Choosing a Guinea Pig

provide the right housing
have room for it to exercise
feed and water it daily
handle it daily
exercise it daily
groom it regularly
clean out the cage daily to control germs
check for signs of illness or disease
take your pet to the vet for regular health checks and other procedures
know someone who will look after it for you when you are away

Once you are happy that you can provide everything that your new pet will need you can then choose the perfect Guinea Pig for yourself. Make sure that you have everything ready for him before you bring him home, so he can go right in to his new home as soon as you arrive and he can spend the first 24hrs getting used to his new environment. Dont forget that he is naturally timid and will be missing his brothers and sisters. He will like you to talk to him and will soon get used to the sound of your voice. We suggest you dont handle him too much for the first day or two, but give him plenty of clean water and feed only hay for the first 24hrs to avoid digestive upset. Introduce his new diet gradually. You will soon know when he has settled in as he will begin to eat, drink and groom himself.

Which Guinea Pig will you choose?
Controlled breeding of guinea pigs has led to a wide variety of colors and textures of coats. Cavy colors are classed in 3 sections Agouti (the hair has several different bands of color), Self-colored (solid color) and cavies with markings (combinations of colors in marks on the coat).

There are many different textures and appearances of the coat, ie: Smooth haired; Satin coated (softer and more dense that the Smooth haired); Crowned (with a crown on the head); Abyssinian (with rosettes all over the body); Rex (curly hair); Peruvian (long haired with rosette on the head); Sheltie (long haired without rosette; Texel (long, curly hair); Merino (long curly hair with two rosettes); Alpaca (long, curly hair with rosette on forehead) and even a hairless variety.