So much guilt over childhood Guinea Pig

[lightboil]

hi everyone,
I have felt such guilt over this for 25 years.
I had my guinea pigs in Australia in the 90s.

I originally had two; Bracken and Bramble.

We moved house soon after me being given the Guinea pigs. Our new house only had grass in the front. I was not allowed to keep their cage in the front garden and the only place I was allowed to keep the guinea pigs was outside under the balcony in the back just outside the garage.
I used to have a cage for the front grass that I was allowed to put them in for short periods. I used to put them out there whilst I cleaned the cage.

Sadly at about 1 year old Bramble caught mites from a bad batch of hay. We had him under vet treatment but couldn’t save him. Bracken was ok.

A while later a friend gave me another Guinea Pig, Chocolate, for a birthday: I didn’t know they were going to do that. Chocolate passed away really suddenly and unexpectedly very soon after. I think he must have been a runt and I don’t know where he came from.

So that left Bracken alone.
Bracken never particularly liked being handled. But I also wasn’t allowed to have him indoors.

At some point I had a problem with slugs getting into his cage due to where it was. So, in order to keep his cage clear of slugs, I moved his cage into the garage (there were no cars in the garage). There was at least one window in the garage. I don’t remember if there were two.
It also seemed to me that Bracken got less stressed if I cleaned his cage in two stages and let him stay in the cage whilst I cleaned. This meant less time outside on the grass though.

At the time, there wasn’t the internet and I knew very little about guinea pigs and nothing about animal behaviour or enrichment. I LOVED Bracken and would have liked to been allowed to have him inside or to have had a back garden with grass so he could roam free. But those two things were not in my control.

I feel so guilty that
a) I moved him into the garage to keep him away from the slugs
b) I interpreted his behaviour to mean he didn’t want to be handled and therefore wanted to be left alone so I took him out less and less
c) knew nothing about giving him stimulation so he had no toys or other activities
d) I didn’t take him to the front grass that often, and certainly not every day and probably not every week and rarer as he got older due to my misguided thought that it was kinder to leave him in peace
e) I didn’t fight my parents on the issues of letting him live on the grass permanently or come inside

He lived to about 5 or so and the vet used to comment on how healthy he was.

But I just know that if I had a guinea pig now I would never let him live alone and in a garage, and I would take them onto the grass daily and do loads of enrichment activities.

I feel like I was such a cruel guinea pig owner. I feel like I should have known better.
I feel so so guilty that at times I have panic attacks about it.
There’s no real question here, just an admission of so much guilt for not giving my beloved Bracken the best life he could have had.
Bramble and Chocolate’s early deaths weren’t in my control due to the mites from a bad batch of lucern and Chocolates sudden death. But I just feel so bad that Bracken lived so long without the care I would give him now

 

[Claire W]

Please don’t feel guilty. Not much was known about guinea pig care back in the 90’s and you looked after your piggies as best you could.

I had my first piggies, Connie and Eliza back in 2007. We were renting at the time and there was no room for them to live indoors. They lived in a 3ft hutch in an out building that was cold and damp. I fed them muesli food and their veg consisted on apple and carrot. But they were kept clean, fed, watered and were well loved.

When Connie died, I adopted Eleanor as a companion for Eliza. I bought them a bigger hutch and moved them in to the yard. The yard didn’t have grass. I learned a lot more on how to look after guinea pigs and Eliza and Eleanor lived a better life than Eliza and Connie.

I have had a lot of piggies over the years and learned so much as time has moved on I now have my own house and have 3 piggies living the life of luxury in their own room eating pelleted food and fresh veg twice a day. They have a run so they can go out on the grass during the summer.

We live and learn but you did nothing wrong back in the 90’s

 

[weepweeps]

hi everyone,
I have felt such guilt over this for 25 years.
I had my guinea pigs in Australia in the 90s.

I originally had two; Bracken and Bramble.

We moved house soon after me being given the Guinea pigs. Our new house only had grass in the front. I was not allowed to keep their cage in the front garden and the only place I was allowed to keep the guinea pigs was outside under the balcony in the back just outside the garage.
I used to have a cage for the front grass that I was allowed to put them in for short periods. I used to put them out there whilst I cleaned the cage.

Sadly at about 1 year old Bramble caught mites from a bad batch of hay. We had him under vet treatment but couldn’t save him. Bracken was ok.

A while later a friend gave me another Guinea Pig, Chocolate, for a birthday: I didn’t know they were going to do that. Chocolate passed away really suddenly and unexpectedly very soon after. I think he must have been a runt and I don’t know where he came from.

So that left Bracken alone.
Bracken never particularly liked being handled. But I also wasn’t allowed to have him indoors.

At some point I had a problem with slugs getting into his cage due to where it was. So, in order to keep his cage clear of slugs, I moved his cage into the garage (there were no cars in the garage). There was at least one window in the garage. I don’t remember if there were two.
It also seemed to me that Bracken got less stressed if I cleaned his cage in two stages and let him stay in the cage whilst I cleaned. This meant less time outside on the grass though.

At the time, there wasn’t the internet and I knew very little about guinea pigs and nothing about animal behaviour or enrichment. I LOVED Bracken and would have liked to been allowed to have him inside or to have had a back garden with grass so he could roam free. But those two things were not in my control.

I feel so guilty that
a) I moved him into the garage to keep him away from the slugs
b) I interpreted his behaviour to mean he didn’t want to be handled and therefore wanted to be left alone so I took him out less and less
c) knew nothing about giving him stimulation so he had no toys or other activities
d) I didn’t take him to the front grass that often, and certainly not every day and probably not every week and rarer as he got older due to my misguided thought that it was kinder to leave him in peace
e) I didn’t fight my parents on the issues of letting him live on the grass permanently or come inside

He lived to about 5 or so and the vet used to comment on how healthy he was.

But I just know that if I had a guinea pig now I would never let him live alone and in a garage, and I would take them onto the grass daily and do loads of enrichment activities.

I feel like I was such a cruel guinea pig owner. I feel like I should have known better.
I feel so so guilty that at times I have panic attacks about it.
There’s no real question here, just an admission of so much guilt for not giving my beloved Bracken the best life he could have had.
Bramble and Chocolate’s early deaths weren’t in my control due to the mites from a bad batch of lucern and Chocolates sudden death. But I just feel so bad that Bracken lived so long without the care I would give him now

I’m so sorry you have held onto the guilt for so long.

You must let it go now. You gave Bracken the best life you knew how to at the time.

I too have guilt from my first piggy called Monty. I let him down. I was a child at the time and my parents gave no advice or help at all. I didn’t know any better.

But once I got older and got piggies for my children I was the best piggy parent I could be. You live and learn.

Take care

 

[Bill & Ted]

Please don’t feel guilty, you did everything you could have done under the circumstances, as a child you are ruled by your parents. Lots of us had guinea pigs when we were young including myself over 50 odd years ago. I had a single piggie who was adopted with a rabbit from a neighbour. I split the two but never thought either should not have lived alone. They too lived in the garden in summer and garage in winter in hutches that niw would be frowned upon. Times move on, but that doesn’t detract from the fact you loved and cared for Bracken the very best you could, so don’t feel bad x

 

[PigglePuggle]

I'm sure many of us now feel guillt looking back at how our childhood pets were treated. My first piggy Boris in the early 1980's lived alone in a 3ft outdoor hutch- my parents wouldnt allow anything else, and guinea pigs were so new and exotic in rural Northern England then, nobody knew any better. Then we had Roberta in 1986, who was allowed to playdate my best friend's male guinea pig so had babies, neutering didnt happen then of course, nor separating males and females... rabbit companions were often a thing at that time- nobody knew any better...
The best we can do, as adults who now have the advantage of hindsight, perspective, huge advances in welfare and vet care over the years, and freedom from our parents' rules and limited knowledge and budget- is to let our current piggies live the life we wanted for our childhood piggies but couldn't deliver for whatever reason. Life is too short for regrets, use those childhood experiences positively, to improve piggy lives in the here and now.
Piggies live for happy todays- piggy people should do too x

 

[lightboil]

You are all so kind.
I agree: we do the best we can with what we know at the time.
I was 12 when I first got my guinea pigs in the early 90s. I guess I often just feel that at that age I should have known more. There is certainly more information around now.

Guinea Pigs are such gorgeous animals.

 

[Merab]

I can sympathise with you and all who feel guilty about the way we cared for childhood piggies.
This is natural when we learn more.
We gave them the best care that we knew how to give at a time when very little was known.

You loved your piggies and did the best for them. That is good enough.

 

[iDeclare]

My first piggy as a child in the 90's lived with my rabbit in a hutch with a run in the garden. Didn't think anything of it at the time, infact I remember everyone saying that guinea pigs and rabbits were great companions. I'm not sure they had separate feed either?
Whatever mistakes we made at least they were loved and now we know better.
Big hugs x

 

[Freela]

Please try not to feel too badly. The recommended care of animals in the past was not the same as it is now. You were doing the best you knew how to do at the time. When I was a kid, my grade 1 and 2 class had a class guinea pig, Caramel. She lived alone in a pretty small cage. She got pellets and veggies, no hay. She lived in the class during the school year and different students would take her home for Christmas, winter break, and summer break. I got to bring her home one summer for a month and used to let her eat the grass of our lawn underneath a laundry basket. Knowing what I know now, I would never keep a solo pig... I would never suggest a pig as a pet for a noisy class of 6-year-olds... I would never keep a pig in a cage that small... I would never not give my pig hay (which I honestly don't even remember pet stores keeping in stock at the time!) But at the time, we were doing what the guinea pig books we had said to do (they were themselves out of date and this was back in the 80s.) We were doing our best, as were you. ((HUGS.))

 

[Helen C]

Don't feel too bad--You did the best you could at the time.
I understand, though. I had my first pig in the 80's and while he was very loved, thinking back about it, his cage was much too small, I'm not sure he even got hay as the pet store told us to feed pellets and veggies, at the time, there were no exotic vets...
(I feel bad about it too, but I try to remember that the whole family loved him, cuddled him any chance we got, and took as good care of him as possible at the time).

Funny story, in the "don't do this at home" category : I gave him a male name and considered him a male, but in hindsight, he must have been a female. A cousin of mine also had a piggy and we occasionally put the two of them together for a play date. There were never any babies, and they didn't fight, so probably Mathurin was a girl...

Knowledge has evolved a lot in the last 15-20 years, and that knowledge is a lot easier to access as well. (It drives me mad now when people come see my girls and say their cage is too big, I'm giving too much hay and do they really need vegetables? "Back in the day, we didn't bother with all this." Well, back in the day, we didn't know better. Now, we do...)

 

[poggle]

I've attached a picture of the cage we were sold for our first two guinea pigs in... 1996? We did move soon after and my Dad built them a new, bigger cage, but it really does highlight the naff information available back then.

I think a lot of us have been given bad advice over the years. It's hard not to beat yourself up over it, but remember that you didn't intentionally deprive them of anything; we were doing the best we could with the information and resources we had.

A different kind of example, but I remember talking about my son's sleeping arrangements and research into SIDS with my Mum shortly after he was born. She was horrified that she'd done most of the things they now advise against, but it was what was recommended at the time I was born. I half joke that by the time my grandkids arrive it will all have changed again, as we learn more!