BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Exotic Pets Guinea pigs & the loss of a beloved rat

Will anyone share their experience with a pet guinea pig?

My 11 yr old recently buried her pet rat and is convinced she wants a guinea pig. My husband keeps telling her no, saying they bite, but I've never had a bad experience with a guinea pig.

As for Oreo, her rat, we're not sure what happened. She was a relatively young rat and has always been healthy, though I suppose she could have been older than we were told. My daughter took fantastic care of her and nothing in her environment had changed. We woke up one day to find she had passed during the night.

Oreo was my daughter's first pet of her very own and she is still quite beside herself with grief. We had a nice burial for her and she and her dad carved a headstone together. She was buried with her nest and favorite toy.

Meg

Guinea Pigs make great pets, get a small young one and it will whistle like mine did every time I approached it's cage. Plus they are active during the day, and sleep at night. They need a good size cage though. The one I built was 24" x 30" made of 3/4 cdx plywood with a lift off top on hinges and a triangle shaped shelf about 5" up on one side of the cage my guinea pig used to like to climb up on. Mine never even tried to bite me and I had her when I was seven years old.

as a parent of three, I can tell you a rat is a better pet than a guinea pig. Rats are more responsive and smarter than guinea pigs. Guinea pigs are POOP machines! We have had several, and they live about as long as a rat, just a few years at most. Rats are much better pets, especially if YOU have to clean the cage!

I've owned both and while the guinea pigs I had were nice, I enjoyed the rats more. Like Pookie said (and in my experience) they are more responsive and more fun to play with. Although the guinea pigs we had lived much longer than any of our rats. No chance of me getting either in the near future though. Hubby is allergic to both But the boys REALLY want a rat. Or a ferret (which I am allergic to!)

I have also had both. I am sure you know how much the rat cage needed to be cleaned... A guinea pig needs a little more cleaning, every few days depending on the size of the cage (bigger is better). Guinea pigs also need hay to stay healthy, which can make a big mess also. I am definately a fan of both, a piggie that is given a lot of handling will really enjoy being played with, like a rat. Mine also gave kisses. They squeek and squeal when you come to the cage to see them. They hop around when they are excited and run around like crazy when they are exstatic. Piggies are a treat, and a joy to have. Piggies should live 5-8 yrs, rats 2-5. My rats all lived about 3 yrs. Just as a side note... piggies look really funny when you feed them treats:) Try small peices of oranges... very cute.

If you hav any other quesions about pigs let me know.