They love the company of other guinea pigs; a male and female are not ideal unless the male is neutered, and two males kept together do not need to be neutered as long as there are NO females around.

Although you often see rabbits and guinea pigs living together; this is not ideal.  If they were to fight the rabbit can quite badly injure the piggy, even a kick from a rabbits powerful back legs could do a lot of damage.  Also the nutritional needs of each differ.

A female is called a 'sow' and a male is called a 'boar'.

Housing Your Guinea Pig - Pet Shop cages are too small, one piggy needs a minimum of 7.5 square feet (30" x 36"), two piggies prefer 10.5 square feet (30" x 50"), the easiest way to get the space you need is to make your own.

The piggies pictured are housed in a C&C (Cubes & Coroplast) home made cage - you can find out how to make one of these yourself by clicking here.  These cages are for indoor use, ideally piggies should be kept indoors, but access to an outdoor run in Spring & Summer is a good idea.  Any outside run needs to be fully covered and secure to keep them safe from dogs, cats, foxes and birds of prey.  Shade should also be available in runs so as to avoid them getting too hot.  Piggies are susceptible to upper respiratory infections, and draughts/changes in temperature are a major culprit.  Guinea Pigs who live inside tend to live longer than outdoor guinea pigs.

Bedding - The cage can be lined with newspaper and wood shavings, Carefresh is more expensive as a liner but has superior odour control.  DO NOT USE SAWDUST OR STRAW AS BOTH CAN CAUSE DAMAGE TO THE EYES.   It is becoming popular to line the cages with fleece bedding, which is laid over an absorbent layer of towels or incontinence pads (like those used on childrens beds for bedwetting).  This seems to be much nicer and more comfortable for the piggies.

Once you have your piggies you may find that they may bicker occasionally but this can usually be resolved by ensuring they have plenty of tunnels and shelters in their pen.  Plenty of fresh hay should be given for eating and burrowing. 

Feeding - UNLIMITED good quality timothy hay should form the basis of their diet.  Piggies under 4 months of age and pregnant/lactating females should have half, timothy hay, half alfalfa hay.  Only feed adults alfalfa hay occasionally as a treat as it is too high in calcium.

Chewing hay is important, piggies molars are constantly growing and must be ground down by chewing.  Pellets & treat/chew sticks are not efficient at wearing the teeth down.  Timothy hay also provides enough long fibre to keep the intestines working and help prevent gastrointestinal obstruction.  A complete plain dye free pellet is best fed, as these prevent select feeding, one based on Timothy Hay not alfalfa hay is best.  Purchase the food in small batches so that it maintains at least some of its Vitamin C content.

Piggies can not manufacture their own Vitamin C and need 10-30mg/kg per day.  You can give your piggy chewable Vitamin C tablets, but as long as you feed a selection of fresh vegetables and fruit they should get an adequate supply.  Do not add Vitamin C to the drinking water as it alters the taste and may result in less drinking.

Primarily feed green leafy vegetables and a small amount of fruit.  Don't give too many carrots (at most a small carrot every other day or so), limit cruciferous veg, i.e. cabbage, broccoli, sprouts etc as they may cause gas.  Avoid potatoes/iceberg lettuce. 

An example menu: -

couple handfuls of grass

1/4 - 1/8 of a whole pepper (without seeds)

Romaine lettuce (or red & green leaf lettuce) - 1 or 2 leaves

Tomato (no seeds)

1 sprig of parsley

1 strawberry

1 thin slice of apple

The key is variety, variety, variety!

Accessories & Play The best plaything for your piggy is another piggy! Do not keep one on it's own, you will see much more normal behaviour and activity when you have a pair or more.

Floor time - this basically means providing an area of the floor for your piggies to safely run around in.

Hidey Houses & Tunnels - help them feel safe.

Lots of fresh hay - they just love to run and play through a large clump of fresh hay; try stuffing a large brown paper bag with some.

Cozies or Cuddle Cups - Piggies just love snuggling into their cozies.  You can find more fun play ideas by clicking here.

Some piggy trivia -

It is 'normal' to have a hairless area behind each ear.

Guinea Pigs have a grease gland on their rump which produces quantities of black grease.  The glands are more prominent in males.