Guinea Pigs And Children

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What a lovely thread, great to see all the children + piggie photos.
Our girls officially belong to my 7 year old daughter. We said she had to be 7 before she had a pet of her own. I can hear her now singing to them (she is meant to be in bed but has snuck down!) I am really impressed with how grown up she has been with them. She feeds them herself and chops all the veg (with supervision) twice a day. She is a very active, spirited (!) girl and having the piggies has really helped her with being calm and quiet. We help her clean them out but expect her to be involved. And she poo picks. We don't let her pick them up out of the cage and she is respectful of this. And sits for ages with them on her lap. And grooms them. My parents dog died recently which has been really hard for her as she adored her. But having the pigs has really helped, she even said so herself. They bring so much joy!
Our 5 year old by likes them and occasionally holds one but isn't that interested. Definitely going to wait until he is 7+ for a pet of his own!
 
I have three kids... when we first got the guinea pigs, they were 7, 5, and 2. Now they are 14, 12, and 9. The kids have all been great with the pigs, and my youngest especially spends a lot of time with the pigs. She has a really special relationship with them.
Here's one of Shanti (my youngest) and one of our past pigs, Linney!
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Swissgreys said:
After a few distressing threads recently about guinea pigs and children, I wanted to start a thread focusing on the positive aspects of this combination.

I have both, and owning guinea pigs again has made me realise that properly educated and supervised children can have a wonderful relationship with their guinea pigs.

Children have something to offer that adults rarely do - time.

My girls spend hours with their guinea pigs.
They read to them (apparently our 4 are huge Harry Potter fans), they sit and chat to them, they hand feed them, they cut grass for them when the weather is too awful for them to be outside, they cut branches for them, they sew things for them, and the list goes on.
But mostly they have time to spend with their pets earning their trust.

Lap time today illustrated that perfectly for me.
The guinea pigs are just so comfortable being handled and around the children.

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Please use this thread to share your positive stories and photos of your guinea pigs, and the children that they own :))
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Your brown one looks just like one of ours. Nibbles is just a few weeks old though but I can see what she will look like when she gets big from your photo.
 
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