Guinea pig can be a wonderful starter pet for your child but you still must remember it needs daily attention and wants to be interacted with. Before buying one you should have big enough cage, it should have more room than hamsters or mice and likes to climb on multi levels. Many websites advice you to make your own cage from storage cubes. I would also look around the classified ads if someone has used one’s for ferrets or rabbits (or guineas of course!) for sale.
Bedding is needed, there is many options available from shavings to crushed corn cobs to scrunchy paper bedding. I just saw big local Petco using crushed paper on their cages. Guinea does not usually smell so cleaning once a week is plenty unless it has diarrhea for some reason. We line up our cage with newspaper under the shavings (I’m cheap and get our bedding from a close by barn where we used to keep our horses…)
Feeding your guinea is quite simple. Many stores only offer pellet food and at least our guinea prefers the combined Wild Harvest brand available at Walmart, it has lots of scrunchy stuff with pellets. Our older guinea is over 2 and has done well with it. Do not forget hay, if you don’t get actual dry hay, get hay cubes, get carrots, apples and introduce different veggie scraps from your own kitchen. Onions are too strong and strawberries too sweet!
Summer time getting dandelion,clover and other grass from outside is great option, they also love romaine lettuce. Start giving little at the time not to upset the digestive system. Guinea drinks surprisingly lot and I’d prefer water bottle over a bowl to keep water clean. Change water at least twice a week (you need to fill bottle even more often!) I’ve learned that guinea treats available at pet stores are very expensive and our guineas do not even like many of them. You can get trail mix (skip the chocolates and nuts) and granola bars or even few morsels of different cereal as a treat here and now, baby carrots are a big favorite in our house.
While placing the cage remember the area should be draft free and not get too cold. Guineas are very social and soon learn to squeal every time they want something. Ours never bit anyone but as always any animal will protect itself if feeling threatened.
They do need their nails clipped about once a month, I’ve learned that regular human nail clippers will work fine on guineas. Place the guinea wrapped on a towel so it cannot scratch you while clipping the nails. This is our older guineas least favorite thing and sometimes she cries like a baby but still gets it done quick now when we learned how to do it without her getting away.
Guineas can live 4 to 6 years so be ready for a long commitment. They do not mind getting handled and in our house are used to being carried around a lot and even demand attention. I learned quick that cheap light food bowls are useless, guinea just knocks it over. Buying a heavy crock dish is worth it or look for a small dog bowl that cannot be flipped over that easily. As far as toys go at least get a “house” or some place guinea can feel safe, many stores sell edible big logs that work fine. If you feed your guinea vegetables and rich diet I do not think it needs extra vitamins but those are available.