General my brother is neglecting his piggy and i’m not sure what to do.

[piggyprotector99]

my brother got a guinea pig two or so years ago during quarantine. his original plan was to keep her in a tank with a lid while she wears still tiny and upgrade to a bigger tank when she started growing. he was doing well with care at first but it has gotten so out of hand.

the tank is tiny and he has not upgraded it. with his work and school schedule he barely has time to take care of her. he hasn’t cleaned her tank in well over a month and a hallf, and the bedding and hay he feeds her are piled up so high at the bottom that she has almost no access to the water bottle (which is so moldy inside that you have to fill the bottle, shake out the mold, and then refill the water). he has no intention of buying another one, which is good because he can’t even take care of the one he has, but is bad for her socially because he also barely ever takes her out of the tank. im usually the one who takes care of her (giving her fresh hay and water, etc). he ran out of her dry food weeks ago and had been feeding her a handful of carrot chips and some baby spinach twice a day.

she only has a plastic hide and some paper towel tubing in her tank and she’s chewed all around the entrance to the hide so bad she can get her entire food bowl inside the hide. he hasn’t even attempted to clip her nails in forever, and they’re curling under her feet. she seems healthy physically, if not just overweight from lack of space to run around.

i don’t know what to do. my parents won’t do anything about this, and every time i bring it up he makes false claims like ‘oh i took her out of the cage yesterday’ or ‘i filled her water before i left for work’ when i know for a fact he didn’t because i was home or had to do it myself. the cage is attracting bugs and making our room smell really bad. i can’t take her out of the cage without her getting skittish and trying to nip my fingers (not aggressively, more as a ‘don’t touch me’ warning). i can’t rehome her or try to take her to a rescue without getting into major trouble with my parents. im barely home during the week as well, i have a job and and am a full time college student, so i try to help when i can but can’t provide even the basic level of care she needs. i genuinely feel horrible for the poor baby… she has no space to move around and she’s drinking moldy water every day. does anyone have any advice? what do i do?

 

[Soecara]

My first suggestion would be to raise the smell issue with your parents, get them to go into the room and smell it themselves and look at the state of the tank. Mention it is hard to live in the room with the smell let alone do things like study.

My second suggestion is to make them go and look every time before you do anything like filling up the water. I have no doubt a smelly and neglected tank with a guinea pig in it is also attracting bugs, mention that too. Keep making it your parents problem until they do something about it.

Once they see it is an issue float the idea of rehoming the guinea pig, they might be more open to it if you keep making it their problem.

 

[4boipigs]

Call animal control on your family if nothing else works. It is still considered neglect even if it “just a guinea pig”.