A gentle, chatty, sociable rodent that whistles for its food and loves company — one of the best family small pets, provided you keep more than one and get the diet right.
🟢 Family favourite🖐 Gentle & handleable👥 Must live in company⏳ 5–7 years
Care difficulty
Easy–Moderate
Animal cost
£20–£150 each
Full setup
£100–£250
Adult size
20–30 cm
Lifespan
5–7 years
Min. enclosure
Min 120×60 cm floor (bigger better)
🎬See one of ours
Our guinea pigs enjoying their veg 🐾
📋At a Glance
Guinea pigs are sociable, gentle herbivores that make wonderful, interactive family pets — they learn to 'wheek' for food and each have real personality. The two things people most often get wrong: they must live in the company of their own kind (never alone), and they cannot make their own vitamin C, so it must come from diet daily.
Best for: families wanting a gentle, sociable, handleable small pet kept in a pair or group.
💷Costs & Getting Hold of One
The animal
£20–£40 each — always keep at least two.
Full setup
£100–£250 (a large cage or C&C setup, hides, hay rack, dishes).
Ongoing costs
Moderate — lots of hay, fresh veg, pellets, bedding, vet.
Availability
Very easy; rescues often have bonded pairs needing homes.
These are minimums, not budgets. The low end still has to meet the animal's needs — proper UVB, a heat gradient, space and filtration are not optional extras. A vivarium alone can cost £250–£300+, and a tortoise's UVB lamp alone is often ~£100. Price the whole setup before you commit to the animal.
Buying tip: Get a same-sex pair or a neutered-male-plus-female pair. Choose bright, alert pigs with clean eyes/nose and a good weight.
🏠Enclosure & Where to Keep It
Ground-dwelling grazers needing plenty of floor space — height is unimportant; they don't climb.
Housing
Minimum 120×60 cm of floor for a pair; much bigger is far better (they zoom about).
Company
Never keep a single guinea pig — they're highly social and suffer alone.
Furnishing
Hides for each pig, a hay rack, water bottle and space to run ('popcorn').
Where to keep it
Indoors or a sheltered outdoor setup; avoid damp, draughts and extremes.
Don't house guinea pigs with rabbits — rabbits can bully and injure them and carry a bacterium harmful to pigs.
🌡️Temperature, Lighting & Humidity
Temperature
Comfortable 15–24 °C; they're sensitive to heat (heatstroke) and to cold/damp.
Lighting / UVB
Natural day/night cycle; they're active in day and dusk.
Humidity
Keep housing dry and draught-free.
Bedding / substrate
Soft, absorbent bedding (dust-extracted paper/fleece over absorbent layers); lots of hay on top.
🍽️Diet, Supplements & Feeding
A herbivore whose diet must be hay-based — and must supply vitamin C, which they can't make.
Staple
Unlimited grass hay (the bulk of the diet, vital for teeth and gut).
Fresh
Daily fresh vegetables/greens rich in vitamin C (e.g. bell pepper, leafy greens).
Pellets
A small amount of quality vitamin-C-fortified guinea pig pellets.
Water
Fresh water always available.
Vitamin C is critical — deficiency (scurvy) causes serious illness. Never feed rabbit food (it lacks vitamin C). Avoid sudden diet changes.
✨Grooming, Shedding & Additional Needs
Short-haired pigs need little grooming; long-haired breeds (Peruvian, Sheltie) need regular brushing. Their teeth and nails grow continuously — hay wears teeth, and nails need periodic trimming.
Weight loss, drooling or not eating can mean dental problems — a common issue needing a vet. Guinea pigs hide illness, so weigh them weekly.
🖐️Handling & Interaction
Gentle and rarely bite — excellent for supervised handling with children. They can be nervous at first, so build trust with calm, low, secure handling.
How to handle
Scoop with one hand under the chest and one supporting the back end, holding the pig securely against you, low over a lap or surface (they wriggle). Build trust with hand-feeding and short sessions.
✅ Do
Keep at least two together.
Support the whole body, low and secure.
Provide unlimited hay and daily vitamin C.
Weigh weekly to catch illness early.
Supervise children.
⛔ Don't
Never keep a single guinea pig.
Don't house with rabbits.
Don't feed rabbit food (no vitamin C).
Don't let them overheat.
Don't drop or hold them high (they leap).
🦎Fun Facts
They 'wheek' loudly for food and 'popcorn' (jump for joy).
They cannot synthesise vitamin C — unusual among rodents.
Highly social, living in groups in the wild.
Their teeth grow continuously and are worn down by hay.
Domesticated in the Andes thousands of years ago.
⭐Overall Verdict
A gentle, chatty, interactive family favourite — as long as you keep at least two, provide lots of floor space and hay, and supply daily vitamin C. Get those right and guinea pigs are one of the most rewarding starter pets.