Guinea pigs, although they are adorable and sweet, can get quite expensive, so it’s a great idea to know how to save money on them. Let’s dive a little deeper into 10 ways to save money on guinea pigs.
Here are 10 tips for saving money on guinea pigs:
- Take good care of them
- Feed them leftover veggies
- Buy bales of hay
- Make your own accessories and toys
- Make a D.I.Y. or C&C cage
- Feed greens from outside
- Use fleece instead of bedding
- Reuse items you already have
- If you use bedding, litter train
- Look out for sales
1. Take good care of them
Taking good care of your guinea pigs usually cuts down on vet costs, unless some of your guinea pigs are just prone to getting sick (but even if this is the case, you should still take good care of them). Good care includes making sure they always have hay and fresh water available.
Also make sure to give them lots of Vitamin C by feeding them a variety of greens and vegetables every day and fruits once or twice a week. Also make sure that the guinea pig pellets you use are supplemented with Vitamin C.
Get them a large enough cage, and let them exercise and play outside of their cage daily.
Clean their cage regularly and clip their nails every month or so. Also, don’t put Vitamin C drops in their water, as the drops are usually bitter and your guinea pig may stop drinking as much.
Of course, there is much more to caring for your guinea pigs than this!
2 Feed them leftover vegetables and fruits
When you cook, or just simply make a salad, you will often end up with leftover fruits and vegetables such as carrot peels, strawberry greens, or the ends of lettuce. These are great to feed to your guinea pigs as long as they’re safe for them to eat.
Also, vegetables or fruits that are just a little too wilted for you to eat are often great for your guinea pigs.
Foods that you won’t eat anyway, such as celery leaves and carrot greens, are also great for them. Feeding your guinea pigs leftover vegetables and fruits can save lots of money, as one healthy guinea pig needs about one cup of vegetables daily.
3. Buy bales of hay
This is a great way to save money since you will always need to provide hay in their cage and during floor time. Bales of hay are much cheaper than the bags of hay sold at pet stores.
Just to compare the cost of them both, we bought a 50 pound (approximately 23kg) compressed bale of timothy hay for about $20 and the cost of a 96 ounce (approximately 2.7kg) bag of it from a pet store was about that same price.
The only real difference between them is that the bale had longer stalks than the bag did. If you don’t have enough room to store a large bale of hay, you can get a compressed bale, which takes up less space.
4. Make your own toys and accessories
At the pet store there will be lots of cute hideouts, hay racks, chew toys and other cute accessories, which can be very tempting to buy. However, in addition to this, they can be quite expensive! So, instead of buying tons of cute toys from the pet store, you can make your own.
To tell you the truth, the guinea pigs won’t care about where the toys came from or how they look, they will just care about how fun it is to play with them. You can make lots of different toys and accessories with craft sticks, nontoxic glue, fleece fabric, old towels or other guinea pig safe materials.
5. Make a DIY cage
Lots of guinea pig cages on the market are too small for them, and the ones that are big enough often are really expensive, and usually are only big enough for one or two guinea pigs to live in, so building a DIY cage saves a lot of money.
Of course, you will need to buy the supplies, but it is often cheaper to make it yourself.
6. Feed them greens from outside
The outdoors are filled with fresh dandelion greens, clover and grass, and not only are they free, they are healthy because they contain lots of Vitamin C, which is essential for the health of your guinea pig. As long as they haven’t been sprayed with weed killer or other chemicals they are great treats and most guinea pigs love them.
Guinea pigs also love grass and you can even substitute some hay for grass, but it still is a good idea to provide at least a little hay too because it wears down their teeth. Dandelion greens, clover (clover should be fed in very small amounts) and other outdoor greens that are safe for guinea pigs are free vegetables!
7. Use fleece liners instead of disposable bedding
Fleece liners aren’t as expensive as bedding. Bedding such as wood shavings and recycled paper is expensive because you have to buy more whenever you run out of it, which will happen a lot because guinea pig cages are (or should be at least) pretty big.
Of course, you will have to buy the fleece liners (or materials if you make them) and you will have to wash the liners regularly, but often, using fleece instead of bedding costs less in the long run. Even if you just use part fleece in their cage, it saves at least a little money.
8. Reuse items that you already have
Using stuff around the house that doesn’t have a purpose anymore, such as cardboard boxes and old towels, can make great guinea pig toys and accessories.
Old towels can be used to cover the floor when they get to play outside of their cage and cardboard boxes make great hideouts. You can also make lots of fun toys with toilet paper or paper towel rolls. This saves a bunch of money and it’s a great way to recycle.
9. If you use disposable bedding, litter train them
If you do decide to use bedding, litter train your guinea pigs to save money. Sadly, guinea pigs can’t become totally litter trained, but by teaching them to mostly go in the tray, you will save money on bedding, because you won’t have to clean the entire cage as often.
Don’t use cat litter for the litter tray because it contains chemicals that are harmful to guinea pigs. Newspaper shouldn’t be used either, since it isn’t very absorbant.
Paper bedding is very absorbent so it won’t need to be changed as often as some other options, but it is more expensive.
Litter made specifically for small pets is often more expensive than other types of bedding that you can use instead of litter.
For more info about litter training, click here.
10. Look out for sales
When you do go to a pet store to buy some stuff for your guinea pig that might be more expensive, looking out for sales is good way to save at least a little money.
During the holiday season, there are usually quite a few sales because many people like to buy gifts for their pets, which makes this is a great time to go to the pet store! In addition to this, try to have some self-control and only buy a few toys or accessories for your guinea pigs.
Conclusion
Guinea pigs, as I mentioned earlier, can cost quite a bit of money, but there are plenty of great ways to save money on them. These tips can help you save a lot of money on guinea pigs especially if you own a lot of them. Overall, guinea pigs are great pets despite the cost.
