Wouldn't it be nice?

[wolfie]

I hope this is the proper place to post this. I have tremendous respect for the people of this forum. I admire your efforts to improve the fate and existence of animals, in particular guinea pigs. So much of the effort seems to be dealing with the after effects and results that occur from buying from pet stores and poor pet care advice. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to reach prospective owners BEFORE they make the pet store error?

We had done research on different types of pets for months and decided that guinea pigs were the perfect fit for our family. My daughter had fallen in love with an American cinnamon guinea pig. I have always hated how animals are handled in pet stores and was quite grateful our neighborhood pet store did not have one. We ended up getting our boys through a rescue. Why? Sheer luck. While searching around on the internet we happened upon a rescue site , which led us down the rescue path. I am very happy we choose that route. But it makes me wonder - For families who are new to guinea pigs, who want to add guinea pigs to their family, and who are willing to give them everything they need- how do they know where to go? We aren't ignorant but we were clueless. The only people we knew who had guinea pigs got them- you guessed it- at the pet store.

I have learned a great deal from this forum. We have just finished building our first cccage for the boys to go along with their ccplaypen. They are living the high life on fleece with all of the appropriate hay, veggies, pellets, and toys. Every week my daughter comes home with another guinea pig book from school. Every week we spend a few days discussing why most of what they suggest is not appropriate for guinea pigs. How could so much bad information be out there?

Which brings me back to the poor family who just wants to find guinea pig pets and take good care of them. It would have quite an impact if they could be reached BEFORE. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to be more proactive rather than just reactive?

[CavyKind]

Originally Posted by wolfie

Which brings me back to the poor family who just wants to find guinea pig pets and take good care of them. It would have quite an impact if they could be reached BEFORE. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to be more proactive rather than just reactive?

I think that this is a very valid point that you make.

There are people who do try and make the effort to find a rescue guinea pig and do ask questions before they buy...but you are right it can be difficult, especially for those without internet access.
Okay there are books available in the library, but in ours, most are biased towards breeding and give detailed "how to" info.
Many of the reputable rescues in our area do not deal with guinea pigs and if they do are so busy that they probably don't have time to chat on the telephone about detailed guinea pig care.
Then...in our area...we have the breeder/rescuers who generally give out rubbish advice and are just as happy to rehome their home bred guineas than genuine rescues.

My aim now, is to concentrate on education, I'm busy producing posters that will provide a landline number where people can talk to me on a one to one basis about general guinea care, choosing a guinea pig etc. I'm going to ask local vets/pet stores/community centres etc to put them up.

Rescue is important, but helping people to make an informed choice is just as relevant. If I can steer 1 person away from the backyard breeders and breeder/rescuers, it will be worthwhile!

Barbara

[this_lil_piggy]

When i was a kid my parents allowed me to purchase a guinea pig at a local trade festival. We promptly came home, tossed cedar shavings into a small 2x2 cage, attached a water bottle, added a bowl of pellets and our one lonely piggy. We didnt know the dangers of cedar, the importance of a spacious cage, the benefits of a companion, nor the neccessity of hay, vit c, and veggies back then. And we wondered why our beloved pig died a short 6 months later.
When my 7 yr old decided he wanted to buy his very own pet a few months ago, I suggested a guinea pig (after a bad brief experience with hamsers)....though mine didnt live very long when i was a kid, she was easy to care for, didnt require much, and was just in general a nice relaxed pet. I didnt know about pet stores buying from pet mills, or how much had changed in respect to proper guinea pig care over the years. I didnt think about doing deep research prior to our trip to the pet store--why would I? We had a gpig as kids i know what im getting into.
So, we trotted right on out to petco, purchased our first pig from a clueless teenage employee, grabbed our own copy of the care sheet that is kept ironically on the very same isle as the bags of cedar shavings and seed/corn/pellet mixed guinea pig food they sell and came home with our pig. We threw together a grossly small cage, and went back a few days later to get our second pig.
THEN, i curiously started searching the net about guinea pigs. Thats when i found out a day late and a dollar short the mistakes i had made. Purchasing from a petstore, vit c drops in the water, housing same sex pigs together--in a cage that was way too small to boot, and whats all this talk about hay and veggies? Cedar shavings are toxic, really? Oh my!
My head spun. I began correcting my mistakes. I built a large two level CC cage, replaced the cedar with aspen, bought a bale of hay and tons of lettuce, ditched the seed rich pellet mix, seperated the same sex piggies, ditched the vit c drops, and on and on. Then i hoped my actions hadnt caused any damage i couldnt reverse. Thankfully, the internet saved myself and my kids alot of heart ache. Our girl delivered healthy babies, thank goodness for that, and we now have plenty of pig love to go around, and we take every bit of the best care for them we can now.

How many people must base their decisions and their care taking on their experience 20+ years ago like i did though, but wind up with sick, or dead gpg's or more babies than they can handle. How many people dont have internet, or just dont think to read up on the internet about the pets they are going to, or have purchased? There just isnt much info in the real world, or the information that is out there is incorrect....and i suspect alot of people never even think about looking further into their new pet via the internet. Furthermore, how many people do research but dont take it seriously?.....

When Chloe was pregnant, my original plan was to give away 1 or 2 and keep 1 or 2, depending on how many she had. I had two friends eagerly awaiting their arrival, wanting one for their kids. Then in a conversation one night i learned that one of the friends had previously owned gpigs that they kept on cedar bedding, and fed nothing but pellets. When i went into my spill about hay, veggies, no cedar etc etc they looked at me like i was wearing my head backwards and laughed. Thats the moment i made the decision that no pigs of mine were going anywhere. Im not going to trust anyone to get the information, trust the information, and utilize the information.

Its just sad, that even tho these stores sell the pets in the first place, that they dont take the very minimal responsibility of passing out correct care information and refusing to sell products improperly advertised for our pets that can cause them harm and death.

[Lucy99]

this_lil_piggy - great post, but I just have one question, why did you seperate same sex piggies?

[this_lil_piggy]

Oh oops LOL I didnt! Im just a dim wit (fingers run faster than brain) I meant opposite sex pigs..... and i made the mistake twice in my post.