just rescued 4 piggies

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was having a mooch around pre-loved for any runs for sale for when we get our piggies, and found an ad for some guineas needing rehoming as their owners didnt have time for them any more. said they had a huge hutch to go with them which was in excellent shape, just a bit of normal wear and tear, and the guineas are in fab shape and really healthy.

well, kind of found ourselves going for a road trip today to pick them up. got there to find a 3.5ft double hutch, covered in layers of cobwebs and dirt in the roof and on the sides inside, and the floors and about 6" up all the sides were caked in soaking wet filthy sawdust, dirt, straw. ive never seen a hutch so wet and disgusting with animals only just removed. the pigs were in a cardboard box but were covered in god knows what, the ones with white bits were actually yellow :( and their little feet had poops stuck in between their toes. first thoughts, get them home. so we bundled everything into the car (knocking off as many of the spiders and as much of the filth as we could beforehand) and came home.

when we got home, we decided that instead of simply washing out the hutch as best we could, we would dismantle and scrub down the whole hutch. we bathed and then put the 4 girls into a nice clean indoor cage in the warm, they actually fought to get to the water bottle, so we added a 2nd bottle alongside the first, they were at the water bottles for around 10-15 mins taking it in turns and they drank an awful lot. i then added a big bowl of nuggets, they surrounded it and were eating faster than i have ever seen pigs eat. no idea how long the poor girls were stuck in that little box before we got there.

the hutch is now in pieces, its all been scrubbed down and disinfected,we had to take a wallpaper scraper to the sides and floors :)>>> the top floor has rotten away so we will replace it tomorrow, and as the hutch is only 3.5ft x 1ft, even though its a double, it will be upgraded by the end of the month to something more suitable. they have chewed away large portions of the ramp, and the floors and doors, my guess would be boredom.

so in 1 day we have gone from pigless, to taking on 4 pigs who were just needing to be rehomed due to lack of time to more or less a rescue for these poor girlies. needless to say, they will be very well looked after and spoilt rotten for the rest of their days. hoping to bond them with the 2 baby sows i will be taking from my friend when they are old enough, and all will live in the large hutch/run combo we are setting up asap.

its so nice to hear piggies chatting to each other :)
 
That sounds horrendous. I have a suspicion that the holes in the wooden parts were due to hunger. By the sound of your description they hadn't drunk or eaten for a very long time. You may have to go carefully introducing veg to those tummies!

I'm very glad you took a road trip. Very glad! Those piggies will be so much better off now with you.
 
well...well done you for coming to their rescue!:rose

god knows what those previous owners were thinking?! sounds like they gave up on those poor girls a LONG time ago! I keep looking on preloved for old cages etc, and come across piggies that need homes...i would go and scoop them all up if i could!

But i cant wait to see the pictures and hope they are settling in well!

again... HOORAY for you!x>>
 
Thank goodness you took a look at the ad and rescued them from awful conditions. Hope they are all settling in well with their new mummy, I am sure they will be spoiled rotten from now on. x>>
 
awww poor little things, what are they called? cant wait to see piccies. :)

Thank god you went to get them :(
 
Sounds horrid. :( Makes me want to rescue the poor creatures even more.

Sounds a little bit like the boar the took on at the start of jan. Hutch caked in poo, the door chewed to bits from boredem. He was thin, urine stained, unwell in several ways. I dont think he'd seen much hay in his life. grrrr

Well done for rescuing the poor girls, theyre lucky to have you and be spoiled for the rest of there lives.

x.
 
i was a bit concerned about them eating, but the owners did give me a huge tub of guinea nuggets, so i dont know if maybe they just couldnt be bothered with walking the whole length of their little garden to go to feed them or what. the tub the nuggets were in was filthy too, covered in mud and tufts of hair. i decided to just bin the lot, and we have given them some more nuggets we bought instead, they dove right in.

we decided to give them new names to start their new life. the white grey and ginger girl is ethel, the ginger one is martha, and my 6 and 7 year old daughters named the other 2, the white brown and black girl is lucy and the ginger and brown girl is ruby.

first home and lined up at the 2 water bottles,very very thirsty girls.
pigs018.jpg


diving into the food bowl once they had filled up on water.
pigs026.jpg


relaxing after a bath and dry, munching a cabbage leaf while chattering to each other x)
pigs028.jpg


they dont look thin in the pictures, but you can feel ribs very easily, especially on the brown and ginger girl.
 
they're all so lovely (love ethel's colours!). well done for rehoming them.

she is very unusual isnt she :)) shes the laid back one of the group, very quiet and just plods along. no idea on ages of these, were told all 2 years old, but the 2 smaller ones seem much younger.

martha seems to be the boss pig, she is the most bold and will come and see what you are doing if you put your hand to the bars. ethel is the laid back 'granma piggy' :)) lucy is like the annoying little sister who is always annoying the others climbing all over them and ruby is very very skittish and scared of everything and everyone. i hope she calms down over time.
 
Poor girls, i've got a piggie called Ethel too :-)

I'm sure they'd appreciate some hideys and loads of hay to burrow in in their cage too :)) Hope they are healthy x
 
they have a hidey in there now, its just a cardboard box but tomorrow morning they will be back out in their hutch so will have a bit more space and their bedroom to go into. they have hay in there too now, a nice pile which they all satin munching away :)) theyve gone all quiet so i think they are resting, bless them its been a long day for them x) cant believe how lovely they are.
 
I'm glad you rescued them! That's awful how they had to live before :(

Love the pictures, they're very cute piggies x)
 
How could somebody treat them like that, they are absolutely gorgeous x)
They are very lucky to have found such a loving home!
 
Well done for taking them in, it's super! Shame about how they were kept though :(

xx They look lovely xx
 
Well done for taking them all in :),
It makes me sick how people can be so cruel :( as to not care for their animals, I can't believe how some people can just loose interest...for gods sake if you can't be bothered, find someone who can asap not when the cage is filthy and the poor animals are eating it cos they're hungry.
Someone I spoke to recently had kept guinea pigs for years and years but didn't know that they needed veg and hay everyday mallethead they thought that museli type food would be ok just topped up every few days...grrrr.
Needless to say I don't think my interference went down too well :x
 
the girls have moved back into their hutch today after my husband put it all back together and made a new 2nd floor without any 3" wide holes for them to fall through rolleyes it may be small, but for the next week or 2 it will have to do. we are ordering a 7ftx2ft hutch next week as soon as I'm paid, and we will build a permanent paved run to the side of it for them to have access into at all times.they will have a separate run on the grass for lawn mowing purposes each day :)) the bed area is 3.5ftx2ft, so they will be much happier. its also a single layer hutch with a lift up roof so i can get into it to clean out, i have joint problems so it was something we had to consider. we were going to build out own hutch but we found this one for just £65 :)) brand new, so it means we can buy it much sooner. cant wait to let them stretch their legs, martha the ginger pig is very much bullying all the other 3 right now, and is chasing them all out of the bed area, i think its a space issue.
 
I cried when I read this... am truly stuck for words for once !
Poor, poor little things. Thank heavens you found them and they now have the life they deserve. Well done x x>>
 
Well don you! I love to hear a happy ending just a shame they had to go through all of that before. I thought they looked thin in the face but I'm sure they will soon be proper piggy size. I bet they have all fallen in love with their new mummy. Remember to keep the pictures coming.x>>x>>
 
they are very thin in the face, and its hard to describe but i think they may once have been right little porkers as they have a lot of loose folds, and the biggest ladies have a few rather large but floppy chins rolleyes they are very strange shapes, i can easily feels ribs, spines and hips when i lightly stroke them :( hopefully they will fatten up in time, and start enjoying life again. i have noticed today their red raw sore feet have dried up a lot and they are more a dark pink in places than red all over. they went out briefly into their outside run on the grass today, i swear they were chewing before their little feet hit the grass :)) only gave them 5 mins in there as i thought too much might upset their tummies. now all tucked up for the night in their hutch,deep dry woodshavings,hutch snug over them, and plenty of hay and nuggets to eat.
 
hutch is on ebay, he only has 5 left or 4 left, cant remember now, but hopefully he will still have 1 by time i order next week. we will be doing a couple of alterations to ours when we get it but its a good sturdy one by the looks of it,not overly pretty but will do the job.
 
Reading this made me feel so sick. How could they treat them like that :( :(

Well done for taking them home. They will now have a great life with you :)
 
aww the poor little things. Well done for rescuing them at least now they can have the life their all deserve. It makes me sick how anyone can treat animals like that sounds like the little things were starving and thirsty. :(
 
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