KiwiCavyAdorer

Hi there,

I chose this title because I have adored guinea pigs for my entire life, I've not yet had the pleasure of being a slave to cavy's, but I am anticipating the time when I am able to give them the palace I think they'd enjoy the most!

In my childhood I did however have a hamster called Hamish, who I happily slaved over and adored his entire life. He was given to me by a well meaning relative who blissfully believed, whoever she got Hamish from, that he was a guinea pig! Hamish lived inside and I took him into the garden or the bushveld every day for his exercise and nature time. I even took Hamish down to the beach for walks there and to investigate seaweed etc. He was a curious devil, Hamish and in those days there was no such thing as a harness, so we must have had a pretty good relationship for me, to have managed, to call him to me where ever we were.

The animals who share my life, are all rescues. Beautiful is our cat, Blue is our dog, and two horses Annie and Lilly. Our animals are equal members of our family which consists of my husband and I.

My husband is nearing the end of his advanced photographers tuition with the PhotoSchool.co.nz, he's an engineer who went into Safari adventures in Africa years ago, and he plans now to combine his photography with specialised tour groups. I am a private researcher for health and well being in people and an orthopaedic hoofcare specialist for horses - I work as a holistic consultant in both of those fields; with the guiding motto of "prefering to adhere to the simple in medicine and the logic of nature" which comes from Dr Batmanghelidj and his simple saline revolution.

While I pre-pave the guinea pig era of our lives, I'm finding such joy at reading the up's and down's of others stories. The contrasts are so helpful because its through them that I can more clearly define what it is that my preferences might be. The joy of living that I might be able to provide to the cavy's who come into our lives.

The vision of housing I've developed so far looks a little like this:-
I've read that cavy's are very sociable, so keeping them in one room feels less good than allowing them a flow from room to room. The practicalities of this I've not worked through, as it would depend on where you live. It might be as simple as creating a hole through a wall, so they can run through to the other room and along a bit - so they can watch you while you are either in the lounge or in the kitchen. Move with you in a sense.

My husband came up with the idea of extending this tunnel type (closed c&c cage) wall mounted run, to including an outdoor option (summer) or an indoor turfed option year round. We sprout oats for our horses every day and it forms a very solid mat of grass if we keep it several days - he thought we might be able to engineer something of the sort for guinea's to self feed on especially at night - when they are out in their natural environment. Just thoughts at this stage and I've a whole forum to read through to weigh this concept up against. But as with our horses we aim to give our future guinea's unrestricted exercise options in a fun place to live that keeps them naturally healthy.

I'm really glad I found a guinea pig site so dedicated to well being and devoted care.