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© Lothlórien Caviary

On these pages you can read more about how guinea pigs are housed in Lothlórien, what they eat and how the coats are groomed.

Housing   l   Feeding   l   Grooming            
            

In Lothlórien the guinea pigs live in a partly insulated barn, in shelving units. These units are built on wheels, so when weather is good they can be rolled into the garden! In the colder days these ‘piggie-apartments’ are comfortable enough, thanks to the shelters. The 80 x 50 cm. cages usually house 2 guinea pigs, the 100 x 60 cm. cages are used for three or four guineas, and there’s also two units of 120 cm. x 60 cm where a group of sows-in-between-litters or nursing sows can be housed.





Some of the cages can be divided in two. This way, boars can easily be (re-)introduced to each other when they are new to Lothlórien or when they have just been out of their usual cage for breeding. At first, in splitted cage, they sit next to each other, but cannot see each other: only smell and sounds reach them. Then, cautiously, we remove the partition and as they recognize their cage-mate by smell, the introduction goes a lot smoother. In Lothlórien we strive to keep boars alone as little as possible. Show-animals in wrappers are also temporarily kept alone.

For extra care, we have plenty of spare cages to observe them inside the house when necessary.

There is always the possibility for sows, that want some privacy around the maternity-period, to be placed in a separate nesting-cage. See also under “Litters”. They are, however, placed back in group-holding as soon as possible.