade to the family.



She is about 3 months old, very cheeky, brave, likes to communicate and is very friendly.

I am looking at getting another female to keep her company and would like a long-haired female about the same age. If anyone knows of a breeder that sells long-haired cavies or shops that do please let me know.

Thanks again !

watty

She is BEAUTIFUL!!

Note: black "jelly beans" on PC kyeboard means she is using email, though some folks allege that some piggy squeals and squeeks are attemps to simulate a dialup modem connection directly....

xxxxxxxx

much more bueatiful than my ulgy rabbit.