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In case you didn’t know, guinea pigs are regimented little creatures.
While life in a cage may seem like a haphazard collection of sleeping, eating, and pooping, guinea pigs are their most happy and healthy when their humans stick to a regular routine.
Daily tasks performed on a predictable schedule (like cleaning and floor time) provide guinea pigs a sense of safety and security; likewise, a scattered routine in which events happen randomly can lead to stress, anxiety, and skittish behavior in your fuzzy friends.
The HappyCavy Humans have been guinea pig parents for several years now, and learning how to proviude a happy and safe piggie environment is indeed an on-going learning process. In the first few months of cavy care, our humans were admittantly clueless. Me and my sisters might have gotten floortime every day of the week, and other times it seemed like it would be a few days before we got a chance to roam around.
Example Guinea Pig Schedule
Here’s an example of a guinea pig schedule for a typical morning to late afternoon work or school day:
Morning
Spot clean cage. Check water, hay & pellets
Late afternoon
Freshen hay, water & pellets if needed. Spot clean. (More thorough cleaning might be necessary depending on number & messiness of pigs.)
Evening
Floor-time for at least 30 minutes, longer if possible.
Night
Cuddle time, also a good time to perform a “feeling” check, brushing, or ear cleaning
Weekly:
Cage cleaning, weight check, thorough but gentle palpation (“feeling”, checking for anormalities, etc.)
Bi-weekly (every 2 weeks):
Brushing, nail trim, bath, ear cleaning
Keeping to a regular schedule really isn’t too difficult, even for the most novice, and possibly undisciplined, guinea pig keepers. Here’s a surprisingly simple way to keep to regular daily care routine:
Cage Cleaning
If you clean your guinea pig cage once a week, plan to clean it the same time each week. If you clean it every day, stick to the same time. Our humans perform a quick cleaning once a day at 3 PM, which is when me and my sisters get floortime. Our home also receives a thorough cleaning every two weeks on Thursday. This keeps our cleaning schedule neat and tidy, just like our cage.
Floor Time
It’s ideal to give your guinea pig 30 minutes to an hour of floor time each day, and even longer if they live in smaller cage. Because guinea pigs like routine, it’s important to schedule your guinea pig’s floortime around the same time each day. To make floor time more fun, our Humans hide lettuce under fleece and inside pigloos in our floor time area. This keeps us a chance to play as we hunt for our snacks, and it means we stay out of trouble while the Humans spot cleaning. Scheduled floor times are a win-win for everyone!
Conveniently, floor time is also when our Humans clean our water bottles, replenish hay, and refreshen pellets.
Weight Check
The HappyCavies are weighed each Tuesday after floor time. We have a small scale that we use and our weights are tracked in an Excel spreadsheet. It’s a predictable time that helps guinea pigs get used to an awkward weight-in process!
Nail Trimming, Ear Cleaning, Brushing, Health Check
The mere mention of “nail trim” around most guinea pigs keepers sends shivers up our spines. It can be an awkward and very uncomfortable task. But by keeping these strange procedures on a regular schedule, you can greatly reduce your pet’s anxiety. Be aware that some guinea pigs can grow nails a lot faster than others (like Hammy). Also, longer-haired guinea pigs (like Feebee) will get dirty much quicker than short haired cavies (like Buttercup).
Because of these differences, The Humans stick to a bi-weekly schedule of nail trims, ear cleaning, and brushing. Every two weeks, a nail trim and ear cleaning is done after floortime (at the same time weight checks are done). It makes for just a few minutes of extra work, but the result are a shorter quick (because of the frequency of trimming), cleaner ears, beautiful coast, and happier guinea pigs.
Conclusion
Whether you care for a guinea pig, a hamster, or even a pet mouse, rodents live for structure and a reliable schedule that follows a very predictable pattern each and every day. It gives us comfort and it lets us know what to expect.
It is true that guinea pigs are most happy when the Humans that care for us are punctual, predictable, and NEVER without treats 🙂
It may seem boring and routine to you, but to us it’s security.
[…] last week’s post (It’s 10 PM, Do You Know Where Your Guinea Pig Is), we came up with a few ideas on how you can develop a weekly “schedule of events” for […]
Thank You for this information, Also what is spot cleaning? and where can I buy fleece for my guineapigs cage?
Thanks for checking in, Heather! Spot cleaning is when you scoop up poops throughout the day and change soiled fabrics and bedding as they are dirtied. Doing so helps to reduce smell and filth, which keeps your cavy happy and healthy. For fleece, try looking first at Joann Fabrics, they have a wonderful selection of all kinds of fleece. Good luck! :D”>
I did not know that having a schedual is needed. I will defanitly make my piggies day more predictable!
And also old food. Let’s say your guinea pigs didn’t eat all of their food and after sitting for a while it’s attracted flies. That’s not good to clean up.
I adopted my 2 girls a couple of months ago. Still learning how to care for them. We try floor time but they just stand in a corner of the floor. I coax them with veggies but they are still shy…. How do we make the happier?
Are you using pigloos and providing at least pellets and water, if not also hay, during floor time? During their floor time are you careful to keep noise levels down? If so, they have their “creature comforts” and shyness is just part of the game.
Being vulnerable animals, guinea pigs can take a long time (even a year or more) to get comfortable with their surrounds and with you. Cavies don’t bond with humans – in fact, each HappyCavy still is hesitant to take treats out of a Human’s hand during floor time!
Here’s some advice: Pile some dark lettuce greens or other healthy treats in their floor time area. Let them grab and go as they please. While they eat, sit near them. Speak softly and slowly if you feel it’s appropriate; if not, save any talking for next time. Take baby steps with them, earn their trust. Eventually they may return the favor 🙂
help please! I handle my guinea pigs every day, but it has got so cold recently, I didn’t want to bring them in (they have an outdoor hutch) as they would regulate their temperature and then get cold again when I put them back. So I haven’t handled them for about a week now, and I’m not sure if I should continue? Also, they have recently started digging small holes in their hutch, I am worried about them escaping! Anyone know why or how to help? Thank you, much appreciated!
Have a guinea pig room and wonder Should I turn lights out at night?
Happy Cavvy when should I turn lights out out?
Yep, turn the lights out! We turn them off when we go to bed.
I never knew that schedules were so important! Thanks HappyCavy, my schedule even seems to be improving, I used to have a real problem fitting stuff in, because with an amount of homework that takes me about and hour and a half to complete, I was struggling to get floor time in, which made me feel guilty the days when I had to skip it, but thanks to my schedule I have time for all of it!
Here’s my schedule:
6:45 – 6:50 Feeding, giving fresh water and removing un-eaten food, spot clean.
6:50 – 7:00 A little play n’ cuddle.
7:00 – 8:00 I’m getting ready for school.
8:00 – 8:15 I will give them a snack, then another play n’ cuddle.
8:15 – I leave for school.
9:05 – 3:05 I’m in school.
3:15 – I’m home!
3: 30 – 3:45 I will go up and check on my boys, give them a baby carrot, then spot clean. Finally a play’n cuddle.
3:45 – 5:15 Homework.
5:30 – 6:15 Is usually dinner.
6:15 – 7:00 Dishes, make a lunch for school the next day.
7:00 – 8:30 I will give them floor time.
8:30 – 8:45 I spot clean, feed them and change there waters then dispose of any uneaten snacks.
8:45 – 9:30 I will wrap them up in a blanket then give them a cuddle while I read.
9:30 – 9:45 I will put them back into the cage then I will take care of some last minute stuff.
9:45 – 10:00 is the span where it’s Lights Out!
Thanks for helping me with this HappyCavy
P.S. if your wondering, I do daily weight checks.
P.S.S. I do a cage clean every Saturday and Tuesday.
P.S.S.S Wednesdays I do a complete health check, fur brushing, and if needed, a toenail trim.
Thanks! I am getting a Guinea Pig soon and I had no idea where to get fleece!
I HAVE A QUESTION: Ok, so my family is really busy. I didn’t know that you needed to clean guinea pig ears! How do I get my restless cavies to stay still so I can clean their ears or trim their nails?
P.S. What does it mean to “spot clean”?
Maybe you should build them a temporary home in your garage for the winter, or cover their outdoor hutch with a warm blanket. If this doesn’t work, I’m sure you’ll think of something!
I have a cage for my guinea pigs. I was thinking about getting fleece instead of bedding. How much fleece do you get? Do you get a few sheets of fleece so when you “spot it clean”, if they do their business on it you replace it with another piece of fleece? Help!
Another Question (are you sick of me yet :0): What is a “feeling check”?
“Spot cleaning” means cleaning up dirty areas before you get one big messy area. For instance, scooping poops here and there instead of letting it get out of hand and very dirty.
For cleaning ears, you can hold them in a towel to keep their heads still. As for how to keep them still when trimming nails, we have one person hold the guinea pig and the other one trim. You also can call your local vet and see if they can provide nail trimming for you since it takes a lot of patience and care 🙂
When we first switched to fleece, we bought two large sheets enough for each to cover the cage. Then, when it came time to clean, we just put the clean one in and washed the dirty one. We also placed pieces of fleece in high-traffic and high-wee and poo areas. Our friend wrote a great article about all things fleece, check it out: http://www.calicavycollective.com/2014/03/guinea-pig-101-fleece-bedding-guide.html
What do I do if my Guinea pig is always sad? How do you get your new Guinea pig to let you touch it
My daughter got a piggie from Santa this year….however, despite trying to get him to get used to us, he is very skiddish and will hardly let us pick him up or pet him. He is young piggie and he nibbles at your hands every time and has bitten my daughter once. What do we do to get this piggie to be a family member so my daughter can have cuddle time and love him??? She is so scared of him biting her:( Please help!
Hi, Amy, I’m sorry to hear your new fuzzy friend is skittish. Guinea pigs can take months to get used to new environments and learn to trust people. I recommend you read our article “How to Build a Stronger Bond With Your Guinea Pig“, there are some tips there that may help you — such as keeping noise levels down, creating a care routine, making sure the cage is large enough for your guinea pig, etc. Also, your daughter could review how to properly hold a guinea pig, since a guinea pig that doesn’t feel secure or safe may nibble or bite: http://www.guinealynx.info/handling.html