More Guinea Pig Games

Guinea pigs love to play games, especially Pretty Pretty Princess. As you can see, they are very talented at it and like to win.

The loved and lovable champion retires.

Guinea Pig Food and Fun

When Skittles can't go outside, we like to bring some of the outdoors in. Guinea pigs chew in order to keep their teeth trim and healthy. Since their teeth don't fall out, they will keep growing and growing unless they have something to gnaw on. Imagine that, guinea pig tusks ...

A favorite chew toy for our pig is a fruit tree twig - especially citrus. Lemon, orange and grapefruit twigs are all great. Skittles loves to chew the bark off the branches and then he carries around the stick, shaking it and generally having a good time.

The Great Outdoors (Maybe)

Now that the weather is warm, we decided to let our indoor guinea pig pet have some outside time. His cage allows you to take off the wire "top" so I've been putting him outside with his furry feet in the grass and the cage on top. Guinea pigs actually can live outdoors, but they are subject to drafts and heat so if you do decide to make an outdoor home, make sure there is a warm and protected house and shade.

You should also think about what else lives outside. In some areas, there may be local predators - from stray cats, to hawks and owls in our area and a nice, sweet, lovable, furry guinea pig would make a nice fat feast, or at least an appetizer for these predators.

Small mesh size on a an outdoor enclosure also is recommended. Here's one reason why: One day a few hours after I took Skittles back inside, I saw a colorful snake crawling through the grass. Fortunately, it wasn't a rattlesnake, but it was a rat snake. Another creature that eats rodents. Maybe it thought there was a tasty rodent, but this guinea pig would have been the biggest, fattest rodent it ever ran into.

P.s. Don't worry, this little snake never could have gotten his mouth around my fat piggie but I bet Skittles wouldn't have appreciated him trying!

Guinea Pigs Love to Climb

In case you were wondering, there is no doubt whatsoever that Guinea Pigs love to climb. For our "teenage" guinea pig Skittles, we discovered he has grown large enough to view stairs as fun, not an obstacle.

This was a bit surprising for Skittles. I had added a small wooden ladder to Skittles's cage weeks ago since climbing is such good exercise. But despite my best attempts to lead him up, he never used the ladder except to chew on. Yesterday he was out running free and playing his "guinea pig games" as my daughter calls them. You know, the Running Game, the Squeeking Game and the Pooping Game.

The next thing I knew, he disappeared. Finally I decided to go upstairs, assuming that I'd go back down later with a flashlight and look again under every piece of furniture. But within a couple of minutes I heard gnawing, and what do you know? He was under my daughter's bed - chewing on the frame. Yummm nice wood bed frame.

This feat of course involved climbing the stairs to get up to the bedroom. Well, I certainly think he got enough guinea pig exercise!

So, if you want to exercise your guinea pig, put some tasty parsely or other pig delicacy at the top of the stairs, point him in the right direction and watch what happens.

Guinea Pig Favorite Foods

Despite the recent posts concerning guinea pig poop, that isn't their favorite food! Oranges are a hit as well as vital to their nutrition. Unlike rabbits and other rodents, they need vitamin C from a food source or can actually die of scurvy! But Skittles loves them as well as green leaf lettuce as you can see. He's a fan of carrots and kale too. We've learned, however, that these little piggies can get picky! At first Skittles ate anything green that we gave him but now he has decided to reject mustard greens and spinach, leaving them to wilt even overnight in order to hold out for his real favorite--parsely! We've also learned that their eyesight is quite keen. While I made dinner for my human family, Skittles was silent as I opened and shut the refrigerator. But the whistles went off went I took out the bag of parsely!

Guinea Pig Gnawing

Guinea pigs love being a little mischievous.

They love gnawing. They'd also love to gnaw on things like electrical chords, sweaters, cloth, newspapers, or virtually anything. The biological reason is that gnawing helps to trim the fast growing front teeth.

I've even seen skittles chew on hair! If you want to keep your hair, try giving them some wood blocks or citrus branches, or other tree branches to gnaw on.

Guinea Pig Care Funny Facts

In nature, guinea pigs hunt out and consume grasses as their primary dietary staple. However, grass does not digest easily to release its nutrients. Some of nature's grass eaters, like cows, try using very large and long digestive tracts or chew their cud. But what about cute little lovable guinea pigs? They cannot have a 10 foot long intestine after all.

Instead guinea pigs use a much more astounding technique. They eat their own feces ... uh that's right poop. However, not just any old poop. They are highly selective. Instead they eat special feces, called "cecotropes" , which are not the same thing as regular feces. Good, that makes me feel a lot better. These poop pellets contain B vitamins and bacteria required for complete digestion of grass . Interestingly, rabbits do the same thing.

So, if you ever see your guinea pig eating poop, be pleased ;) .

Guinea Pig Food Tips - Hay

Guinea pigs love hay, and need it in their diet. One of the first things we did after taking Skittles (our pig) home from the pet store was go out and buy a hay hopper and mini (and I mean really small) bale of hay.

Hay carries a lot of benefit not available from food pellets alone, especially dietary fiber. By "hay" I'm referring to grass type of hay, not alfalfa, which you also see in pet stores sometimes. Alfalfa is rich in calcium, and should be fed to adult guinea pigs in more moderate amounts. The reason is the adult pigs are susceptible to dietary imbalance between calcium and potassium, which can result in kidney or bladder stones.

Free Cat Food Samples
Free Dog Food Samples

This is Skittles. He joined our family on December 21st and a week later we are all members of his herd. We wanted a pet for our 5 year old but for one reason or another decided against a cat or dog so we decided on a guinea pig. He's been a great choice!

My husband has been pleasantly surprised by how verbal he is. Skittles greets us and purrs and squeeks happily while sitting in our laps.

Our 5 year old is learning how to be gentle with animals and is eager to feed him breakfast every morning. She even understands how he needs a mixture of different foods (grains and greens) in order to be healthy. (Though this doesn't stop her from trying to offer him tastes of some of her favorite foods including fortune cookies!)