Babble and questions on newly adopted piggers
After a long time thinking about guinea pigs and wanting them, but not wanting to support the pet mill industry by buying them, two lovely adult boys have fallen into my lap. I happened to be at Petco getting cat food, and there was a sign up about guinea pigs for adoption, so of course I check them out. Turns out their previous owner dumped them without telling anything about them, such as age, or names, or history.
One of them is a slightly bigger teddy boy, in a very mismarked tortie pattern. I haven't met a teddy before, and I love the fuzzy coat. His eyes seem to be a little bit buggy, and almost blueish, is that something I should be concerned about? He has a very dignified, upright way of moving. The white parts on him are all stained yellow, so I suspect they might have had to sit in a small, dirty cage for long periods of time.
The other piggy is also male, but a little smaller and much silkier. He's a mostly-black English pigger, with what seems to be a little chocolate and/or lilac brindling. He seems a bit thin to me, but I don't know for sure what guinea pigs should weigh. Should you be able to feel their hips or ribs at all? His seem to be a bit too prominent.
I am going to build them a coroplast and cube cage as soon as I get my next paycheck and can find the coroplast in my area. Right now they are in a 50 gallon tupperware storage bin. I know this isn't an acceptible permanent solution, but it is only temporary, and it's a whole lot bigger than pet store cages. They have carefresh bedding, fresh water, pet store pellets, which I learned later are not very good, and pet store timothy hay. I got them the vitamin C drops but they don't want to eat them. I will be looking around for the Oxbow pellet, and a local source for fresh timothy.
These two pigs are very, very quiet... I am hoping getting them into a bigger cage and giving them better care and a lot of floor time will help out, but I am worried that they might have been neglected for too long. Is it possible for a guinea pig to not know how to popcorn and wheek?! They do wheek and purr, but very very little, and very quiet compared to the piggers I used to have. When I first gave them fresh lettuce and carrots, they didn't seem to have any idea what to do with it. But now I have them sitting in my lap accepting lettuce out of my hands, and they eat it all ravenously.
One other thing, what is the proper way to bathe a guinea pig who may never have had a bath before? (I don't remember ever bathing my pigs when I was a kid, bad me!) But the pee stains on the white one look kinda nasty, and his fur is a bit matted down there... so I'd appreciate advice on how to get them cleaned up.
Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any advice.
~Silere
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