My guineas

I've only just caught up with your thread - it's so lovely reading about your past piggies ❤️
I'm also very glad the trauma therapy went well! Spending time off the internet is great as well as being on here when you want to be (I certainly enjoy reading your comments)
I have PTSD and have to take breaks to remind myself the 'real world' exists sometimes...
Glad you are doing well at the moment ☺️
Thank you for such a lovely heart-felt response!
 
Elli, the one in the middle at the front, passed recently.
Last time I saw her was about a month ago I think when I was up at the farm. The guineas now have an incredible amount of space and freedom, to the extent that they aren't protected from predators. A visiting dog grabbed her and that was it. I don't know the details and I don't want to know or try and imagine. I hope it was over fast for her.

I don't condone what happened. I personally would never keep guineas in the kind of area they had, but understand in a way that the farm people see it a bit differently. The amount of space and freedom to roam, as well as burrow into safer natural spaces and hide, smell the natural scents all round, and stil have some contact to your Humans - your average pet guinea doesn't have that. So on the one hand this wonderful freedom for the summer and on into autumn, on the other hand the type of dangers wild guineas or other wild prey animals are subjected to. I couldn't do it, I couldn't face it - my guineas were always my 'babies'. I could never make that conscious decision to allow them that freedom plus risk. But for Elli I'm sure those many weeks of absolute freedom were a whole lot of happy moments, it's just her life ended around about the same time in age that a wild prey animal's would have. When I was up at the farm a month ago, and walked towards the guinea pigs enclosure, Elli came running towards me even. Her daughter Molly ran under a lawn chair in their space, to feel a bit safer I suppose, and Struppi the least tame disappeared into the nettles. That tactic saved her recently.

Last year I was sad when Struppi was missing and I understood she was dead, but it had just been about 6 weeks or so since I had been looking after all three guineas at my place. Now that's longer ago and I suppose I've reached my peace with the way the farm sees their guineas. I never did believe they would reach an old age at the farm, I couldn't see that happening. A month ago, I did wonder how the guineas were going to survive the winter inside cramped up in a cage after such freedom all summer. Well, Elli doesn't have to get used to that now. In the past they have had a rabbit or two, always a single that someone gave them. One of them was some huge breed that hopped all over the farm and slept in the hay barn, wasn't penned into an area at all. Apparently he fought off a small visiting dog and the dog came off worse. The rabbit was there a few years anyway. Then one day possibly in late summer/autumn the rabbit was no longer there, gone the way of older wild animals.

Continue running free Elli.💚
 
I feel sadder about Elli today, and a little angry too. She wasn't my guinea, so not my decision, but apparently being killed by a predator isn't always pain-free or fear-free. The freeze response doesn't always kick in. How could you let your little guinea go through that, even if it is natural? I mean Elli was a named pet, which is rather different than the mice who run around and get caught by farm cats. That much freedom with so much risk wouldn't be my thing. I'd be a permanent wreck, anxiety personified.
 
Our previous neighbours kept chickens and ducks. Inevitably, foxes would get them. Like you, I would be a nervous wreck - I can’t understand the mindset of letting prey-animal pets wander when there’s an obvious risk 😥
 
Apparently Elli's demise was witnessed and it was at least very quick.

______________

Other topic: Sometimes I do a little guinea advocacy work all on my own: I go thru what are ebay Classifieds here (Craiglist, Gumtree, Freecycle... in other areas of the globe) suggesting people don't give their guineas away or sell them for absolutely minimum fees like 5 euros but up it to at least 30 euros per pig, and sometimes I even mention two specific guinea rescues in my area of the country. Recently I even contacted one of these rescues about somebody in their city in dire straits, or maybe it's more the guineas in dire straits. I had mentioned to the person that by the sounds of it, the guinea sow who'd given birth a few weeks before and was limping off and on REALLY should be seeing a vet. The person claimed to not have enough money, sigh. And not to be able to get to a vet's anyway cuz no car. I don't have a car either, never did when I had pigs. Can be tricky, but you have to get around the problem if you have pets. End result was me saying, IF you can bring the mother sow to your train station, I could collect her and take her to my local rescue, because their local rescue told me they don't have any space atm. It didn't sound as if the person had bothered contacting their local rescue, tho I had given her the contact details. My local rescue always finds space, and would even allow a Pig or two to be parked at my place for a week or two while waiting for a space to come up. Of course, two Pigs together would be better than one on his/her own. But if it's a Pig needing medical care, Pig would have to go to the Rescue ASAP. Then the person decided they were going to keep 1 or 2 of the baby pigs... despite not having enough money to take mother sow to vet's. Sigh. Huge sigh. Turned my offer down because I'm too far away, would stress sow out to travel so far by train. But doesn't take sow to vet's because... Unfortunately you can't help all pigs, you can only try.

Contacted someone else who was given 2 young boars and a young female, in separate cages, who has discovered he's not up to giving them the kind of attention they need. He has now decided I'm the best person for his pigs, being a kind and friendly person. He has in fact taken his ad down. Well, if at all I'd hand them on to my local rescue. The female shouldn't be on her own obviously and most German rescues including my local would want to get the boys neutered asap so they can get on with their 6-weeks-till-adoption time. The owner doesn't have the time/bandwidth to deliver his pigs to my local rescue, it is about a 2 hour drive each way. I don't have the bandwidth to look after guineas at all anymore tho obviously for a couple of weeks i'd be fine unless they needed syringe feeding and other medical care. It would be nice to have guineas again briefly.

I'm not really sure why I'm writing this, except to say - maybe I'll have a pig or two briefly. But not from both groups! I'm actually ignoring my emails, have been ignoring them since yesterday tho not because of impending guineas. No, there's a different reason. I should check them tomorrow I guess. Any Pig owners would have to make a certain minimum effort and bring their Pig(s) part way to me anyway, to a train station en route.

Usually my guinea advocacy doesn't get this involved. Most people are interested and grateful that I explain why they shouldn't give their guineas away for free, or when I say that a lot of rescues will lend them a foster piggie till their remaining senior crosses over to RB. Altho the idea of foster piggie for remaining senior is getting around, less people need that pointing out.
 
Mother sow has been adopted already and has been at the vet's with apparently nothing much wrong (?) but been given pain medication. May stay with that person or be passed onto a rescue. Better than where she was anyway.

The other person wants to bring me his young female for me to pass onto my local rescue, which I can do. He seems to be keeping his boars for the moment. Keeping 2 groups is kind of a lot of work, additional work keeping the genders separate etc so maybe removing the little sow is giving him the bandwidth for his boars, I have no idea.

Before that he had a (Siberian) chipmunk, which you're no longer allowed to keep as a pet, and his lived for 14 years ! which is unusually long. But he can't get a new one, so someone gave him guineas instead. Twenty years ago or so my vet had some type of chipmunk-like creature in a tall cage on the window ledge in the waiting room with lots of branches and hidey spots where it ran around and up and down the branches and chattered at us. I don't know if it had always been hers or she maybe rescued it from somebody. Apparently, she had a bunch of hibernating hedgehogs in her basement one year too, so not a stretch she might have given someone's "pet" chipmunk type creature a home. Anyway, I'm sure it's much different from looking after 2 or more guineas and this guy is finding that out. "Nice" idea of someone to give him guineas, but animal presents are a no-no, as we know. Plus, 2 males and a female? Too bad the seller didn't suggest one pair only. The 2 boys OR 2 girls. At least the girl guinea has been separate from the boys, so no pregnancy one hopes.
 
Little female piggy is coming Friday.

Really, she should be going straight to local guinea rescue, tho I haven't inquired there yet. Tho I do know it'll be much easier to get her in there than seemingly a rescue in the US or UK.
 
Fair point. But sounds like you have a lot of love to give.

Being very low is ust so demoralising isn't it? Hope you find a way to stay steady for as long as possible. I find each day is a bit of a ourney. (The letter after i doesn't work on my keyboard)!
 
On another thread you commented to me: It's interesting that in some countries neutering is done early and possibly more routinely than in the UK. Did you find that the boars you had neutered recovered quickly? Also we're they more compatible with other neutered males - if you had pairs of boars or knew of boars paired up?
@Truffolo
On a third thread I linked some information for you written by Wiebke with some info on baby castration and how it affects boar behaviour.

So, for my own experiences, I can't think off-hand that I ever got a baby boar from anywhere to be neutered. I think I got all my neutered babies from a rescue, when they were probably about 8 weeks old, maybe 10 weeks. They don't have a 6-week wait after early neutering. Afaik the operation is a lot simpler than for an adult boar, but I could be wrong. The babies are a lot smaller too, and that may affect their ability to get over it, idk.

Two baby boys, Snowy and Hughie, were born to my sow Poppet. But I kept them together and didn't get them neutered early, partly because I didn't know much about it at the time but mostly because after I got their father neutered, he died, I explained in post #24. I was devastated, he was such an adorable piggie by the name of Robbie (he had a little mask like a bank robber). I mentioned him in post #21 where I mistakenly called him Rubi (I've had so many piggies, it's hard to keep track sometimes).

I suppose the biggest difference I've come across is that in Germany the common knowledge among rescues and very experienced owners is that you can keep 3+ boars together. This must be due to them not going thru all those testosterone spikes the way Wiebke mentioned on the other thread I linked for you. The only time I actually had 3 boars together I mention in post #47 with pics in #49. I pet-sat them for about 10 weeks while their Human mum was in rehab. I think they had all been neutered but I can't remember exactly. I do remember that a bit later their Human added a fourth to the group who was too old to be neutered, he was probably about 6yo or so. The local rescue asked if she could try and add him to her group and obviously it worked. They were kept in C&C as you can see in the pics on post#49, so I presume she just expanded. C&C is becoming more common here but it's still not as usual as in the UK.

Another difference is that here it seems pretty uncommon to keep boars or any guineas side by side. The reason is maybe that it's easier to bond boys who were neutered early? You don't really hear or read about guineas being kept side by side. I've had fall-outs, like when a neutered boar, Snowy, died of old age one of his sows, Emily, went absolutely crazy and attacked any neutered boar or sow I tried her with, except her companion sow who she 'just' ignored. So I gave her to a rescue and they eventually managed to find a husboar she'd accept and they both ended up in the oldies group at the rescue. There are some pics of her and her story on post #37. Yeah so here if you have an irreparable fall-out and can't rebond your guinea with anypig, then you'd tend to go to a rescue with said guinea with the understanding that with all the guineas in the rescue, they're much more likely to find a compatible guinea for your 'difficult' one than you are, even if it takes a while. It's understood (here) to be better for guineas to be actually in a group than side by side and so for sake of Emily and her happiness, I gave her to the rescue. I realise it's seen differently on this forum and in the UK, and maybe in the US too. I'm not arguing about that either, just explaining because I think it might well have something to do with early neutering of boys.

Some very experienced piggy owners here even have whole herds of guineas, where they might have 2 neutered boars and a whole bunch of sows in one huge space. I suppose that only works with boars who were neutered early. Another thing some rescues here do is keep rescue guineas in at least groups if not herds. Just pairs is unusual. That way they can monitor who gets on with who, not just re particular guineas, but also temperament, e.g. whether a neutered boar definitely needs a wife or could be boar-compatible or possibly is best with a particular boar (happens occasionally). And then also whether sows seem best with a gentle, sweet neutered boar or better with a 'macho'. My Emily definitely needed a macho, after Snowy died. The other boars I had were both too sweet and gentle for her. Woolly moved in with old Suzie (Emily's previous companion) and it was love at first sniff. I can't remember if Emily attacked Woolly, but it's possible, (she attacked at least one boar). Certainly not compatible. I also had another neutered boar, might have been Rubi, who'd been Woolly's companion, but that was also no go for Emily. Far too gentle and sweet. He also went to a rescue, my local one, which was very small then, they had capacity for only 6 guineas, where he was adopted out very quickly to some happy sow. Of course I was sad to lose both him and Emily, but otoh I went from 5 guineas in 2 groups to 3 guineas in 1 group, much better for my shaky state of health and lack of energy. And I knew they were better provided for companion-wise then what I could do for them, at least in accordance with German views on the matter.

Since Snowy died and Emily and Rubi went to rescues, I've only ever had a neutered boar with 1-2 sows, usually 2. 1 only if it was a final pair before I stopped keeping guineas. A neutered boar with 2 sows is quite fun to watch, there's more going on than when you have only 2 guineas. For instance if one guinea wants to be left alone or is dozing, the other two will play or eat together, or just lie together.

There's also the rumour here that a neutered boar in with sows will help prevent them getting ovarial cysts, Wiebke has since debunked that! But I suppose the rumour is helpful for the adoption of boars from rescues! A neutered boar + 2 sows is a common threesome here, so there may be less need of boar pairs and herds, though not no need obviously.

Another thing rescues do here is put baby boars over 3 weeks/250g in with a neutered boar, especially one who's doing his 6-week post neutering wait, so that they learn guinea behaviour from an adult. Guinea kindergarten with 'uncle'. That way the rescue can also monitor future compatibility, roughly.

I hope I've managed to answer your question, tho I know rather imprecisely with detours...

Caveat: There may be rescues in Germany who do things differently, I have only had closer contact with two, tho what I've read here in G. on websites or books or spoken to other guinea owners about lends me to think these are German ways, experience, acquired knowledge.
 
Unfortunately Little Piggy's Dad is unwell and can't even bring her half-way as planned. Just after I'd arranged when to pass her onto the local rescue too. Oh well, I hope LP's Dad gets well again soon and he can bring her over in a week or two.
Never heard from him again, but have been pretty down / in hibernation so maybe better for Little Piggy. I had been thinking about contacting her Dad, maybe I'll manage.
 
@Truffolo
On a third thread I linked some information for you written by Wiebke with some info on baby castration and how it affects boar behaviour.

So, for my own experiences, I can't think off-hand that I ever got a baby boar from anywhere to be neutered. I think I got all my neutered babies from a rescue, when they were probably about 8 weeks old, maybe 10 weeks. They don't have a 6-week wait after early neutering. Afaik the operation is a lot simpler than for an adult boar, but I could be wrong. The babies are a lot smaller too, and that may affect their ability to get over it, idk.

Two baby boys, Snowy and Hughie, were born to my sow Poppet. But I kept them together and didn't get them neutered early, partly because I didn't know much about it at the time but mostly because after I got their father neutered, he died, I explained in post #24. I was devastated, he was such an adorable piggie by the name of Robbie (he had a little mask like a bank robber). I mentioned him in post #21 where I mistakenly called him Rubi (I've had so many piggies, it's hard to keep track sometimes).

I suppose the biggest difference I've come across is that in Germany the common knowledge among rescues and very experienced owners is that you can keep 3+ boars together. This must be due to them not going thru all those testosterone spikes the way Wiebke mentioned on the other thread I linked for you. The only time I actually had 3 boars together I mention in post #47 with pics in #49. I pet-sat them for about 10 weeks while their Human mum was in rehab. I think they had all been neutered but I can't remember exactly. I do remember that a bit later their Human added a fourth to the group who was too old to be neutered, he was probably about 6yo or so. The local rescue asked if she could try and add him to her group and obviously it worked. They were kept in C&C as you can see in the pics on post#49, so I presume she just expanded. C&C is becoming more common here but it's still not as usual as in the UK.

Another difference is that here it seems pretty uncommon to keep boars or any guineas side by side. The reason is maybe that it's easier to bond boys who were neutered early? You don't really hear or read about guineas being kept side by side. I've had fall-outs, like when a neutered boar, Snowy, died of old age one of his sows, Emily, went absolutely crazy and attacked any neutered boar or sow I tried her with, except her companion sow who she 'just' ignored. So I gave her to a rescue and they eventually managed to find a husboar she'd accept and they both ended up in the oldies group at the rescue. There are some pics of her and her story on post #37. Yeah so here if you have an irreparable fall-out and can't rebond your guinea with anypig, then you'd tend to go to a rescue with said guinea with the understanding that with all the guineas in the rescue, they're much more likely to find a compatible guinea for your 'difficult' one than you are, even if it takes a while. It's understood (here) to be better for guineas to be actually in a group than side by side and so for sake of Emily and her happiness, I gave her to the rescue. I realise it's seen differently on this forum and in the UK, and maybe in the US too. I'm not arguing about that either, just explaining because I think it might well have something to do with early neutering of boys.

Some very experienced piggy owners here even have whole herds of guineas, where they might have 2 neutered boars and a whole bunch of sows in one huge space. I suppose that only works with boars who were neutered early. Another thing some rescues here do is keep rescue guineas in at least groups if not herds. Just pairs is unusual. That way they can monitor who gets on with who, not just re particular guineas, but also temperament, e.g. whether a neutered boar definitely needs a wife or could be boar-compatible or possibly is best with a particular boar (happens occasionally). And then also whether sows seem best with a gentle, sweet neutered boar or better with a 'macho'. My Emily definitely needed a macho, after Snowy died. The other boars I had were both too sweet and gentle for her. Woolly moved in with old Suzie (Emily's previous companion) and it was love at first sniff. I can't remember if Emily attacked Woolly, but it's possible, (she attacked at least one boar). Certainly not compatible. I also had another neutered boar, might have been Rubi, who'd been Woolly's companion, but that was also no go for Emily. Far too gentle and sweet. He also went to a rescue, my local one, which was very small then, they had capacity for only 6 guineas, where he was adopted out very quickly to some happy sow. Of course I was sad to lose both him and Emily, but otoh I went from 5 guineas in 2 groups to 3 guineas in 1 group, much better for my shaky state of health and lack of energy. And I knew they were better provided for companion-wise then what I could do for them, at least in accordance with German views on the matter.

Since Snowy died and Emily and Rubi went to rescues, I've only ever had a neutered boar with 1-2 sows, usually 2. 1 only if it was a final pair before I stopped keeping guineas. A neutered boar with 2 sows is quite fun to watch, there's more going on than when you have only 2 guineas. For instance if one guinea wants to be left alone or is dozing, the other two will play or eat together, or just lie together.

There's also the rumour here that a neutered boar in with sows will help prevent them getting ovarial cysts, Wiebke has since debunked that! But I suppose the rumour is helpful for the adoption of boars from rescues! A neutered boar + 2 sows is a common threesome here, so there may be less need of boar pairs and herds, though not no need obviously.

Another thing rescues do here is put baby boars over 3 weeks/250g in with a neutered boar, especially one who's doing his 6-week post neutering wait, so that they learn guinea behaviour from an adult. Guinea kindergarten with 'uncle'. That way the rescue can also monitor future compatibility, roughly.

I hope I've managed to answer your question, tho I know rather imprecisely with detours...

Caveat: There may be rescues in Germany who do things differently, I have only had closer contact with two, tho what I've read here in G. on websites or books or spoken to other guinea owners about lends me to think these are German ways, experience, acquired knowledge.
This is very interesting, thank you ❤️
 
The use of an uncle boar is very interesting, especially one who is halfway between being entire and neutered. It makes sense to me to neuter guinea pig boars as early as safely possible.
 
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