O.K. with all these horrible images now in my head....(not that I want to go buying a guinea pig or anything....we have six) where is someone supposed to get a good healthy piggie? I'm assuming that most of the piggies in rescues were "unwanted" after being purchased from a petstore, meaning that even those piggies went through the same disease-ridden experience....
We have six cause before I found this site I ended up an accidental breeder. The cycle continued and we ended up with 4 litters before we got it all sorted out. We kept six, my sister took one of them, and the last litter of three.....Well I found a very good home for them, built them a C&C cage for the new owner, gave them a printed out manual of everything I could find on this site that they'd need to know, a bag of food, hay, and food dish/ water bottle. Included was a list of all acceptable fruits and veggies with literature on the importance of good nutrition for guinea pigs. ALL FOR FREE! She knew more than I did by the time I was done educating her.
. I couldn't help it. I feel so bad that I brought these little guys into the world even if by accident. We're ecstatic with our six, and the woman we gave the last litter to still checks in with me to tell me how they are doing. I don't see how anyone could take babies back to the petstore....We now have figured out (the hard way) which ones are boys and which ones are girls and have them in seperate cages. No more babies! We're probably going to get the boys fixed so we can let them play together during floor time. All and all we've spent over a thousand dollars with everything we've gone through with these guys. We're lucky we didn't lose any of them. See what happens when you buy from a petstore? You should have to take a class before adopt a guinea pig. There's so much to know....and I thought they were just like larger, more durable hamsters! ha! We all know better now though!
Names of our babies: 1.)Kitty (the big mama who started it all)
2.)Milkshakes - the first daughter
3.)Cocomo - the first son - went to my sister
4.)Beethoven - Milkshake's baby girl
5.)Duncan - the only in Kitty's 2nd litter
6.)Pepper - Milkshake's baby boy
7.)Rachet (now Rachetta) - Milkshake's baby boy....oops...girl!
8.)Baby #1 - Rachetta's baby - went to good home
9.)Baby #2 - Rachetta's baby - went to good home
10.)Baby #3 - Rachetta's baby - went to good home
Yes people, one store bought guinea pig ended up being 10!!! Yes 10!
Now that's we've got 4 girls and 1 boy I've got to redesign my C&C cage. I had a two story 2X5 with 3 on each floor. Now that we've discovered Rachet is Rachetta, we've got 2 boars on bottom and 4 girls on top. 4 piggies in a 2X5 space is not enough room! Plus I've got to split up the boys who just recently started trying to kill each other. They are 6 months old now and I think they hit puberty. Duncan keeps trying to attack Pepper. Poor Pepper
I had to put up a 2 grid divider in there and Duncan spends the whole day trying to take it down with his teeth! while Pepper cowars in the corner farthest from the wall. I think Duncan is posessed! Just kidding. Heed the advise of this site and stay the hell away from petstores....Oh, and learn how to determine the sex of your guinea pig......
Cavy Lover,
Whitney