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Concern for a Facebook group

karonus

Adult Guinea Pig
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I was briefly a member of a Facebook group for guinea pigs. However I have left as I cannot support a group recommending cooked potatoes as a suitable food for piggies. When I questioned it I was told by an admin breeders have been doing it for years. In the 12 years we have kept piggies I have considered potatoes as poisonous. Have I been wrong.
 
I'm in that group but never had much trouble aside from them saying not to do boar cleanings. They have so many members my posts never get seen as it is. I stopped following the group. I got muted for a month and without warning for posting a cute gpig wallpaper.
 
Feeding boiled potatoes is a very old fashioned idea, much like feeding cats saucers of milk is too. These practises may not kill an animal outright but they are harmful to them and these days we should know better.
There is an odd mix of bad advice out there. Some which is out dated and needs revisiting and some which appears to be made up by people who have been keeping piggies for like five minutes.
 
I was listening to the Virgin Radio breakfast show earlier this week when Vassos Alexander said that guinea pigs don't need hay and his eat carrots and nuts.☹️

I just wanted to cry.😢
 
I left a group recently as someone in a breeders group was saying their pigs didn't seem to eat much of the food they were giving them, which was only nuggets and fruit and veg. No hay. Myself and another mentioned the proportions of food types for healthy GPs, but weren't replied to. Then another breeder piped up and recommended the feed them a certain muesli mix that they feed all theirs - no mention of hay. I replied to them stating muesli wasn't right for them, and another breeder replied to me all defensively saying that their pigs liked it! I said they may well love it, but it didn't mean it was good for them. I felt like saying that they'd probably love shortbread biscuits and sweets too, but you shouldn't feed those either!
Scary info circulating in places where first time GP owners are seeking advice 😔
 
The sad and worrying thing is that people are trying to do the right thing for their guinea pigs and don’t realise they’re getting bad advice.
At least here we ensure that anyone who finds us is given the best advice and treated with respect
 
It's so hard for people new to pet keeping to get the right information though. The issue is a lot of people have experience with an animal but haven't done much recent and relevant research, or have done lots of research and are highly educated but have little experience with specific animals. It's hard to know who to trust. A vet told me that my boys would definitely fight if I didn't neuter them both (spoiler alert they're unneuterd and live happily together), same vet and a pet shop employee told me my tiny cage was fine. Yet social media, pintrest, YouTube and this forum have taught me about large c&c cages and feeding a large range of veggies but pinterest and other forums also told me that piggies like to swim. So you really have to approach all new information with discernment and never just trust what you read even if it comes from a reliable source like here.
 
About 15 years ago when I had my first piggies Lenny & Gizmo, the girl in the Garden Centre where I bought them from told me how to hold piggies safely, how they needed a variety of veg every day (no lettuce of any kind) and that hay was their main diet. She also told me to feed them wholemeal bread occasionally and muesli (NOT pellets) as these where good for them! She sold me a "very large" cage for 2 boars (100cms x 40cms) that I now use as my hospital cage. Lenny & Gizmo weren't in it for very long as my Mum's partner built them a much larger hutch and a separate run.

I guess what I'm trying to add to this thread is that although times change in the aspects of guinea pig keeping and we become better informed, a lot of people refuse to learn about how to keep piggies better and stick to the old ways as they have "always done it" and everything has been fine.
 
I just don't know why people would take breeders as the person with knowledge anyway. Their goal isn't ensuring their pets get best life possible. It doesn't matter if they don't live to the full potential of their life span. Piggies are replaceable and easy to 'make'. They're using animals to make money instead of getting proper job and putting them in danger, as pregnancies aren't always successful. Plus, the idea of making more animals when so many are without proper care and need home is just irresponsible from supposedly sentient beings....
Yes, there's little in the world I dislike more than breeders... :))
I cannot be part of any groups like that.
 
It seems as though there are lots of bad Facebook groups! I also left one (Floofy guinea pigs) as although there was no doubt that the posters loved their guinea pigs, many of them treated them like toys and there was so much bad advice/ poor care.
It actually made me really sad as you realise how lots of guinea pigs around the world live. It wasn't that they were being maliciously ill treated, but some of the photos of their cages were shocking, really tiny/ guinea pigs living alone/ one poster was holding a mobile phone that was constantly receiving notifications right next to a guinea pig sat on a table and asking if the noise it was making meant it liked the noise (the guinea pig was making the noise they make when they are nervous)/ people taking their guinea pigs to the local park and taking photos of them loose on the grass!
As others have said, I tried to tactfully provide accurate information, but quite often people disagreed with me :-(
 
I’m the same, I joined a couple and saw horrible misinformation and decided not to bother. A couple of weeks ago I decided to try it again, today I’ve decided I might just leave them all. It’s like banging your head against a brick wall sometimes. I’m glad that I found this group years ago rather than taking to Facebook, it makes you realise how much of a god send the forum is
 
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