Guineas Pigs soon, scared of mice

[Tigermoth]

I wish more people would consider these well loved "been there, done that got the t shirt“ piggies. The people who do listen and adopt them under our recommendations are delighted with their new family members. Most piggies actually in the centre at the moment are 2 years old and younger. most surprisingly being surrendered at the moment are between 9 months to a year. #lockdownpiggies

I wonder if there is a general misunderstanding of how long they can be expected to live? I wanted pigs as I didn’t want the long term commitment of a dog (plus everything else that goes with a dog as I’m out of the house too much) but hamsters die too quickly. I thought 3 years was what you could expect from a guinea pig and so I would have been put off by a 2 year old. I was persuaded by the rescue that actually nearer 5 years was more realistic and so I happily took on my pair (roughly 18 months old at adoption). Here we are with them approaching 7 now! We have had them 5 years, far longer than I expected!

 

[Julie M]

I wonder if there is a general misunderstanding of how long they can be expected to live? I wanted pigs as I didn’t want the long term commitment of a dog (plus everything else that goes with a dog as I’m out of the house too much) but hamsters die too quickly. I thought 3 years was what you could expect from a guinea pig and so I would have been put off by a 2 year old. I was persuaded by the rescue that actually nearer 5 years was more realistic and so I happily took on my pair (roughly 18 months old at adoption). Here we are with them approaching 7 now! We have had them 5 years, far longer than I expected!

Possibly. As a lot of people only seem to want "babies". When asked why? they say "so we have them as long as possible" I often tell them age is not an indication of how long they or any of us will live. We've had rescue piggies die before their first birthday , and rescues we've rehomed at 4 years old who are now approaching 7. Maybe we need an article on piggies lifespan and the pros of adopting older piggies