To help keep your cavies free from diseases, you must regularly check them over for any signs of illness or disease. By including this as part of your daily routine, you give yourself a much better change of being able to pick up any problems early. This gives you time to treat them before they get out of hand. In particular, you should keep an eye on these 3 things:
1. Illness
Guinea pigs naturally try to cover up any problems they have. Sadly, this means that it is not uncommon for them to be harbouring a serious ailment without you noticing.
Guinea pigs' nose, ears,, and eyes are particularly prone to getting infected. You should examine them on a regular basis, ideally on a daily basis, to make sure that they are clear and clean. If you spot anything unusual, take them to see a professional immediately.
2. Dental Care
Guinea pigs' teeth continue to grow throughout their lives, so they need a way to wear them down, so that they don't get too long and make eating difficult and painful.
When living in the wild, cavies keep their teeth trimmed by using twigs and hay to wear them down. You must provide similar objects for your pet guinea pig. You should make sure that they have plenty of fresh hay, and you can also buy them hard chew sticks to aid the process.
3. Cleaning Them
It is important to wash your pet from time to time, to help get rid of any ingrained dirt. Besides the fact that this reduces the danger of your cavy catching a disease, it also gets rid of any smalls they have picked up over time.
You should bathe your pet straight after bringing him home from the pet shop. This will help to remove any ticks that he may have caught. Then you should clean him whenever he needs it - roughly once every three or four months is usually sufficient.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Friday, 5 February 2010
3 Essential Bits Of Advice For Exercising Your Pet Guinea Pigs
As with most pets, guinea pigs need to stay healthy and active. The best way to provide this exercise is simply to let them scurry about unrestricted in a large, open space. This area can be indoors or outdoors, but either way it's important to follow these tips to unsure the safety of your pets:
1. Make Sure They Are Contained
Guinea pigs can get very excitable when let loose to explore, and they will often attempt to find their way inside all sorts of nooks, crannies, and gaps that they find. In fact, if you aren't paying attention, you might discover that your cavies have disappeared inside a sofa, behind a bookcase, or under your television!
In order to prevent your pets wriggling their way into one of these tiny spaces, and possibly getting themselves into a dangerous place, you should watch them closely while they are playing. Better still, you could put them in a specially designed run, which is a bit like a big cage, to make sure they don't escape.
2. Make Sure They Are Comfortable
Although we sometimes don't realise it, the carpets and rugs of our homes can actually be fairly dangerous to guinea pigs. Things such as loose stones, which we barely notice, can be quite painful when walked over with guinea pigs' soft paws, and can also be very dangerous if they pick them up and chew on them.
Before you let your pets out to scurry around, you should give their exercise space a thorough once over to make sure it is clear of spiky objects. Then lay a cloth or some newspaper on the surface for them to run on. This helps by providing a soft surface, and also soaks up any little accidents they might have while running around!
3. Keep Them Away From Potential Hazards
Ask most pet lovers, and they will be able to tell you of a time when one of their animals ate its way through an electrical cable. Besides the fact that this can be very inconvenient to you, it can also be potentially hazardous to your guinea pig. Clear your pets' running space of all wires and cables before you let them out.
Other animals can be a big hazard to guinea pigs. If you do own another pet, such as a cat or dog, it is essential to keep them in a different room whilst your pigs are exercising.
1. Make Sure They Are Contained
Guinea pigs can get very excitable when let loose to explore, and they will often attempt to find their way inside all sorts of nooks, crannies, and gaps that they find. In fact, if you aren't paying attention, you might discover that your cavies have disappeared inside a sofa, behind a bookcase, or under your television!
In order to prevent your pets wriggling their way into one of these tiny spaces, and possibly getting themselves into a dangerous place, you should watch them closely while they are playing. Better still, you could put them in a specially designed run, which is a bit like a big cage, to make sure they don't escape.
2. Make Sure They Are Comfortable
Although we sometimes don't realise it, the carpets and rugs of our homes can actually be fairly dangerous to guinea pigs. Things such as loose stones, which we barely notice, can be quite painful when walked over with guinea pigs' soft paws, and can also be very dangerous if they pick them up and chew on them.
Before you let your pets out to scurry around, you should give their exercise space a thorough once over to make sure it is clear of spiky objects. Then lay a cloth or some newspaper on the surface for them to run on. This helps by providing a soft surface, and also soaks up any little accidents they might have while running around!
3. Keep Them Away From Potential Hazards
Ask most pet lovers, and they will be able to tell you of a time when one of their animals ate its way through an electrical cable. Besides the fact that this can be very inconvenient to you, it can also be potentially hazardous to your guinea pig. Clear your pets' running space of all wires and cables before you let them out.
Other animals can be a big hazard to guinea pigs. If you do own another pet, such as a cat or dog, it is essential to keep them in a different room whilst your pigs are exercising.
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