Friend won't seperate her male and female :(

[Roxymarie365]

One of my close friends houses both her MALE and FEMALE in the SAME cage! On top of this they are always out of hay, pellets, and they hardly ever get veggies (and when they do, they are 99% of the time rotten). The poopr pigs are living in a petsmart built cage that would probably be equivelent to a 2x2 c&c cage. She apparently is the gp wiz in her family. I've tried explaining to her that your guinea pig will get pregnant and she isn't healthy enough to have babies. Her response every time is "Well, she just runs away when he comes near her." I just don't know what to do. I just needed to vent to someone so I thought this would be the best place.

 

[Roxymarie365]

(and when they do, they are 99% of the time rotten). The poopr pigs are living in a petsmart built cage.

Meant to say poor not poopr

 

[nicholelynne]

How frusterating!! If she wont listen to you, maybe her parents would...

 

[Keekers]

Here's a care guide that you can show her. https://www.guinealynx.info/healthycavy.html

Also tell her that if her pig gets pregnant, there is a 20% chance of dying. If she truly cared about her pigs she wouldn't take that chance. Sometimes the problem is being uneducated rather than not caring.

Also tell her that guinea pigs are severely overpopulated. Here is a link that you can use to persuade her.

Breeding Guinea Pigs

 

[Roxymarie365]

How frusterating!! If she wont listen to you, maybe her parents would...

Ignorance runs in her family and I've tried telling the parents. They have the exact same answer. Thanks for caring

 

[SurfingPigs]

Assuming this person is still living at home and relying upon her parents for money, you could point out the inherent issue of doubling the number of pigs in the house... the food cost doubles. If her parents aren't the primary caregivers, they probably wouldn't be thrilled about buying extra everything because of their child's reckless decisions.

ETA: Are her parents prepared for their potential vet bills to double as well?

 

[Roxymarie365]

@SurfingPigs that is a good point. I will explain this to the parent's and hopefully win them over. It's just so frustrating that she doesn't care. I think I'm also going to try and explain to her that by every little baby she brings into this world, more guinea pigs in the shelter will be killed, and it's not easy to care for baby pigs (From my own experience, We thought we had 2 boys). Anyway, Thank you all so much for giving such great advice.

 

[avengedsoph]

i think it is wrong what she is doing, she needs a better cage and food for the piggies but if she wont separate them then thats her problem, if she wants to breed let her, she will be the one with all the vet bills she will be the one paying out more and will have to re-home the babies. if you wont leave her to it call someone who can do something about it.

 

[Roxymarie365]

@avengedsoph That's a good point. I think the main reason I'm so upset is that the girl guinea pig used to be MY PIGGIE! The whole backstory behind the pig is that my family adopted what we thought were two male guinea pigs. We later found out that Momo was a girl and was pregnant. My friend was the one that noticed she was pregnant so we gave her first dibs (She also watched my pregnant Momo while we were gone for vacation). She and her sister took two pigs and bought two seperate cages. They took a male and female. They promised my family that they would take good care of them and keep them seperated. Then the little sister lost interest in the male pig and never cleaned the cage. This brought my friend to join the two GP together because they were each depressed and they didn't want them living in dirty cages. I think that's why I'm so paranoid and stressed over this. When I first gave her the pig she took great care of her and everything. I'm not exactly sure why she wants them to have babies anyway. I would just be so upset if something bad happened to the female guinea pig. I just wish she would see the big picture of vet costs, food costs, rehoming, and all the pigs dying in the shelter.

P.S. They had other pigs before these two. I'm not sure if anything was wrong with them though because I didn't own any at that time and I wasn't educated enough to notice anything serious.
Thank you all so much for helping me

 

[ellisa]

i think it is wrong what she is doing, she needs a better cage and food for the piggies but if she wont separate them then thats her problem, if she wants to breed let her, she will be the one with all the vet bills she will be the one paying out more and will have to re-home the babies. if you wont leave her to it call someone who can do something about it.

I think the worry is about the welfare of the pigs and the potential pups. Not the stress it will put on the owner if they have pups.

I know she is your friend but I would just straight up tell her that you don't agree with anything she is doing for the pigs. A true friend would listen to you and take the hint, even though it may be upsetting to tell her. I would show her all the info provided on this site and on the CavySpirit site.

 

[Kimberly713]

As hard as it may be, just be straight out honest with her. Explain that she promised to keep them separated for a reason, and she need to stick to her word. Perhaps if you can accomadate two temporary cages look for new homes for the pigs yourself. To me it sounds like she may not even care about the pigs if she doesn't give them the proper care anyways. I'm sure you could find someone who will take in the pig(s) and care for them responsibly.

That's what I would do anyhow.

 

[avengedsoph]

if they were yours first just take one or both off her, your only doing it for the good of the piggies

 

[Kieri]

if they are honestly lacking food like you say and because of her female being at risk of pregnancy or back to back pregnancies, you could probably get some sort of animal rescue involved.

if anything, offer her some money to buy the pigs from her.

 

[Roxymarie365]

Everyone is so nice and supportive. The next time I see her, I'm just going to straight up tell her she needs to give them better treatment and what she is doing is just wrong. As I said in a previos post, I just wouldn't want anything bad to happen to either pigs. I might be able to rescue the girl from her, but sadly not the boy (I have two unspayed girls and one neutered male). I will be able to see her in about a day, and I will give you all an update. Thanks again for being so supportive.

 

[KristenMatejka]

Where are you located?

 

[Roxymarie365]

Today when I saw her, I mentioned that I just ordered a 2x5 from the online store (so excited!) so that I could get her on the topic of guinea pigs. After that I said why don't you get a male and a female gunie pig friend for each one of your pigs. Her answer was my dad won't let me. I started arguing with her about if her dad won't let her get two more pigs, then why would you think that he would let you have baby guinea pigs. I also lectured her about increased food/vet bills. I also told her that 1/5 pigs die from birth. I can tell she didn't want to talk about it and ske kept changing the subject. We met up with her mom and I told her that you should get each pig a buddy. She told me her husband wouldn't let them. She also then said that they can only get more pigs if they had babies. I was so infuriated by them that I just walked the rest of the way home.
I'm not sure what else I could do to pursuade them. I'm going to see her (and her mom) again tommorow. Hopefully I will get better results than today.

 

[Roxymarie365]

Where are you located?

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

[ellisa]

I'm so sorry that it didn't go over very well. Maybe once they have time to think about what you told them they will change their minds. We can only hope. Also, if you say it enough it might help them realize that you're right. Keep trying! Don't give up! We're here for you! Good luck tomorrow and please keep us updated
Also, maybe she didn't want to talk about it because she feels guilty? Hopefully she'll change her mind about things.

 

[kirsty91]

That's terrible, it almost sounds as if they want the babies because then they can have more piggies.

 

[Onetwo]

Maybe you need stats. Print out statistics about cost of vet care for guinea pigs. Especially birth, c-sections and such. Maybe track down the dad and talk to him about it calmly. You probably arn't getting a positive reaction because you are not staying calm. Maybe write a letter? If they cannot provide basic care for the guinea pigs then you can report them for animal abuse/neglect. If it continues to bother you and no one else will help then it is out of your hands and you have to unfriend and know that you have done everything in your power to help. Sometimes in growing up you have to learn to change the things you can can't and when to let go of the things you can't. If you don't it will eat you up inside. I've been through this before, I know how had it is to get people to listen when they don't/won't. Good luck and keep us updated...