Here are some of these common sounds and their body language and the probable meaning as we interpreted them:

• Making Cooing Sounds: Feeling contented and happy
• Teeth Chattering: Watch out! It’s a warning! Often followed by a bite or a fight
• Low Rumbling Sound: A warning of danger to fellow cavies
• High-pitched Squeals: “Help!” (to owner); “Leave me alone!” (to potential predator, during medical treatment, etc.)
• Repetitive Squeaks: Begging for food
• Stretching: Feeling relaxed
• Head Stretched Forward: Curious but watchful
• Jumping, aka “Popcoming”: “Whoopee!” – a sign of happiness
• Rigid Stance, Not Moving: Playing dead to escape from an enemy

Related Topics

• Guinea Pig: Peruvian
• Responsible Pet Ownership: What Is Expected of You?
• Guinea Pig: Sheltie
• 5 Common Diseases Found In Hamster And Guinea Pig
• Runaway Pets: How To Keep Your Rodents From Escaping?
• Facts About Guinea Pig
• 9 Tips on Buying Small Pets

Do You Have What It Takes To Be The Best Guinea Pig Caretaker?

Characteristics Of Guinea Pig

• Life Span: Guinea pigs have a lifespan of six to eight years, depending on heath and care.
• Guinea Pig Breeds: There are short-haired and long-haired varieties. Peruvians, Abyssinians, Shelties, Coronets, Texels, Alpacas and Merinos are some long-haired breeds.
• Show and Pet Quality Guinea Pigs: The most obvious difference between a show-quality and pet-quality cavy lies in the facial features. Only a show-quality cavy would have a “Roman” nose, petal-like ears, and a solid body resembling a small teddy bear’s.

Housing Guinea Pig

• Housing Maintenance: Change cage linings twice weekly, feed daily, and supply fresh water daily too.
• Pairing: Guinea pigs are social animals, it’s best to keep more than one. Do not, however, cage two mature males together as they will fight; quite often one of both get seriously injured.

Diet Requirements For Guinea Pig

• Diet: Healthy eating means fresh pellets as the staple diet, lots of hay, and some fruits or vegetables. Vitamin C is essential. Avoid cabbage and lettuce to prevent colic.

Guinea Pig Grooming Needs

• Long-haired Cavies: Long-haired cavies require daily or at least thrice weekly grooming, as they need more grooming to prevent tangled hair. They also require twice monthly bath to prevent foul smell. Alternatively, you could trim your long-haired cavy’s coat down to lessen the grooming burden. However, you have to do this trimming once every 6 to 8 weeks.
• Short-haired Cavies: If you drag daily grooming routine, you may want to opt for a short-haired breeds as they require very minimum or no grooming at all. Of course, it’s good to give them once monthly bath to keep them smelling fresh and health.

Guinea Pig Behavior

• Body Language: They communicate through body language and a range of sounds. (Stay tune for the next article on guinea pig’s behavioral language.)

Related Topics

• Guinea Pig: Peruvian
• 9 Tips on Buying Small Pets
• Responsible Pet Ownership: What Is Expected of You?
• 5 Common Diseases Found In Hamster And Guinea Pig
• What You Must Know about Rearing Rabbits as Pets
• What Must You Know about Keeping Iguana as Pet
• What To Look For In A Healthy Green Iguana – Part 1

What You Can Expect Once You Take Over Pet Ownership

Dogs

• Cost of Food: $5 to $20 per pack (for small breeds).
• Grooming: From $35. Long-haired breeds require daily brushing and regular visits to the dog groomer.
• Amount of Attention: Dogs need daily walks. They also need their owners to spend quality time with them. They can get bored and lonely if left alone for too long.

Cats

• Cost of Food: $5 to $18 a pack
• Grooming: $70 onwards. Long-haired breeds require daily brushing.
• Amount of Attention: Cats need relatively less attention from owners than dogs. But even though they do not need daily walks, quality time should be spent bonding with them.

Rabbits

• Cost of Food: Pellets from $5. A bag of hay is about $9.
• Grooming: About $15. Long-haired breeds require daily brushing.
• Amount of Attention: Regular cage cleaning is needed.

Guinea Pigs

• Cost of Food: Food pellets are from $5. Bag of hay about $9.
• Grooming: About $15. Long-haired breeds should be brushed daily.
• Amount of Attention: Guinea pigs are social animals. If you have only one, you should spend more time with it to prevent loneliness.

Related Topics

• Guinea Pig: Sheltie
• 9 Tips on Buying Small Pets
• 5 Common Diseases Found In Hamster And Guinea Pig
• Cat: Norwegian Forest
• Rabbit: Dwarf Hotot
• Dog: Dachshund
• Rabbit: Dutch

How To Keep Your Rodents From Escaping?

• Rodents are escape artists extraordinaire. Many pet owners underestimate how crafted these rodents are. Those believed to be safe in their cages have been discovered wandering the roads or house, where they may be stepped on, run over and eaten by predators. Check on them regularly, or avoid leaving them unattended for long hours/days.
• Cage doors must be securely locked, not merely latched. The bars of the cage should be the narrowest possible. Hamsters may look roly-poly, but most of that bulk is all fur, easily compressed for squeezing between bars.
• Hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, chinchillas, and gerbils love to gnaw because their teeth are constantly growing. Always use cages made from metal or fiberglass that cannot be chewed through. Wood won’t hold them no matter how thick they are.

Related Topics

• How To Prolong Hamster’s Lifespan?
• Basics On Hamster Characteristics
• 9 Tips on Buying Small Pets
• Guinea Pig’s Behavior and Sounds: What Do They Mean?
• Hamster: Dwarf Winter White Russian
• Guinea Pig: Sheltie
• Runaway Pets: How To Keep Your Rabbit From Escaping?

Physical Appearance: Peruvian guinea pigs have long, dense, silky hair that parts in the middle. It reaches to the ground and falls over the face, so much so that if you don’t look carefully, it’s hard to tell which end of the animal is its head and which its rump! When a show-quality Peruvian’s coat is all nicely brushed out, it can form a perfect circle or oval viewed from the top.

Characteristics: Generally calm and friendly.

Colors: Many colors and markings.

Special Facts about Guinea Pig: If you are keeping a Peruvian strictly as a pet, and not for guinea pig shows, it is best to trim its coat to a manageable length so that the poor guinea pig doesn’t have so much trouble eating, drinking, and moving around, or coping with knotting, tangling, and matting. When Peruvians are stressed or upset, they may bite, tear at or eat their own or their cage-mate’s hair, ruining it and hurting the skin. So to keep pet guinea pigs, shorter coat is normally better.

Related Topics

• Facts About Guinea Pig
• Responsible Pet Ownership: What Is Expected of You?
• Runaway Pets: How To Keep Your Rodents From Escaping?
• Guinea Pig’s Behavior and Sounds: What Do They Mean?
• 5 Common Diseases Found In Hamster And Guinea Pig
• Guinea Pig: Sheltie
• 9 Tips on Buying Small Pets

Origins:

Physical Appearance: Long, smooth, silky, flowing hair. Unlike the Peruvian, whose hair falls over its face, Shelties have hair that flows back off the face and towards the rump. The coat needs careful, diligent, daily grooming. Has droopy ears and a “Roman” nose.

Characteristics: Generally non-aggressive, good-natured.

Colors: Bred in all colors possible in guinea pigs.

Special Facts: Unless you are keeping a show-quality Sheltie—and actually showing it–do keep its long coat trimmed short, especially around the backside and near the feet. This prevents soiling and matting from feces and urine, and keeps the feet from tangling with the hair ends. Prize-winning show cavies will be groomed several times a day and kept impeccably clean, so the long hair is less of a problem for the animal, but a pet-quality one should not have to put up with knots, tangles, and matts.

Related Topics

• How Social Consciousness Are You To All Animals
• Guinea Pig: Peruvian
• What You Must Know about Rearing Rabbits as Pets
• Facts About Guinea Pig
• 5 Common Diseases Found In Hamster And Guinea Pig
• What Must You Know about Keeping Iguana as Pet
• Responsible Pet Ownership: What Is Expected of You?

Although these tips are universal to buying any domestic pet, nonetheless it is still good to take note of them anywhere.

Take Note On These Tips When Buying Small Pets

1. Get an animal only if you are ready for the responsibility of pet ownership.
2. Learn about the animal you intend to keep from friends, books, and the Internet.
3. The breeder should be able to supply useful information about the animal. Don’t buy from casual “backyard” breeders. If possible, adopt one from your local shelter—not all are catered to abandoned dogs and cats. Unless you are looking for Iguana!
4. Overcrowded conditions (e.g. 10 rabbits in a small cage) promote the spread of diseases. View the animal’s current living conditions before you buy.
5. The animal should look active and alert, not skin and bones. There should be no visible bare patches or scabs on the skin or excessive discharge from eyes or nose.
6. Look out for fluid-like or mucous stools, which signal diarrhea.
7. Guinea pigs may have parasites like fur mites, which appear as small, dark specks on the fur—if you watch closely you’ll see them move!
8. Never buy underage animals. Pet stores are not allowed to sell rabbits below four weeks old or those smaller than six inches from head to tail. These animals still need their mothers’ milk and may die without it.
9. Don’t feel the pressure of buying the pet by shrewd sale tactics such as, “It’s a popular pet,” “It’s has unique marking,” “They sell like hotcake.” If you feel you’re being “pressured,” dismiss yourself from the pet store. Come back another day and see if you still have the same desire to own that pet.

Related Topics

• Rabbit’s Body Language: What Does It Means? – Part 2
• Rabbit’s Body Language: What Does It Means? – Part 1
• What You Must Know about Rearing Rabbits as Pets
• How To Potty Train Your Rabbit
• Rabbit: Holland Lop
• What Must You Know about Keeping Iguana as Pet
• Guinea Pig: Sheltie

Diarrhea (wet tails in hamsters)

• Symptoms: Soft, watery or greenish mucous-like stools.
• Possible Causes: Sudden change in diet, too many greens, stress, antibiotics, infections bacteria, insufficient roughage in diet.
• Remedies: Stop all feeding of fresh greens. Give lots of hay. Make sure your hamster or guinea pig drinks more water as dehydration can kill. Consult a vet immediately in severe cases.

Malocclusions (overgrown teeth)

• Symptoms: Dental disorder involving excessive incisor growth. Occurs when incisors biting surfaces do not meet.
• Possible Causes: Calcium deficiency and hereditary factors.
• Remedy: Take your pet to the vet to have its teeth trimmed.

Scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency in guinea pigs)

• Symptoms: Muscle weakness, lethargy, loss of appetite, swollen limbs, weight loss, and discharge from eyes or nose.
• Possible Cause: A guinea pig requires about 10mg of Vitamin C per kilogram of body weight daily. Add Vitamin C supplements to its food or water.
• Remedy: Ensure adequate Vitamin C intake until condition returns to normal. It’d be best to take it to a vet first to confirm the possible cause and proper dosage.

Skin disorders

• Symptoms: Bald patches. Skin may be inflamed and scaly.
• Possible Causes: Wide range of possible factors, including ringworm.
• Remedy: Consult a vet to get a proper diagnosis.

Barbering (commonly in guinea pigs with excessive self-grooming behavior)

• Symptoms: Coat has a chewed, jagged, uneven appearance.
• Possible Causes: Boredom, hunger, or dirty cage.
• Remedies: Give your guinea pig more hay and chew toys, and change the bedding!

Related Topics

• Runaway Pets: How To Keep Your Rodents From Escaping?
• 9 Tips on Buying Small Pets
• Hamster: The Syrian
• How To Prolong Hamster’s Lifespan?
• Guinea Pig’s Behavior and Sounds: What Do They Mean?
• Facts About Guinea Pig
• Basics On Hamster Characteristics