I Found Out The History Of One Of My Guins :(

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I have a lunkarya called Athy (Athena) who didn't come to us in a very good state - swollen feet, hay stuck in her fur, a cloudy eye etc. etc. She came to live with us as a colleague from work adopted her and then felt out of her depth - she got her from a breeder who couldn't get her pregnant.

She's mostly better now and we love Athy so much as she is such a character, but she has ongoing health issues which our vets advised are most likely as a result of her poor breeding, not least of which are her poor feet.

Through the summer we kept Athy's coat as short as we could (she is not a fan of hair cuts!) but we've let it grow over the winter. We have found it hard to manage so I googled 'lunkarya grooming tips' and came across a breeder's website, who is based at the other end of the country. There was extensive documentation on every guinea pig and they lived in massive cages, had a wonderful outside run and as breeders go, really seemed ok. I thought to myself, 'if only Athy had come from a breeder like this, who cares about the guins'.

THEN, I was scrolling through the pages and saw some guins that looked a lot like Athy. I sent the pictures to my other half and he agreed they did look similar. The I checked the litters pages and low and behold, there was tiny Athy! I really couldn't believe it, but it was definitely her. I couldn't resist and I sent the breeder a message with some pictures of her and asked if she thought it was her too. After a few days I got a message from the breeder, commenting on a picture where Athy was with her husboar Six, being a bit snotty saying yes, Athy was definitely one of hers and that she was a purebred lunkarya and it would be a shame if she was bred with a pet rather than another purebred! At first I wrote a nasty reply saying that she shouldn't be bred from at all due to her health problems which were caused by her poor breeding, but in the end I just explained that Athy was spayed and had a happy life with us. I then got a nice reply saying she was pleased and explained that she had been sold to a breeder near where I live who must have passed her on to another one and then she ended up with us.

I just feel so sad that this breeder who apparently takes things so seriously, hasn't bothered to breed healthy guinea pigs, only focusing on their coats. It's just such a shame.

Here are the pictures I found of Athy (she is second from the right in the group one!) and her now:

 

[Freela]

Cool to find out her history, but too bad she got passed around so much like a commodity before she came to you! None of my pigs came from breeders, but some of my hedgehogs did, and I was really dismayed at how I was treated by the breeder when one of my hedgehogs died of an inherited genetic condition. She had kept in contact with me to get health updates and such, which led me to believe that she really wanted to follow the health and longevity of her animals, so when my hedgehog Bramble developed wobbly hedgehog syndrome (a neurological condition kind of like Parkinson's disease in humans- starts with shakiness and progresses to inability to walk, stand, or even maintain balance while laying on their bellies.) It's a really awful thing to see, and we had to have poor Bram PTS once he progressed to the point where he could only lay on his side and none of the steroid injections and symptomatic treatments were working anymore. When I let her know, she sent me a really nasty e-mail that none of her breeding stock had wobbly hedgehog genes and that she would not consider his death as such unless we conducted a full autopsy with a vet of her choice and the vet concluded that this was the cause of death. All at our expense, of course. No thanks, not something I was willing to take on, and by then the poor thing was already buried and we were certainly not going to dig him up for an autopsy with her hand-picked vet who would probably never confirm a diagnosis she didn't like anyhow! It was really eye-opening... she probably went on breeding for years claiming her gene pool was free from wobbly hedgehog syndrome and probably a lot of poor animals lived short lives and suffered because they were born with a predictable inherited condition that she could have prevented by not breeding from affected lines!

This one is less personal, but I was once looking up something about guinea pig clubs in my province and came across a breeder page with a professional-looking website where this individual was recording her litters. I noticed that she kept producing solid white babies that died soon after birth (they were listed along with the genders/colors of the other siblings.) She was very obviously breeding lethals and seemingly didn't understand what they were or why they died or why she kept producing them. Just sad... who breeds without basic knowledge of genetics and produces animals that are only going to suffer and have hard lives, or next to no lives at all? Makes me angry.

 

[Hannah Boyd]

I think there are a lot of breeds and breeders, not just in guinea pigs, where animals are poorly bred. The German Shepard for example is often bred to have low set hips which tends to give them arthritis fairly early in life. Lots of other examples in breed horses too, not so much sport horses, such a shame.

 

[Julesie]

I'm sorry that you found out your piggie had such a horrible backstory but at least she has a positive loving life with you now unlike many of the other piggies in her care who are probably used to further breeding.

She's gorgeous by the way. <3

 

[GeorgesHuman]

That's awful, but glad she ended up with someone like you.

Sorry that your Bramble died, Freela. People like that breeder really make my blood boil. I put my piggies' health at the same level as mine and my partners, I even worry about them more because they're not able to talk and tell me if anything's wrong. Animals have feelings and pain too. Makes me so angry when their wellbeing is put aside for profit purposes