How to Shop For a Guinea Pig

When you feel that tug at your trouser leg, and the big eyes are turned up at you appealingly, what can you say? “Yes, honey, you can have a guinea pig,” are words that can start a fun-filled day of pet shop hopping, Internet searching and countless repetitions of “can I hold that one?” Once you've decided to add a cavy to your home—for you or your little pant-leg tugger--follow these steps to learn how to shop for a guinea pig.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Guinea pig water bottle
• Paper-based cage bedding
• Ceramic food dish
• Guinea pig food with Timothy hay and vitamin-C
• Telephone directory
• Vehicle
• Patience
• Cage designed for guinea pigs

For the Easy to Please Guinea Pig Lover

1. Pull out your local telephone directory.
2. Look up “pet stores.”
3. Find the nearest ones that have “small pets” in the advertisement.
4. Phone the pet store during store hours and ask if they currently have any guinea pigs.
5. Drive to the store with guinea pigs in situ (along with your young guinea pig lover).
6. Look at the piggies.
7. Choose the cutest one and take him home.

For the Discerning Guinea Pig Lover

8. Go to the local library and check out books on guinea pigs, to compare breeds and appearance.
9. Look on the Internet at a plethora of pictures of guinea pigs. Fine the best search engine (try Google) and type “guinea pigs” in the search box, then click “images”; when the “search images” box appears, click on that to view images of guinea pigs.
10. Look online at the Web site of the local animal shelter for adoptable guinea pigs.
11. Follow Steps 2, 3 and 4 from Section 1 to find available guinea pigs at several nearby retail outlets.
12. Map out an efficient geographic circle to stop at as many pet stores as possible during a single day’s outing.
13. Pack snacks and drinks.
14. Drive to the first pet store on the list or, if guinea pigs were available, to the local animal shelter.
15. View the available guinea pigs.
16. Make squeals of delight at the sheer cuteness before you. The guinea pigs may squeal back.
17. Ask to hold any appealing guinea pigs.
18. Pet the fluff ball.
19. Examine the guinea pig in your hands—he should have clear, wide-open eyes, soft feet, a clean bottom and shiny fur—and calm down after a few seconds of holding.
20. Hold all the cute guinea pigs at the pet shop or animal shelter.
21. Choose the little squeaker that steals your (or your child’s) heart—or move on to the next guinea pig emporium.
22. Repeat Steps 7 through 14 until you have seen enough cavies to last you a lifetime (but don’t tell your child that), or you have found the greatest guinea pig of your generation.

Tips & Warnings

• An all-day guinea pig outing can be a bonding experience for parent and child; if you keep positive during that seemingly endless search for the perfect pet, you make an enormous deposit in the emotional bank account your child holds in your name. Patience keeps deposits coming in; eye rolling and comments like “just pick one already” can empty the emotional bank account in a hot second.
• Don't forget to eat and drink your refreshments on an all-day guinea pig quest; hungry pet shoppers make grumpy humans.
• Guinea pig love is without reason, as with all love; go with the squeaker that you can imagine loving for the next four to eight years, instead of the one that is convenient, costs less or matches the upholstery.
• Always prepare for your guinea pig before bringing him home; he’ll need a protective wire cage designed for guinea pigs, bedding, a water bottle, a heavy ceramic pet dish and guinea pig pellets with vitamin C and Timothy hay.
• Don't bring home more guinea pigs by accident! Be sure to choose a boar (male) or a sexually immature female if you don't want to have baby pigs before you know it.