My kids wouldn't play with it so it wound up living in a cage in our family room. I finally found it a better home.

When I was 11, I asked for a Guinea pig for Christmas.

Mom and Dad gave me a cat instead.

Thank God!

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter had one and loved it (and honestly, we liked the little guy too), but it only lived for four years and his death was a shock to both us and the kids. There's life lessons for kids when a beloved pet dies, but it came waaaay sooner than we wanted to deal with it.

If he had a guinea pig friend, he would have lived longer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They poop. A LOT. Get a Chinchilla instead. They are much cleaner and easier to take care of, and MUCH less stinky!

PP with guinea pig and rabbit. We also had a chinchilla as well and what this poster says is true. So dainty and clean--very much easier from that aspect. However, she was very skittish, wild almost, and not really an animal one could play with. IME chinchillas are rarely docile.

That's because they are wild animals.

PP: some good advice in this thread: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/429694.page#6029349

Our pig is great and comes when called. He does tricks for us like running through his tunnel and turning in circles for treats. It depends on how much time you have to socialize your pet. Ours loves to sit on our lasp. Litter is expensive and many people buy cages that are much, much too small, so the smell and cleaning is more work.

Your four year old is a little too young to safely pick up a pig, but your seven year old can be taught. You can also adopt older pigs who are already tamed.

Vet bills can be expensive since they need a vet who specializes in exotics. Mine have all lived to be 5 or years old, but I adopted one who had to be put to sleep at age 8. My son really appreciated his pig starting at age 8 and was heartbroken when she died when he was 13. Our current one (I prefer to have one but we all spend time with the pig) is in his room. Previous pigs have been in the living room. I have left my pigs for six days (with a pellet holder, several water bottles and a hay rack) but all have been lonely without us. On one two-week vacation, we brought the pig with us in a smaller cage and he got extra floor time. He did not enjoy the travel, but he was much happier with us.

We also take our pigs to the park on occasion during the summer, but you have to be very careful that they don't spray the grass. I do not have the fleece pads since I live in an apartment building with a common laundry, but I use litter and I estimate that I spend about $8 a week on veggies (this is one pig), about $15 month on pellets, $10 on treats and vitamin C tabs ( no one uses vit C in water any more) and $25 on litter. This is for one pig. So one pig is costing about $75 month. A second won't cost much more, but $900/yr is not unreasonable if you don't use the fleece pads.

Pigs are boring when people do not spend time with them and stick them in small cages. Please think about your lifestyle and how much time you can spend daily with any pet you have.

^^Ours never have never bit on their cages. They do a very cute squeak, however, when we come in with groceries or when they think food might be forthcoming. I agree that trying to litter train them is pretty much an exercise in futility.

BTW, I posted above that there is a vet in Bethesda who does exotics on Wilson Blvd. Should have been Bradley Blvd.

Guinea pigs are great pets, but they can be demanding of attention biting on their cage constantly to be let out. They can be trained to use a litter box, but then they forget and will poop anywhere. Their little noises and antics are very funny and they are much more aware than a hamster. They are quite portable. One time when we were travelling I put mine in a cloth bag lined with corncob litter and some food and we went in a museum and no one knew. I don't recommend it though because they can squeal loudly.

Ugh, don't do it. Totally not worth it, they are just eat and poop machines. And they live freaking FOREVER. Even when you accidentally go 4 days without feeding them because the pet sitter forgot to show up. They can also go a month without cleaning out the cages, because that's DH's job, and he is a jerk about doing it.

Oh, and they are social, so you want to get 2, but they can also turn on each other. We've had to separate ours because one tried to kill the other.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are disgusting. They eat crap out of each other's bottoms. They throw pee coated padding everywhere. Their cages are hard to clean. They do not cuddle. The chew wires if left out. Nobody will watch them for you, so you will find yourself dragging their nasty cage with you on trips indefinitely. And, if you take care of them properly, the live well past the three year life expectancy. Don't do it!

Uh, you don't use padding. You use fleece bedding. http://www.guineapigmarket.com/fleece-right-for-me

I didn't realize that OP was planning on quitting her job to take care of the things.
"With fleece (regardless of whether you are using Fleece Flippers™ or a Fleece Cage Liner), the poos must be brushed off or picked up or vacuumed up every day. Some people even do this more than once a day."

Quit her job? It takes 30 seconds to suck up the poop with a dustbuster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are disgusting. They eat crap out of each other's bottoms. They throw pee coated padding everywhere. Their cages are hard to clean. They do not cuddle. The chew wires if left out. Nobody will watch them for you, so you will find yourself dragging their nasty cage with you on trips indefinitely. And, if you take care of them properly, the live well past the three year life expectancy. Don't do it!

Uh, you don't use padding. You use fleece bedding. http://www.guineapigmarket.com/fleece-right-for-me

I didn't realize that OP was planning on quitting her job to take care of the things.
"With fleece (regardless of whether you are using Fleece Flippers™ or a Fleece Cage Liner), the poos must be brushed off or picked up or vacuumed up every day. Some people even do this more than once a day."

Anonymous wrote:They are disgusting. They eat crap out of each other's bottoms. They throw pee coated padding everywhere. Their cages are hard to clean. They do not cuddle. The chew wires if left out. Nobody will watch them for you, so you will find yourself dragging their nasty cage with you on trips indefinitely. And, if you take care of them properly, the live well past the three year life expectancy. Don't do it!

Uh, you don't use padding. You use fleece bedding. http://www.guineapigmarket.com/fleece-right-for-me