oh i love guniea pigs. i had two when i was a teenager, and then i had 6. i purchased a male (Garfield) from a petstore, then i purchased a female (Cookie) from a petstore, but i had them housed seprately. the female was PG when i got her, so one day not long after i brought her home… SURPRISE… four lil baby pigs! fortunately, they all went to good homes…

my main concern would be that the pig has adequate housing. they really need a large cage area since they don’t do vertical, and a lot of bedding (like Carefresh) to protect their little footsies. i know some folks on here have pigs so i’ll bet they can give further instructions and maybe they’ll have some good sites as well.

I had four growing up, I love piggies!! I actually at one point getting my second two had talked my parents into letting me get a male and a female and breeding them-keeping all the babies of course…I had two females but couldn’t breed them since for safety they need to give birth before they are a year to splay their hips, otherwise they could die giving birth…so my parents let me get a male and a female…they turned out to be two males!! …In hindsight I’m entirely surprised they never bred my two females, as although we housed the males seperate from the females, they got to play all together!! My females were much larger then the males and wound’t allow mounting though… Whoo sidetracked!! LOL

The most important difference in food/diet between guinea pigs and rabbits is guinea pigs need daily vitamin C, otherwise they can get scurvey. It’s important to purchase pellets made for GP and keep them sealed to ensure the vitamin C doesn’t get destroyed. Adding GP vitamins to the water is recommended. I did that daily and my GP who died the youngest was eight so I’d say it works! They eat fresh veggies just like buns but the emphasis is on Vit C veggies/fruits

Also GPs are like rabbits, they have night poops that they eat, and can get ‘poopy bum’ often called ‘wet tail’ just like rabbits. Trip to the vet if it happens!
Oh and to trim nails, here’s what worked on all of ours! We flipped them over just like a trance, covered their eyes and gave them lettuce. They munched away happily while getting their nails done

Many GP owners make cages just like rabbit condos out of cubes, just no top needed as they can’t jump; and ramps are definitely required.

Some sites geared for the kids to read:
http://www.spca.bc.ca/KIDS/animalcare/guineapigcare.asp
http://www.animalhealthcare.ca/contents/content.asp?id=207&cat=Exotic

and other sites:
http://www.petwebsite.com/guinea_pigs/about_guinea_pigs.htm
http://www.guineapigcages.com/hay.htm

Here’s a neat one:
http://www.gpdd.org/