Teejay
Adult Guinea Pig
Hi all, I run a small guinea pig and rabbit boarding service from home (www.vipiggies.co.uk, which is going brilliantly well), but I'm currently trying to find somewhere to board my own piggies for a few days in October.......I did board them earlier on in the year, and I have to admit that I had some minor concerns when I went for a pre-visit, but I was very limited for time and in the end I had no choice but to take our piggies there.....it was the best of a bad bunch!
Actually, they seemed fine when we collected them but their cages (actually, our cages that we had to provide) were filthy, I know that their water bottles hadn't been refilled with fresh water and I wasn't convinced that they'd been given any veggies while they were there (poos looked and smelled different, yeuch!).
So, we're going away again in October, and we decided to look for an alternative boarding place.....and so the search began today.......we visited a place, reasonably local, looked and sounded fab on their website, they seemed to know what they were doing, not too pricey........hmmmm........first impressions were good......about 8 hutches in a brick built shed, all looked clean, seemed well organised......so far so good, until I asked about exercise.
I was shown about 8 runs.....I use the term 'runs' loosely, they were about 3ft x 18" with wire bottoms (not nice for delicate piggie feet) and absolutely no grass whatsoever, just mud and gravel....all rammed side by side in a small area. Plus, many of the wire bottoms were sort of hovering over the top of holes in the ground......so little piggie toes would go straight through the wire :{.
Then I noticed two adult piggies on the lawn, cramped up inside the teeny-tiny plastic lid of an indoor cage (like this one http://www.bitsforpets.com/images/savic-roddy-cavia-cage-image.jpg but with the wire top removed); they'd basically just taken the top off the cage and put it onto the soaking wet grass (it was torrential rain here last night). Poor piggies.
By now, my mind had been made up......no, of course......but the final nail in the coffin was seeing her own two rabbits......a giant and a lop......with two guinea pigs in the run with them......
.......to be fair, they didn't seem to be scared little piggies, but blimey, one kick from the giant rabbit would have killed a guinea pig outright.
Anyway, long saga - sorry - but does anyone have any recommendations for guinea pig boarding in the West Midlands area? We can travel, and we'd prefer to take them somewhere that provides the cages (just less hassle for us, but we can take the cages for the right place).
Thanks for looking, Tracey x
Actually, they seemed fine when we collected them but their cages (actually, our cages that we had to provide) were filthy, I know that their water bottles hadn't been refilled with fresh water and I wasn't convinced that they'd been given any veggies while they were there (poos looked and smelled different, yeuch!).
So, we're going away again in October, and we decided to look for an alternative boarding place.....and so the search began today.......we visited a place, reasonably local, looked and sounded fab on their website, they seemed to know what they were doing, not too pricey........hmmmm........first impressions were good......about 8 hutches in a brick built shed, all looked clean, seemed well organised......so far so good, until I asked about exercise.
I was shown about 8 runs.....I use the term 'runs' loosely, they were about 3ft x 18" with wire bottoms (not nice for delicate piggie feet) and absolutely no grass whatsoever, just mud and gravel....all rammed side by side in a small area. Plus, many of the wire bottoms were sort of hovering over the top of holes in the ground......so little piggie toes would go straight through the wire :{.
Then I noticed two adult piggies on the lawn, cramped up inside the teeny-tiny plastic lid of an indoor cage (like this one http://www.bitsforpets.com/images/savic-roddy-cavia-cage-image.jpg but with the wire top removed); they'd basically just taken the top off the cage and put it onto the soaking wet grass (it was torrential rain here last night). Poor piggies.
By now, my mind had been made up......no, of course......but the final nail in the coffin was seeing her own two rabbits......a giant and a lop......with two guinea pigs in the run with them......
.......to be fair, they didn't seem to be scared little piggies, but blimey, one kick from the giant rabbit would have killed a guinea pig outright.Anyway, long saga - sorry - but does anyone have any recommendations for guinea pig boarding in the West Midlands area? We can travel, and we'd prefer to take them somewhere that provides the cages (just less hassle for us, but we can take the cages for the right place).
Thanks for looking, Tracey x
