Movies I'm New and I'm getting a guinea pig very Soon

hopebkst78 said:

The petsmart near me offers to pay for the first vet appointment

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I know a lot of people on here are telling you not to buy from Petsmart but please learn from my mistake. A year ago the doctor told my boyfriend to invest in a hobby that will help calm his stress down and recommended a pet. He did a lot of research and we've discussed it for a month before deciding. The day came and we went down to Petsmart and bought two guinea pigs.

A couple months in Chase got a huge lump on his neck. That whole "we pay for you first vet visit" thing is BS. We called Petsmart and they refused to do anything about it because if was past two weeks. Yeah okay, because URIs and infections happen exactly within two weeks after purchase, right?

We took him to a vet who clearly didn't know what he was doing and injected him with penicillin (a huge no no!) we then took him to another vet who was exotic and discovered it was an abscess. Surgery ran $400 plus other medications. Fortunately his abscess didn't spread and was removed completely. A month later the same thing happen to my little Behring. Chase is a tough piggie..we weren't too concerned about him recovering but Behring is a runt. Luckily, both their surgeries were a success but ran us almost $1000.

Fast forward to a year later, my piggies are constantly sneezing and we don't know why. We've put him on numerous antibiotics but none are working. For now, we are monitoring it..he seems fine and his usual self. To be completely honest with you, I wouldn't change the experience for the world because my piggies have brought so much joy to my life. But if I could rewind time knowing all I know now, I probably wouldn't have supported Petsmart. It hurts my heart to see guinea pigs in such poor conditions at these pet stores. Please never trust their vets either..I used to work for Banfield - the vets are not exotics. They are just vets fresh out of school and their turnover rate is really high..you'll never know who the vet will be. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and make a well informed decision.

The guinea pig we got from Petco (similar to Pet Smart) had a URI, they offered to exchange her. (And they most likely would have "gotten rid of her") I opted to pay our vet and get her treated. Over the next couple years she was our sickly piggy, numerous URIs and she was our tiny one. She died last year. She just wasn't healthy right from the start and even with lots of interventions it was no use. Sweet little thing though. Avoid pet stores, go with a shelter.

I found my two girls on Craiglist. Many kids lose interest in them and the family needs to find homes for them. I too have heard nothing but horror stories about guinea pigs from pet stores.

I guess my question to all of this is, how do you stop the cycle while still believing that each guinea pig life is important. The pigs at the pet store are still living and they still need to be loved. I got my Marshmallow from a PetCo before I ever found these forums so I didn't know too much. I knew he should be with another pig but it was a hassle to convince my husband to let me get the one and I also knew that he would be in a classroom with children adoring him so I wasn't to stressed. Everyone told me that having 2 is better but that having one isn't bad. I must have been lucky because I have NO issues with him, health/social/behavioral, none.

I personally plan on getting a second pig soon. I just bought a bigger cage so that I can (1) Have a cage to put the new pig in during quarantine and (2) So that they can live with space once they are introduced but I like I said, I got my Marsh from a pet store. I checked out a pet store for the second one too.

How can we show them all love if we judge where they come from. It is in no way their fault they are bred and given to pet stores. I see the point about the horrendous conditions but how do we FIX it.

My question is how do we disregard them because of choices they have no say in the matter of?

PS I hope that Midwestern cage I bought is good enough. It's that one with a divider for the food/play area.

How can we show them all love if we judge where they come from. It is in no way their fault they are bred and given to pet stores. I see the point about the horrendous conditions but how do we FIX it.

My question is how do we disregard them because of choices they have no say in the matter of?

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It's not that we're saying that guinea pigs from pet stores are less important than a rescue pig is. But when you buy a pet store pig you're only supporting the cycle. And the only way to fix it is to boycott pet stores until they sell no more animals.

Yes, the pet store guinea pigs are in need of good homes. But so are rescue pigs. Buying a pet store guinea pig is only dooming another guinea pig. You may 'save' that one pig from the pet store, but you're only sending another into that store, or asking another mother pig to be bred again in a mill.

Hi Hope!

If you really will not get two, and only will get one, then you should find a guinea pig rescue and see if they have any pigs who have to be kept in a single pig household. Most pigs, even when they need to be kept alone, like to be able to sniff and see other guinea pigs, as they are very social and get depressed when alone. However, there will occasionally be the rare pig that needs to be kept alone, and be the only pig in the household, for whatever reasons. I've seen one such pig posted on a rescues website where I live.

However, if you aren't willing to do that, then perhaps you should hold off getting a guinea pig? It's not very nice, and pretty much cruel to keep one by themselves, knowing that they need to be kept with a friend.

If space is an issue, are you sure you have adequate space for one? The space requirements for a single guinea, and a pair of guineas, were pretty identical last time I checked. Recommended minimum size seems to be a 2x4 C&C cage.

It's good that you are researching what you need to know about their care though, as you are correct, there a lot of things people leave out! :0)

ashl3ym0n3t said:

I guess my question to all of this is, how do you stop the cycle while still believing that each guinea pig life is important. The pigs at the pet store are still living and they still need to be loved. I got my Marshmallow from a PetCo before I ever found these forums so I didn't know too much. I knew he should be with another pig but it was a hassle to convince my husband to let me get the one and I also knew that he would be in a classroom with children adoring him so I wasn't to stressed. Everyone told me that having 2 is better but that having one isn't bad. I must have been lucky because I have NO issues with him, health/social/behavioral, none.

I personally plan on getting a second pig soon. I just bought a bigger cage so that I can (1) Have a cage to put the new pig in during quarantine and (2) So that they can live with space once they are introduced but I like I said, I got my Marsh from a pet store. I checked out a pet store for the second one too.

How can we show them all love if we judge where they come from. It is in no way their fault they are bred and given to pet stores. I see the point about the horrendous conditions but how do we FIX it.

My question is how do we disregard them because of choices they have no say in the matter of?

PS I hope that Midwestern cage I bought is good enough. It's that one with a divider for the food/play area.

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It's a fair question, and one that we get asked a lot. I usually explain it using the basic principal of slow change. Think about when segregation was in place, PoC didn't just decide "Hey we should be treated the same as Caucasians" and then boom, instant change, right? They had to work so hard and so long to get the world to change. It's the same with breeding/pet stores.

The other way of putting it, is supply and demand. If there's a demand for a product, it gets ordered in huge batches by the suppliers. By purchasing from a pet store, you're creating a demand for their "product", so they order a nice big supply of guinea pigs that get shipped off to them in no better conditions than tins of soup would to a supermarket. So, if people stop buying from them, eventually, they have to stop ordering. It's not going to happen over night, but eventually, there'll be so little demand for buying them, they'll have to stop supplying, because there'll be no money in it any more.

By no means does anyone here believe a pet store pig is any less deserving of a good home, but you have to see the big picture. That pig in the pet store's mum might have died giving birth to her. She's been bred back to back since she was old enough to reproduce and it will eventually kill her, and all of the other breeder pigs that they have at the mill. They're kept in foul conditions with a terrible diet and no medical support. Even ones that are bred in "nice" conditions are still having their lives risked so that people can have the convenience of a pet store. Regardless of the conditions the sow is in while she's a breeder pig, there's a 1 in 5 chance she'll die because people like convenience.

And, to pre-emptively answer another question that's usually a follow up to all this, no, the world will not "run out" of guinea pigs if breeders and pet stores are shut down. You only need to take a look at the amount of threads regarding accidental pregnancies this forum has alone to know that whether it's deliberate or not, pig pups will keep on coming. They're hard to sex at a young age, and people make mistakes. However, in the event guinea pigs did somehow become endangered, it would be a different story. Breeding would be done to keep the species alive, and that would be for their benefit. It would be done by people who know the risks, can assess genes to prevent lethal whites being born, and people who know how to breed in the safest conditions possible.

So long story short, if you buy from a pet store knowing the damage it's doing to guinea pigs world wide, you're telling the stores and the breeders and the mills that it's okay to risk so many sows lives (and other pups, too. Plenty of pups die during birth) for the sake of paying in cash with no form to fill out.

I tried to edit my post, but it was beyond the 10 min window. To expand on keeping a guinea pig singly, think of it this way Would you like to be kept alone, with no interaction with any other humans, but only animals of different species for your whole life? You wouldn't be able to communicate with anyone, play with anyone, or even snuggle with anyone. You would only get attention when the other animal species had time for you, and would be kept in isolation the rest of the time. That'd be a sad and lonely life, wouldn't it?

Also, please don't get your guineas from petco or petsmart. I completely understand the allure of seeing a cute, fuzzy little guinea pig while shopping there, and wanting to bring them home with you. But for you to have that one pig, hundreds, if not more, have died horrible deaths that you don't know about. Is the convenience of getting them there, worth the countless lives of the other guinea pigs? The only way to truly help pet store guinea pigs, is to not buy them and boycott them.

EDIT: I apologize pinky for saying pretty much what you said, I only skimmed through the 2nd page before posting my reply

Also, to the person who mentioned fish, you are correct, they are a lot more complicated to care for than any land mammal, including guinea pigs. There is so much chemistry involved in water maintenance, and creating a false environment, then so many people realize. Cats are the easiest companion animal, fish are probably the least.