Member Advice on Guinea Pigs

Guinea pigs are the sweetest childs pet, they very rarely bit or scratch like a bunnie or hamster, and will endure hours of grooming and loving. And they will eat just about all your fruit and veg scraps( no lettuce please.)
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They are by nature a social animal, and really are at there best in at least pairs of either sex.We have happily kept males together for years, that were not from the same litter, or even the same age. They really are a laid back animal.
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Guinea's cant store vit.C, and so need to have it every day, either in a dry food variety, or via fresh food, it really is the one important thing to remember about them, and a fresh orange always goes down well.
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It has long been normal to put a guinea and a bunnie together, this for a small percentage works, but for the rest its almost a certain death. Rabbits by nature seem to have one thing on their minds! females get very nasty when its the mating season, and while desperate for a male, will attack her hutch pal. Where as males will (excuse the term) hump any and everything, including mr. guinea, and if you look at the size differance it not hard to see how they end up with broken bones and nasty bits.
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Guinea's are happy in or out doors, our last two have been in a large indoor guinea cage for many years, and as soon as the weather is nice they go out in thier run in the garden. When they are indoors they have grassed freshly picked for them every day. And when the weather is nasty they love a run around in my kitchen.
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There are many differant types of guinea's, long or short haired, with or without rosette's, and the main colours are black,ginger,and white and then you will get combinations and mixtures. They can be a little prone to mites, so that is always worth keeping an eye on, and please dont buy hay and straw from your local farmer, buy it from your friendly pet shop, where you can be sure its mite free.
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They need to be cleaned out at least once a week, with fresh newspaper on the bottom, shavings, then hay and straw. And come the winter, if there is no where for them put eg. garage or shed make sure they have a full bed compartment or hay. A small tip, if you put a sock over the water bottle, that will stop the water from freezing.
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