Pat Shields
Adult Guinea Pig
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2011
- Messages
- 1,151
- Reaction score
- 50
- Points
- 425
- Location
- USA MO, Ft. Leonard Wood area
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I just need to tell this story and maybe I can get it off my mind for a while and get some sleep! I did not intend to have a guinea pig, I know nothing about them, but I bought one yesterday at a yard sale to save his life.
I showed up at a yard sale, and a woman asked me if I wanted a "hamster". I looked, and I wasn't sure what I saw was a hamster, and strongly suspected it was a guinea pig. Regardless of what it was, I was so totally shocked - here was a urine-soaked, long-haired rodent about 5 inches long trapped in a mostly plastic Habitrail-type enclosure with tubes and a wheel the right size for a mouse, with a surrounding metal cage that was about 12 inches or 18 inches cubic, very small. There was no litter, just a paper towel in the bottom, and so much urine that it was liquid. There was a small condiment-sized bowl of dry cat food in the corner, and a small ball-bearing rodent bottle of fetid water that the animal was desperately sucking and nibbling at. The ambient temperature was approaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit if it had not surpassed this mark. With that much urine, God only knows how long that tiny animal had been caged like that, and He wasn't telling me.
The woman said he was a baby "hamster," having been born about 2-3 months previous. She said that it was the pup of her son's "hamsters", and it belonged to the grandkids, but she had decided it had to go, because she didn't want a rat in her house and she didn't want to be bothered with keeping the cage clean or otherwise taking care of it.
Usually by that time I would have called the police and reported animal abuse, but it was obvious that the woman was sub-par intellectually and really didn't know that the neglect of the animal was ever so wrong and that the creature was suffering. She at least had the decency to say she didn't want it and to try to find it a home. So I asked her how much she wanted for it, and she said that for five dollars, she'd throw in the cage. I gave her the money and took the poor little guy.
I had to secure the unit in the bed of my truck because it was simply too foul to put inside the truck.
When I got it home, I found my small-animal live trap and transferred the little animal to that and set it on the grass in the shade. He immediately began eating the clover underneath the wire grid. I took the bottle off the foul cage and tied the entire cage in a plastic bag for disposal at the dump. I then spent about 20 minutes cleaning and sanitizing the gunky water bottle. I put it on the trap after I got some clean, cool water in it, and then went looking for anything I had that might be suitable rodent food. I gave him a box in his trap to hide in.
I know I am probably feeding him the wrong things right now, and I did go out today and buy some pelletized mixed food labeled specifically for guinea pigs with vitamin C added (he seems to like it). I am periodically giving him some small pieces of apple, and this morning he chirped, seemingly for joy, when I put some in the "new" cage. But right now the main object is to see that he is safe and has good food, even if it might not be spot on. I am giving him slivers of purple cabbage (not even enough to register on a food scale) and shreds of carrots, and occasionally the crunchy bits of iceberg lettuce (I know that will probably give him diarrhea if I keep it up, but ANYTHING is better than dry cat food right now, and the lettuce has water). I have gone through my bird food and picked out pieces of fruit, peanuts, pistachios, and sunflower kernels. He loves the pistachios. Today or tomorrow I will go out and buy some varieties of other fresh vegetables to see if he likes them. His droppings today were soft and well formed, not hard little pebbles like were saturated in the urine.
I am also planning a cat-safe enclosure to give him more room than in the trap; I live out in the country and wire mesh hardware cloth and tools to make cages are commonplace and easy to procure. The weather is warm, and I have set the trap on the ground, always shaded and well ventilated, in the grass and clover so that he can nibble at his leisure and there will be no litter to clean right now as the cage is portable. But, I want him to have room to run around, and I want him to be as safe from cats in a larger enclosure as he is in the live trap.
Now I have to figure out how to clean him and get the urine crust and stink out of his long hair without harming him. I think maybe a rinse in tepid water might be a place to start. Someone I know suggested a vinegar solution; surely that wouldn't hurt him. But he is such a little baby, I don't want to take chances.
I call the guinea pig "him" because I did take a look; based on photos and drawings I have seen on the Internet, he appears to be male. I'll check again in a few days.
Now that I have vented, I feel better. If there is anyone who has suggestions for me on what to do, I surely will appreciate them. (And I saw the notice about the troll and the hydrogen peroxide; even without knowing that this person has been banned and is probably malevolent, I would know not to use that!)
I will continue to look for a suitable home for him, as I am a 58-year-old disabled military veteran and can barely take care of myself some times and really don't need a care-intensive animal. The key word here is "suitable," however; I will NOT surrender the poor little guy if he will not get care as good as I would give.
Bed time, it is 30 minutes after midnight here, and maybe now I can go to sleep. Thanks for listening.
I just need to tell this story and maybe I can get it off my mind for a while and get some sleep! I did not intend to have a guinea pig, I know nothing about them, but I bought one yesterday at a yard sale to save his life.
I showed up at a yard sale, and a woman asked me if I wanted a "hamster". I looked, and I wasn't sure what I saw was a hamster, and strongly suspected it was a guinea pig. Regardless of what it was, I was so totally shocked - here was a urine-soaked, long-haired rodent about 5 inches long trapped in a mostly plastic Habitrail-type enclosure with tubes and a wheel the right size for a mouse, with a surrounding metal cage that was about 12 inches or 18 inches cubic, very small. There was no litter, just a paper towel in the bottom, and so much urine that it was liquid. There was a small condiment-sized bowl of dry cat food in the corner, and a small ball-bearing rodent bottle of fetid water that the animal was desperately sucking and nibbling at. The ambient temperature was approaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit if it had not surpassed this mark. With that much urine, God only knows how long that tiny animal had been caged like that, and He wasn't telling me.
The woman said he was a baby "hamster," having been born about 2-3 months previous. She said that it was the pup of her son's "hamsters", and it belonged to the grandkids, but she had decided it had to go, because she didn't want a rat in her house and she didn't want to be bothered with keeping the cage clean or otherwise taking care of it.
Usually by that time I would have called the police and reported animal abuse, but it was obvious that the woman was sub-par intellectually and really didn't know that the neglect of the animal was ever so wrong and that the creature was suffering. She at least had the decency to say she didn't want it and to try to find it a home. So I asked her how much she wanted for it, and she said that for five dollars, she'd throw in the cage. I gave her the money and took the poor little guy.
I had to secure the unit in the bed of my truck because it was simply too foul to put inside the truck.
When I got it home, I found my small-animal live trap and transferred the little animal to that and set it on the grass in the shade. He immediately began eating the clover underneath the wire grid. I took the bottle off the foul cage and tied the entire cage in a plastic bag for disposal at the dump. I then spent about 20 minutes cleaning and sanitizing the gunky water bottle. I put it on the trap after I got some clean, cool water in it, and then went looking for anything I had that might be suitable rodent food. I gave him a box in his trap to hide in.
I know I am probably feeding him the wrong things right now, and I did go out today and buy some pelletized mixed food labeled specifically for guinea pigs with vitamin C added (he seems to like it). I am periodically giving him some small pieces of apple, and this morning he chirped, seemingly for joy, when I put some in the "new" cage. But right now the main object is to see that he is safe and has good food, even if it might not be spot on. I am giving him slivers of purple cabbage (not even enough to register on a food scale) and shreds of carrots, and occasionally the crunchy bits of iceberg lettuce (I know that will probably give him diarrhea if I keep it up, but ANYTHING is better than dry cat food right now, and the lettuce has water). I have gone through my bird food and picked out pieces of fruit, peanuts, pistachios, and sunflower kernels. He loves the pistachios. Today or tomorrow I will go out and buy some varieties of other fresh vegetables to see if he likes them. His droppings today were soft and well formed, not hard little pebbles like were saturated in the urine.
I am also planning a cat-safe enclosure to give him more room than in the trap; I live out in the country and wire mesh hardware cloth and tools to make cages are commonplace and easy to procure. The weather is warm, and I have set the trap on the ground, always shaded and well ventilated, in the grass and clover so that he can nibble at his leisure and there will be no litter to clean right now as the cage is portable. But, I want him to have room to run around, and I want him to be as safe from cats in a larger enclosure as he is in the live trap.
Now I have to figure out how to clean him and get the urine crust and stink out of his long hair without harming him. I think maybe a rinse in tepid water might be a place to start. Someone I know suggested a vinegar solution; surely that wouldn't hurt him. But he is such a little baby, I don't want to take chances.
I call the guinea pig "him" because I did take a look; based on photos and drawings I have seen on the Internet, he appears to be male. I'll check again in a few days.
Now that I have vented, I feel better. If there is anyone who has suggestions for me on what to do, I surely will appreciate them. (And I saw the notice about the troll and the hydrogen peroxide; even without knowing that this person has been banned and is probably malevolent, I would know not to use that!)
I will continue to look for a suitable home for him, as I am a 58-year-old disabled military veteran and can barely take care of myself some times and really don't need a care-intensive animal. The key word here is "suitable," however; I will NOT surrender the poor little guy if he will not get care as good as I would give.
Bed time, it is 30 minutes after midnight here, and maybe now I can go to sleep. Thanks for listening.
but I really would LOVE to see what this little guy looks like x)
