NewGPMom
Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2005
- Posts
- 202
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2005
- Messages
- 202
I am in need of some advice from the knowledgable folks on this board. Not sure if this belongs in the kitchen so by all means if the mods feel it doesn't, please move it.
Anyways, a couple of weeks ago when we went on vacation there was a sign at a house right outside of our campground that said "guinea pigs". I was curious as to what this was about so I went to the house to check it out. I wanted to see if it was as innocent as someone just needing to rehome their pigs or if they were breeding (in which case I would have read the riot act) but noone was home. I think my hubby was generally concerned as well but relieved that noone answered. You see, my propensity to shoot off my mouth sometimes gets me into to trouble even when I know I am right. I think he was afraid he would have to bail me out of jail. So anyhow, we are going there again this weekend and I still am curious as to the situation. So naturally I told hubby we would stop and check. Do you think I should check if the sign is no longer there or let it be? And also, I am rather new at piggies and I could definately tell if they are not clean, have the wrong food, no water, no hay, long nails and probably if they are even pregnant as I went thru that (unexpectedly of course). I think I could even recognice mites or other skin disorders and a URI if it is obvious, but what other things can/should I look for and what kinds of questions should I ask to determine if this might be a breeder.
I hope to be able to print some things off and have handy if I need them from this website and GL or at least have the websites handy. I am just afraid I will say the wrong thing and get them on the defense without getting all the info to help these piggies. Part of me wants to stay away for fear of what I might find out. And what am I going to do if I do find anything out? I certainly can't take them as I am tapped out for space and resources with the 5 I have, esp since I started with only 2. I would appreciate any advice you might be able to give on how to handle this.
On a darker not, we also passed a sign at a farm house that advertised Labradoodles. My curiosity got the better of me as I do not envision that as a cute dog, so we stopped there as well. I was appalled. This was an amish farm (which also advertised some kind of birds which I assume they bred as well) Well, they had an outside cage with about 4 different breeds of puppies in it (about 10 in all) and was it a mixed bunch. There were the labradoodles of course, miniature labradoodles (I wonder which one needed the stool to stand on), Labernese (not sure if spelled right) and one little weiner dog (not sure of the correct breed name--but at least it was a purebreed; or so it appeared). I was dying to know one question--did all these lab mixes have the same father. I was not at all surprised to find out that they did and that they were all about the same age. So these people bred one male to 3 different female dogs and then the weiner dog on top of that and had all these puppies. I imagine being male and all, that the labrador was happy as could be with his own harem (just kidding for all you guys out there) but is that even healthy for that poor male dog.
All were in the same cage and let me tell you my piggers have a bigger cage (considering the size these dogs will get--its sad). All were about 8-12 weeks of age, males and females mixed together. Cage was built out of wood and chicken wire, no food in cage, very little water (temps were in the mid 90's so what they had was likely very warm). It stunk to high heaven. No hay to lay on and some of the puppies were not at all active--we wondered how healthy they were. And the price tag you ask, a salty $300 was the minimum and they went to $450. Needless to say I was disgusted.
Unfortunatly, that is the norm in that area of PA. It is the puppy mill capital of this state (or so I have heard). It seemed like every three farms we passed had signs up for dogs, birds or something. My aunt has unfortunately gotten two dogs of the same breed from two different pet stores that came from the same breeder and both must have some serious inbreeding. The first got hit by a car about a month after they got it (couldn't train it, ate its poop and the list goes on) and the one they replaced it with, well it eats everything in site. It ate a $20 bill one day, chewed up and ate about half of a noodle (the kind you use in a pool) destroyed shoes. There isn't anything this dog won't do. They even took it to puppy training class and the instructor failed it and said it was untrainable (couln't even sit on command).
Sorry for the rant. I am hoping you guys will give me some good questions to ask to assess the piggie situation. Thanks a bunch
Anyways, a couple of weeks ago when we went on vacation there was a sign at a house right outside of our campground that said "guinea pigs". I was curious as to what this was about so I went to the house to check it out. I wanted to see if it was as innocent as someone just needing to rehome their pigs or if they were breeding (in which case I would have read the riot act) but noone was home. I think my hubby was generally concerned as well but relieved that noone answered. You see, my propensity to shoot off my mouth sometimes gets me into to trouble even when I know I am right. I think he was afraid he would have to bail me out of jail. So anyhow, we are going there again this weekend and I still am curious as to the situation. So naturally I told hubby we would stop and check. Do you think I should check if the sign is no longer there or let it be? And also, I am rather new at piggies and I could definately tell if they are not clean, have the wrong food, no water, no hay, long nails and probably if they are even pregnant as I went thru that (unexpectedly of course). I think I could even recognice mites or other skin disorders and a URI if it is obvious, but what other things can/should I look for and what kinds of questions should I ask to determine if this might be a breeder.
I hope to be able to print some things off and have handy if I need them from this website and GL or at least have the websites handy. I am just afraid I will say the wrong thing and get them on the defense without getting all the info to help these piggies. Part of me wants to stay away for fear of what I might find out. And what am I going to do if I do find anything out? I certainly can't take them as I am tapped out for space and resources with the 5 I have, esp since I started with only 2. I would appreciate any advice you might be able to give on how to handle this.
On a darker not, we also passed a sign at a farm house that advertised Labradoodles. My curiosity got the better of me as I do not envision that as a cute dog, so we stopped there as well. I was appalled. This was an amish farm (which also advertised some kind of birds which I assume they bred as well) Well, they had an outside cage with about 4 different breeds of puppies in it (about 10 in all) and was it a mixed bunch. There were the labradoodles of course, miniature labradoodles (I wonder which one needed the stool to stand on), Labernese (not sure if spelled right) and one little weiner dog (not sure of the correct breed name--but at least it was a purebreed; or so it appeared). I was dying to know one question--did all these lab mixes have the same father. I was not at all surprised to find out that they did and that they were all about the same age. So these people bred one male to 3 different female dogs and then the weiner dog on top of that and had all these puppies. I imagine being male and all, that the labrador was happy as could be with his own harem (just kidding for all you guys out there) but is that even healthy for that poor male dog.
All were in the same cage and let me tell you my piggers have a bigger cage (considering the size these dogs will get--its sad). All were about 8-12 weeks of age, males and females mixed together. Cage was built out of wood and chicken wire, no food in cage, very little water (temps were in the mid 90's so what they had was likely very warm). It stunk to high heaven. No hay to lay on and some of the puppies were not at all active--we wondered how healthy they were. And the price tag you ask, a salty $300 was the minimum and they went to $450. Needless to say I was disgusted.
Unfortunatly, that is the norm in that area of PA. It is the puppy mill capital of this state (or so I have heard). It seemed like every three farms we passed had signs up for dogs, birds or something. My aunt has unfortunately gotten two dogs of the same breed from two different pet stores that came from the same breeder and both must have some serious inbreeding. The first got hit by a car about a month after they got it (couldn't train it, ate its poop and the list goes on) and the one they replaced it with, well it eats everything in site. It ate a $20 bill one day, chewed up and ate about half of a noodle (the kind you use in a pool) destroyed shoes. There isn't anything this dog won't do. They even took it to puppy training class and the instructor failed it and said it was untrainable (couln't even sit on command).
Sorry for the rant. I am hoping you guys will give me some good questions to ask to assess the piggie situation. Thanks a bunch
