Elitah
Junior Guinea Pig
At the beginning of the month, when our guinea-pig Brillo was still alive, we looked for some female guinea-pigs. Cotton is old and Brillo was old and we guessed that one of them might die soon and we didn't want the other one to be alone. Neither the animal shelter in this city, nor the ones in the suburbs had guinea-pigs and one animal shelter in a nearby small town was still closed, so we ended up looking at one in a town about 45 km. We went there and they had two cute females which had just had babies. They could't be given away yet, but the people there said they could reserve them for us and phone us once the babies were ready to be separated from their mothes.
Then Brillo died last Monday and since we had been told we'd have to wait about 6 weeks for the two ladies, we began to look for a boar for Cotton. Our experience is that it is good to have one boar with a group of ladies anyway and meanwhile, the animal shelter in the nearby small town was open again, so my husband went there on Wednesday. The owner asked quite a few questions and said if they did give him a piggie, that would be the next week since he'd have to be checked by a vet. One of her helpers quietly told him if it was up to her, she'd give him the male piggie he had looked at right away. In the evening, the owner phoned my husband and announced a visit at our place the next day. I wasn't there since I was working, but my husband later said he'd had job interviews which were easier. She interrogated him and she criticized everything: the water bottles (after all, in the wild, piggies always drink from a stream), the fleece linging in the cage (piggies must be kept on sawdust, according to her), the size of the cage (it is definitely above the minimum guidelines, we measured that a few years ago, even though I can't remember the measurements now, but she thinks it should be bigger) and the fact that they get pellets once per day. According to her, guinea-pigs aren't supposed to have any dry food whatsoever. Which is confusing since our vet always emphasized the importance of the pellets for their teeth.
The next day she phoned my husband and told him we couldn't have the guinea-pig and that we really, really needed to keep ours on sawdust and not the fleece-lining. This was the first time an animal shelter had ever denied giving us a guinea-pig. Admittedly, none of them had ever sent someone to visit us, but we always showed photos of the cage (including the fleece) and gave measurements and explained about our experience with piggies. They never had a problem giving us a piggie and yesterday, we ended up getting three from the town 45 km away - the two ladies we had reserved and a cute boar.
I am a little confused about the things my husband was told. As I said, the pellets are something our vet finds important and I think he'd tell us to re-introduce them immediately if we stopped feeding those now. And the fleece-lining is something I picked up here and somewhere I read that it's better for their feet than sawdust. Pretty much any guinea-pig cage in the English-speaking world that I have seen in pictures had fleece-lining. I guess the water is an optional thing, I have seen both, but think that the water gets dirty much more quickly if it is offered in a bowl and they might pee in there. As for size, more is probably always better, but genreally I didn't think so much emphasis would be put on that if the minimum requirements are fulfilled, at least not enough for an animal shelter to deny giving us a guinea-pig. Plus, what about all the other important things: looking at them regularly to make sure we spot if something is wrong, cutting claws regularly, being able and willing to take them to the vet and pay for their treatment if something is wrong and being willing to invest time and energy and money in their wellbeing? Was wondering if anyone can make sense of these requirements, especially the no dry food whatsoever or the sawdust instead of fleece-thing. My husband says she was just really strict, but it did make me a bit insecure for a bit.
Then Brillo died last Monday and since we had been told we'd have to wait about 6 weeks for the two ladies, we began to look for a boar for Cotton. Our experience is that it is good to have one boar with a group of ladies anyway and meanwhile, the animal shelter in the nearby small town was open again, so my husband went there on Wednesday. The owner asked quite a few questions and said if they did give him a piggie, that would be the next week since he'd have to be checked by a vet. One of her helpers quietly told him if it was up to her, she'd give him the male piggie he had looked at right away. In the evening, the owner phoned my husband and announced a visit at our place the next day. I wasn't there since I was working, but my husband later said he'd had job interviews which were easier. She interrogated him and she criticized everything: the water bottles (after all, in the wild, piggies always drink from a stream), the fleece linging in the cage (piggies must be kept on sawdust, according to her), the size of the cage (it is definitely above the minimum guidelines, we measured that a few years ago, even though I can't remember the measurements now, but she thinks it should be bigger) and the fact that they get pellets once per day. According to her, guinea-pigs aren't supposed to have any dry food whatsoever. Which is confusing since our vet always emphasized the importance of the pellets for their teeth.
The next day she phoned my husband and told him we couldn't have the guinea-pig and that we really, really needed to keep ours on sawdust and not the fleece-lining. This was the first time an animal shelter had ever denied giving us a guinea-pig. Admittedly, none of them had ever sent someone to visit us, but we always showed photos of the cage (including the fleece) and gave measurements and explained about our experience with piggies. They never had a problem giving us a piggie and yesterday, we ended up getting three from the town 45 km away - the two ladies we had reserved and a cute boar.
I am a little confused about the things my husband was told. As I said, the pellets are something our vet finds important and I think he'd tell us to re-introduce them immediately if we stopped feeding those now. And the fleece-lining is something I picked up here and somewhere I read that it's better for their feet than sawdust. Pretty much any guinea-pig cage in the English-speaking world that I have seen in pictures had fleece-lining. I guess the water is an optional thing, I have seen both, but think that the water gets dirty much more quickly if it is offered in a bowl and they might pee in there. As for size, more is probably always better, but genreally I didn't think so much emphasis would be put on that if the minimum requirements are fulfilled, at least not enough for an animal shelter to deny giving us a guinea-pig. Plus, what about all the other important things: looking at them regularly to make sure we spot if something is wrong, cutting claws regularly, being able and willing to take them to the vet and pay for their treatment if something is wrong and being willing to invest time and energy and money in their wellbeing? Was wondering if anyone can make sense of these requirements, especially the no dry food whatsoever or the sawdust instead of fleece-thing. My husband says she was just really strict, but it did make me a bit insecure for a bit.
the thought was there!
