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Diet and Cage Cleaning Questions

21 13:48:45

Question
Hi!  I'll try to keep this short :)  I keep my guinea pigs in C&C cages with fleece on the bottom, and no matter where I put the hay, it always ends up on the floor lol.  To avoid breaking my washing machine, I got a mini shop vac to vacuum up the droppings and hay before putting the blankets in the wash.  I have tried various methods of sweeping and raking, but I still can't get as much as I can with the shop vac. Basically, I was wondering if you were aware of any health concerns a shop vac could cause (as far as causing them too much stress with the loud noise, or possibly causing an URI because of the dust these kinds of vacs tend to let out)?
   Also, about the diet, I recently adopted a very picky cavy, but he seems to love bananas and celery.  I have been giving both of the piggies about 1/4" slice of banana about 5 days a week and 1/4 of a stock of celery weekly, with the addition of 1-2 celery leaves daily.  I have heard about cavies dying from eating too much banana, so I wanted to double check the quantity/frequency I should be giving it to them.  Thank you so much for your help!

Answer
okay when you vacuum which is fine by the way i suggest having the pigs somewhere else ie. floor time. the noise will stress then a bit though i would not worry about dust from the vacuum. if you want to reduce hay getting everywher then try holding in in place with rugh red building bricks, there coarseness naturally keeps the hay from being dragged as much when the pigs hop out of it.

well i tend to onl give mine the peel, but thats because im greedy. i would reduce the amount you give them, bannana in my experience is better as a treat rather than a staple, though this is more my cautiousness i do not know of it being particularly harmful to guinea pigs.