I finally managed to listen, but eek it was tricky, I got about half a sentence, then 5 mins of a spinning circle, then a few more words, and so it went on, it took hours to get the whole of it but it was worth perserevering, this guy is brilliant, so much commonsense and real knowledge. This should be compulsory for anyone with guinea pigs to hear.
I agree with everything he says and it does finally explain why like furry friends, i don't have cystitis or bladder problems in my herd.
He even came up with an additional aspect I hadn't thought of regarding the breeding and rearing. I had been thinking along the lines of genetic differences between well bred and well reared animals and those subjected to the horrors of the factory farming which feeds pet shops with stock, but I hadn't thought of the differences that rearing made as well as breeding. It upsets me to read of these terrified unhandled youngsters going into pet homes, but of course it's not just upsetting for me, but pretty upsetting for them too!
With the couple of 'heart over head' pet shop line guineas that I had, I was amazed by their "feral" nature, they were just terrified of being handled. That should NOT be the norm that everyone accepts, and of course it means extreme stress for these animals right from the start and many remain scared all their lives to some degree or another. We know that cystitis can be caused by stress, it seems so obvious looking at it now.
The careful handling, socialising and accustoming to different foods and different surroundings that well reared guineas get is obviously totally up to the breeder and just like puppies, what they miss early on is never going to entirely be made up for. Mine are always past 8 weeks when I get them, as no decent breeder would sell any earlier,and I hadn't realised until reading the internet that such young babies get sold from shops. So the owner can do their best, but the damage is done already.
Fantastic to hear such an obviously well respected vet with guineas of his own extolling the wet food diet! The temperature thing was another very interesting aspect - having never had central heating in any of my houses , the idea of a house at 20 degrees makes me shudder with horror, but it's effects on weight and respiratory disease made me feel much better about just putting on a jumper when it gets cold! Perhaps that's why I'm slim, along with the guineas - LOL!
thank you so much for helping me to hear this chap furryfriends.