Hairless guinea pigs.

[i-love-nev]

Cute/Ugly/Cute/Ugly/Cute/inbred!

 

[Jenni_Feathers]

Cute/inbred and I wish they would stop being bred.

 

[MCR_Rox]

Cute/should be treated like a normal pig ( except for care, of course) / shouldn't be bred

 

[ctinaw]

I think they are cugly . I also think they'd be pretty cold *shivers*

 

[guineapigqueen]

I agree with you all that Skinnys should not be sold into the wrong hands.

I have had two Skinnys...
Capy my first girl sadly died a very premature age of 7mths old, she had a terrible reaction to the lotion, I was applying to her skin and suffered with dry skin for weeks to follow. I found something else that she was not allergic to but then she sadly died due to Diarrhoea, I took her to the vets but nothing could be done for her.

Kanika on the other hand is as fit as a lop, she is currently only 5mths old but is the same size as Capy and my 5mth old boar. She currently weighs around 650grams and I have only applied cream once to her skin and that was after going in the bath, like us humans do to restore the moisture lost after drying ourselves. She currently lives with 4 other hairy piggies and they all get on great together. I have never noticed any scabs or scratches on her and I handle her everyday just like the other piggies.

I was speaking to a friend of mine in America and she has a skinny that is 6.5yrs old and she said she has healthy and any hairy piggy.

Maybe Skinnys shouldnt be bred at all but it looks like they are here to stay. I know within Europe there is a lot of Skinny breeders and they have been outcrossing them to Himalayans and other pigs to strengthen the pig itself.

I was told recently that Baldwins do not have a Thymus gland, this is what stores the whiteblood cells, see this link but its reguarding humans... Thymus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
So Baldwins have only a limited amount of white blood cells within there body at one time which come from the bone marrow, were they are produced. So sometimes they are not strong enough to fit of even a very small cold.

Emma

 

[piggly wiggly]

They are soooo very cute, sweet, need love the same as any other animal, and no animal should be bred!

 

[piggly wiggly]

Your Newman is sooo cute. I like the black ones and coloured, they are so cute. My guy is all pink with a white beard, he looks like santa. I have a sphynx cat that kind of looks like your Newman, except she is calico, so she is black, pink and brown skin, but her face is mostly black like your guy, too cute.

 

[VoodooJoint]

I have owned my 4 skinny pigs for almost 3 years and they have always been healthy with me.

The statements made are bases on accounts of rescuers and people that have cared for skinnies far longer then you have and had more come into their care.

Your skinnies are still young so you don't know what their longevity will be. Genetic issues often don't appear until a GP reaches 3 so there is still time for problems to surface.

As far as "responsible" breeders, I have never come across one. In fact the "responsible breeder", mentioned in another (broken link removed), is up to litter #8 (since August 07). Pumping out litters that fast it would be impossible to be doing it responsibly.

I do hope those skinnies you have remain healthy, but you are trying to rehome them, right? You may never know how their health turns out or how long they live.

Just to reiterate, again, no one has anything against skinnies. Most of us do have a huge problem with these genetic mutations being purposely bred when the cards are stacked against them.

 

[VoodooJoint]

I just don't want skinny pigs to be stereotyped as the whole breed is guaranteed problems.

There are always exceptions. I'm certain there are skinnies that live long, healthy lives. From all of my experience though I would have to say that it is the minority that does so.

Haired "mutt" guinea pigs can have problems as well but most of them live long, healthy lives as long as they are cared from properly. I know this from the vast experience of others that have owned GPs and cared for GPs. If I was to go on my own experience as my sole source of information I would have to say that guinea pigs are, in general, unhealthy animals. I have only had 1 healthy pigs out of the 8 most recent that passed through my hands;
-1 female had ovarian cysts
-1 Fem had ovarian cysts and later genetic malocclusion and died during surgery to trim her teeth
-1 male has a reoccurring surface cyst requiring occasional draining/cleaning
-1 male (rescued lab animal adopted out) died suddenly of no know cause at only ~4 years old
-1 male (adopted out) has hair loss from a possible fungal/yeast infection (being treated with little success)
-1 female had mites and skin disorders and died from complications from treatment/stress
-1 female had mites, skin infections (last known as cured).

As you can see my personal experience is very different then most people's but I cannot use my personal experience alone to judge the species. Either we have very poor GP genetics down south or I am extremely unlucky (or rather my guinea pigs are). My experience is a small drop into a large ocean of info and I rely on the "ocean" to form my judgements rather then my personal drop into that ocean. Your experience is the same way--one drop. We have to rely on the ocean of information over one or two personal experiences.