Traveling with a Guinea Pig - for real!

Okay..here is one for the group...
Anyone travel with a guinea pig?

I haven't the heart to separate my 13yo son from his sweet guinea pig. He takes immaculate care of her - has opened my eyes wide open to the sweet nature of guineas - and we are to be on the road over the summer for about 4 weeks.

Most of our trip is about getting from point A to point B, visiting for a few days, then off again. I figure we can keep a cage in the trailer and another in the car. We will get a little ferret or fancy dog carrier and slip the guide in with us whenever we go inside...as long as the darling doesn't decide to squeak as she can be somewhat verbal at times.

When we are on location, the trailer will be hooked up and a/c on. Is that considered a no-no to leave a/c on when you are gone? Figure ppl must do it for their pets, right?

On the road, if we stop to see something and get slip her in, we may have to leave her in trailer, but at least we can open windows and put a fan on her. My son knows guineas well and says they are quite tolerable to temperature changes.

This will be one well travelled guinea. We plan to take pictures of her on the dashboard whenever. Hit a new state or city limits...Lol! My son wanted a picture of her at Mt. Rushmore., but I told him for those excursions, guinea would be better off back in the trailer...lol!

Any thoughts, ideas?

Smantha

Use the A/C  for the little guy and have fun. Most everyone runs the A/C while away or it would be nasty hot inside when you get back.

My last girlfriend used to travel with a guinea pig until I dumped her. ???

used to travel with a guinea pig until I dumped her.

Click to expand...

I thought the guinea pig dumped you  ;D

My wife had a pet GP that had to come with us one summer. I built a custom wooden tray to place the cage in the TT when we were inside and at night.
A GP is a rodent and some/most campgrounds have some sort of critters, Don't be surprised if GP is even more vocal than normal. We did leave A/C on when we were out, just turned up temperature a little.

That will be a neat way to document your travels. A picture of your son and pet next to every "Welcome to --------" sign you see.

I hope you have as much fun on your travels as we have had.

I'm sure it will be a fun trip for your son and the GP. We were parked at a rally one time when the folks next door had a parrot that talked to their cat all day long until they put the blanket over its cage at bedtime. We enjoyed the free entertainment.

I BBQ one once in molasses.  Paula Deene has the recipe...

Taste like chicken..

A good Guinea Pig should be cooked in Marinara sauce.

As was mentioned above, GP are rodents, being related to rats, he/she should enjoy life in the RV.  Many threads on here are about trying to keep rodents out of RV's, so apparently they love RV's whether the A/C is on or not.

We had a dog that made it to almost every contiguous state, and a hamster that made a trip from New York (home) to the Alamo and back.


Worth noting...
1. Seat belt
Fashion a secure means of holding the cage, tank, whatever the GP travels in. Sudden braking will displace the GP within the cage, but the cage will stay in place. Tipping the little bugger over and bouncing him off the floor due to a sudden stop isn't a good idea. Our experience was that little Hammy didn't care for the change in gravitational force when we drove. We made a moderately sized box for the inside of the cage and 2 side taped it to the cage (he traveled in a habitrail house). He figured out quickly that occupying it during travel helped him feel safe and kept him from rolling around the cage.
2. Water
Those rodent bottles with the little ball only sort-of work on the road. Vibration from bumps will make it leak. We made a habit of removing the water during travel, but watered if the hamster seemed to be looking for the water, and whenever we stopped.
3. A/C
Yup. Hammy had the comfort of A/C whenever we stopped due to the intense daytime heat that builds up in any vehicle. We were already in the habit of using the generator and A/C from travels with the dog, so Hammy benefited. Texas was hot, but both stow-a-ways were fine.
4. Heat Alarm and what I did to warn us if the A/C died while we were out...
I got an electric oven alarm and set the temperature to 55 degrees. I put the thermocouple in the A/C vent so that the temperature was below the alarm set point. I put one of our 10 mile FRS radios on voice activation and positioned it next to the alarm. If the A/C output exceeded the set point, the radio I carried would receive the alarm, and I could return to the RV immediately. We had one occasion where we had to return abruptly. A circuit breaker popped and the A/C quit. Easy fix, and I was back before the RV got uncomfortable. It was only a 10 block run in the Texas heat...


Joe

Eek! I just lost all of my responses...grr! I simply said that the variety of responses to this topic had me laughing. And it is no wonder Paula Deen lost her Food Network show, I live near Savannah and her restaurant was truly uninspiring.

Here is a picture of my so and his guinea. Her legs a splayed out behind her as it is a sign of complete trust and contentment. He is......The Guinea Whisperer! Lol! I crack me up!

~ Samantha

Your picture is precious!!!  Life does not get any better than what you see in the picture.  No matter what it takes, the Guinea Pig HAS to and WILL travel with you ALL the time, if it makes your son happy. 

Do not let your son read the Paula Deen comment, the Pig can just to keep him in line during the trip..

Jim

Just make sure that if you ever get a second guinea pig, it is the same sex.

If you need a really good laugh, Ellis Parker Butler wrote a short story titled Pigs is Pigs. Read it at http://www.classicreader.com/book/3507/1/. I absolutely defy anybody to read that story aloud without laughing too hard to keep reading.

Joel

Just keep the perfume away from the pig...You know what happens when you put perfume on a pig........