Salt Blocks for Guinea Pigs?

Yesterday at Petco, I was buying some guinea food and fluff when I stumbled upon "salt blocks". They looked interesting and came in some tasty flavors. But, I was unsure as to whether guinea pigs needed salt blocks-- I had never heard anything about them. Up to this point, I've just been giving him a good assortment of pellets, hay, vitamin C treats, and fresh veggies like red peppers, cucumbers and parsley. Petco didn't have Guinness' favorite vitamin C orange slice treats in stock, so I just bought the pellets and fluff and went home. 

Then, last night I was exploring some info about guineas on the PETA website (they don't have a very comprehensive info section, but just the basics) and it mentioned something about salt blocks. This intrigued me, since I have read just about every single website and book about guinea pigs, and never heard anything about salt blocks. 

It makes some sense that they need more salt, since it doesn't seem like they get much in their diets. Guinness has also been drinking water like crazy lately, so I was thinking maybe he needs more salt to retain water.

Today I read some things on guinea pig discussion website, and people said salt blocks are unnecessary. One person even said it can hurt them by causing kidney/bladder stones. I'm not really sure what to think!

Oh well, if anyone has any info about these salt blocks, let me know. I will probably buy some and see how Guinness likes them. If it looks like he's eating too much of it, I'll take it away. I'll update soon!

Holiday Guinea!

Its certainly been a while since I've posted about our wonderful piggy. But needless to say, we love him more and more every day- he just keeps getting cuter and more fun! He's so silly and playful now. We take him out every night and he just goes nuts running around, jumping on us, popcorning, and begging for treats! We usually lay down in the play room and read, and he jumps on our backs. He's a crazy little pig!

Anyways, its the holiday season now, and I have some GREAT pictures of Guinness being adorable.

The first night of hanukkah! I got him a "pepper saver"-- a plastic container shaped like a red pepper-- so you can keep cut peppers in there and they stay fresh! We let him open his present :)

Me and Cole with Guinness-- hes not super happy to be held like that, but at least hes looking at the camera, and he looks cute! (PS this picture is going on our chrismukkah card!)

This is me with Guinness in the holiday photo shoot. I made him some reindeer antlers for the pictures! 

The guinea antlers: they were easy to make out of dark brown pipe cleaners (you can get them at any craft store) and they don't hurt him. Its like a little guinea headband! He's pretty good about keeping them on but they eventually fall off when he runs around. 

PLAY TIME!

Finally, here are some play time pics. I will hopefully have more soon, but these are some good ones!

Guinness playing with his new FIDDLESTICKS! These are so cool-- they come connected and you can bend them around. He prefers the little tunnel that he can crawl under, and climb on top :)

He loves to hide behind the laundry basket!

... And also behind the blinds

Crawling on the desk chair

Guinness the Escape Artist

Guinness has realized that there is much more in the world outside his cage. Even though we let him run around in the office every day, we don't want to let him roam free in the whole apartment just yet-- it's not 100% pig-proofed and there are lots of nooks and crannies for our baby guinea pig to hide.

Recently, he figured out how to climb out of the cage when the front door is open. Before he discovered this new talent, we used to leave the front door open while re-filling his food and water, and occasionally when we went to get treats. He never even tried to get out in the past! But to my great surprise, a few days ago when I went to grab some cucumbers for Guinness, I came back to find a pig-less cage. Luckily for us, he was hiding under the shelf where we keep his food-- and gnawing at the treat bag. What a smart pig!! He not only figured out how to escape on his own, he also found his treats in about 30 seconds. I was so proud of my piggy's intelligence, but also worried that he might try it again and manage to hide from us instead...

Now that he knows how to climb, he also loves to chew on the cage bars--- does anyone else have a guinea pig that does this? Not that he could really chew through and escape, but still.

All in all, the lesson of the day is: what a rascal!

Cuddle time

Although Guinness was pretty nervous when we first started to take him out, he has gotten much more cuddly. Once or twice a day we take him out and sit with him on the couch-- he usually runs up and sits on our shoulder, and waits for cucumber treats! We also take him out each evening and let him run around in the office. Here are some pictures of Guinness and Cole cuddling on the couch! More playtime pics to come.

Guinness getting cuddly with Cole

My boys :)

He loves those cucumbers!

Oh hello there

Guinness is going for it...

What a cute little piggy

The boys watching TV together 

Our little football star

Guinness also plays football. (I should qualify this statement by saying that he throws around his football chew toy... he doesn't catch or anything but its still super cute.) I love to watch him play, and Cole is SO proud that his son plays football!

Anyways, here are some pictures of Guinness throwing the football around.

Just playing around

Here are some pictures of Guinness hanging out in his cage. He loves to run around, popcorn, and act crazy. And we love to watch him!

Coming to see me when I open his cage door! (He knows it usually means treats)

Looking cute and rascally 

Trying to escape... he just learned how to climb out on his own!

Climbing on his pigloo

Just sniffing around in his straw "cave" that he loves to chew on and sleep in

Sneaking out of his igloo

Coming in for a nose rub :)

1 month...

Welcome! I'm starting this blog on the 1-month "anniversary" of Guinness' homecoming. That is to say, exactly 1 month ago, me and Cole brought our precious little guinea pig home. He brings us so much happiness and excitement every day, so I was prompted to start a blog about him-- not only to show everyone how cute he is, but also for myself to log and keep track of all his cute little moments.

In short, we are PROUD GUINEA PARENTS! We love our Guinness and hope you will too!