I know you are not supposed to give animals for Christmas but my girls have been after their own pets for ever. We always said when we stopped moving around with husbands job and brought our own home, we would think about it. They accepted this but didn’t stop discussing which animals they wanted. They eventually settled on guinea pigs and had their names picked out and everything.

I had a guinea pig named fudge when I was younger so knew they would be perfect for my three. We decided to surprise them at Christmas because they really, really wanted them but didn’t actually believe they would ever get any. We had also been in our new home for six months. As I write that I can’t believe it’s been that long. Anyway, Christmas seemed the perfect time to surprise them and they were delighted. I didn’t get any decent photos of them on that day as we tried to keep everything as calm as possible but here they are a few weeks later::

Guinea pigs are very social and like to live in small groups so we decided to get them one each. That way there would be no arguing who gets the next cuddle and how much time the others had. The girls have had their names picked out for ages so I chose them based on their names. Thankfully they all agreed which looked liked which and were thrilled.

Meet Biscuit, who is Rosies. She is the shyest and most wary of them all. She is slowly coming out of her shell and getting used to us all. She loves treats and reminds me of my old guinea pig:

Next up is Sweetie and she belongs to Poppy,. She is the fastest and most inquisitive of the three. She is quite at home on Poppys lap and has always been very calm with her. However, when you put her down she runs…super fast. Her coat has really changed colour in the past few weeks. She was bright white when we got her and now she’s almost grey. She’s very cute:

Finally we have Chocolate and she is Daisys. She is the smallest of the three and very tolerant of Daisy. She eats constantly but appears to drink very little. However, she is thriving and is very sweet :

So far things are good, they are all eating and appear to be enjoying being held/ fussed over. They snuggle up together to sleep and happily run around in their run, pop-corning often. They have been a little sniffly since the start but it doesn’t seem to be bothering them.

When we picked them up a few days before Christmas they were only 9 weeks old. A few weeks on and they have definitely grown. Not surprising, they eat a lot! Every day they have a big bowl of guinea pig nuggets as well as fresh vegetables. We also give them fruit twice a week. So far, they love cabbage (red and green), peppers cucumber, tomato, celery, kale, strawberries and melon. They are not so keen on brussels or broccoli though.

They are going to be outdoor guinea its but for now they are currently living indoors in an indoor run husband built. They love it! They have all their food, hay and a toilet area upstairs, whilst downstairs they have room to just sleep and play:

Originally we brought a pink double decker indoor cage but although it was huge, the actual running around space was no way big enough for three of them, they were far happier in their temporary run husband had made them out of prosecco boxes. We decided then it was unsuitable and husband built this instead. It’s lovely to see them running around and having their crazy times. They really are very cute.

Come spring though, once the weather warms up, they are going outdoors in this amazing Eglu Go guinea pig hutch We have been sent the purple one with a 2m run sent to review and can’t wait to see them in it. It looks fantastic and I am sure they will love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71w9paCBprY%5B/embedyt%5D

I will be videoing husband setting it up next week but it’s been crazy since it arrived we haven’t had a chance yet. It’s also been far too cold to put them out. The Eglu Go does come with a winter pack but they have been out of stock so we decided to have them indoors first.Sadly we didn’t have room for this hutch indoors.

These guinea pigs have quickly become a huge part of our family and we are all loving them. I think you might be seeing lots more of them on here:

Karen x