Want a Guinea Pig(s) Petsmart piggies?

[AddysPiggies]

Awwww thank you![emoji4] @LuvCavysLuvCats!!

 

[MrsGuineaPig]

I was one of the lucky people to have a pig from a pet store and not have problems! I hope you find your right pair of piggies!

 

[pinky]

@AddysPiggies It doesn't sound rude at all hun. I completely understand. I will not get any animal unless I feel a connection. After all you're not rescuing just to rescue, you're also rescuing so you can have a pet. You should feel a connection and no one should judge you for wanting that. Though I don't think anyone will.
@pinky WOW there are so many piggies listed there... and 50 more not listed?! Wow. Poor piggies. Is that a normal amount to be listed for your area?

Yes. Chicago is a huge city and the local shelters contact the rescue when they have guinea pigs that haven't been adopted so they take in those and those surrendered directly to them. I'm not sure of the number that they recently took in. I don't foster. I do adoptions if someone in my area is interested in a guinea pig and I do email follow ups for the rescue.

 

[CavieGuy]

I was wondering if piggies from petsmart were ok to get. I know a lot of people have trouble buying them from petco but idk about petsmart. I want a new pig and all of the near by rescues don't have a pig that is right for me. So I was just wondering if u guys had any experience?

Before I knew any better, I did get two Piggies from PetSmart and the other 2 from a Rescue. One of my PetSmart Pig had URI when I bought her, they had a policy that they will take her to vet but had to observe her for 3 days until they can take her to the Vet. I made a big stink and they took her that day and treated her for 10 days. The other PetSmart pig didn't have any issues with her.

After doing further research, I discovered that there was a Guinea Pig rescue so I adopted two more. I do know that my rescue always have pups for adoption.

I also know that 3 PetCo's have a relationship with a different rescue to get all their Guinea Pigs from them.

 

[PreciousPigs]

I got both my pigs from Petsmart. My personal opinion on shopping or adopting is indifferent. Either way, you are saving a life, because all pigs start out the same way. It's like adopting a child. You don't not adopt him, just because he was from a different country, or his mother had a lot of kids. Most rescued piggies come from people who bought them at Petstores, so I'm biased on adopting or shopping. All lives are precious.

 

[MrsGuineaPig]

I understand @PreciousPigs but once you buy a pig from PetSmart or PetCo, as @bpatters already stated, you're funding them and supporting them to keep breeding and keep getting the guinea pigs from mills.

 

[bouncer36]

Then what does the Petsmart do with pigs that been there for months and months that no one will buy. What happens to them?

 

[kanojochan]

Petsmart will eventually put the older piggies up for adoption.

Be careful of what they tell you about piggy care; even the employees who work in the small animal department as a "specialist" will give the wrong information, so do your research on their care beforehand. The girl who is supposedly the head of the department at my location would tell me that piggies do fine on their own and don't necessarily need a companion. It was pretty disappointing. I didn't even want to know what she'd tell me about cages and nutrition.

I work at Banfield and most vets are not super familiar with exotic medicine. There are a few in the company that are comfortable working with them, but it'll be a challenge finding them. I recommend finding a pig-knowledgeable exotics vet in your area before adopting :3

 

[Deniselynn]

Critter Corral is awesome. I was going to adopt through them (found my two girls on CL) and one of their volunteers reached out to me and was so sweet. I highly suggest getting a piggy or two from them.

 

[AddysPiggies]

Ok thank you! I was considering it and now I'm defendant!

 

[Princess_Piggie]

Then what does the Petsmart do with pigs that been there for months and months that no one will buy. What happens to them?

There are also some cases in which pet stores will put their "unsold" animals to sleep. I'm not sure if Petsmart do it (I don't live in the US) but I have read of a few incidents like that.

@PreciousPigs the difference with human adoption is that when you adopt a child, you don't put in an order to have a woman impregnated against her will and then potentially die during birth to children that may or may not survive delivery. When you buy a pet shop piggie, you put that order in to have that all happen to some poor sow in terrible conditions with minimal nutrition who's likely kept constantly pregnant.

 

[DewOver]

Ok @pinky I live in Rockford Illinois

I grew up in Rockford. I am now near Crystal Lake. We adopted our two little guys from No Splitting Hares, a rescue in Algonquin, on October 5th. They had a lot of them left. You can get the rescue's info on Petfinder. They also can sell you good quality hay year round, very cheap.

Another thing about choosing where to get your piggies that a lot of people don't know -- female baby Guinea Pigs can get pregnant at 4 WEEKS old and males are fertile at 7-13 weeks. A Guinea pig's pregnancy lasts about two months. It's very, very easy to adopt/buy a pregnant Gpig by accident, even if the petstore/person trying to get rid of it swears it's male. Rescue groups do not make that mistake.

Lots of people posting their Gpigs on Craigslist haven't the first clue what they're doing. While researching this last month I talked to a woman who was listing a "daddy and baby" Gpig on Craigslist. The baby was about two months old, had curly hair, was absolutely adorable. I asked her, what sex is the baby? She said she didn't know. Okay, fair enough, at least she didn't lie about it. But she was trying to get the "daddy and baby" adopted together... 50% chance that baby was female and "daddy" would have her pregnant almost immediately. So I asked her where she was keeping them and she said, "Don't worry, I'm keeping them separate. The baby is with its mama." Uh... so if it's male, you're going to have another batch of babies on Craiglist in a couple months. Oy.

 

[AddysPiggies]

Oh cool! And Ikr! The nerve of some people these days[emoji23]

 

[bpatters]

@DewOver, boys can actually impregnate females as early as four weeks of age. Anybody 7-13 weeks to separate a male from females will have pups running around.

 

[DewOver]

@DewOver, boys can actually impregnate females as early as four weeks of age. Anybody 7-13 weeks to separate a male from females will have pups running around.

You know, I wondered about that, why there would be such an age difference between males and females for fertility. I can't remember now where I got that info. Somewhere on the internet, lol, so you know it has to be true!

 

[PreciousPigs]

I totally get what your saying. My personal opinion is that any life is precious, and while I still suggest adopting first, you're still changing some little pig's life, regardless of where he came from.

 

[Rembaud]

Definitely go with Critter Corral: ) I adopted my two girls from there in August. I adopted a mother-daughter pair; the daughter is still a baby! My girls are incredibly healthy and even though I hadn't met them before adopting them, I fell in love the moment we took them home

 

[DewOver]

Then what does the Petsmart do with pigs that been there for months and months that no one will buy. What happens to them?

The last time I was in Petsmart, or Petco, I don't remember which (they're all the same to me) there was a Guinea pig with a tag on the cage that said, "Reduced 50% for quick sale! Mature animal."

 

[DewOver]

@AddysPiggies There's also a Guinea pig rescue in Madison, I think. Look on Petfinder. A lot of times the rescues don't have pics of all their available Guinea pigs posted but you can find the nearby rescue groups that way and call them.

 

[DewOver]

I got both my pigs from (broken link removed). My personal opinion on shopping or adopting is indifferent. Either way, you are saving a life, because all pigs start out the same way. It's like adopting a child. You don't not adopt him, just because he was from a different country, or his mother had a lot of kids. Most rescued piggies come from people who bought them at Petstores, so I'm biased on adopting or shopping. All lives are precious.

I totally get what your saying. My personal opinion is that any life is precious, and while I still suggest adopting first, you're still changing some little pig's life, regardless of where he came from.

It's is certainly true that you're changing one pig's life. The problem is, with a pet store purchase you aren't just helping that one that you buy. You're causing the pet stores to have a reason to buy another piggy from a breeder, which gives the breeders a reason to go right on breeding more animals. It's very simple supply and demand.

Keep in mind, a breeder who is trying to make a profit can't take good care of the animals, it costs too much. Any idiot can breed Guinea pigs, all you need is a male female pair and babies are bound to happen. You don't have to give them enough space or decent food or vet care or clean cages or anything. One in five pregnancies results in the death of a sow, oh well, there's more where that one came from. The animals are inbred, unhealthy, unsocialized, oh well, they all look the same to the customer.

Yes, many rescued pigs originally came from breeding mills/pet stores. I don't see why that matters. Wherever a rescued pig was born, getting it from a rescue does not create more demand for pet stores and breeders. It does create another opening for the rescue organization to save another animal.

No, it is not like adopting a child. People generally don't consider a child to be disposable. They don't adopt a baby to give to their six-year-old as a birthday present, expecting the six-year-old to care for it. Breeders don't breed children to sell them trying to make a profit, they don't keep women and force them to give birth over and over under disgusting conditions. Adoptive parents know that a child requires a certain amount of space, food, medical care, time and attention, education, and so on. In most places adoptions are highly regulated and require home inspections, background checks, and court involvement. It's not something that can be done on a whim because the baby is there looking cute one Saturday morning when you're bored.

You aren't offered children to adopt randomly and then decide, "oh, I don't want that one, she's from the wrong country." Adopting a child is a years-long process and you do have to make decisions about the adoption agency you'll use, the country you are going to adopt from, the race/ethnicity of the child, the age and gender of the child, the health status and social background, and so on. Those decisions are not about supply and demand. Adopting a child does not give incentive for more children to be bred.

"All lives are precious" is a lovely sentiment but there's a lot more to consider than that. If you "save" a pet from a pet store or breeder you are contributing to the problem more than helping to solve it.