Guinea pig question?

Question

I have three guinea pigs in one care (ENORMOUS CAGE) and one of them is not squeaking right. He sounds like he's hissing when he would normally squeak. In addition, in a different location of my house I have two more guinea pigs that share a very large cage and one of them is doing the same thing. Basically I have seven children and one set of pigs is in the bedroom of two of my girls and the other set is with my two boys. They all are playing and eating well. They are chubby little critters and seem very happy. We use only pine wood chips and their diets are pellets and veggies. BUT!!! I am very concerned about strept throat as my daughter came home sharing that a friend of hers has strept throat, and she would have been exposed. Can she pass this on to the guinea pigs? And if not, what else could make a pig hiss?

Answer 1

Pine wood chips are VERY dangerous to your piggies. Pine has a very strong scent to it and it can cause respitory infections in your pets. Also absolutely do not use Cedar... same thing as pine but worse. Your best bet (slightly harder to come by) is Aspen, Carefresh, Yesterdays News or timothy hay.

Answer 2

Are you sure it's like a hiss and not a purr? If it's more like a purr you'd better separate the ones making the noise from the others and keep them in seperate cages, and watch the others for the next 60-75 days. Male guinea pigs do this kind of purr sound when they sense that the females are ready to breed. When they get closer to the end you'll be able to see them getting enormously fat and you'll even be able to feel the babies moving around, or in huge bubble feeling growths in her belly. Mine usually had three each, but they can have up to 6. They come out fully formed with hair and teeth, and will feed from mom, but also will eat her food too.

Answer 3

Pine wood chips are VERY dangerous to your piggies. Pine has a very strong scent to it and it can cause respitory infections in your pets. Also absolutely do not use Cedar... same thing as pine but worse. Your best bet (slightly harder to come by) is Aspen, Carefresh, Yesterdays News or timothy hay.

This is an excellent answer!!!

The chain pet stores use pine because of the high turnover so the animal isn't in contact with it for very long. These same stores sell the above mentioned bedding.

Answer 4

Pine is not suggested, ceder is toxic. Aspen is best. If the piggies aren't getting timothy hay along with vitamin C, their allergy tolerance is very low. Piggies can't catch any thing from humans. Ferrets are the only know animal that can catch viruses from humans.

One of my piggies sounds like that all of the time, and a couple of others sound like that once in a while. My piggies are all over 6 years old.

Happy pigging..wheek..wheek

Here are a couple of webs I used to use...they're great.

Answer 5

Yes, you can pass diseases back and forth between people and our critters. If you've taken them to the vet and the vet says they're fine, I wouldn't worry. The sounds that a guinea pig can make are truely astonishing. If you do suspect an infection, isolation is the fastest, best way to start helping them.
Good Luck

Answer 6

I'm wondering if there's some respiratory problems creeping in on your guys? From what I understand any noise besides the usual wheeking, chuting and prring should be cause for concern. Mind you I'm knew to piggies myself so I'm not completely sure ^.^ .

Answer 7

Sounds like piggies are allergic to the bedding. We only used carefresh with our piggies or aspen. We had a piggie who scratched and wheezed with pine and cedar. Piggies are sensitive to cedar and sometimes pine....sounds like a wheeze to me.

Answer 8

Feed them to the cat