Some ideas needed, please

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jay3ttp

jay3ttp

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello everyone, not sure if this is the correct place to post, sorry if it's not. I am in a bit of a dilemma and I am not sure what to do, any advice would be greatly received.

I have quite a few animals and up until now things have been fine. We have 2 dogs, 4 degu's, 6 rats (houses in twos), 2 gerbils, 2 rabbits and 8 guinea pigs :red Some of the animals beong to my children, who are older and take good care of them but 6 of the Guinea pigs, the rabbits and 2 of the rats belong to me. The degus are my boyfriends.

My problem is, we live in Cornwall and were planning on staying here for good, not all the children liked it here but we all said we would give it a go. Things were looking good until last week. We went to visit family and unfortunately while I was there my grandad passed away, this was expected but still obviously sad. Also while we were there we noticed that my father in law didnt look too good, when I spoke to my mother in law it turns out he has been ill and had a mild heart attack! Nobody told us because he didnt want us rushing 260 miles to him when he knows we are not doing great financially. After all this we arrived home to find our landlord was selling up and has given us notice :0

After long talks we have decided that given our financial state and whats going on back home we are going to leave Cornwall and move back to be with our family. As we are so far away everytime we are interested in a house it goes before we have had a chance to do anything about it. Our family have suggested that we leave here, split in two, me and 3 kids and my partner and 3 kids and stay with our parents, that way we can snap a house up as soon as one becomes available and save money towards it too! This is great except for the animals we have. The two dogs and gerbils can go to my partners house, the 6 rats and my daughters 2 guinea pigs can go to my mums as they have room for this, but I am not sure what to do about the rest? A friend of my partners has said that he is happy to have the degus (he has been after them for ages as he loves them) but I dont want to part with my GP or the rabbits. They are all indoor animals or it would be easier. I have been trying to find out if there are local people to Kettering in Northants that would be willing to foster for a short time. If it comes to it I will have to rehome but I need to know they are going to good homes, it scares me to even think about them going to someone who wont look after them the way I do :...:0 Any ideas? Please x
 
I'm so sorry for your troubles and hope things get better for you. Maybe you could search for rescues in that area and see if they could help? Hopefully someone else will see this post and be able to point you in the right direction. Good luck :)
 
could you ask somewhere if they could look after them for you? a friend or neighbour or even a rescue etc? If you could pay for their keep it may not be such a big deal to ask
 
Hi I have just been sat here thinking I may beable to find someone local at the other end who could foster them for me until we are settled, getting them there should not be a problem it will be finding somewhere for them while we there x
 
Well we are moving to Northamptonshire so if there was anyone there then that would be fab, but also if there is anyone in Cornwall/Devon near Plymouth we could come pick them up once we settled. I will write a seperate post see what happens, thanks for the advice xx
 
It is my opinion that if your critters are part of your family, they are with you for the good...and the bad. I'm sorry for the turn of events, it seems as if a lot has hit you at once.
Perhaps you might consider having the gps and rabbits in smaller cages and with you just for the time you are waiting for a house to come up. It is certainly not ideal, but it is just another choice to consider.
 
I am also of the opinion that they are part of our family and should be with us for good, but i am also of the opinion that if I am staying in someone else s house and they don't have the room for my animals I have to respect that. They are already going out of their way to accommodate 2 adults, 6 children, 2 gerbils, 2 GP, 6 rats and 2 dogs, i feel it is too much to expect anymore. It breaks my heart to have to part with my animals who I am crazy about which is why I am trying to find foster homes for them. I have 100cm cages for the singles and 120cm cage for the ones together but this is still a lot of space to take up in a house. Baring in mind that all our furniture is going to be spread about the houses as well.
I am not trying to sound nasty or argumentative but I don't need someone to tell me they are part of the family when I am already feeling low about having to do this in the first place, that point you tried to make is obvious to me but I don't really have much choice do i?
 
You are very welcome. I know you appreciated all our ideas, that you asked for.
Hope all works out, and that a house you like comes up right away. I realize the moving around and keeping track of critters is stressful, so hopefully it won't be for long.
 
Are all your rats the same sex? If so you could introduce them all together and have one large group which would be a lot easier to manage than three cages, though you would need to make sure you had a big enough cage for them (although any cage big enough for two should be big enough for four and it's only a temporary arrangement). It may also give you more space (if your mum doesn't mind!) for another pair of guinea pigs.

Have you looked at options for boarding them locally? Plenty of places offer this service now.
 
Hi thanks for the suggestions, the rats are in 3 pairs as 2 are mine, 2 are my sons and 2 are my daughters. We have managed to find a way to take all the animals apart from the rabbits but I am working on that. I am really pleased that we can do it! xx
 
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