Before I found this site I went to all of the petstores in my town. After reading only 3 books about guinea pigs I knew more about the care of the animals than every employee I encountered at the three major chains here in town. I went into the stores to find a guinea pig (before I knew what I know now) and I asked questions. I wanted to know everything I could about the animal I was about to buy. The knowledge I gain from the 3 books told me that the employees were clueless. It made me very sad. And I almost didn't buy one. I ended up at a local store (not a chain) and I was talked into buying two of there pigs. I was assured that they were not like the other stores in town and their pigs were happy. I bought two of them (female) and I suspected from day one that they were pregnant. I was right. The miss handling of the pigs caused them to be pregnant and to top it all off they were too young to handle the pregnancy. One of them had two still born babies about 5 days after I purchased her, and the other one is due at any time. I can only pray she lives through it.
So, is it ok to purchase the pigs from the petstore? No it is not. I thought I was rescueing these pigs and giving them a chance to live a happy life. In reality what I did was open up another two spots for younger pigs to be ordered and live the same horror that my two lived. When I went back to the store to talk to the manager about the situation, she just laughed and said if I want to I can bring the babies back and she will sell them. THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN! I looked in the pen where the piggies were kept and sure enough they got more babies in and two of the females (about 3 months old) appear to be pregnant. All males and females in the same pen!
That makes me angry. I wish I never bought mine from them!