Talk to me about guinea pigs

An important thing to remember about guinea pigs is that, unlike other "pocket pets", they can not manufacture Vitamin C in the intestinal tract. For that reason, they can't survive on feed designed for other small caged animals without a Vitamin C supplement. To my knowledge, that's only true of guinea pigs.

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CowDoc wrote:

An important thing to remember about guinea pigs is that, unlike other "pocket pets", they can not manufacture Vitamin C in the intestinal tract. For that reason, they can't survive on feed designed for other small caged animals without a Vitamin C supplement. To my knowledge, that's only true of guinea pigs.

And rats.

At least, rats MUST have stuff with vitamin C in it...

The fruit rats used to eat all the skin off my Myer lemons, and leave the perfectly peeled fruit still dangling from the tree!

Quite surreal until I figured it out.

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dlowan wrote:

And rats.

At least, rats MUST have stuff with vitamin C in it...

The fruit rats used to eat all the skin off my Myer lemons, and leave the perfectly peeled fruit still dangling from the tree!

Quite surreal until I figured it out.

Dlowan
I wonder if its rats that strip the bark off the exposed roots on my trees?

What do you suppose they might be called?

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dadpad wrote:

dlowan wrote:

And rats.

At least, rats MUST have stuff with vitamin C in it...

The fruit rats used to eat all the skin off my Myer lemons, and leave the perfectly peeled fruit still dangling from the tree!

Quite surreal until I figured it out.

Dlowan
I wonder if its rats that strip the bark off the exposed roots on my trees?

What do you suppose they might be called?

Barking mad?

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That made me laugh! Thanks, Deb. Laughing

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dlowan wrote:

Thought of a nice hairless cat?

Some stubborn folk are still alergic, of course....but get him to rub a few of these on his face a few times!

Sphynxes DO cost a lot, too.

Personally, I am violently allergic to ordinary moggies, and longhairs, but I tolerate Siamese just fine.

Some allergic people find Rexes ok too....

There are Cornish and Devon rexes....I forget which is which:

those are the ugliest freaking animals I've ever seen... and I once had a date with Gus' sister....

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Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

those are the ugliest freaking animals I've ever seen... and I once had a date with Gus' sister....

You are a philistine.

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Cute cats!

I seem to remember E.G.'s allergic to them too -- I'm not sure though.

My received wisdom about small "second-best" pets is really being put to the test lately. We took care of sozlet's class bunny rabbit over the weekend.

I totally fell in love.

He was just the sweetest fluffiest most wonderful little guy. He was skittish at first but then as he got to know us better really warmed up. I found the precise spot behind his ears that sent him to nirvana when scratched, and he kept hopping after me to get me to do it again. I'd call him and he'd come hopping up. Again, I had NO idea that (in this case rabbits) did anything like that.

And it was just so great to see sozlet hanging out with a pet. They snuggled a lot. She was super good with him.

I got really stuffy when he was here though -- hope I'm not allergic.

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Really, bunnies, hamsters, guinea pigs, all of those guys just seem like they don't have much personality because people don't socialize them enough (at least that's my experience, and I've had a lot, lot, lot of that kind of pet). They are almost always friendly as long as you spend a lot of time with them. Bunnies are a bit tempermental (e.g., dlowan Twisted Evil

), and you can't be sure that you'll end up with a cuddly one even if you really work on socialization, but they still have a TON of personality.

I've only had two guinea pigs, and one was not very friendly, because he was old and had spent his sad little life in a pet store without much interaction (I took pity on him and took him home 'cause he'd been there so long-- he made a good buddy for my chinchilla, but was never friendly to people); but the piggy I have now is really, really friendly. He loves to be petted and scritched; he rolls around on your lap in delight when you rub him. He comes when you call him or whistle for him, even if he's in the other room! He's really a kick, we are completely besotted with the ol piggy.

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I couldn't resist-- here's Mo, having his lap time while I am a2k-ing:

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/9686/1001237vl8.jpg

And of course he insisted on having a look at your thread for himself:

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/6876/1001238ba9.jpg

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cyphercat wrote:

I couldn't resist-- here's Mo, having his lap time while I am a2k-ing:

And of course he insisted on having a look at your thread for himself:

Awwwwwww....I love those little whistle pigs!!!

I had friends who had a small family of them that lived sort of free range in their well fenced garden.....

They came in to sleep at night, but during the day they roamed the yard, hidden in the plants. You could hear rustlings and their delightful trilling and chattering as they foraged. If you sat down, or if you whistled for them, they would appear from the jungle, and come skittering down to play and be scritched, whiffling and trilling in a most winsome and winning way.

PS: I am VERY cuddly indeed...when handled properly by the right person.

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we had quite a few as pets when i was a wee youngin'.

sorry to say i have retained zero memories of the furry critters...

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Oh geez how'd I miss this!

Wonderful pictures, cyphercat!

Tell me more about Mo and guinea pigs in general.

I haven't broached the subject with E.G. yet, still very interested.

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Talk to me about guinea pigs

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