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Keeping guinea pigs

Species-appropriate husbandry guinea pigs is much more difficult as it seems. Questions about keeping guinea pigs well will be answered in this category. To keep your cavies sane and healthy it is important to care about some rules.

Keeping guinea pigs careless results in completly social depleted animals with short life expectancy towards species-appropriate husbandry.

Cavys really like and need to run and therefore they need space to do it. Default cages are quite often much to small. The 60x40cm bestseller from any pet shop around the world is totally unsuitable for guinea pigs – it is build for hamsters.

But what is important in keeping guinea pigs species-appropriate? We give you the answers in serverals articles about keeping cavies for longevity and happiness.

  • Let there be more room inside

    Keeping Guinea Pigs in a cage

    Cages from pet shops are often advertised as very useful for Guinea Pigs and shall be appropriate to the species. In fact: Most of this cages are not! Especially the top wired cages with a plastic tumb – also the biggest ones of it – are way too small for Guinea Pigs. Insufficient spcace will induce stress and continuous stress is the main reason for most diseases your cavies can encounter. So lets have a look how a Guinea Pig cage should be to keep them fit and healthy.

  • Prevent solitariness

    Guinea Pigs are pack animals an need company

    Guinea Pigs are very social individuals and live in groups greater than 10 in their natural habitate. Individual enclosure of a Guinea Pig is animal cruelty. Of course they won’t complain about but thats a bad argument. And keeping one Guinea Pig with one rabbit has never been an elegant option even you have been told so.

  • Keeping Guinea Pigs and rabbits together

    In short words: Do not keep Guinea Pigs and rabbits together! Never try keeping only one cavy with only one rabbit! This is horrible for both. We tell you something about keeping these pet together and why this is a very bad idea.