3 Essential Bits Of Advice For Exercising Your Pet Guinea Pigs

Go into any pet store and you will undoubtedly find all sorts of gizmos and gadgets aimed at exercising your pets. But without doubt, the most effective way to keep them healthy is to simply allow them out of their cage to scurry about. It is a good idea to do this as frequently as you can, but you must be sure to bear these 3 points in mind:

1. Keep Them Well Contained

Cavies can be very excited whenever you let them loose to explore, and they will often attempt to explore all sorts of nooks, crannies, and gaps that they can find. In fact, if you aren't paying attention, you might find that your animals have managed to force their way inside a sofa, behind a bookcase, or under the floorboards!

To stop your animals wriggling their way into one of these tiny spaces, and potentially getting themselves into an unsafe place, you should keep a close eye on whilst they are exercising. Even better, use a specially designed run, which is like a big cage, to make sure that they stay where they're put.

2. Protect Their Delicate Feet

Although we don't always notice it, the floors in our houses can be potentially quite harmful to guinea pigs. Things like loose stones, which we rarely even notice, can be quite painful to walk over with their delicate feet, and can also be a hazard if they decide to eat them.

If at all possible, it is better to exercise your pets on a spongy surface such as carpet or grass. This is much easier on their delicate paws, and means they can run about for hours on end. If you don't have a soft surface to let them use, you can make one very easily, simply by putting a cloth or some newspaper down.

3. Avoid Potential Hazards

Ask most animal lovers, and they will remember a time when one of their pets chewed through an electrical cable. Besides the fact that this can be very annoying to you, it could also be potentially hazardous to your pet. Be sure to clear your guinea pigs' exercise space of any cables and wires before letting them out.

Another thing to watch for is that if you own any other animals, these are kept well out of the way, just in case they think that your guinea pig would make a tasty treat!

By: Pete L Matthews

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Pete's website contains a comprehensive guide to caring for your cavy. It covers the best guinea pig foods for your pets, discussing the different types of pellets and dry food, and why you should give your guinea pig grass to aid digestion. Pete loves hearing from other owners and can be contacted through his site.