Can Guinea Pigs Eat Old Cucumber?

Our humans recently brought us home something called "old cucumber." What is old cucumber, you ask? It is apparently just a cucumber that has been left to ripen for so long that it is no longer green, but yellow or brown. It's used in Asian cooking. Will we like old cucumber as much as we like regular cucumber?

That doesn't look like a cucumber.

I want this piece! No, wait... I want that piece!

Lola can't decide which piece she wants, either.

It turns out old cucumber is a lot like lemon cucumber: it may look a little different, but it tastes just like regular cucumber, which we love. 5/5 stars!

(As with regular cucumbers, old cucumbers can be fed to us 2-4 times per week.)

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Lemons?

Humans, when will you learn that we don't like sour foods? We didn't like kumquats and we didn't like limes, so why would you feed us lemons? As with limes, you should feed us lemons "cautiously"--or, better yet, not at all since we probably won't like them.

What is this yellow disc of mouth-pain? I hate it!

Lemons are terrible and we give them 1/5 stars. Try harder next time, humans. It's not that hard to find foods we like!

Product Review: Oxbow Simple Rewards Lavender-Chamomile Medley

We love Oxbow's Simple Rewards treats! We liked the timothy treats, papaya medley, and the veggie treats, so it should come as no surprise that we like these as well.

Hey! Stop taking picture and bring that over here!

Why are you so greedy, Lola? Can't we all just eat together in peace?

As you can see, we found these treats to be delicious. These treats had a very fragrant aroma, which smelled a lot like a hot tea the humans sometimes drink before bedtime. Unlike most of the other Simple Rewards treats, these ones are crumbly, which means if your human likes to hold you in their lap and feed you treats, it'll be more difficult with these ones. Unlike Lola, I'm not a big fan of being held, so this doesn't bother me.

We'll give Oxbow Simple Rewards Lavender-Chamomile Medley 4.5/5 stars.

Product Review: Small Pet Select Timothy Hay

A few weeks back, we were contacted by the good folks at Small Pet Select about the possibility of sampling their hay and reviewing it on Cavy Savvy. Of course we agreed, and we eagerly waited for the glorious day when the big white and green box arrived at our doorstep.

Yum! For us?

We opened it up and saw a hand written letter:

The humans opened the door to our cage and let us at it. Broccoli as the first to discover the box...

Sniff sniff sniff

Then the humans placed the hay in our bowl and we chowed down:

This is tasty, tasty hay.

We love timothy hay from Small Pet Select. It is cheaper and fresher than pet store hay, and it comes right to our door. Plus, shipping is extremely reasonable (actually, shipping is currently FREE if you use the code T32HAY30 when you check out!)

To order some for yourselves, just click here. Seriously, give them a try. You'll never buy pet store hay again.

5/5 stars!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Passion Poppers?

Passion poppers are a type of kiwi, which we have already reviewed. Kiwis can be fed to us only 1-2 times per week since they are high in sugar, and passion poppers are a very sweet variety of kiwi, so you should be even more cautious.

Lola tried to shove her way in to get to the food. Typical behavior for Lola!

Broccoli got bored. Oh well, more tiny kiwis for me!

Now I'm bored of them too. 

Normally, we love sweet foods, and I was a fan of regular kiwis, but something was just off about passion poppers. We did like them at first before we all got bored them, which should count for something, I suppose. 2/5 stars.

Happy Cavy's Guinea Pig Rescue Bedding Contest

The good piggies over at HappyCavy have partnered with CareFresh to create a new contest to benefit guinea pigs at rescue shelters. You can help your favorite rescue shelter win 12 bags of CareFresh bedding and help guinea pigs who are looking for a new forever home stay comfortable while they wait to be adopted.

To Enter Just click here to visit their contest page and leave a comment telling them which rescue you'd like to see win the contest. Hurry, voting ends October 1st, 2012!

Who's This Little Guy?

Why, it's Poko, looking positively dashing in his new cape! As you may remember, Poko was one of the three winners of our last giveaway, which was to celebrate reaching over 100 followers! You never know when we'll have another contest, so be sure to become a follower of Cavy Savvy by clicking the "Join This Site" button over on the right side of the page. That way, you'll be the first to know when we hold our next giveaway!

How Much Does It Cost To Take A Guinea Pig To The Vet?

In the past, we've talked a little bit about how much it costs when you need to take your guinea pig to the vet. Regarding Broccoli's neutering, we said: "The total cost of the process was the vet visit ($77) plus the neutering ($320) plus the Oxbow Critical Care ($14). The vet threw in the cost for the Meloxicam pain killer for free (would have been $20)." We also mentioned that the humans had to pay $65 for a phone consultation with the ASPCA after Lola ate a lily that she shouldn't have eaten.

We wanted to list some of the other things the vet has charged our humans for so you know how much it costs to take care of a guinea pig. Note that these prices are what we've paid over the course of about 4 years for 4 different guinea pigs. On average, healthy pigs only need an EXAM and a couple of NAIL TRIMS every year.

Basic Exam:
* Exam/Consultations - $77

Exam costs for treating Broccoli, the feral guinea pig
* Fecal Float (that is, checking for parasites in our poop) - $24
* Neutering (only needed so that he could live with us girls) - $320
* Oxbow Critical Care (needed to offset the loss of appetite due to the painkiller) - $14

Grooming:
* Sanitary Clip (in other words, a haircut. Only Buffy needs this because she is a long-haired texel) - $18
* Nail trim - $18
* Wound treatment, small - $36 (this ended up being free because the vet accidentally clipped Lola's nail too short)
* Meloxicam 5mg/ml inject - $30.70 (this was also free to treat Lola's too-short nail)
* Meloxicam 1.5mg/ml - $18 (again, free and used to prevent infection and pain to Lola's nail)

Charges for end-of-life care:
* Hospitalize Initial Day - $35
* Fluids SQ Medium - $25
* Digital Radiography: 2 views SM - $185 (for diagnosis of a massive bladder stone)
* Euthanasia Medium - $42 (poor Annie... we miss you!)

So, as you can see, our vet bills aren't cheap. Before you bring a guinea pig home, make sure you can afford to care for us.

I'm totally worth it!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Wheatgrass?

A reader recently suggested we try grass, so we've been begging the humans to get us some. It seems like an easy thing to get since there's grass on lawns, parks, and so forth, but you want to make sure you give us untreated grass. Instead, the humans bought us some Pet Greens Live Pet Grass from the pet store:

Ahh! Scary creature on the grass!

Yum!

The wheatgrass was really good, although we did get a bored at the end and leave a little on the plate. 4.5/5 stars!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Red Lettuce?

We have recently realized that despite reviewing a lot of foods, we haven't reviewed many types of lettuce. In fact, there has been only one lettuce review, so we think it's time for more. Red lettuce, like romaine lettuce, can be fed to us almost daily.

Munch, munch, munch...

Yum!

Red lettuce is not only crisp and delicious, but adds a fun splash of color to the mix. You may think we don't notice things like this when we devour food as fast as we can, but we do. We just don't stop to admire it because that wastes valuable eating time. 5/5 stars!

Capes For Our Cavy Contest Winners

Congratulations to our winners! Your sparkily cavy capes are being mailed out today.

If you didn't win this time, "follow" this blog using the button on the right and keep reading for a chance to enter and win in our next contest!

Product Review: F.M.Brown's Extreme Natural Treats, Wheat Sprays

When we eat hay, our favorite part is the seed-heads. Some smart human must have seen their piggy eating the seed heads as enthusiastically as we do, and decided that having really big seed heads would make for a great treat.

Brilliant!

A cool feature of these treats is that they come with a plastic clip to hold the wheat in place. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to fit all cage types, and it turned out to be really easy to knock off.

I was the first one to try them. 

The clip came off!

Oh no! Lola finally figured out that they're good! Now she'll start stealing my food again.

Broccoli was the last one to figure out that these treats are good, and didn't eat any until there was only a couple left. Since we had trouble figuring out that they're edible and the clip had some problems, we'll give  Extreme Natural Treats, Wheat Sprays 4 out of 5 stars.

Guinea Pig Interview

Ever wonder what's on your guinea pig's mind? Check out this interview!

Guinea Pig Cape

Hi Cavy Savvy readers! Here's a preview of the guinea pig capes that will be mailed out this week to our lucky 3 winners:

This one is mine. It has my name on it!

Keep an eye out for more contests and remember to subscribe by clicking the "Join This Site" on the right --------------------------->

Where should I get a guinea pig?

Our humans were not always as Cavy Savvy as they are now. Some of us were purchased from pet stores, which is not the best way to get your guinea pig. Here's why:

• Some pet stores value profits over pets to such a degree that their animals are not given proper veterinary care.
• Even though some (perhaps most?) pet stores do take good care of their animals, by buying animals from a pet store, you are still supporting the breeding facilities that supply these animals, which are largely unregulated.
• Even if the pet store and the supplier are treating the animals well, a purchase of a guinea pig from a pet store encourages the breeders to keep breeding more guinea pigs, and is a lost opportunity to adopt a piggy in need at a shelter or rescue.

We have been told that not all countries have the same problem with homeless pets as the United States. Be that as it may, we still recommend trying to find a guinea pig rescue and seeing if there are any guinea pigs who need a home near you before you consider buying at a pet store or breeding, which can be very risky. Guinea pig rescues should also be supported because they usually are much more interested in making sure the guinea pig will end up in a good home than a pet store is.

I'm glad the humans gave me a good home for me when I needed one!