I'm worried about Cornflake.

Pigs purchased from petstores normally don't even know what veggies are as they are never given any. It may take her days or weeks to eat veggies. Start simple though with lettuce and bell peppers, and in her case, a baby carrot (only one per day) and then introduce a new veggie about every 3-4 days. Leave them in her cage for a few hours or until the lettuce is wilted. She may not know they are good things to eat. Also if you have access to fresh grass that hasn't been sprayed then try a bit of that with her. Start slow at first though because too much when they aren't used to it can cause stomach upset. Then increase gradually.

What kind (brand) of hay are you feeding? Most petstore pigs don't get hay either. As long as she's eating some then it's better than her eating none. What brand of pellets?

Sometimes it also takes a few days for pigs to get comfortable in their new surroundings. She could just be scared.

I do need to say that Petco is not a rescue shelter. Some shelters may adopt through the store but the store itself is not a shelter.

Have you tried the water bottle to see if there are any problems with it such as no water is getting out? Sometimes that does happen.

Magic8ball said:

Hello Everyone, My family and I purchased a guinea pig about a week ago. I bought it from a PETCO which is also a rescue shelter.

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First of all Petco is not in any way, shape or form a rescue/shelter. They sell animals like they are toys with anyone with money to buy, exploit them and add to the overpopulation problem by encouraging breeders to keep on breeding (and breeding sick, malnourished and neglected/abused animal).

Sure we all know that Petco often has a table of dumped animals up for "adoption" but since you say you "bought" a GP then it sounds like you purchased one of their purposely bred animals.

Just so you know the only reason Petck takes in those animals to "rehome" is for good public relations. That's also why they have those bogus "Think Adoption First" signs all over the place. It's a load of crap. If they believed that adoption was a better option then they wouldn't sell animals. The reason animals are dumped off with them is because they are creating a problem. They encourage impulse buys and when the humans get tired of their animal it gets dumped--all thanks to Petco and other petstores like them.

Petco does not care what happens to any of the animals they sell or "adopt" out. They don't care if the animals are used for reptile food or as a punching bag. All they care about is money and by allowing people to dump animals with them then they are creating new customers of the people that take those dumped animals home.

Magic8ball said:

I don't think this is normal, but I'm not sure if I should take her to the vet.

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Please do take the poor animal to a good exotic vet. Many petstore animals are sick or parasite infested due to the horrible conditions they are kept in at the breeders, the suppliers and in the petstores themselves.

I suggest you keep the bills and submit them to Petco but DO NOT take the animal to the Petco vet and DO NOT allow Petco to "buy back" the animal to treat it themselves. Go as far up the Peco corporate ladder as you need to to make them pay and do not give up.

Good luck with your new little one.

Thank you for the help. The hay is timothy hay, the pellets are called ecotrition and it consist of pellets plus other items mixed in. The water container does work. I will be glad to try adding veggies on slower base. I will give her two more days to adjust then I think I should probably go see the vet.

The pellets should be JUST pellets, not the type with other stuff mixed in it. Try using the store locator at (broken link removed) to see if you can purchase Oxbow pellets locally, or you can order them online.

Same goes with hay; I just got my shipment from Kleenmama's yesterday, so no more crappy-looking cheap petco timothy hay. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I bought it, but I weeded through it and picked out all the brown hay that I could, and anything that felt coarse... which left me with about a quarter bag of hay to tide us over. KM's is wonderful by comparison, it smells good, it feels soft and even *I* almost want to take a few bites. Try (broken link removed) for more info on her products.

Please do take your piggie to the vet ASAP. She will most likely need to be treated for mites (see mods' posts) due to her previous conditions.

What kind of bedding are you using?

Ditto the above. Petco is a pet store chain that supports pet milling.

You should be weighing her daily: Guinea Lynx :: Weigh Weekly!

Follow up for Cornflake; I took cornflake to the small animal vet around the corner and she has a eye infection. I got some medicine for her. I also to my piggy back to petsmart to find out exactly what they were feeding her so I could transition her better products and the person at PETCO picked her up and cornflake bit her and drew blood. I guess cornflake needed to seek some revenge.

Poor Cornflake (cute name)! Maybe she hasn't wanted to eat because she's been feeling under the weather with her infection. I have noticed with the pigs I've adopted that it takes a while for them to warm up to veggies if they haven't had them before.

Good luck to Cornflake, and keep us updated.

Way to go, Cornflake! There have been a few people at pet stores and vet clinics that I felt like biting. Get well, baby girl.

In some small defense of Petco, I got my current guinea pig from my local Petco branch because the piggies at the other two pet stores in town looked really awful. The Petco ones looked happy and healthy and their cages were clean, which is more than I can say for the other pet stores. There aren't any breeders that I am aware of in my area, and I honestly don't know much about aquiring from a breeder, but I've had pet store piggies all my life and never had problems with them that were related to the place I got them from. Not that I support Petco's chain-store profit-driven approach to selling animals, but in some cases it may be the best option. For me, I always buy from stores that consistently provide clean living quarters with plenty of food and water, and whom I never see selling animals that look sick. I am also sure to give them a thorough inspection for signs of illness before buying. It is true that pet stores typically have their pigs in cramped quarters with no hay or fresh things for them to eat, but then most piggies are only at the store a few weeks at most. All that is just a long way of saying, Magic8Ball, don't feel bad for getting a piggie from Petco.

For the record, all the piggies I've gotten from pet stores took awhile to warm up to fresh veggies, and with each pig of course there were some things that became favorites and some things they would never touch. And some things that they woudn't eat at first, but that I wouldn't give them for awhile then try them again some time later and then they'd love it. Just like people piggies have individual taste preferences that change over time. So just be patient and persistent (but not pushy) and eventually you and Cornflake will both figure out what she likes to eat. With the water bottle, too, if it's different than what she's used to it may take a little time for her to figure out exactly how to use it. Also with just one piggy, especially if she's very young and the bottle very large, she may just not seem to drink much. As long as you see her drinking sometimes, she should be okay. Just keep an eye on her and figure out what "normal" is for her so you will notice if there are changes in her drinking patterns.

One final note on hay: "timothy" refers to the type of hay, not the brand. I had always used the Walmart and petstore brand hays (Kaycee or something like that), but after doing some reading today, I think I will be looking into finding a local feed store or ordering online for a fresher, better quality hay.

Glad to hear the vet caught the eye infection! What a bummer; I hope Cornflake feels better quickly! That's so funny she bit the storeperson; those minimum wage lackeys they hire in off the streets (actually I have no idea what the real job requirements are) in my experience are never very skilled or sympathetic at handling piggies. (Although I'd keep an eye out for the biting - in my experience I've never ever had a problem with piggies biting people except in cases where they were consistently mishandled or treated badly).

Anywho, I am by no means an expert, that's just what I've learned from my experience with piggies. Hope it helps!

Jitterbug said:

In some small defense of Petco, I got my current guinea pig from my local Petco branch because the piggies at the other two pet stores in town looked really awful. The Petco ones looked happy and healthy and their cages were clean, which is more than I can say for the other pet stores. There aren't any breeders that I am aware of in my area, and I honestly don't know much about aquiring from a breeder, but I've had pet store piggies all my life and never had problems with them that were related to the place I got them from. Not that I support Petco's chain-store profit-driven approach to selling animals, but in some cases it may be the best option. For me, I always buy from stores that consistently provide clean living quarters with plenty of food and water, and whom I never see selling animals that look sick. I am also sure to give them a thorough inspection for signs of illness before buying. It is true that pet stores typically have their pigs in cramped quarters with no hay or fresh things for them to eat, but then most piggies are only at the store a few weeks at most. All that is just a long way of saying, Magic8Ball, don't feel bad for getting a piggie from Petco.

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Even if the animals are kept in pristine conditions (which they aren't, incorrect diet, incorrect housing, you name it), they're still being bought from mill breeders. The same that recently appeared in a "behind the scenes" type video stomping escaped small animals to death and neutering their rabbits with part-time help who were not vets and no anesthesia. Your money supports this. By buying these animals, you are supporting that cruelty tacitly.

Why not check out a rescue in your area?

Breeders suck as much as pet stores. And for the millionth time, the conditions you see in the pet store don't mean squat. It's what you don't see that is the problem .. the conditions of the pet mill and breeder they come from that look like this: https://www.cavyspirit.com/hollister_rescue.htm and PetSmart Cruelty

This is what you are supporting. And sows being backbred to death in tiny cramped quarters and being neglected. Meanwhile you are also condemning two shelter guinea pigs you could have adopted instead to death.

More times than not, pet store pigs may look fine at first but they come down with URI or fungus, or show signs of mits or lice weeks after purchase. They are often missexed and pregnant too. You cannot look at a guinea pig and tell if they are harboring certain illnesses off the bat. They are prey animals. They hide their symptoms.

They are also usually inbred .. you can't tell if they harbor the genes for maloclussion or heart disease, things that don't show up til they are older.

Have you tried adopting ever? That's the "best option". Not pet stores.

And they only 'spend a few weeks in the store'? How do you know they are not getting the same if not worse care after they are bought? Pet stores do not screen; they sell to anyone and often give out poor care info. They sell tiny cages and crap products too.

Oh =
Well it might be becuase of her cage size!
Are you using a c&c cage?
If its just her it should be 2 grids x 3 grids!
If its not a c&c cage what size is it?

I hope she feels better!

I really don't think cage size affects appetite.

PiggieMamaKelly said:

I really don't think cage size affects appetite.

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Well... cage size dose effect beheivor, ive heard of some guinea pigs having a loss of appetite because they werent getting enough exercize!

People "hear" a lot of things, but that doesn't necessarily make those things true.

OK after browsing some of the other forums on this site I have definitely changed my song about pet stores! I had no idea pet store animals were undergoing such horrific conditions behind the scenes! Thanks for the links rabbitsncavyluv. Isn't it interesting how pet stores try to put on such a caring face to the public (I know I was reeled in) while all they're really doing is profiting off the mistreatment of animals that are merely a "product" to them. I for one am never buying from a pet store again, although I still don't think people like Magic8ball and me should feel guilty about buying from pet stores in the past. I just didn't know any better, but the piggies themselves have been precious, well-loved companions, and although I'm sad now to know I was supporting this savage cycle of animal milling, at the same time I'm glad I was able to rescue them from such depressing conditions and give them a better life. After all, it wasn't their choice to be born into the system of breeders and pet stores; they deserve to be rescued as much as the poor piggies in the shelters (although, yes, shelter pigs take priority). In reality, boycotting pet stores is only a very small step in the right direction and does little to help animals that are suffering right now. Ideally, people should be able to get pets from pet stores without supporting milling and filling up shelters, and pet stores should be places where animals are seen as more than just a product to be sold, cared for properly, and sold only to those owners who can prove they can provide loving and responsible care. The concept is a good one, but the system needs drastic improvement (like a lot of things it seems).

I still don't think people like Magic8ball and me should feel guilty about buying from pet stores in the past. I just didn't know any better

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Most of us have made that mistake in the past, including myself. But if you can change your perspective and your views about petstores and not purchase any more animals in petstores then you are doing the right thing.

In reality, boycotting pet stores is only a very small step in the right direction and does little to help animals that are suffering right now

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But if hundreds start boycotting, it does make a difference. There are many petstores that have already stopped the live sales of animals.

Ideally, people should be able to get pets from pet stores without supporting milling and filling up shelters

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Ideally, petstores need to completely stop selling animals and only sell quality supplies.