Hiding and scared guinea pig? HELP!

[bpatters]

https://www.guinealynx.info/nails.html

[Zaphy]

So you said you use all fleece but how do you place it because Bebe keeps finding a way to get her feet under it.

I use a larger piece of fleece than bottom padding, and drape it over the sides of the coroplast walls. Then to prevent my pigs from tugging the fleece down and climbing under it and then not being able to get back out and starving to death, I clip the fleece to the walls using a BUTT-TON of binder clips and those report folder spine cover thingys. Here's a photo of my old setup from a year or two ago- it's had a few modifications since then (e.g. way more spines and clips now) but the idea is the same. I also have a few pieces of decoy fleece here and there clipped to the cage that they can burrow in to their little hearts' content.

Disclaimer: I had a pig who was neurotic and industrious enough that she'd still tug the fleece down from the report spines and binder clips. I eventually had to resort to using a vise grip. She even succeeded in tugging that one down, too. It was only one time and she hasn't tried to get under the fleece since, but I'm convinced that it's because she now knows that that was my ace up my sleeve and I have nothing more to challenge her with. She's beaten me, and she knows it. Anyway, point is, sometimes binder clips and report cover spines don't work. Here's a thread from when I was in the middle of battling with her- there were several great suggestions given to me in that thread that I never got around to trying, but they might work for you!

Re: nail clipping- Bpatter's link has everything you'll need to know about doing it yourself(I use Heather's hold for mine), though if you're still afraid you could take her to the vet for a nail clipping just once and ask the vet to show you how to do it/how much force to use when restraining her. That way you don't have to keep paying for trims.

[bebe_thepiggy]

I’ll probably try a few of those ideas! I have some extra fleece. I tried the last “hold” at the end of the link for nail clipping and I didn’t even have a nail clipper in hand or nearby. She didn’t even let me hold her foot for more than like 4 seconds without freaking out.

[bebe_thepiggy]

Bebe has definitely warmed up to me! She has all of a sudden “gained” weight. She weighs about the same but has just gotten bigger/wider around her stomach area.

She chews on her plastic ramp and igloo I don’t know why. I also usually put her in a basket with a towel and some hay and an empty toilet paper roll. Which she also chews on the basket. She has figured out how to climb out of it though. Any suggestions on somewhere else to put her?

Somehow she also kicks (I’m not exactly sure how she does it) her poop into her food pellets bowl?

[Kimera]

Putting her poop into the bowl is normal for guinea pigs. They are messy creatures :). Wait until she starts peeing into her food bowl!

[bebe_thepiggy]

Oh! I’m so excited for that! (notice my sarcasm)

[bebe_thepiggy]

So I’m looking at a rescue with guinea pigs and I found a pair that seem great for me. They’re 1 and I’m pretty sure Bebe is one so would they be fine to adopt? I would obviously get a bigger cage before we actually got them.

[Lynx]

Are they all females? If you have a nice big cage, that would help a lot. There are tips for introductions linked to from this page:
www.guinealynx.info/companionship.html

[bebe_thepiggy]

Yeah they’re all females. Ok I’ll look at it.

[bebe_thepiggy]

Hi again, it’s been awhile. But by now should I know by now if she’s pregnant? She’s gained quite a lot of wait all of a sudden.

[bpatters]

I gave you a link on page one of this thread. You should be able to use it to figure out whether she's pregnant, and roughly how long until delivery.

[bebe_thepiggy]

I looked at it again and I’ve had her for almost 11weeks by now so if she was pregnant I should be able to feel the bumps but I felt nothing. But she has warmed up to me so that’s a good thing.