Hello - New member

Hello and welcome.

DaveDuran said:

Hi everyone my name is Dave and am probably one of the few male members.

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You'd be surprised. There are many male members here.

DaveDuran said:

...I bought my first pig for me and my girlfriend. She loves animals so we thought it would be a good idea.

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Ah, you've happened upon one of our main principles - do not support pet stores. The better idea would be to have adopted.

DaveDuran said:

For some reason i fell in love with my piggie muffasa.

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For some reason? Clearly, you've never had a guinea pig. They are easy to fall in love with.

DaveDuran said:

It is fun learning the proper way to take care of these piggies.

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So how do you take care of your guinea pig now? And maybe it would have been a good idea to learn how to take care of it than doing it now. You know, responsible pet ownership?

DaveDuran said:

I made the mistake of buying a store cage and i feel so bad.

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You also made the mistake of buying a cavy from a pet store when you could have adopted.

DaveDuran said:

We are going to adopt another piggie next week as well.

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Are you going to buy or adopt?

Well, anyway, welcome.

Thanks. Well I adopted my current guinea pig and my post clearly says I will be adopting the second one. The only mistake I made was buying a cage from the store. I have fixed that situation and bought the correct size.

And I said it is fun learning the proper way of taken care of a piggie. From the first day I got her I came on here and learned what to feed her and everything else. Just because I am still learning does not make me an irresponsible owner. Do you know everything there is to know? I am in my 3rd year of school and I will be a Registered Dietician. Do I know everything about Nutrition? Pretty darn close but I am still learning so that doesnt make me an irresponsible stsudent. Not the best comparision but I think it was wrong to tell me I was being irresponsible.

Well thanks for the reply

Hi Dave and welcome to the best source of piggie info. Sorry you were given a bit of the third degree on your initial post.

If you need any help with piggie diets, please see me as I am the resident diet guru for piggies.

Welcome Dave. This site has great info for you and your piggy.

Welcome to GPC! I'm sure you'll enjoy learning more information about guinea pigs then you ever expected!

When you get your cage built and a buddy for your piggie many of us enjoy seeing pictures.

Hello and welcome!

sdpiggylvr said:

Ah, you've happened upon one of our main principles - do not support pet stores. The better idea would be to have adopted.

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I don't get the notion to why people are so strongly against buying pets from stores, especially if theyre first time pig owners. They may not no they are adoptable etc. Also you'd be surprised at how many pet stores are struggling at this time.

GuineaPiggy said:

I don't get the notion to why people are so strongly against buying pets from stores, especially if theyre first time pig owners. They may not no they are adoptable etc. Also you'd be surprised at how many pet stores are struggling at this time.

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Pet stores should be struggling. That what we aim for. We want pet store out of business. No 'business' should live off the backs of innocent animals.

SnowPrincess said:

Pet stores should be struggling. That what we aim for. We want pet store out of business. No 'business' should live off the backs of innocent animals.

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So if pet stores go out of business where do we get our food for our pets? The supermarket? I'm sure the prices will be marked up heavily, which is not something we want.

I should have been more specific. Pet stores which sell animals we want to go out of business.

Welcome to GPC!


Please read through the stickies at the top of each forum for great information!

Welcome to the boards! We love pigtures!

Welcome to the forum Dave! Cannot wait to see some pigtures! I am happy to hear you are learning from the site, it is such a wealth of information for new owners. Your piggy will love when you get the new cage set up and get them a friend. When I set my C&C cage up after my two piggies were in a store bought cage (only for 2 weeks) the change in their personalities was amazing. I thought they popcorned before, OMG they went insane once they got into the big cage and realized it wasnt just "floor time". Guinea Pigs definately have a way of winning your heart over quickly

Guineapiggy - I actually buy my pig supplies(and other animal supplies) from Chuck and Don's. They do not sell any live animals, only thing they do at their stores is invite in rescues/humane societies for adoption days which they do not profit from the adoption fees. If there wasn't a place locally I would just order online. There are feed stores and pet food stores that do not practice live animal sales.

Welcome to the website!You would be surprised how many boys there are on this website!

GuineaPiggy said:

So if pet stores go out of business where do we get our food for our pets? The supermarket? I'm sure the prices will be marked up heavily, which is not something we want.

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Stores that only sell pet food and products,or online, of course.
Most members here to not buy from stores that sells animals.
For example, a lot of people order from oxbow or KMs.

Hey Dave! Welcome to the forum! I think it's terrific that you're excited to learn about guinea pigs and their care. I am too. I love reading and learning as much as I can about them. Many people don't take the time to (and some do, but find it a chore) and I think it shows that you want to be a responsible caretaker - good for you!

I would definitely read up on doing quarantine/introductions if you haven't already, that way you can be prepared before your next adoption. And kudos for getting a bigger cage before you get the next pig!

It's strange how sometimes you don't know how you're going to feel about an animal until you take care of them and learn their personality (just like meeting a person), so it's great that you fell in love with Muffasa! I'm trying to convince my father-in-law that guinea pigs aren't ugly and are indeed very sweet animals to have. I think he's starting to come around. I try to flood his inbox with pictures of my boys being ridiculous and instead of getting groans, he's actually laughing about their facial expressions and what I think the pigs are saying.

I, too, look forward to seeing pics of your pigs and set up! You'll find so much great information here and very knowledgeable members - you definitely came to the right place!

GuineaPiggy, we don't necessarily want to shut petstores down, we want them to stop selling live, sentient beings. It's the pet trade industry, mills, mass breeding and backyard breeders that we are trying to stop. Not all petstores are bad or evil. There are good petstores, they are the ones that do not sell animals.

Dave, I hope you won't be put off by the harshness of some. Please know that a lot of people make the same mistakes you did and worked at fixing those mistakes. Please stick around our forum as there are so many great things to learn and know about these wonderful little creatures.

DaveDuran said:

Just because I am still learning does not make me an irresponsible owner.

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You are absolutely correct. And for someone to insinuate that you are irresponsible is downright wrong and rather rude. Many of us start out learning after we have pigs but that makes NO one irresponsible. Irresponsible is knowing about certain aspects of care but choosing to totally ignore them and doing something else. And I can clearly tell that's not what you are doing.

SnowPrincess said:

we

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You do not speak for me, and there are differing ideas on this board

DaveDuran said:

Hi everyone my name is Dave and am probably one of the few male members lol. Im in college and a month ago i bought my first pig for me and my girlfriend. She loves animals so we thought it would be a good idea.

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It's a great idea!!!! There's a lot to learn but WELCOME, we're glad you're here!!!!