Hello!
I grew up with several guinea pigs. We got our first one when we moved Australia. My Mom then decided that we needed more as it was hard for three kids to share one. So we each had one. They were all females. My Dad built a cage for them outside. They lived in boxes in the winter time. After 2 years my Dad's time was up and we had to move back to the States. We had to find a new home for our guinea pigs. That was the hardest part of leaving Australia!
So when we moved back to the States, we acquired more guinea pigs. This time 2 females and 1 male. We kept them in cardboard boxes, with each having their own box. (We would replace the box after 2 weeks.) After not having them together, we found that one of the females had given birth! (My Mom thinks that the male was jumping from box to box and then back into his own!) As My Mom and I were putting that mama and babies back into their box I discovered that my guinea pig was giving birth! Wow! What a surprise! Each mama had two babies in their first litters.
We used to take the guinea pigs outside to eat grass and run around the yard. It was even more fun when the babies came along! We would hold up one baby to a mama and she would follow us, then her baby and the other mama and babies too! We could even put that baby down and they would join the train!
Our guinea pigs were well traveled as we moved around the country quite a bit with my Dad being in the Air Force. Our guinea pigs lived to be about seven years old.
I now have two kids of my own. My dd is almost 9. My Mom said that a good first pet is a guinea pig so she bought one as my dd's early b-day present. Her name is Mandy and she was about 5 weeks old when we got her. We've had her about a month now. Hopefully, my dd will learn responsibility! She enjoys holding, feeding, and playing with her new "baby"!
I bought a neat folding playpen. It has eight pieces connected together. We use it outside and inside. When we use it inside, we put it over a mat that is used to soak up water on cribs and toddler beds. This way if Mandy doesn't get a chance to exercise outside she can still do it inside with less mess for me! The mat can then be tossed into the washer to clean.
