Section
Most health problems start not with food but with the cage: too little space, stuffy air, damp or too much heat. This section is about the things you fix once and forget.
The RSPCA puts the minimum for a pair at about 0.7 m² — an enclosure of 120×60 cm — and considers 1 m² and above preferable. And that is a minimum, not a target. Length matters more than levels: guinea pigs do not climb, they run, so a long low enclosure always beats a tall cage of the same area.
Source: RSPCA
The RSPCA calls 17–20 °C ideal. Above 26 °C there is a risk of heatstroke: guinea pigs cannot cool themselves and overheat quickly. Below 15 °C they get chilled. Direct sun on the cage, a stuffy room and a summer balcony are common causes of avoidable deaths.
Source: RSPCA
No. A healthy guinea pig grooms itself, and water strips the protective layer from the skin and leaves the animal wet and chilled for a long time. Bathing happens only on a vet's instruction — with medicated products, for example.
Why a shop-bought cage is almost always too small.
Heat is more dangerous to a guinea pig than cold.
In short: do not bathe them.
Topics marked «in progress» are still being written — we do not publish half-empty articles for the sake of volume.
Answers without a source are common husbandry practice, not a figure from a guideline. We show that difference on purpose: a site that promises «no myths» has to separate the verified from the merely usual.