Newbie

Sounds great, I wish you the best of luck!

Where are you planning to get your pigs, and do you want males or females? (If you get males, I'd only get two if I were you.)
And also, what kind of fish do you have! I love fish, I currently have three bettas each in a tank but I've always wanted to get other fish too, so I'm always interested in hearing people's fish stories.

And of course, welcome!

jaycriae said:

Sounds great, I wish you the best of luck!

Where are you planning to get your pigs, and do you want males or females? (If you get males, I'd only get two if I were you.)
And also, what kind of fish do you have! I love fish, I currently have three bettas each in a tank but I've always wanted to get other fish too, so I'm always interested in hearing people's fish stories.

And of course, welcome!

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I really want females. Since I live in such a rural area, I don't have any rescues close by. I have looked into that. I'm afraid I'm going to have to go to the pet store route. I do aim on flipping them upside down and sexing them to the best of my ability before I leave, however.

I've had bettas and goldfish. I currently have a guppy and two platies. The pet store people told me they live well together which is true, minus the guppy that the remaining 3 ate. They are very hardy because I'm bad about changing the water frequently enough and they manage. I would love a bigger tank with more fish when I get my own place. I bought them at a locally owned pet store by my college (about 3.5 hours from where I currently live) and that place was fabulous. The people knew so much and were so friendly/helpful. Only thing I hated was that they sold puppies (like the two breeds mixed together call it some fancy name charge you $500 for a mutt kind).

Have you tried looking on craigslist? A lot of the time there's guinea pigs that need to be rehomed there, and even if you can sex the guinea pigs in a pet store accurately yourself you still run the risk of getting a female being pregnant, if you get one, and all kinds of diseases. I've had eight guinea pigs, and only the two that came from pet stores have ever had significant health problems before the age of 5, plus being harder to bond with because they've been through so much as babies.

ah, guppies and platies are cute.... i always heard guppies do best in schools of at least 5-6 for safety, but maybe the platies have become your remaining one's adopted school, haha.

and that sucks about the puppies. unfortunately there's no such thing as a perfect pet store in my experience, even with the relatively good local ones.

good luck!

One of our members has drove 12 hours for a pig. You almost never have to go the pet store route. Like jaycriae said, craigslist is a good place to find them. You can also check petfinder, they'll show you rescues in your area/state. Unfortunately I didn't know about pet stores when I got my piggies, and bought them from the store. They both developed skin problems (both of which are cured now), and my first that I got was a cuy (a type of guinea pig bred for meat, and therefore stronger and more fearful of humans). The reason we don't support stores is not only their poor animal care/advice, but the breeding and selling trade of small animals. These poor creatures are bred in very cruel conditions. GPs in particular are highly overpopulated, and breeding is very hard on females (about 1 in 5 will die due to complications or general health decline due to labor/pregnancy). That's why we definitely support shelters only. Where are you located? If you feel comfortable sharing, maybe we can help you find a shelter and you can work out a plan on getting pigs from there. They will surely appreciate it! Welcome to the forum, and thank you for properly caring for your pigs.

jaycriae said:

Have you tried looking on craigslist?

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I havd. Very few postings. :-/

PiggleLove2013 said:

One of our members has drove 12 hours for a pig.Where are you located? If you feel comfortable sharing, maybe we can help you find a shelter and you can work out a plan on getting pigs from there. They will surely appreciate it! Welcome to the forum, and thank you for properly caring for your pigs.

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Driving 12 hours for a pig is amazing. Not quite sure going that far is something I would be able to do.

I am located in VA. I don't know if this site has a private messaging function or not but if it does I will tell you more details on location through a private message. I am sure there are resources in northern Virginia but that is a long way from me as I am on the North Carolina border. I do not enjoy going into big cities or driving.

I have posted on Facebook groups trying to am find pigs.

My local animal shelter has been fined millions for being out of code for years. They have seven dog runs, that is it. They don't take cats or other pets. Needless to say they are no help. My county is large and rural. We need way more than that.

Hi, Amanda! I'm in Winston Salem, there are usually some piggies listed within about an hour of me on Petfinder. I did find this listing for a little girl named Anna in Danville, VA. Not sure how far that is from you. Good luck finding new fur babies (broken link removed)

piggielife said:

Hi, Amanda! I'm in Winston Salem, there are usually some piggies listed within about an hour of me on Petfinder. I did find this listing for a little girl named Anna in Danville, VA. Not sure how far that is from you. Good luck finding new fur babies (broken link removed)

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Danville is a ways. I'm still searching though.

I know how you feel. Our shelters right in my area here don't take anything but cats or dogs. The state I live in, to my knowledge, has only two guinea pig oriented rescues. It's hard. Yes, we do have a private messaging feature. Again, if you don't feel comfortable sharing your location, you can do it yourself on PetFinder. Type in the zip code of your desired location (they recognize even the smallest towns, even mine which is fairly small).

https://www.petfinder.com/

I haven't found craigslist helpful for getting pigs in small areas, but you never know. I've always seen at least one posting for pigs in my area. Sometimes there are members here who need to re-home their pigs, and they post in the adoption forum. I'm not there often, so I don't know how active it is or the variety of locations, but it's worth a shot. Good luck!

See this post: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/109466-Bonded-Female-Guinea-Pigs-(Jacksonville-NC)

Maybe you could work out a piggie train, or meet halfway in between.

I live in NC right on the VA border, and I teach high school Spanish. PM me with your location if you want so I can see if we are close.

Hey! Welcome to the forum, Amanda. I am also a teacher (high school Spanish). I hope you're acclimating well to teacher life! I was in your shoes four years ago.

I am looking forward to seeing pictures of your future piggies!

@pigmommy89 ¡Otra maestra de español! Yay for another Spanish teacher on here.

PiggleLove2013 said:

I know how you feel. Our shelters right in my area here don't take anything but cats or dogs. The state I live in, to my knowledge, has only two guinea pig oriented rescues. It's hard. Yes, we do have a private messaging feature. Again, if you don't feel comfortable sharing your location, you can do it yourself on PetFinder. Type in the zip code of your desired location (they recognize even the smallest towns, even mine which is fairly small).

View attachment 76601 https://www.petfinder.com/

I haven't found craigslist helpful for getting pigs in small areas, but you never know. I've always seen at least one posting for pigs in my area. Sometimes there are members here who need to re-home their pigs, and they post in the adoption forum. I'm not there often, so I don't know how active it is or the variety of locations, but it's worth a shot. Good luck!

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I have gotten in touch with the lady that runs the Peninsula Guinea Pig Rescue. It's out of Hampton, VA (a city I despise for traffic) but I've got her on the lookout for a pair for me. I'm also going to continue looking on my own.

She says that this summer she had gobs and gobs of pigs, now she has people calling and she doesn't have anything for them to come look at. Which is a good problem, of course!

bpatters said:

See this post: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/109466-Bonded-Female-Guinea-Pigs-(Jacksonville-NC)

Maybe you could work out a piggie train, or meet halfway in between.

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I sent her an email. I'm hoping she'd be willing to meet somewhere closer on my end. Jacksonville is about 3 hours from where I live.

bpatters said:

See this post: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/109466-Bonded-Female-Guinea-Pigs-(Jacksonville-NC)

Maybe you could work out a piggie train, or meet halfway in between.

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I wanted to take the time to thank you. I met with her halfway in between yesterday and brought home my babies! Their current names are Blossom and Roxy, but I'm definitely going to change that up. I constructed the cage last night (I coerced my mom into helping me). It took us forever because getting the grids into the plastic connectors was quite the task. I was thinking of ordering the stand for the cage next month and now I'm dreading the thought since it was such an ordeal to construct what I have currently. I would have ordered it all together, but money was a factor. I'm a new teacher and just got my first paycheck so I'm trying not to go "pig-wild" haha.

Anyway, they looked settled in. They didn't have a cage with a loft before this one so I'm hoping they will decide to explore and use the loft.

I hand fed one a carrot last night--or more like she grabbed onto it and tried to pull it out of my hand! Can't wait to see them tonight. I'm a softball coach so after school I have practice to run but after that it's time to go home and play with the new gals!

Pictures to come!

Glad you got them!

Use some pliers when you're putting grids into connectors -- makes it much easier.

Congratulations!

bpatters said:

Glad you got them!

Use some pliers when you're putting grids into connectors -- makes it much easier.

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The instructions said to beat them in with a rubber mallet so after getting frustrated enough to actually use one (I was like oh god I don't want to break one of the connectors) it held well!