Babywatch - Day 7

So this will be the last day of my "Babywatch" posts.  I just wanted to document how their first week went for future reference.  Going forward, I'll be working on posts related to things like nutrition, bedding, and behavior.

The babies seem to have settled into their new home pretty well.  They are still skittish, but typically easier to catch than they were at first, and I usually handle them 2-3 times a day for just a couple of minutes each time.  I plan to continue to work with them and I'm hopeful that over time, they will become more comfortable with their humans.

They seem to be eating quite well.  Wheatgrass is hands down their favorite food, although they enjoy green peppers, carrots, bananas, cantaloupe, cucumbers, and lettuce too.  Raspberries and celery are on the borderline list, so I'll probably continue to feed them occasionally to see if the babies change their minds later, and I will continue to introduce new foods periodically.  They seem to like both the botanical hay (which is mostly timothy) and alfalfa, so I give both free choice.  I also have been feeding 2 tablespoons a day of Blue Seal pellets.  They definitely love the pellets, but I remain unconvinced that feeding pellets in large amounts or even at all is a good idea, so that will definitely be a topic I want to research further.

The fleece cage accessories are working well, and using fleece and vet bedding for the cage liner, along with U-haul furniture pads underneath has worked great for the past week.  I still would like to experiment a little, though, to find the option that works for the guinea pigs and is easiest for me.

I'm also still working on the cage set-up.  I have a 2x4 C&C cage that I'm using now, and I'd like to add a partial second level.  I'm still debating on how to set it up so I can remove the second level easily to clean the main level or catch guinea pigs, but still have the second level secure.  So more on that in a future post.

In all, I find these two additions to my life to be quite adorable and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better and learning more about guinea pigs.

Babywatch - Day 6

In the morning, I introduced celery in a small amount (about 12 quarter inch square pieces).  They did eventually eat it, but I could tell celery is not currently a favorite.  I continued with green peppers and wheatgrass in the morning and lettuce and wheatgrass in the evening.  I also added about a tablespoon's worth of small pieces of cantaloupe at night as a treat.  They definitely liked it!

In the afternoon, I reworked their cage to get ready for the addition of a partial second level.  I still haven't quite figured out how I want to set it up, but I needed to make some adjustments to the acrylic sheets that I had on the sides of the cage as babyproofing and I needed to add some second-level grids.  I also changed their bedding, although it still looked like it was in pretty good shape and I didn't notice any odor.  However, I was ready to swap out the fleece for the vetbedding I had gotten from Lakeside Products.

So I cut the bedding to the size of the cage (about 27.25" x 56.25") and I also cut two pieces out of a U-Haul furniture pad to go underneath.  I've actually read some good things about using wood pellets underneath the vetbedding too, so I will probably try that in the future just to test it out.  Anyway, I put the new bedding in the cage, and reconfigured the accessories a little too.  I had to wash all the fleece stuff, so I swapped out the fleece tunnel for a willow tunnel and moved things around a little.  The guinea pigs loved that and they were excited to chew on the willow tunnel, so that worked out pretty well.  In fact, they are now making their first photo appearance.

Babywatch - Day 5

Based on yesterday's feeding results, I'm going to try to start being a little more scientific in what I'm feeding.  So this morning, I started out with 1 ounce of green peppers and 1 ounce of wheatgrass.  The guinea pigs ate the wheatgrass within minutes, but they left the green peppers for a little later.  All the green peppers were gone within a couple of hours, though.  Once the green peppers were gone, I gave 1 tablespoon of pellets and topped off their hay dishes with meadow hay instead of either the botanical or the alfalfa (both are still available in small amounts) because I just wanted to see if they would eat the meadow hay instead.  They did eat a little of it, but I decided to add some botanical hay and alfalfa in the afternoon.

For the afternoon feeding of fresh food, I gave them 1 ounce of wheatgrass again and about an ounce of a lettuce mix, which they really seem to enjoy.  I also added more hay (who knew such tiny creatures could eat so much hay?).

I stuck to my usual routine of handling them 1 or 2 times during the day, just for a couple of minutes at a time.  They still were skittish, but I found that they were much easier to catch.  I'm not sure if that is because they are getting used to me or I'm getting used to catching them quickly.

I do have big plans for tomorrow, though.  I had ordered bedding that is similar to PetLife's Vetbed from an American company, and it arrived today.  I hope to get it washed and cut to size so I can start using it instead of fleece.  The fleece has actually been working fine, but I wanted to test it against a product actually made for animals.  Plus, in the guinea pig forums, I have found a few anecdotes from people using it who preferred it to fleece, so I wanted to see for myself.  I also want to see if I can get a mid-grid level installed in the cage to add some additional space and interest.  So stay tuned to see how the cage remodel goes!