You thought that throwing food in the guinea pig cage will ensure sufficient investing in your pet’s performance?
You thought wrong.
Learn the 10 best care practices which guarantee guinea pig’s long-term optimal performance.
1. GUINEA PIG CAGE
First rule of correct guinea pig care: Provide your pet with optimal (or larger) sized cage. You can read additional info about cages on Guinea Pig Cages Page.
2. CAGE LOCATION
Put the cage inside the house. It should reside in a high traffic area, with minimal temperature oscillations (Ideally 20°C – 22°C). Not on direct sunlight, but also not in the pitch black area.
3. EXERCISING
Provide your pet DAILY with a free floor time, where it can wander freely in the larger (but enclosed and monitored) space, thus working to maintain a good health. In the beginning your cavy may just stand still in one spot, but eventually it will begin to wander around and exploring the area. Is is NOT recommended to use exercise wheels, which are NOT designed for cavies and could harm their bodies.
4. NAIL TRIMMING
When their nails becomes obviously too big, they must be trimmed. This is usually done EVERY FEW WEEKS. Owner’s ordinary nail clipper will do the trick. Owner must avoid cutting into the living/fleshy part of the nail, which is different color and sometimes hard to see. Use an additional light source behind the nails to spot the beginning of the fleshy part.
5. HAIR TRIMMING
Because the cavy is usually low leveled, long hair can get wet, dirty and provide a good infrastructure for a bacterial growth. There is no general rule for hair trimming. Owner must be independent in making decisions about this process, but taking into consideration temperate season and the lenght of your pet’s hair.
6. BRUSHING
It is recommended to brush guinea pig’s fur in order to remove some of the loose hair, and thus to lessen shedding. Owner can do this on a DAILY basis. Soft brush made from natural materials is recommended. The larger the animal’s hair, the stronger need is for brushing process.
7. BATHING
Although guinea pigs rarely need baths, it is recommended to wash them gently EVERY FEW MONTHS in a warm, clean water. Owner must avoid getting water in a cavy’s ears. Owner also must dry the animal with gentle towels after bathing.
8. EARS CLEANING
It is recommended to examine and clean your pet’s ears EVERY OTHER WEEK. Use a warm, clean water and a soft piece of cloth. Poking cotton buds in the ears is strongly forbidden.
9. COMPANY
Guinea Pig is a social (herd) animal, so it needs company. If owner has only one cavy (generally not recommended), then frequent interaction with the pet is highly recommended.
10. GUINEA PIG SENSORY SYSTEM ORIENTED TIPS
Auditory: Speak to your guinea pig with lower and soft voice, because it is more sensitive to higher frequencies. It is also recommended to leave some source of quiet background music (radio for example) when you are not at home, as total silence could also be disconcerting. This could also help with familiarization with human sounds in general.
Visual: Because of the poor depth perception, you must avoid putting your pet on the edges from where it could jump off as it can not clearly realize that it is jumping from a great height. Approach your pet from the front as it instinctively perceives you as a giant predator and in most cases can see you coming (340 degree range of vision). Also, avoid watching movies with your pet – with its ability to see 33 images per second, it would not enjoy so much in the series of flickering images which we call movies.
Olfactory: It is recommended to avoid perfumes or unnatural smells, especially when first getting to know your pet, as cavies are very sensitive to smell and will try to get to know you by your natural smell.
Gustatory: As cavies are among the animals with the highest amount of taste buds (about 17000), it is recommended to provide great variety in their diet.
Somatosensory: Under any circumstances, do NOT cut cavy’s whiskers – these are its senses for navigating in the dark, object localization, detection of movement, etc. Also, learn its favorite and least favorite touching spots for optimal guinea pig care.