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Hi there, I have 3 piggies in a large cage. I clean it once a week and have never spot cleaned. I put down loads of newspaper (they seem to enjoy peeing on certain politicians' faces!!) and then a lot of bedding (a sort of pine shaving I think). If you don't cover the paper up well they will try and nibble the newspaper.....which they seems to absolutely love. When I clean the cage, the newspaper is soaked in wee but the bedding is always very dry. The cage never smells, it is only the hay that smells, but we all love that smell anyway. I don't think the piggies mind sleeping in their little black tictacs, considering they do eat them as well!!! It's easy to clean the cage as well. All I do is roll up the newspaper and put it into a garbage bag.

Billy, the sheltie is the only one that has a bath, roughly every six months. She tends to get poo stuck in her hair, although I trim it regularly. So everynow and then I give her a wash and blowwave. She's cool with that. I bathed the others once, but realised that they didn't at all need it. That was 2 years ago and they don't smell.

If you can get your pig from a shelter, go for it. But don't go getting all guilty if you can't. I got my first two from a friend who bought a house in the country with 2 hen houses out the back.The first one had hens in it and the 2nd one had about 10 guinea pigs!!! Then one day, a year later, having become a guinea pig mad woman, I poked my nose into a pet shop, which I generally do every 10 years, and fell in love with a little dark one with a tan strip, but it was a boy so I ended up walking out with his sister,Billy. It wasn't difficult to tell if they were boys or girls. I live in France where there are very few animal shelters. I have no guilt about buying Billy. Better than than not having her at all.

Having had dogs and cats, I really don't find piggies high maintenance. They are easy to fob off onto friends and neighbours for holidays. All you do is give them the cage and the food and it's easy. No walkies (lots of hugs though) and a cleaned cage once a week. And honestly, who can resist the littles beggers when you see them. One trick I learnt is telling other parents that babysitting my piggies for 2 weeks is a great way of seeing how their kids will act if they finally get an animal...works wonders. The parents like the idea as well as they get to give them back. The piggies always come back happy and healthy. And once people have piggie-sat, they always want to do it again.

Good luck with it all. I just absolutely love my girls, I have become a real guinea pig nutter and picture myself living alone in a house at 99 with squillions of the darlings around me...don't know what the husband will say to that one!! And there is nothing more unwinding than sitting in front of a good film in the evening while cuddling a fluffball. They really do help get rid of any stress.