Guinea Pig Connection

Record Heat Starts Early, Pets Not Happy

The warm weather rolled into the Northeast this weekend, and the Weather Channel is reporting that temperatures are going to stay high for a big chunk of the U.S. for this whole week. It was so warm and humid here in Connecticut this weekend that we were told all the animals at the Middlesex Livestock Auction -- which unfortunately included small animals like guinea pigs -- were suffering in the heat.

It's usually July before I have to do my annual reminder of "warm weather care" tips, but this is the second bout of hot weather we've had -- hot enough to require air conditioning -- and it's only May 31! So I guess I'll do this early.

• Guinea pigs' ideal temperature range is 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Middle-aged and senior pigs often start "wilting" around 72 degrees.
• The farther the thermometer climbs past 75 degrees, the greater the likelihood that a guinea pig will suffer from heat stress, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke (which is frequently fatal).
• Hydration is critical. In addition to fresh water in the water bottle, treats like cucumber, seedless watermelon, and cantaloupe or honeydew can provide additional water. Cucumber is particularly good because it isn't sweet.
• Cool, climate-controlled rooms provide maximum comfort for your critters and peace of mind for you. Using window blinds to filter the incoming sunlight, or block it on extremely hot days, can help maintain a room's climate.

Summer is always challenging for those of us with pets, and even moreso when you have aging or ailing pets (of any species) who are less tolerant of heat and humidity. Our efforts are hampered by the fact that actual temperatures often exceed forecasted temps, making us feel like we're playing guessing games while teetering on a tightrope. Regardless of what species pet(s) you have, knowing the warning signs of heat exhaustion and heatstroke will help you keep your companions healthy.

Brace yourselves...it's shaping up to be a looooong, hot summer.

Related Posts

• 12 Tips For Warm Weather Care
• Guinea Pig Care In Hot Weather -- Revisited
• Guinea Pigs Can't Handle Heat & Humidity
• ASPCA: Hot Weather Tips
• ASPCA: Pets in Hot Weather Tips

My Guinea Pigs Are Rejecting Their Hay

A number of folks have been contacting me offline, perplexed about why their guinea pigs have started refusing to eat their hay, even when it's a brand they've been buying for awhile, even when by all appearances the hay seems like it's a good quality. 

So What's Going On?

The reason could be anything from pure finickiness (e.g., your guinea pig is bored with the menu selection) to an actual problem with the hay. Guinea pigs have far more sophisticated and sensitive palates than humans give them credit for. And, let's face it, we humans are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to hay. We can make assessments based on sight, smell, and touch, but we're missing the most crucial sensory judgment: taste. A bag of hay can be soft, green, dry, and clean, but it might not taste good, it might not taste like anything at all, or it might have a taste that your guinea pigs don't like. And you don't know how it tastes until you buy it and give it to your pigs.

Mother Nature has full control over the taste of hay and she can throw farmers a full season of blessings, a full season of curveballs and curses, or a mixed bag of both in a single season. Weather in a "normal" season presents a lot of variables, and the crazy weather we've been seeing in recent years (including pockets of drought in the Western U.S.) increase the variables exponentially.

Mother Nature might turn out a good hay harvest, but all the variables that went into a harvest might have created a flavor your critters don't like. My pigs have liked hay that the rescue pigs didn't like, and vice versa. Both groups of pigs have turned up their noses at hay that rabbits and chinchillas in area rescues loved. Go figure.

Sometimes Mother Nature created great conditions for hay but something else in the process went wrong. Hay was cut too soon or too late. Mistakes in storage, problems in distribution/transit. If the hay suffered because of clear operational mistakes, good companies will try to make things right if you complain. (If the hay suffered because of Mother Nature...well...we're all still looking for Her Gmail address.)

Reviewing the Basics

You want hay that is green, dry, non-dusty, and soft. You never want yellow hay (old hay is yellow or beige in color), nor do you want hay that is moldy, damp, or wet (or that has been wet recently). Good hay smells fresh, like it just came in from a sunny field; it should not smell moldy, wet, old, or musty.

You also want hay that is soft, not full of stems and stalks. "Stalky" or "crunchy" hay can injure the inside of a guinea pig’s mouth, an injury that almost always leads to infection and too often requires surgery to clean up. Look for hay that is labeled “second cut” or “third cut” to ensure the softest possible hay.

If you know anyone who works with or owns horses, ask them to give you some help with the "smell test" on hay. Horse people have excellent noses for sniffing out good and bad  hay…and often can pick up on the same nuances in smell that their animals can. Over the years, I've had many visits to Cindy's house start with her grabbing a handful of hay from a newly arrived bale and saying one of three things:

• "Smell this hay, it's fantastic!"
• "Smell this hay, it's awful!" 
• "Smell this hay, I don't think they stored it very well in the warehouse."
  

Hay in the first two categories was always easy for me to pick out, but Cindy refined my sense of smell with "iffy" hay. She can open a box of hay and tell you if it's starting to mold, if it got a little damp in storage, sat in the fields too long or not long enough after being cut, or was victim to some other storage mistake. It's hard to know if she's part horse or part guinea pig, but she's definitely got a nose for hay that isn't 100% human.

Look for Different Brands or Different Varieties

Honestly, the best hay is rarely found in big box stores. Too often, you see bags of yellow or brown hay on their shelves that should be pulled or should never have been put there in the first place. Most of the green timothy hay you find is "first cut" hay that is the crunchy and stalky variety that rabbits prefer but that guinea pigs won't pick if they have a choice.

In smaller, independent pet or pet supply stores, you start finding a larger variety of brands, like Oxbow, Zupreem, and Sweet Meadow Farm. With the independent stores, you often can work with the owners to special-order specific brands or bulk sizes (25 pounds or more) as part of their usual weekly deliveries (thus saving you the high UPS Ground or FedEx Ground costs). In more agricultural areas, owners can find bales of good, locally grown, second-cut timothy hay.

A lot of us order exclusively online from operations like Massachusetts-based Sweet Meadow Farm, Nevada-based American Pet Diner, Nebraska-based Oxbow Hay, or Washington-based Kleenmama’s Hayloft. We each have our favorite farm operations because we've found their quality to be consistent year after year, and know they offer second-cut (and, sometimes, third-cut) hay that we can't find in stores. Additionally, through their Web sites, you can find options that add variety to your piggie’s diet (e.g., meadow grass hay, orchard grass hay, bluegrass hay, mountain grass hay) that might not be stocked in any of the local stores.

When it comes to hay, you may have to brace yourself for some trial and error until you find a hay that your critters like. If you have friends who own critters who eat hay, it might be worth having a sharing/swapping circle in which to pass along otherwise good hay that, for whatever reason, your pets just didn't like. And, barring that, your local rescues would welcome the donation of hay (for which you could claim a tax deduction).

So, what about you? Are these isolated incidents I've heard about recently, or are they part of a larger problem with the hay harvests last fall? Are your guinea pigs turning away from their hay, or still inhaling it as usual?

A Trophy Won't Win You Points With A Guinea Pig

Roxy Sorkin must have one particularly brassy guinea pig.

In his acceptance speech at last night's Academy Awards ceremony, Aaron Sorkin (who won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar^TM for "The Social Network") called out the little devil on the international broadcast. He finished his pithy, eloquent, and refreshingly humble speech with the comment: "Roxy Sorkin, your father just won the Academy Award. I’m going to have to insist on some respect from your guinea pig." The comment -- an admission of being stymied (if not bested) by a 2-1/2 pound furball -- only added to Sorkin's likability as he walked off stage.

Anyone who has lived with guinea pigs for any length of time can chuckle at the comment and make a few guesses about what Roxy's guinea pig must be doing to "disrespect" her father. Run away when he comes to the cage. Chews on his fingers. Chews on his shirt. Fidgets incessantly while he tries to sit with it. Poops on him. Pees on him. Sasses at him for a snack. A myriad of possible behaviors.

The misconception about guinea pigs is that they're simple creatures, that all you have to do is feed them and you're in like Flynn. But guinea pigs are not won over by superficial gestures. They cannot be schmoozed. Because they are prey animals, which makes them anxious and fearful by default, they're slow to trust. It takes time, calm effort, and gentleness to form a bond with them. It's a process that cannot be rushed.

Guinea pigs are actually a lot like horses in this regard. In her book "Inner Peace for Busy People," Joan Borysenko relates a story about an equine experience program she participated in. During the program, she learned that "...horses were like mirrors that showed you who you really were....[they] respond to our energy, mirroring our emotions and intentions." They pick up on frustration, impatience, anxiety, irritation, aloofness -- emotional turmoil of any kind -- and respond accordingly. "Horses are very sensitive to energy," Borysenko writes. "They respond to peaceful clarity of intention."

If you're trying to connect with a guinea pig, and it's not progressing to your expected timetable, frustration inevitably rises. Frustration begets more frustration. And, if you don't do a course correction and try something new, frustration begets irritation -- and the guinea pig will respond to neither favorably. It matters not to a guinea pig that you're formidable in the board room, hypnotically persuasive in a sales presentation, or capable of successfully pitching a screenplay in a town drowning in screenplay pitches. Success with human beings does not necessarily beget success with guinea pigs (though I contend that the reverse is true).

The beauty of guinea pigs (all animals, really) is that quality time with them forces you to get out of your head, snap out of your mood, slow down, and be fully present with them. And when you think about it, these are all things you need to do in any relationship in order for it to be successful. For Sorkin, who makes his living in a fast-paced and uber-connected industry, his daughter's guinea pig may well be The Universe's way of planting a reminder in his life to stay grounded and stay present in spite of the insanity and busy-ness swirling around him.

It's been said that daughters keep their fathers humble (maybe even moreso than their wives). Sorkin's comment at last night's ceremony suggests that there's a guinea pig in his life doing the same thing. And that, I think, is a good thing. 

Guinea Pig Colonies: No Unneutered Males With Unspayed Females

In our ever-popular blog post, Myth #1: Male Guinea Pigs Can't Live Together, a reader named Shubhangini wrote to us about a predicament with a guinea pig colony in which all the pigs were incorrectly sexed at a pet store. Thinking there were four female guinea pigs, a chain of events -- starting with significant fighting -- led to the revelation that there are three boys and one girl. The question on deck: Do they have to be separated?

The short answer: Emphatically, urgently yes.

I decided to answer this question in a new blog post, instead of in a reply in the Comments section of the aforementioned post, because at least once a week (every week) we get an email from a panicky owner who left a pet store with incorrectly sexed pairs of guinea pigs. Usually it's a pair of females, or a pair of males, that turns out to be one of each. This situation with Shubhangini may be one of the worst cases of pet store incompetence I've heard of recently.

This is a simple matter of biology. Unneutered males + unspayed females = babies. There's no way to get out of a situation like this without at least one litter of babies. (Females can get pregnant, again, very quickly after giving birth to a litter.) The situation gets worse if all the pigs remain in the same cage together because more unneutered males and unspayed females are being added to mix. I'll leave you to do the reproduction math. It's math that adds up to a substantial financial toll on the human owners, and the logistical issues of having to separate a growing number of female guinea pigs from a growing number of male guinea pigs.

There's added concern here because there's multiple males and one female.

Guinea Pig Males Fight Over Girls

First, there's what Shubhangini is already seeing: the fighting amongst the males. It will flare up again, the severity will escalate, and someone -- or several someones -- will get hurt.

Neutering all the males will not help. You still have three boys competing for one girl. They'll still fight over her. Someone will still get hurt.

Multiple Pregnancies Are Unhealthy For Female Guinea Pigs

Second, there's the inevitability of multiple pregnancies because all of the unneutered boys will mate with that female, repeatedly. One round of pregnancy, labor, delivery, and nursing puts tremendous strain on a female guinea pig's body. Back-to-back pregnancies put further stress on that body; too many pregnancies and pregnancies past the "safe age" can have dangerous, if not fatal, consequences for the mother, the babies, or both.

No Girl Likes To Be Harassed By A Gang Of Boys

Third, there's the psychological welfare of the lone female, who has to put up with and fend off the advances of three hormonally overcharged males. (Even when all the boys are neutered, they will still harass her and mount her.) Ask yourself how you'd feel being the only female in a cage with multiple males, no means of escaping the harassment on your own, and absolute dependence on a human pulling you out and keeping you out. It's a depressing, highly stressful situation for the female.

The Solution

For Shubhangini, my recommendation is finding a guinea pig rescue to whom the female -- in all likelihood, now pregnant -- can be surrendered. The rescue will eventually find homes for the babies and their mother. This is the simplest, least expensive solution.

1. The cost and logistics of housing and caring for the mother and her babies, and the challenges of finding them all homes, is probably more than Shubhangini is prepared to deal with. (This is a statement based on observations of other folks, not a criticism of Shubhangini.)

2. The cost of neutering three guinea pig males will be exorbitant.

3. Keeping the female in a cage near the males -- whether they get neutered or not -- will continue to cause strife among the males. Remove her from the home environment and you'll likely have a peaceful trio of boys.

4. Shubhangini's own comments reveal that keeping the pigs separate is already proving to be at least a slightly stressful endeavor. This sense of overwhelm will grow over time, breeding resentment and decreasing enjoyment of the pigs' company. Shubhangini and all four guinea pigs will suffer for the resentment and decreased enjoyment, which would be very sad indeed.

Surrendering the female to a rescue will be, in the short term, difficult (emotionally). Over the long term, though, it offers the best chance of health and happiness for all the animals and humans involved.

 

Products For Making Veggies Last Longer

Tired of veggies -- especially cucumbers -- not lasting as long as they should, I've finally broken down this week and purchased a couple of products that claim to extend the freshness of vegetables...even washed veggies.

Debbie Meyer's Green Bags -- previously available only on TV but now showing up in grocery stores, drug stores, and retailers like Target -- offer the advantage of not taking up additional room in the fridge. Just bring veggies home, swap the store produce bags for the Green Bags, and you're good to go. You can reportedly reuse a single bag up to 10 times before it needs to be replaced. The manufacturer claims the bags help extend veggie life up to 10 times the normal life of the food.

Rubbermaid's Produce Saver line of plastic containers claim to extend the life of veggies up to 33% longer than their normal life. They will take up extra space in your fridge but offer the advantage of not having to be thrown out after a limited number of uses. The containers use a combination of a "fresh vent" and a "crisp tray" that sits at the bottom of the containers to separate veggies from the moisture that inevitably forms under them. You can find them at grocery stores and retailers like Walmart.

I should note that Ziploc makes Fresh Produce Bags with a "moisture vent." They come only in a large size (big enough to hold a head of lettuce), 15 to a box. I've only seen them at grocery stores.

If you've tried any of these products, please share your experiences.

Suitable Travel Carriers For Guinea Pigs

We're in the midst of our peak vacation boarding season at the rescue, which means pigs coming in and out of Cindy's house every weekend. We usually have a few people each summer that we need to educate on the subject of "safe guinea pig travel" -- though the number gets smaller each year (happily).

You need at least one travel carrier for transporting your guinea pigs anywhere outside of the home, including to the vet and to wherever you board your pets while you're on vacation. Transporting guinea pigs by any other means, such as cardboard boxes, plastic storage boxes, cages, or in a towel in someone's arms or lap is not safe. Sudden stops or other sudden movements in a vehicle could cause injuries to a guinea pig if s/he slides around in an unsuitable carrier.

Any hard-sided carrier that is marketed for cats is large enough to accommodate a pair of full-grown guinea pigs, without being so large that they could slide around as much as they would in a box or cage. (We do not favor soft-sided carriers for small critters.) Carrier floors can be lined with towels (or puppy pee pads) to give your guinea pigs' feet some traction, plus a towel/fleece pouch/cozy cup for them to curl up in and stay warm.

The Petmate Portable Kennel has secure locking doors on the top and front of the carrier. The top opening makes it easy for you to slip food into your guinea pigs while they're in the carrier, and to check on them in the car without risk of them escaping.

The Small Kennel Cab has a secure locking door on the front of the carrier. The carrier provides only one way in and out.

Geared more toward small critters, the Cabin Kennel has a slide lock on the side and opens from the top. The wire vent on the top of the carrier provides a small door that you can slide back so that you can slip food into the carrier, or even your hand so you can check on them during travel. This carrier isn't ideal for longer trips, but it will be sufficient if the only road trips your pigs ever go on is to the vet.

The cat carriers work for ferrets, bunnies, and chinchillas, too.

A Better Hair Dryer For Guinea Pigs

Guinea pigs, by and large, don't need regular baths. That's not to say that they couldn't benefit from one every once in a while, but it's not necessary.

There are, of course, exceptions. The most common exceptions include:

• guinea pigs who are being treated for mites, lice, or skin irritations

• long-haired guinea pigs whose fur is not trimmed up above floor level (thus being left to drag through cage bedding)

• guinea pigs who have gotten dirty as a result of diarrhea or excessive urination

• long-haired guinea pigs that have been poorly groomed and brushed

• guinea pigs who have been living in/rescued from filthy living conditions

Some guinea pigs enjoy a good, warm bath. Most protest over some part of the experience, if not the entire affair. If there's a part that they hate, it's being dried by a hair dryer. You can understand why -- most handheld blow dryers are noisy and hot.

 Enter the Vidal Sassoon Answers blow dryer for fine hair. Created for humans with baby-fine, limp hair that's prone to breakage at the hands of brushes, dryers, and curling irons, this dryer is also an excellent product for anyone who has to groom small pets.

Its light weight means it's easy to hold with one hand while you're using the other hand to keep a wet and very peeved guinea pig from wandering off. It's significantly quieter than the typical hair dryer, which means it won't hurt your piggy's sensitive hearing or drown out the reassurances you coo to help steady rattled nerves. It circulates effective drying air without making your piggy feel like he's standing in front of an industrial turbo fan. And its heat settings are not nearly as hot or harsh as those found on the average for-all-hair-types dryers. Lastly, there's the "ion output" -- we're still not entirely sure what that means but do know it has something to do with the fact that your piggy's coat is soft and shiny when it's dry.

This product can be found online and at stores like Walmart for about $20.

Are Guinea Pigs Right For Your Home?

Are you thinking about bringing home a guinea pig this Christmas? Have your kids been pestering you for weeks or months to let them have one?

You're not alone.

At a Creative Memories scrapbooking event this weekend, I sat at a table with several mothers who between them have seven kids under the age of eight. The conversation turned to Christmas wish lists and pets, and two of the moms said their youngsters had been pestering them for guinea pigs.

"I don't know if it's a good idea," said one mom. "We have a golden retriever that always chases rabbits and squirrels."

"I can't take care of one more thing," said the other. "I have four kids and a cat. I know I'll end up taking care of a new pet, and I'm not always sure I'm giving the cat as much as I should."

Mentioning that I work with this rescue, I asked them some of the questions from our questionnaire...and it only took two or three for them to realize that a guinea pig and its unique care needs were not going to fit easily into their household at this time.

If you (or someone you know) are considering a guinea pig for your home, we invite you to check out Are Guinea Pigs Right For Your Home on our main Web site. Below are the critical questions you need to ask yourself:

• Are you willing to adopt a pair of pigs?
• Can you make the lifetime commitment (as many as 8 years)?
• Do you have time for the daily and weekly care routines?
• Do you have space for the proper-sized cage?
• Can you provide a safe environment?
• Can you interact with them daily?
• Can you afford the costs of care?

You can find detailed explanations for each question on our site. You'll undoubtedly think of other questions to ask yourself as you read, but it's better to ask these questions now rather than later when an animal has settled into your family. And, as always, you're welcome to ask us for more information!

Pet-Friendly Hand Sanitizers

Folks who have pets often feel they need to use a quick hand sanitizer, for pet-related reasons and not, but worry if their pets (especially the little ones) will have adverse reactions to the sanitizer when they come in contact with your hands again.

Super Pet has a gentle, effective, clean smelling Hand Sanitizer Gel. This gel features light cucumber-melon scent that neither human nor animals will mind. The product can be easily in online pet supply stores, and in some bricks-and-mortar stores (with a little more difficulty).

Another excellent product is Method's Hand Sanitizer, which comes in eucalyptus mint, green tea, and sweet water scents. It, too, is gentle and effective -- and earth friendly to boot. We especially like them for their "humanifesto," which states: "We see ingredients that come from plants, not chemical plants, and guinea pigs that are never used as guinea pigs.

Method products can be purchased online at their own e-store and are easily found at Target. Some grocery stores are also beginning to carry at least a small portion of Method's product line.

Cold Weather Care For Guinea Pigs

With temperatures dropping here in the Northeast (and elsewhere) -- apparently for good this time -- it's a good time to review the cold weather care needs of our piggie friends.

Cages

• Move cages away from windows and doors. More cold air slips in around the frames than most folks realize. And once the glass in windows gets cold, the immediate area around the windows feels chilly as well.
• Keep cages away from heating vents, fireplaces, and wood stoves, so piggies don't get too warm. And for other obvious (fire hazard) reasons.
• Cover cages at night with a large towel, fleece blanket/throw, or light blanket. For folks with C&C cages, you can use medium-sized binder clips to hold the cover in place and prevent it from dropping into the cage. Keep one side of the cage uncovered to allow for good ventilation.

Home Environment

• Monitor the temperature in your home. Guinea pigs are easily chilled, and you need to be extra vigilant when you have very young piggies or seniors. Guinea pigs' optimum temperature range is 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit; during the winter months, keeping the temperature around 66 or 67 can help keep pigs from catching cold.
• Consider running a humidifier to keep some moisture in the air and keep everyone's skin from feeling dry and itchy.

Diet & Grooming

• Check water bottles frequently. Heating systems dry out a home, making animals and humans feel the need to drink more water.
• Serve a chunk of sweet bell pepper daily, for the boost in essential Vitamin C. Crunchy, juicy vegetables also provide a little extra fluid.
• Brush your guinea pigs weekly to help manage any itchies.

And, finally, watch your pigs carefully for signs of developing colds and respiratory illness, including sneezing and runny nose. If you see them, waste no time getting to a vet.