Ludwig and Lemmy have been a part of our family for two months now. We love them so much! They make the
cutest sounds and love it when we feed them. We often refer to them as "the boys" (or "boyses"), "the pigs", "the guineas", or "the guin-guins". Both have nicknames: Ludwig is Luddy and Lemmy is Lem-bem.
They spend their days lounging, eating, and running around. They almost always get a long, minus times when they steal each other's food or chase each other while chattering their teeth. They always seem to make up though ;). Their favourite part of the day is feeding time!
Good spot for lounging
A hammock and stand made by me and my dad
We struggled at first to find a good "ground time" setup -- where they have more space to run, but don't hide under furniture or pee/poo on the hardwood floors. Last month we came up with a solution: a 4' x 5.5' sheet of coroplast with 8" walls, set up on the ground as an extension of their cage. They have a ramp for easy access and they love it! We set up their ground time every other day or so, and they are always excited to explore the different ways we place the objects in there.
The best part is that it allows us to "sit" with the guinea pigs and hang out with them. They'll even come onto our laps to eat some food!
We feed them 10-20% of their body weight in vegetables every day (split into three meals). The rest of their diet is hay and 1/4 cup of guinea pig pellets a day. I'm a bit obsessed with making sure they get a wide variety and appropriate amounts of vegetables, so I created a schedule to help me manage it all (using my
Guinea Pig Food List as a guide). It looks like this:
Day 1: Chard, carrots, celery, cabbage, and cucumber (All C's -- easy to remember!)
Day 2: Lettuce, parsnip, peppers, snap/snow peas, and green beans
Plus one of: Broccoli, beets, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, corn, kale, kohlrabi, spinach, squash
Plus 1-2 of: parsley, basil, dill, thyme
I alternate between Day 1 and Day 2, cut up all the veggies at the start of the day, then we distribute them evenly at breakfast, lunch, and after dinner. Some foods they've tried but not liked are zucchini, asparagus, tomato, and (strangely) all fruits so far.
We weigh Luddy and Lemmy once a week on Thursdays using our kitchen scale. This lets us know how many vegetables to give them and that they're growing well. When we got them they both weighed about 300 grams, and now they're up to 730 g! Being only three months old, they still have some growing to do (adult males weigh anywhere between 900 - 1,200 g). We clip their nails about once a month (Steve holds while I clip). They're not fans of the procedure but don't fight us too hard.
Luddy has a sweet temperament and doesn't mind being held as much as his brother Lemmy. Neither guinea pig lets us pet him, and they run like mad if we try to catch them. The best way to get them out of their cage is by putting food in their fleece tunnel, then closing the ends and lifting the tunnel while they are inside. They've caught on though and are sometimes quick enough to escape!
Anything yummy in there?
After our snuggly experience with
Creamsicle, we've started taking Luddy out a couple times a week to snuggle with him. It's been really nice and I'm sure Luddy doesn't mind all the treats (carrots and herbs) he gets. And we don't mind all the guinea pig hairs we get on our shirts ;).
What a cutie ♥
Last (and also least), we clean the poops from their cage twice a day: early morning and after school. They poop
a lot!
Half a day's worth
The "big" cage cleanup happens once a week on Saturdays, where we swap out all the fleece, towels, tunnels, and hammocks. A new set goes in and all the dirty stuff gets a good rinse (quite a strong urine smell!) before being thrown in the wash. We also wipe down the cage surfaces and set up their accessories in different ways. They make adorable sounds when curiously exploring new spaces.
And that's the update on our pet adventures!
