| CARE |
| On this page I will go through the practice of husbandry regarding cavies. I will not preach about what you should and shouldn't do because everyone looks after their cavies in their own way. I will just go through the basics of my routine. I feed them first thing in the morning with complete food. They are all fed in a certain order (so I don't forget anyone). Then I leave them alone to eat their breakfast. After an hour or so I go down to the shed and check water bottles and cage conditions and clean out whichever needs doing. I don't clean my cages out all at the same time because I have over 20 cages and it would take me forever and there would be a LOT of muck to get rid of. I take a large bottle of water to the shed with me because it is a long way from the house to the shed and to fill all the water bottles would require a couple of trips. They are fed again at just after 10pm. I buy bales of quality dust extracted wood shavings to bed my cavies on and I buy my hay by the bale from a local farm. Having so many cavies, I have to buy in bulk otherwise it would work out very expensive and hay comes in very short supply in summer. I buy my feed in 15kg sacks and I get 2 or 3 different brands and mix them together so they have a wide choice. I use a sack of food a week. At the moment I have 45 cavies but the numbers alter every so often with new births and then selling some stock off. All my cages are hand built by myself and my other half and they vary in size from 2' square for a boar to 4' for a couple of sows or sows with babies. The front panels are removable for ease in cleaning and they are 3/4 mesh and 1/4 panel. There are no bedrooms in my cages, they are open plan because it isn't good for the cavy to be able to run away and hide whenever you go near. Also, it does little for the owners self esteem if his/her cavies run away and hide whenever they enter the shed. My cavies are totally used to me coming and going and I am always talking to them and blathering about this, that & other. Even though I know they can't understand me they know I am talking to them and this is good for the bonding process. I also have a couple of mesh cages with trays in the bottom which I call my 'confidence' cages. I have a cavy in one at the moment and because there is absolutely nowhere to hide he had to get used to me coming and going. He has calmed down now and can now be picked up and handled without any fuss. There are many other jobs I do on a regular basis, I weigh my cavies every week and check and clip nails as neccessery. I use a small pair of cat claw clippers to cut my cavies nails.I IVERMEC my cavies every 6 months. My longhairs are groomed more regularly than my shorthairs and if they aren't to be used for showing I cut off their long hair to floor length. Boars (and rarely sows) have a grease gland on their rumps which can be cleaned with neat washing up liquid or a little swarfega, a jelly used by mechanics to clean oil, grease etc off their skin. Just a word of caution when grooming boars, always put your hand underneath them and cup their testicles when you are grooming around their rear ends as accidently catching these vital organs is a common problem if such care isn't undertaken. Cavies are friendly, sociable little animals that need the company of humans or their own kind. Cavies shouldn't be kept singly as they need company 24 hours a day which is something the average person cannot provide. One word of warning! NEVER keep cavies with rabbits. They both have different nutritional needs and rabbits can be temperamental and kick out. If a rabbit kicks a cavy it will cause serious injury or even death. Click to the next page to find out about different cavy habits. |
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| The feeds I feed my cavies |