More Things Your Guinea Pig Should Not Eat

Last fall, I wrote about the 10 things that your guinea pig should not eat, which also included links to other lists of poisonous and toxic plants.

Ellen Falbowski (the rescue's board secretary and the person prepping Joanne's piggy photos for the latest batch of photo notecards in our Zazzle gallery) has brainstormed another list of common household items that guinea pigs occasionally come in contact with -- but really never should. Or, as Ellen semi-humorously puts it, "items that could be hanging next to the cage, overlooked by the owners but not by the pigs!"

The list includes:

• electric wire, telephone wire, speaker wire, computer cable
• curtains
• venetian blinds
• venetian blind cords
• plastic bags of any kind, which can result in intestinal blockage if ingested (e.g., grocery bags, garbage bags, paper towel wrappers, bags that contain(ed) guinea pig food pellets or hay)
• deli-style plastic containers and lids (too soft, will be nibbled)
• houseplants, especially hanging plants (e.g., spider plant, philodendron, etc.)

Even if you think your guinea pigs would never fool with these things (because they haven't...yet) don't be so sure. One, guinea pigs have a habit of biting into unfamiliar things in order to determine what they are (or, rather, to determine whether the mystery things are food), and can nibble at them obsessively if you don't interfere and take the thing away. Two, owners should never underestimate the persistence and ingenuity of bored guinea pigs.

So take a few seconds to look around your pigs' cage and play area and see what's there. You just might find a hay bag or houseplant silently waiting to cause trouble!

Comments

[Amanda]

Hi, I left a plastic container in my guinea pigs cage he ate a part of it. Should I be worried because now je won't squeak anymore and everytime her tries he ends up coughing. Please help!!!!

[Pearl du Plessis]

How about .. my guinea pigs actually ate my cat's eyebrows when he lay with his head against the hutch and he STILL loves them.

[Sarah Eaton]

My new Guinea Pig has been chewing on my jeans, or anything else that I'm wearing at the time. Sometimes you don't notice - until you get up & have a trail of cotton undone!
Love her so much though!!

[Whitney]

You make a really excellent point -- "My guinea pigs showed me to not take it for granted that they will consistently leave things alone."

For certain, what's boring one day might not be a week or a month later. Especially if a guinea pig is bored enough.

Thanks for stopping by!

[Weatherlight]

Even if your guinea pigs have been around something every day for years, you should still evaluate ASAP whether it might be harmful and whether it's worth risking it any longer. At the least, check them for signs of chewing/ingestion.

I have no idea why, but sometimes animals will ignore something (whether something dangerous or an edible willow toy) for several days, many months, or even longer, and then decide to eat it one day. My guinea pigs showed me to not take it for granted that they will consistently leave things alone :P

If anyone has free-range or similarly uncaged pigs (or other animals) and has found a foolproof method of protecting electric cords, though, I'd love to learn the secret. I know the usual duct taping along the walls, running under carpets/mats (dangerous for some cords/wires), tying above the ground, etc but it seems to me that a dog, cat, rabbit, or cavy just might be able to fry themselves if they try hard enough.

[Brankica]

I let my two pups walk around the house but it is sometimes overwhelming. I need to look at them all the time.
As soon as turn my head they make some mess.
I have to take all cords out of sockets and remove them every time they are around the house.
It took them a second to bite through my printer's cord.
I also don't have any plants in the house because they will chew on anything.
Cords, bedding hanging from the bed, books and newspapers, wood floors and a carpet!!!
But I love them anyway :)

[Guinea Pig Lover]

Guinea pigs will eat anything, from newspaper to the plastic on C&C cages. Got to be really careful when they are out of the cage roaming the house. They are indeed persistent.