Adopting Did You Pick Your Pig or Choose Him/Her Sight Unseen?

[mufasa]

As I was sitting here watching Amy and Quinn in their playpen, I realized that I chose both of them sight unseen.

My first piggy, Mufasa, was a pet store piggy before I knew any better, and he was chosen from a sad glass tank full of pig babies. It was almost impossible to pick, but he did the tie-breaker by coming up to sniff my husband's hand.

Borat was chosen from Petfinder, although that was more about proximity of the animal shelter (an hour away, which was the closest with piggies at the time). But there were two on the website, and my husband chose Bo from his picture. He made the right pick since the other piggy was adopted right before we got there.

Things got changed up with Amy and Quinn. Amy was on Craigslist, but there was no photo or description so we set off to see her without knowing she was a red-head full of Abby-tude. I didn't even talk to her owner beforehand, just exchanged a couple texts. She was almost an hour away, so we knew we'd be coming home with her no matter what, and now she's my beloved Tank Girl.

Quinn was total serendipity. I called Petco to ask if they had the number of a small animal rescue I'd seen somewhere doing adoptions. The girl said someone was bringing an unwanted piggy to the store that night. We'd put Bo put to sleep that morning, so I planned to go through a rescue and get a piggy within the next week or two, but that coincidence made me think Quinn was meant to come to us. I called that night to confirm she'd been dropped off and find out her sex (we needed a sow). I didn't know her color or age till we got there, but it didn't matter because she needed a home.

Anyone else get sight-unseen piggies, or do you always pick?

 

[Catahoula]

I got my 3 piggers from the Crazy Cavies Guinea Pig Rescue. They do a great job of keeping their adoption list online up to date. I was able to look at all the piggies they had at the rescue, all 33 of them!

Originally I had chosen a bonded pair of senior ladies, but when I contacted the rescue they sadly informed me that one had just passed a day or two earlier. I asked if they still thought it was a good idea to take the other girl, but considering the circumstances I was advised she'd probably be less stressed staying with them.

So I was back online viewing all the pictures to try to find my runner-up choice. I settled on a neutered boar with the sweetest piggy lips and his cage mate, a little girl named Ginger. Again, the rescue called me to let me know there was a problem. Ginger had another interested family. Normally they don't hold pigs, but I had submitted my application first and was traveling 3 hours, so they offered to keep her aside and tell the other family she had been adopted. I told them it wasn't necessary, that if another family wanted to give Ginger a home I wasn't going to be selfish and have them hide her from them.

So I showed up knowing the face of all 33 pigs at the rescue, but really no clue which one(s) I would choose. I was still in love with Goose and his cute little lips, so I let him pick his friends. He choose Stella and Ruby. I kindly thanked the rescue for their time and consideration and headed home with my 3 little piggies.

 

[saved_by_grace]

I Only got one at the moment which is my first i have had her for about two weeks now i picked out of a liter of 4 including her

 

[saved_by_grace]

I will be getting another once female pig to go with the one her as well but not sure how i will get the next one

 

[Momma2000]

Our story is as follows:

When we decided to get guines pigs, I researched and found a rescue only about an hour from us. I e-mailed the lady in charge of the rescue and told her I wanted three sows because i did not want to clean anal sacks. She e-mailed me back that a breeder had just dumped a bunch of piggies at a local store, and she had many available, and many pregnant females. They were listed on petfinder. My daughter went on to the site, and said she had found the one for her. It was a peruvian male! I said OK, I would take the cagemate, and my son would choose a baby to join the other two. I suspected that when we went to the rescue my daughter would change her mind because there were so many beautiful piggies. Little did I know We went to visit the piggies, and the one my daughter chose, snuggled right up to her like she was his long lost best friend. However, the cagemate, which was to be mine, chattered at me. He really didn't like me. My son asked to hold him, and so I decidedto let my son try to calm him. The guinea pig snuggled under his arm like he had found his home. When we tried to take that little guy away from my son, he squealed like we were killing him. So, I would say those piggies chose us. We are going to visit again tomorrow. I will then choose the baby to be grouped with the two already reserved for us. I expect that the baby will choose me though On August 20, we will bring our three boys home together. And, after more research, I am no longer dreading anal sac cleaning and grease gland cleaning. I can't wait for our guinea pig adventure to begin.

 

[Catahoula]

I will be getting another once female pig to go with the one her as well but not sure how i will get the next one

If Gracie is pregnant, than hold off on getting another pig. You could keep a female baby if she has one and that would be your pair (or trio...depending on how many girls she might have and how many you can keep)

 

[saved_by_grace]

okay will do thanks again

 

[mufasa]

Such cute stories! Even though Quinn was a "sight unseen" piggy, she and hubby bonded the moment he met her. It worked out really well because she's his little buddy, and Amy is definitely my piggy. She squeals like she's being murdered when hubby holds her, but she snuggles happily with me. Meanwhile, Quinn just loves to run up and cuddle under hubby's chin. It's funny how our sight-unseen piggies fit so perfectly into the family.

 

[LifeAsItMayBe]

I first saw Zelda on Petfinder and was planning to get her and her roommate. The roommate was gone when I went in (good thing too, as it turned out the shelter sexed incorrectly), so I got Zelda by herself. I kept checking online for a local pig to keep her company, but by the time I found one I suspected Zelda was pregnant and wouldn't need me to find a buddy for her. I guess you could say I got the babies "sight unseen." lol

 

[iamsnape]

I did see a picture of Noah before I adopted him, but he was the only piggy left to be rehomed anyway I didn't get to see Elmo before I picked him out but I did get a text saying there was a black and ginger male or cream male for adoption so I went for the black/ginger, because Noah's cream and I wanted to be able to tell them apart

 

[Owned by cavy]

My story:

I did considerable research on here before I got into guinea pigs. My boyfriend was against it, because he didn't want a cage the size they needed taking up space in the house. I understood and we decided to hold off for a while, until we could figure out what to do next.

Meanwhile, I was member of a bunch of facebook groups for pets in my area. Mostly to hand out advice, but also, to see what was available. I stumbled onto a picture from a very nice woman. She had two guinea pigs that needed to be rehomed, because her husband had just received a temporary post in California and they would be moving for one year and then have to move back. She didn't want the stress of trying to keep them in a rental home for one year and then moving them back. The original price was 50 dollars. That included the cage and everything she had for them. She'd been advertising for a while, but noone was interested or met her criteria. I got in touch with her and found out that she was moving in 2 weeks! She said that she would drop the price to 30 dollars if I could come get them by that Friday. I decided that I would make the 2 1/2 hour drive fearing the worst. For that price, I thought for sure I would be getting pigs that weren't in the best shape in a tiny cage. Turned out that she had 2 beautiful very social 3 year old girls in a 2x5 C&C cage with 2 piggie bed spreads and everything that they needed. So Tasha and Lola joined our family!

I did a little more research and decided that I would adopt one for female. I've heard about the stress that bonded pairs go through when their cagemate dies. I figured that if I added a 3rd, then the stress would be less, because there would always be at least 2 in the cage. A friend of mine was looking to get rid of a female guinea pig that she had gotten for her kids, but they didn't play with her. So I went to pick her up, she was in a tiny cage, with half an apple and a couple baby carrots. *sigh* When I picked her up, I was told, oh by the way, we're pretty sure she's pregnant. *bigger sigh* So I brought home my beautiful new girl (Coal) and put her in a quarantine cage. I thought that I would give her the time to make sure she was healthy and then add her into a very clean cage with my other two girls.

Well, she only made it 2 1/2 weeks before she gave birth, so she ended up spending a longer time in there. But it's much bigger than the crappy pet store cage she was in. Now the babies are about 1 month old. I still haven't added Coal and Trixie (the only baby girl from the litter) in with Tasha and Lola. I want to wait until she is a little bit bigger. Speed and Comet (the two boys from the litter) live in their own cage and are happy and healthy little boys.

My pigs definitely didn't pick me, but it was pure luck that it happened the way it did. I now have a herd of 6 and I love every single one of them. I did have adoptions lined up for the babies, but the girl that was going to take a boy and the girl ended up adopting out the two boys that she had (she also told me that she had a room for them, she's adopting them out with a tiny pet store cage, *biggest sigh yet for her lying*) so I'm really glad that I didn't finalize anything with her. I have a friend that lives 3 hours away, she's the one that told me about this site in the first place, so if she ever decides that she wants a baby, I would adopt her one of the boys. But it looks like they're going to be spending their lives with me. I'm ok with that.

Pure luck and chance that the beautiful babies are as wonderful as they are. I was also told the Coal was a nipper and that she didn't like to be handled. In my experience, she's not a huge fan of being picked up but she loves to sit happily in my lap and be snuggled, Lola is kind of skittish and doesn't like to be picked up (her previous owner told me she'd always been that way), but she loves to run around in my lap and be petted. Tasha is the calmest, sweetest pig in the world. She calmly lets me pick her up and when she sits in my lap she refuses to move. All she wants is to sit with me, snuggle into a towel and watch some TV. Comet runs a lot. He doesn't like to be caught and when I pick him up, he doesn't want to snuggle, he wants to run. Speed is the sweetest and calmest out of all the babies. He's content to sit in my lap and be petted and talked to. Trixie is still very much the baby. She'll sort of let me pick her up and pet her, but then she'll wheek as loud and as long as she can until I put her back in with momma. Their personalities are just amazing and I can't tell you how lucky I am that they all blend in so nicely with our family!

Sorry that I kind of hijacked the thread! I just had to tell you all how sweet my herd is!!!

 

[kananaka]

Site unseen. Heard that a girl in my daughters class was giving them away, took them about 1 1/2 weeks later but never saw them b4 we got them.

 

[Cholland]

I got both my girls from my friend.. who had prieviously rescued 16 guinea pigs and 12 rabbits from what was described to me as a devastating sight! there were over 100 little animals including rabbits, guineas and chicks in this womans home.. and the baby guineas and rabbits were kept in HAMSTER cages!! some of the animals were indoors and some outdoors, all in contraptions made out of wardrobes.. the space was apparently 1 square meter per 10 animals and their bedding was poo on top of poo on top of more poo...
My friend took as many as she could carry, and called the RSPCA to get the rest removed, but this story disturbed me so much.
I have never been interested in small animals such as guineas, but I went over to help my friend clean them up and !!cut out the dreadlocks and matted hair" bath all of them and find space for them all. All of the animals were taken to the vet and checked over, which cost my friend a small fortune!
Once the Guineas and rabbits started to recover she made a site to try and re-home some of them, as she now has over 30 small animals and has paid out thousands in vet bills, food and bedding, and also having to make a whole wall series of hutches for the rescuees.
And as I had been helping them to recover I got to know most of them.. and noticed that the two girls, caramel and Misty, whome were both pregnant when found.. both gave birth a week apart from one another, and both litters were still born. Misty ended up eating through the back of the hutch to make a hole so she could talk to Caramel.. This is what let me know that these two girls had to come home with me. and now, Im in love with them both.. theyre like little babies, you just want to spoil them haha.

So far, my friend has re-homed 6 guineas in pairs, plus my two girls.. and also re-homed 4 of the rabbits.. and all of the animals so far are doing well now. Also we had a call from the rspca and we were told that the woman we reported has been charged and all animals removed... so this story does have a happy ending

Answering the question.. I don't know.. I didn't really pick my two girls.. they kind of picked me

 

[aemsva]

We picked eachother. I was looking on plenty of websites trying to find the perfect piggy. I decided that I wanted to rescue a pig so I went on my citys humane society website, and there was a mom and 5 pups available. I knew that I wanted a sow, and there were two 2 month olds available and the mom. From the moment I laid eyes on her picture, I knew that I wanted Kiki (then Cocoa), and I spend over a week trying to convince my family member to let me go and get her.

When we went to see her at the humane society, her sister had already been adopted and she was in a cage with her mom. I saw her and she was so stunning! I picked her up and put her in my grandma's hands and she just sat there starring at my grandma, and when I held her she was so relaxed. On the other hand, her mom was so scittish and I didn't get the chance to pick her up.

It was also my birthday so she was my birthday present that I bought myself!

 

[PiBee]

I got all three of mine at Petco. My last one I got in June, she had been in there all alone for months because no one wanted an "albino". She was alone but popcorning all around the cage, jumping on top of the pigloos, and coming up to the glass when my face was there. She stole my heart. I knew the girl personally who was in charge of the guinea pigs and I knew she took good care of them.

Now that I'm only left with the one, though, next week I'm going to look for any guinea pigs around my area to adopt I'm wary of Petco because there are usually so many pigs together and I don't want sickness to spread.

 

[Ithilgil]

I got mines off of kijiji. There were two pictures of the girls, but now that I think about it, the photos were a bit different then how they actually look like. In the photos, they looked a bit more plump and their fur less messy and more glossy (they're abbys).

 

[Rayvn]

In my case, it's a bit of a mash up. Picked my first pig, Leo, out in a pet store (I'm sorry, but it was love at first sight). Here's a pic of him:

After many months of keeping him alone, I acquired another pig (Raphael) without ever seeing him. A friend of a friend needed to get rid of him, and she needed to find someone to give him to. It was either this or back to the pet store. And so, he is now living in a partitioned 2x6 cage with Leo lol. Here he is:

 

[PiBee]

[MENTION=19705]Rayvn[/MENTION] Those are BEAUTIFUL pigs!!

 

[Rayvn]

@Rayvn Those are BEAUTIFUL pigs!!

Thank you! They're adorable, aren't they?

 

[ellisa]

I had no idea what Penny was going to look like when I went to pick her up. I actually posted an ad looking for any pigs that needed new homes and that's how I got my Penny. Her previous owner replied to my ad. She didn't send me a picture or a description of what she looked like. When I got to the house to pick her up, I peered into a cardboard box and saw the loveliest little abby staring back at me.


I saw Sheldon's ad on kijiji. There was only one picture, but it was taken with a webcam so it wasn't a good one. The picture didn't do him justice at all!

I took both of my pigs without knowing anything about them or what their personalities were like. I love them both so much, I don't know what I would do without them! :heart: