The Top 10 Guinea Pig Breeds

      Hello! Rainy here! If you are looking to adopt a guinea pig, you might want to look at the top ten guinea pig breeds, their looks and personalities. I will give you a quick summary of each breed. Cinnamon or I will go over each of the breeds in detail in different posts. However, none of these pictures are my own.

Peruvian
     The first guinea pig breed we will talk about is the Peruvian guinea pig. 
Peruvian guinea pigs are sweet, fun loving, and alert. They are sweet and energetic but their coat it hard to maintain. 

Skinny
Another well known guinea pig breed is the skinny pig. They look like baby hippos and win the hearts of an innocent passerby by casting it's sweet gaze on them.


Teddy 
Teddy guinea pigs are fuzzy little guineas with curious, fun loving personalities. They enjoy attention and are SUPER CUTE! In fact, I think that I found myself with a crush on one before. 


American Shorthair
Us Americans are the best. You know, not to be conceited or anything. We are perfect. We have a sweet personality and are SUPER friendly. We get along well with just about any guinea pig!

this picture's mine. It's of me. I look ADORBS.

Himalayan

My friends, the Himalayans, require more experience from owners. 

Rex

Rex guinea pigs are social and active. They are sweet and like to be handled. 


Abyssinian
Abyssinians are sweet troublemakers that can learn tricks easily and be super loving! My best friend, Charmander, who is a female Abyssinian, is really nice and funny!

Fighting In Guinea Pigs

     Hello, you've reached Cinnamon. I wanted to talk to you about fighting in guinea pigs. Us guineas tend to fight, so don't take it personally. 
    
     There is a myth that male guinea pigs fight no matter what. That is untrue. Fighting occurs in both genders of guinea pigs. Cinnamon and I fight all the time, and we are female. Males can be a little bit territorial, but so can females. It is not the gender that determines if they will fight or not. Instead, it is the personality. 
     If you really don't believe me and want to get a companion for your male, but you don't want to get another male, get a female and have the male neutered. Yes, you can neuter guinea pigs. Believe me. Males can get neutered and females can get spayed. However, if you were going to fix one, do it on the male. NO, I'm not saying that because I'm female. Females you have to go farther in their body and it is more fatal than neutering, which is more shallow.
      When us guinea pigs fight, we tend to nip and bite. Please do not separate us unless there is blood. Separating us when there is not blood does not let us work out our problems. If we fight a really bad fight for one day, chances are that we won't fight as much from that day on. Separating us when there is no blood increases the chance that we will still fight, but even more when we can get back to each other. 

this is my picture

Hope I was helpful,

-Cinnamon

    

Cages

Hi! This is Rainy, here to talk to you about CAGES

Cages

     Cinnamon and I live in a Midwestern cage. We would prefer a C & C cage, because the Midwestern cage is flimsy and the canvas bottom has urine stains on it. A C & C cage would provide more room and it would be more sturdy.  Sadly, we do not have the space for a C & C cage. 

This is the cage we want!
please note that this is not my picture

     The Midwestern cage has just enough space for two guinea pigs. The minimum amount of space for one guinea pig is 7.5 square feet, and each additional guinea pig adds 1.5 square feet.

Nice talking to you,
Rainy

Bedding

     Hello! This is Cinnamon. I'm here to talk to you about bedding!

Bedding

Bedding is one of our bare necessities. There is many types of bedding in stores. However, cedar and pine bedding is POISONOUS and will hurt us. Even though stores still sell the bedding, know that it is not safe for us. 

please note that this is not my picture

     We will review the two beddings we have used so far. Rainy and I like crumpled paper bedding most because it feels nice on our feet. We also used aspen bedding for a period of time. But the Planet Petco Crumpled Paper Bedding was best with the odor control and we liked it best. Aspen is nice, too, but it hurts my feet and smells bad really quickly. 

Ta ta!
-Cinnamon

Companions

     Hi, this is Rainy here! I wanted to talk to you about why we should have companions!


Companions

     Us guinea pigs are social animals. In the wild we live in herds, together. To raise us alone would not be beneficial to our health. There are three main reasons that I like to talk about. Those are exercise, diet, and fun! 
     As mentioned in many other blogs, a fellow guinea pig makes us run more and gives us more exercise. We often entertain ourselves by playing tag, hide-and-seek, or keep away. 


please note that this is not my picture.              
         
   When a new food is offered to us, one of us may reluctant to try it. The other guinea pig might give it a taste, encouraging the other guinea pig to try it also. That food might be the one that contains vital nutrients for your guinea pig. 

     We are also soooo much more fun together! If one of us is moody, our owner just takes out the other guinea pig and plays with them! 


Hope I helped!
-Rainy

Diet

     Hi! Cinnamon here. I just wanted to tell you some tips on you guinea pig's diet.

Diet

Our lives mostly evolve around our diet. We should have two cups of pellets a day. Popular brands include Oxbow, Kaytee, and Carefresh. Pellets should not have seeds or nuts in them, just pellets. Seeds and other miscellaneous items will get stuck in our teeth, and will most likely cause gum diseases. Many brands have a variety bag- with seeds mixed in. Just make sure that you get the correct type. 

We also need to have access to Timothy Hay 24/7. That helps wear down our teeth and it aids our digestive system so we don't get sick. If we don't get Timothy Hay we will stop eating because our digestive system doesn't work properly without it. We can become very sick and stop eating if we don't get Timothy Hay. Timothy Hay looks like this:

please note that this is not my picture


We also need two cups of veggies a day. Popular veggies that Rainy and I like include lettuce, cilantro, bell peppers, and kale. We eat many others. We can't manufacture our own Vitamin C, so we rely on veggies to give us Vitamin C. If you have any questions on what else we can eat, comment on this post!

please note that this is not my picture

Thanks for your time!
-Cinnamon

Introduction

     Hello, and welcome to The Puzzled Guinea Pig. This is a blog told from the perspective of us-- two female guinea pigs, or sows, Rainy and Cinnamon. We take turns writing posts, so you'll hear from both of us! Don't worry about not knowing who is writing the posts, we'll tell you!

I'm Rainy.

And I'm Cinnamon.

We are experts with our knowledge, and we know more about our species than others! In addition to our regular posts, we also answer commented questions in new posts!