What made you decide to get a Cavy?

[Cavalicious]

Hi, I'm not sure if this subject/thread exists already, so I thought I'd put it out there. I'm really interested in finding out how people came to love this particular animal and I'm sure there are plenty of stories.

I have a friend in Oakland that I visit from time to time. My friend has cerebral palsy and is finally living on her own; so now I get to see her with her GP, which her father has kept for her while she was living with her mother.

Just before Christmas, I helped her father bathe Cassie, her four year-old GP.
While he cleaned the cage, I helped fluff her up in the towel. When we came back with veggies to cook with, I stared feeding her by hand. According to my friend, the only person Cassie's taken to was her father. Isabella, Cassie's cage mate, died six months ago (my friend has since gotten her a new GP, Carolina).

Anyway, I got very attached and from that point on, I did a gigantic online search to prepare myself for the commitment. I have a 9 year old son and have been married for 10 years. I'm going back to school for a health career, so it seemed the right time to get a pet since I'm going to be studying at home a lot. My son (who has Asperger's) doesn't want a dog, but he seems to be learning empathy and gentleness while watching me care for the piggies.

 

[Frapplove]

When I was in third grade, my teacher, Mrs. Klinger, told us all about her guinea pig. I remember she was black with a crest on her head. Every time she would bring her in for us to see/play with, I would care for her a little more. By the end of third grade, I knew I absolutely had to get one. I prepared for two years, and finally, in fifth grade, I got my first guinea pig-her name was Apache my sister got Treasure and they were best friends I have been a cavy slave ever since!

 

[jowasaurus]

When I was on 7th grade, my hamster[who was almost 5 years old] passed away. He was my first pet and I was extremely sad after it all happened. My mom told me I couldn't get another pet but i HAD to or else I thought I was going to explode. lol
Well one day after school I grabbed everything I had in my piggy bank and went to my friends house. Her mom always took us to the local mom and pop pet store in my small town. I was looking for another hamster but they didn't have one.
The closest to them was this little thing called a guinea pig. . .:?: My friend's mom talked to the shop keeper about them and he told us it wouldn't get much bigger than my old hamster, so I decided to but him!! At the time we got a 10 gallon tank, food, a bunch of food and hay, and the vitamin c drops. Everything totaled around $60 and I paid with all quarters, dimes, pennies, and nickles! lol
After getting him home, I hid him in my room for about 2 months. He got so big!!!! Since his cage was so small, all he did was sleep. So he got the name Schnoozer.
That started my love for guinea pigs and I have had them ever since- gaining more experience and knowledge with each one and each year. I wish I would have known all I know now back when Schnoozer was still alive, but he lived a little over 5 years. [It didn't take long after getting him that I realized everything the shop owner told us was completely wrong]. CAVY SLAVE! AYIH!

 

[Gigabyte]

Well, I went in to a pet shop, begging my mom for a bunny or puppy (I was 11), and came out with a guinea pig that had mange. $300 in vet bills later (and for some reason we shaved him), I had a pig. And I ever so originally named him Piggy. He was a lazy little bloke. Sat on my lap and inhaled lettuce while watching Dr. Dolittle. When I was about 14 or 15, he passed in his sleep.
So the cage remained empty for years. And then last year another piggy appeared at Petco in a ten gallon tank for adoption. He'd been dropped off in a cardboard box by a hoarder. So, home he came! I paid my last ten bucks and my boyfriend bought the pig some grain and bedding. I snuck him up to the newly cleaned spare room and hid him in the crappy cage. After my parents found out, got mad, and stopped caring, GB got a crappy C&C extension to his store bought cage and lived in peace.
He passed away just last week. We never knew how old he was, maybe he was 2? Who knows.

 

[Dee_E]

I adopted Poppy from my oldest daughter. She had bought her for our G'daughter (4 yr) and realized that Kas was too young. He was underweight and in a filthy cage when I got him.

I had never had one before, so had to research until my eyes bled.

Made him a run inside the house, fed him veggies and since then he is a healthy, happy piggy.

I love the little fellow to pieces!

 

[sewlittle]

Our neighbor's piggie had a surprise pregnancy and was left with 3 babies. We fell in love with 2 of them...but sadly after all was said and done she had wanted to keep them all. :sad:
We went looking around and didnt find any at the pet stores we liked.
We started doing research and found a few sites and this site.
Went to Petfinders and came up with the place we found ours. We fell in love with a picture...isnt that funny!... It was a long process of adoption and visiting but in the end we came home with 3 adorable girls.
After a year, one of them died in the night. It was almost a year later and after talking to the rescue place about piggysitting while we went on vacation and what had happened to one of the 3... she suggested us picking out a 3rd again.
Well...after taking them to pick out a friend..we ended up with 4 more(3 bonded girls that were in a fire at a hoarder situation and one that twisted my son around her little finger!)...but I wouldnt change a moment!
We've had piggies since 2009, but it seems like a lifetime with them!

 

[Inle_Rabbit]

20 years ago my parents bribed my brothers and I with our own animals for moving across the state. After we moved and settled in we took a trip to the pet store and I picked out a guinea pig. I don't remember exactly why. Something about those bug eyes and cute little sounds just were perfect. I picked out a black, gray and white abby male. He was awesome. He loved being held and cuddled and would run under my bed and hide in the corner. I took him outside and he would just sit there and eat grass. His name was Adam. He lived in a large dog crate and we think he might have been diabetic as he would down a whole rabbit sized water bottle in less than a day. I had him for maybe a year before he got an URI but even with vet care, hand feeding and tons of love he passed away. After that my mom took me to 5 different pet stores looking for another pet to replace him, we brought home two brown abby brothers (Corey and Reeses), a few weeks later I found out about a neighbor girl that had been mistreating her guinea pig, my mom called her mom and we got a another male, Buddy. The next day a different neighbor kid basically dumped off a chocolate crested we named Nick. I have had between 2 and 4 guinea pigs ever since.

 

[KiwiCavyAdorer]

I've always wanted to care for guinea pigs, the sounds and feeling of them just translate to joy in me... My cousin kept them free range in her walled garden and they came indoors too, that was how I thought they should be cared for - free and able to run, it was just so lovely to watch them. Unlike the hamster I'd had as a child who was in a small toilet whenever he wasn't out and about with me, I so preferred the decent option that I was prepared to not have them until I could offer them more than a toilet and floortime...
They had been brewing away for years until recently I'd started to research guinea pigs, for about 10 months aiming to finally allow myself the experience and then suddenly when my friend moved out of the country I had the chance finally it was not timed perfectly but I wouldn't have it any other way now. And now we're 6 months into caring for 1 and know we will find him a compatible roomy as soon as possible.

I think they are the perfect house pets.

 

[Cavalicious]

Thank you for all of your stories. It's a great way to get to know you all.

 

[BrowniesMemory]

When I was around 8 my older brother came home with a teddy bear hamster I saw it and decided I wanted one. After while of begging and genuinely convincing my parents, my dad took me to the pet store (Yes, I know that's bad but I was eight at the time.) and we looked at the hamsters but I wasn't as impressed. That's when I saw the guinea pigs, and it was love at first sight. I ended up coming home with a tan and dark brown abyssinian that I ended up naming Brownie. There wasn't a whole lot of information on guinea pigs back in the 90's, so we ended up making some mistakes on care but our biggest mistake ended up killing Brownie's children (except for her son whom we had to rehome after the grandkids were born) and grandchildren before she ended up dying too. Though when Brownie died, she waited until I got home and spent time loving on her before she passed on.

My parents promised me that once we got in our own house again (we had lost our home shortly after I lost my guinea pigs) that I could get a guinea pig again. It wasn't until early last year, after some holiday, I brought Sherlock and Holmes home from the Tallahassee animal shelter (around a 2 1/2 hr drive from where I live), after a few years of thorough research (i.e. stumbling upon this site and guinea lynx). I had found them on petfinder and fell in love with them, so I guess it was meant to be. The main reason that I got guinea pigs again is because of the love and joy Brownie had brought.

 

[TCTrun]

I couldn't get a dog because I work all day. I couldn't get a cat because my roomate is severly allergic to them. So I decided I would get the third coolest pet. Of course, now I think that piggies are the FIRST coolest pets!

 

[MomichiPiggy]

Well I came across a blog on google one day and the girl had a guinea pig, and she had pictures posted on it and chatted about her loveable piggy. I became interested and started to look up guinea pigs online and did research, and I just became addicted to guinea pigs and want one sooo badly. Until one day decided to just go ahead and bought the biggest two storey hutch I could find ^_^ (didn't know about C&C cages at the time). And then I looked and phoned around different pet shops, online, SPCA etc for guinea pigs with no luck here in New Zealand guinea pigs arn't so populated lol. But then I found out that a petting farm in Collingwood in Golden Bay had wild guinea pigs roaming around his farm. So went for a two hour drive and it was guinea pig heaven! Lots of healthy fuzzy different coloured and sized guinea pigs were munching, walking or running around, not fazed at all about us walking through the track. Managed to catch two little piggies that were hiding under the tussocks of grass, thought they were girls, but later on when they got bigger found out they were both boys lol. He gave them to us for free, as he was trying to cut the amount of pigs he had down. They were all surprisingly healthy and didn't have any problems, I was at least expecting them to have fleas or mites. But anywho, they are now the most affectionate and friendly piggies ever, and is so hard to think that at first they were wild, timid and quiet!

 

[kittymalone]

My 8-year-old son wanted a hamster and we kept telling him that he could get one "when he had his own money" so when he got money for Christmas last year, the first thing he said was, "mom, I have my own money now so can I get a hamster?" Needless to say, I have stopped telling him he can get something "when he has his own money." So, we went to the pet store and looked at the hamsters. He wanted to cuddle with it and I explained to him that if it got loose we'd probably never find it. So, he decided on a guinea pig. We had a few cages in the garage from our rabbits so we bought little Sophia, set her up in a rabbit cage (about 24x24) and let her be. She did NOTHING. The next day I discovered this website and promptly went out to buy grids. Now, a little over a month later, Sophia has a rescued sister, Isabelle, a 4x4 C&C cage, and one smitten momma (me). I love, love, love their sweet disposition (even when Isabelle nips at my toes whenever she can), and their beautiful faces. They are probably the happiest little creatures that have ever owned me and I am proud to call myself a guinea pig slave.

 

[swirlysf]

I've always wanted a dog, but never thought that I would have guinea pigs instead. I first seriously considered having a guinea pig when one was unexpectedly dropped off at my workplace (I work at a pet supply store, where we sell only supplies and no live animals). I was tempted to keep the little black Abyssinian, but my mother was against it (she didn't like her dark coloring and kept thinking of her as a "rat"), so one of my co-workers took her in instead. She, like me, had no experience in taking care of a guinea pig so I helped her along by doing a bunch of research on them. Needless to say, I fell hopelessly in love with them and really wanted one of my own.

Six months later I got my wish. Another guinea pig was dropped off at the store. This time it was a little tri-colored White Crested mix. My mother had no objections to this pretty girl; she loved her coloring. Because I wasn't expecting to have a guinea pig right then and there, her first night at my house was not exactly ideal since she was in a tiny pet store cage and we didn't exactly have a lot of cavy-appropriate vegetables at hand. We immediately exchanged the cage for a larger one the next day once we realized just how tiny it was (the timothy hut took up half the cage). The larger one wasn't much better, but at least it fit more stuff. It had to do until I could order a larger one, the Midwest cage. I originally wanted to make a C&C cage, but my parents didn't want it take up so much room.

While I was waiting for the Midwest cage to arrive, two more guinea pigs were dropped off at my workplace. Unfortunately, at the time, I could not take home both guinea pigs; I only had room for one more. We managed to find a home for one of the pigs. We originally didn't want to separate the two, but we were having a really hard time finding a home for both. We only decided to separate them because the home we found for her already had two girls, and it was decided that I would take the other home to be a companion for my little Mocha.

After the quarantine period, I had both of the girls in the Midwest cage. However, as the months went by, we noticed how much bigger the two were getting (size-wise; neither were pregnant). The cage was soon turning out to be too small for them, so I ended up getting a playpen to attach to it. A year later and my family and I soon realized though that the Midwest cage and attached playpen was taking up too much room in the living room. Not to mention, their stuff was all over the place.

A 4x3 C&C cage was built, and since then pigs and grids have been added. I ended up taking in the little black Abyssinian I originally missed out on, as well as her neutered companion. My piggies are little energetic balls of energy, except for maybe the MONARCH (he's a bit of a lazy chubbers). Needless to say, my parents and I adore them, especially my mother. In fact, she just bought them two bags of vegetables from her grocery trip, and only one bag for the rest of the (human) family!

 

[C_Elise]

What a great idea for a thread! I loved reading the stories! :silly:

I actually had never seen a guinea pig live, in person before. I obviously knew these little guys existed but I really had no opinions of them and just sort of threw them in the rodent category thinking they were just a pet people buy to watch..
I became best friends with this girl, and she had a Guinea Pig named Lullie. I went over her house for the first time and met Lullie, and I was just so amazed by her! Alyssa (my friend) showed me her "racecar" around the cage, Lullie responded to her name being said and she was more like a puppy than a "rodent" I realized. After meeting Lullie I was kind of sold.. so at 20, I spur of the moment went to petco and bought my first girl, Wednesday. I knew nothing about guinea pigs, did zero research before buying her, and after a week I learned they needed a friend, so I went out and got Vanek, again at petco.. I obviously didn't do my homework so unfortunately yes, all my pigs are pet store pigs.. But I now of course realize how severe the pet store pet issue is and I would definitely never do it again.. but yeah, almost 3 years later and I'm much more knowledgeable and informed and I appreciate them so much more now that I have educated myself on these little creatures. I am just in love! So happy Lullie was such a good piggy lol

 

[Rhyue]

I got my first piggy when I think I was around 5 or so. I know, pretty young and all that, but I was a responsible kid and the parents helped.

My mom had always liked GPs and had some when she was younger. One day we were out walking somewhere when we passed by a "petshop" (some small place, long since thankfully out of business) which had a plastic milk-crate stuffed with guinea pigs that had no food or water (let alone bedding or room to move- they were one furry squirming lump) outside on the sidewalk (with only another milk crate under it to keep it from being directly on the concrete during the summer). As much as you don't want to support such a place it was impossible for my parents to just walk by either and turn a blind eye to the poor critters and their obvious suffering, so they told me to pick one out and we'd get it out of there. Hence my first piggy, an abby aptly named Ruffles. She was a nasty piece of work. But given her start at life I couldn't really blame her. Incredibly territory and couldn't be homed with other pigs (instantly attacked to draw blood), also attacked other animals and humans. I still loved her though. I've gotten others since, but thats what started it.

 

[Little Mommy]

My partner, daughter and I wanted a puppy, but because we are at work/shcool all day we didn't think it would be fair to keep a puppy created all day.....so we looked into smaller pets. We looked at birds, snakes and lizards. Then we spotted the piggys and fell in love. We started with 2 because we were told they liked to have a friend.....after a year we had to get another one because we each wanted one to cuddle at night while watching TV.....We now have Nikki, dark brown with long hair, Allie, white and rust with short hair, and the new baby is Maddy, and she has the same coloring as Allie. If you didn't know you would think she was her mommy! We love them and are so glad they are part of our family

 

[Cavalicious]

I truly enjoy reading these while sipping my morning coffee. Each story is so individual and special. Those names! The ups and downs. Thank you, guys.

 

[Crystalkate]

I got my first gp when I was 4 years old. I was afraid of him, but loved to watch him eat hay. It bit my baby brother's finger (he was one) and wouldn't let go, once my mom got him off she threw him into the woods. I was devastated, and was very upset at my mom. I use to lay in bed wondering if he was okay, if he had food, and shelter.
Then when I was 16 I adopted one that looked like a sheep (He was a texel) from the humane society. Sheep are my favorite animals, and I couldn't pass the little guy up. It was love at first sight. We were very close. Whenever I was sick, or stressed about school we would cuddle for hours on the couch. He passed away a couple years after that It was very hard on me. It took me until I was 25 to consider adopting another one.
I found Carliee on craigslist just casually looking through the ads. Once I saw her picture, I knew she had to be mine. I emailed the person begging for her every 30 minutes until he finally responded. He made me wait a whole day until I could go get her. He had been keeping her and another gp in a cat cage. All her white hair was yellow, and badly matted. I brought her home, cleaned her up, built her a home made grid cage. Took her awhile to warm up to me, but now I have earned her trust. Our favorite thing to do together is snuggle while I read at night.

 

[Wildcavy]

I don't think I thought much about guinea pigs up until mid-May 2011. Then my boss caught a guy dumping a litter of piggies in the woods. My boss managed to rescue one, Jumble, but he was being sent to Iraq in a couple of weeks and needed to find her a permanent home. He asked around the office (lots of animal rescue folks in my office) and after a week of research my husband and I took her home. Like the potato chips commercial, you can never have just one piggy, and so over the next several months we got 3 more rescues. We still do wildlife rescue but every day we wonder how we lived without piggies.