Maple

[aqh88]

I've been insanely busy but a few days ago we were checking prices on pet carriers. With taking Orbit to the vet a couple times a week for his eye we realized we needed a better way to transport guinea pigs than those large hard sided carriers they slide around in or a box. We stopped by the most expensive petstore in the area just to compare prices and this lady comes in with a guinea pig. She wants the petstore to take it. Well she thinks it's a year or 2 old, has sores on it's body, and bites constantly. The petstore employees say we can't take that guinea pig. The lady says if they don't take it she'll just go leave it in the box in front of the shelter on her way home. The shelter nearby is a cat/dog shelter and closed for the night. If the poor guinea pig survived the night without being eaten by a stray animal the shelter wouldn't know what to do with her.
So Maple is quarantined in the bedroom..... Obviously suffering from mites. She's getting her second dose of ivermectin soon. Unfortunately Chris lost the camera but Maple is mostly white with a somewhat odd shade of brown patch on her side, it's more like peach colored, and a black splash across her face. She's abysinnian and because of 2 large swirls on her butt her hair grows backward. You have to pet her from butt to head or it turns her hair backward and she gets all upset. That probably added to her biting. If Chris goes to pet her from her head back she shoves his hand away and sometimes nips at him. She seems to have a nice attitude so long as you don't pet her and she's getting better about being caught instead of flying around the cage running into things as soon as she sees your hand. Mostly I just rub the black streak on her nose and her cheeks. She'll lick me and start up a guinea pig conversation.
Never say you have cage space for 1 more. Guinea pigs will start appearing out of nowhere and we still have 2 babies that need homes. One of the reasons why I'm so busy.
By the way the most expensive carrier we found was $200 and only holds 2 guinea pigs. There was even a pink carrier that looked just like a large purse. We got a bag carrier for $45 that will comfortably hold 2-3 boys or 4 girls but would hold up to 6 guinea pigs if necessary. Not as fancy as the $200 one but it will work for warmer weather. It has too much mesh on the sides for carrying guinea pigs in the winter but Orbit and Cinnamon seem to like it alot better than the other carriers or a box.