grr, stupid craigslist ad

[Biscuit]

I just need to rant. Craigslist "rehoming" ads are often pathetic, but this one annoyed me more than usual because they claim to love the guinea pig like family. Why even say that? You wouldn't be rehoming family, period. You would adapt your life so they remained in it.

"We call it Sammy, however we don't really know which sex it is. I care about sammy as if he or she (whichever the case may be) were family. Just too small of living space to keep. I'm in a Studio and I just got new items to fill the small space. Approx age 10 months to 14. Color - See Picture.

Very calm and talks to you sometimes!"

He got new items to fill the space? Wow, yeah. I hope he never breeds, his kids would be kicked out if he got a bigger couch...

The "moving" excuse gets me too. If your pets are like family, you don't move into an apartment where you can't have them. As for the move itself, I moved across the country with 4 cats and 2 degu in a honda civic. Two of the cats didn't get along so we had to swap them in and out of the carrier so each would get to move around. The car was also packed with us, and our stuff. Then, we both got food poisoning. We stopped at a hotel, but two cats wouldn't come out of the bed springs so we were afraid to sleep on it, another wouldn't stop howling in the bathroom. So one of us slept in the car with the howling one and I slept on the floor of the hotel. It was worth it, is my point.

Anyway, I know I'm preaching to the choir and then some, I just had to whine lest I become physically violent.

[Chaos&Order]

"It" ... I'm pretty sure I'd know what sex a memeber of my family was. Poor piggy. I hope he (or she) finds a better and forever home.

I have moved to a new city and brought my piggies with me. I even made it very clear that if the piggies couldn't come with me, I wasn't going ANYWHERE.

[Biscuit]

They posted their phone number too. I'm considering signing them up for some delightful spam.

Everytime I get annoyed I just load up this page and stare at Zesty muching away on veggies in my avatar picture and all is well with the universe.

[Guinea_Piggin]

I had to stop looking at the pet section of Craigslist because of this kind of stuff. I realize that sometimes things happen and you're unable to keep your pets (ie: lost job, bad living situation). But ads like this and one I saw last week just irritate me to no end. The ad I saw last week was for an adorable Peach-faced Conure(?)...they said they didn't have room for the big cage. What got me most irritated was the next line: "Will trade for a recliner chair." If you don't have room for a big bird cage, how the heck do you have room for a recliner?! Anyway...sorry, needed to vent and no one in my house seems to understand my frustrations.

[envisionary333]

I totally understand your frustration. I moved from Seattle to New York by myself with all of my pets, and will be taking them all back with me as well. Not only that, but I was required to live in a dorm where no pets are allowed. I found a way around it by saying I was living with my "family" (pets are family, right? ) and moved into an off-campus home. When you can't live without your pets, you find a way to make it work.

[Guineapigluver2]

I had never seen a guinea pig add on craiglist so I decided to look, here is one that I found:

Two guinea pig looking for a new home. Approx. one and a half years old. The kids have lost interest, and I have no time to take care of them properly. They are very sweet and squeal with delight when they hear something crinkle because they think its feeding time. One sister has brown teddy bear fur with white patches and the other is mostly black with patches of brown and white soft fur. Will seperate. If interested please email me at Spiritstar2001@aol.com.

The first thing that is upstetting is 'kids lost intrest' that really bothers me, that is why my piggy parker was in the shelter. The next thing is 'will seperate' poor piggies, first they have to get new homes and now they might be seperated. That is wrong now I see why people here always complain about that website. It really is terrible. Some one else is advertising guinea pigs that they are fostering. That website is really just horrible, well the pet section at least.

[Biscuit]

I should stop looking at it, because I tend to mail them and try to educate.

I mail everyone who posts looking for a guinea pig though, linking them individually to every guinea pig I can find up on petfinder or all the local shelter sites. A few people have gone and adopted the shelter pigs instead due to this.

Relish in the small victories and drink heavily to cope with the rest I suppose.

[Meeko]

Ugh. I hate cragslist. There was one lady selling "trios" of guinea pigs, (one male and two females) soley for the purpose of breeding. Ugh. "You would have your own babies to sell!"

[Biscuit]

Another one:
"Help! My girl and boy guinea pig got together and surprise! babies. We don't have room or I would keep them all. They are the perfect pet! They don't like to run and are not escape artists. You can keep them in a box and they will not try to escape....though they might eat the box. They don't bite, they purr and are very loving. They also love to eat and will take food right out of your hand. I have five kids ranging from 1 to 10 and they have handled and played with these cuties since they were born. They are fantastic with kids!

If you are thinking about feeding them to anything don't even bother contacting me ....they are NOT food!

I also have two loving adults who could use a good home. They were given to us by well meaning friends, but once again we have no room. Email me if you have any questions or would like to give one or more of these guys a good home."

It's always such a surprise when males and female animals get together and babies happen! <--raging sarcasm. Then again, she has 5 children, I wonder how they happened. Ooops!?

They don't like to run around? So sad, mine love to run around. Maybe it's because you are keeping seven of them in a tiny cage? Where exactly would they run? But of course, you can just keep them in a box....

They are great with the 5 kids who range in age from 1-10...I'm sure they love being fed candy and will love it when the cage door gets left open.

I'm so bitter.

Anyway, I mailed them:
"[FONT=Arial Unicode MS]Such cute babies! Was it really a surprise though that males and females would breed? =P [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Unicode MS]Baby guinea pigs become sexually mature at three weeks, so please get them sexed and only adopt out same sex pairs. They need to be separated asap, or there will be more babies. Mom and dad too. Dad needs to be neutered if they must stay together. It takes about 2 seconds for a guinea pig to mate. There is a huge overpopulation of them, and lots are put to sleep every day due to this. Please, please don't contribute to it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Unicode MS]They are also actually not the best pet for most children. There are so many stories of guinea pigs dying because a kid dropped them, left a cage door open, thought it'd be fun to give them candy, etc. Your kids sound responsible, but not everyone's are. Guinea pigs adopted as "starter pets" to teach kids responsibility are often neglected when the kid loses interest and dumped on a shelter. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Unicode MS]I have a full house of 4 pigs right now, or I would be glad to help you out and take some in. In the meantime, I would be happy to help you determine their gender for the purposes of stopping the little wheekers from breeding more. There is a lot more to guinea pigs than pet stores and books would have you know. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Unicode MS]This is an excellent forum for info on their care. Please refer anyone who adopts a piggy to them for info, rather than a pet store or generally accept misinformation. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS]http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/"[/FONT]