Pet Guinea Pig Housing

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Sarah, and I am here at Extra Care Animal Hospital in Davey, Florida, today and on behalf of Expert Village.com, I am going to educate you a little bit about owning a guinea pig. As far as housing your guinea pig goes, there are a number of good quality guinea pig cages out on the market. Any cage that you choose should be well ventilated. You should not have your guinea pig in an aquarium as aquariums do not provide adequate ventilation and can lead to respiratory problems. Your cage should be solid bottom but should not have mesh on the floor as guinea pigs that we see are housed in mesh bottom cages get sores on the bottom of their feet, both front feet and back feet. We also see guinea pigs get toenails caught in the floor of wire cages and they will break a toenail or they can break their feet, toes or legs. We’ve seen a lot of different injuries from wire bottom cages. Wood cages are not very good because the wood tends to observe moisture and can be a breeding ground for bacteria, fungus and once again, is a very unsanitary habitat for your guinea pig. Any cage you choose can be single level or can have multi levels. Some guinea pigs do enjoy being able to climb to multiples levels of the cage. A good rule thumb is a 100 square inches of cage flooring per adult guinea pig. Guinea pigs are very social animals and can be housed with other guinea pigs but it is very important that if you are going to have more than one guinea pig that you get an appropriately sized cage. If you have a single guinea pig and you decide to get another one, you definitely should go ahead and make the investment and get a larger cage as we don’t want to see any fighting or injuries occur from too many guinea pigs in a small crowded space. You should place your guinea pig’s cage in an area where it will get to interact with you throughout the day but not in a super high traffic area as guinea pigs do tend to like it a little quieter. A good area would be a quite corner of a family room or a den or office. You want to keep it away from direct sunlight and away from any excessive drafts. If you would like more information about Extra Care Animal Hospital, you can look up our website at www.extracareanimalhospital.net."