Alnitak wrote:Hi!
I've been wanting a pet for a long time, and after doing some research and getting a job I now know I can afford one! I would love to get two guinea pigs, ( I've even chose names already- Kinley & Cero ) and am going tomorrow to buy the stuff needed to make them a enclosure. I have the perfect sized spot in my room for it, and now I'm just curious on how much it costs weekly to provide properly for a couple guinea pigs.
Any advice?
Aw yay! I'm probably going to get a new piggie for my herd this coming November too! They're amazing pets(: Now I have 3 currently, and monthly it costs me about $30-40. I don't but from a petsmart or anything, but my local pet rescue so it is much cheaper.. But with the ongoing cost of getting new water bottles and maybe even a new hide ( considering they may destroy them ) it does add up.
I suggest getting a
shallow ceramic bowl for food because pigs love to flip bowls!
I also suggest getting a
VERY HIGH QUALITY water bottle! Water bottles are prone to leaking, and getting a good one will make sure minimum leakage and almost eliminates the need for buying a new one any time soon. I own the one in the link and I actually did get it from petsmart. It's really good because of the straight and short nozzle and the tab instead of the little balls in the spout.
Alsoooo, just to help save money, I suggest buying in bulk. I recently bought a [url]large 75 lb bag of timothy[/url] from my local horse feed supplier, and it's AMAZING quality, and for something that will last me 4 months, the price was amazing. Those bags from most pet stores don't come with a lot of hay and are obscenely expensive. I only paid 30$. Also you can buy food in bulk too, because those little bags are expensive too just to buy a new one every month. I get
Oxbow 25 lbs and they're only about 30$, and since a 5 lb bag of this stuff is close to 15$, you save a ton.
I'm sure you've already read about the benefits of fleece over bedding, but I still get some bedding for a little "kitchen" area under where I put the hay to minimize mess. I make my own fleece, but before I did I bought from etsy users and such, because they're cheaper than at brand stores, and still just as good. I suggest getting 2 sets, so you can clean it and put a new one in instead of waiting 2 hours for the washer and dryer to run.
Annddd last but not least I suggest making your own toys instead of buying them, because it saves a lot of money! I love to make some things out of toilet paper holders, and tissue boxes. I even make my own hides out of some fleece I buy ( just fleece blankets I cut to size ) and the extra grids from the c&c cage I have. I have even seen people use little shoe racks for hides too.. There's an endless number of things you can make, just look it up!(:
) called Sigge:
