Adopt vs. Buy To rescue from a bad home on CL or to adopt from sanctuary? That is the questiion

[dani_starr]

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum to post this thread, so mods/admin, please move my thread to a more appropriate forum if needed

Anyhoo, I've been thinking about getting a couple guinea friends once my boyfriend and I finally move to a one or two bedroom apartment in a few months (sadly, our 300 sq ft studio is at the limit with one dog, 2 cats, and 1 10 gallon aquarium). We used to have 3 males (housed in a 3x5 C&C cage, rescued from a horrible person on craigslist-he traded a Wii and Sega Genesis for them...) and 2 females (housed in a 2x4 C&C cage, rescued from a family friend who was clueless), but had to give them to a friend when we had to move half across the country for his job. (We are permanently here now for at least 10+ years, so no risk of moving out of state again).

Naturally, this has led me to just casually look into cavy rescues/sanctuaries around me, and also look on craigslist to see if people rehome guinea pigs here. (Who doesn't like looking at cute guinea pig pictures and videos? )

I'm torn between which is better, to adopt from a cavy sanctuary, or to rescue from a bad home on craigslist?

The way I see it, guinea pigs at a sanctuary are already in a good environment, and guaranteed a good home. People don't just go into a rescue shelter on whim, and not anyone gets to adopt a piggy, only suitable people. However, the guinea pigs that are in a horribly tiny store bought cage or aquarium, with no hay, never fed any veggies, cedar bedding, and on a seed diet, that are on there for FREE or only $10 or $30 are most likely, not going to find a good home. Most likely, if someone gets a companion animal on craigslist for free or horribly cheap, they have no intentions of spending any money on getting them a bigger cage, or getting them anything else then what they come with. They probably got them on a whim, with no idea on how to care for them, and no desire to learn.

Now, I would never take a guinea pig from someone who was clearly intentionally breeding the guinea pigs, and just trying to sell babies or old sows or boars so they can replace those guinea pigs with new ones. Nor would I ever buy a guinea pig from a pet store. I'm mainly talking about single or a pair of same sex guinea pigs.

Which do you think is better, adopting from a shelter/rescue, or scanning to find guinea pig(s) in desperate need of a better home?

Thank you for your thoughts!

 

[pigger123]

I would go for the poor craigslist piggies! Like you said, pigs in a good rescue are pretty much guaranteed a good home while they're in the rescue and a good owner once they get adopted. They still need a home of course, but the pigs who are kept in bad conditions and will probably get a bad new home are in more desperate need of someone like you! As long as you're sure they're not a breeder, I think it would be great to save some pigs from a bad situation.

 

[dani_starr]

Thank you pigger123 and ThePigAlchemist for your thoughts!

Pigger123, I would definitely make sure that I was 100% certain they weren't a backyard breeder, and plan only to get adults if I go that route since itty babies are most often from breeders. I look for the "my kids got bored of it/they stink/landlord won't let me keep them/they are too loud/I'm letting loose in the woods if no one takes them" ads.

ThePigAlmchemist, you certainly made a good point about there being a pretty good guarantee that pigs from a rescue are going to be mite-free and in general good health.

I was thinking that perhaps if I found a single piggy on craigslist living alone with no friends , then I could take them to the vet, and after getting a clean bill of health, use the rescues match making services to find him/her a friend. That way, I could help out both a pig on CL, and free some space at a rescue for another pig.

I plan to purchase all my coroplast, timothy hay, oxbow pellets, and fleece liners/cozy cups/etc from the rescue at the very least.

On a side note, I'm so excited to have some little wheekers in my home again! I have *not* been watching youtube videos of piggies wheeking, nor have I made my boyfriend endure listening to them...lol

 

[pigger123]

Sounds good! Can't wait to see pigtures once you get them!

 

[Guinea.Girl]

I think either is a great option. I rescued my girls from kijiji and it has been so wonderful to watch them become the healthy and happy pigs they should have been all along! Yay for getting piggies again!

 

[dani_starr]

Just wanted to say I decided to be a little impatient (well I fell in love with two piggies at the cavy rescue near me), and am going the rescue route.

I now have a 2x4 C&C cage, housed in my 200 sq foot living room/bedroom bachelor apartment.

I have an adoption appointment for Saturday, hopefully the two I want are still there! I'm so worried someone else will take them

The male is albino, and comes from a mom who was used in a laboratory for experiments. His wifey is a cute calico little girl. I figure, who is going to want to adopt a 2 year old male albino guinea pig with red eyes, when there are tons of babies (under 6 months), and even one 3 week old baby abyssian. I'm hoping the allure of the babies and fear of red eyes will make people not want to adopt them. Fingers crossed!

 

[Rywen]

That's excellent news!

 

[Soecara]

Good luck on the adoption!

Also, technically speaking he isn't an albino as guinea pigs lack the genetics to cause albinism. They are just simply called PEW which stands for pink-eyed white, you can also get pink-eyes in many different colours of guinea pigs (one of my girls is a pink-eyed mainly orange guinea pig).

 

[dani_starr]

Good luck on the adoption!

Also, technically speaking he isn't an albino as guinea pigs lack the genetics to cause albinism. They are just simply called PEW which stands for pink-eyed white, you can also get pink-eyes in many different colours of guinea pigs (one of my girls is a pink-eyed mainly orange guinea pig).

Thank you Soecara for telling me this! I googled "albino guinea pig care" on my phone earlier, as I started to think that maybe he'd have light sensitivity or other issues that I wanted to be aware of. I quickly found out that they are called PEW or pink eyed whites! Ooops.

It is interesting how there are no albino guinea pigs, while there are albino animals of most other species it seems.

 

[dani_starr]

My black and white pig Alex has ruby eyes. I think they're pretty cool looking, but people have said that the eyes scared them before.

Is Alex the one in your avatar? He (or she, Alex is a very gender neutral name) is very cute! They look so happy! It's hard to see their eye color on my computer, but they look ruby-ish.

I don't understand why ruby or red eyes are scary, but especially ruby. Silly people. (Trix are for kids. Sorry, I just couldn't resist. ) lol