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The Whole Anti Petstore Thing.

I can understand the cuteness of baby piggies but I got mine because I wanted to give a home to 2 overlooked adults. Eileen was also offered to me as she has one eye and was deemed unsuitable for sale. I love Eileen dearly and my other unexpected babies but do find the 2 adults so much easier to look after. I also didn't care what colour they were, what type of fur they had. I agreed to take all 3 without even seeing them. I first saw them a week after I had officially said yes!

I agree that it would be great if more people were interested in older guinea pigs and the benefits of owning them.
 
pig in the city said:
As a fosterer for a rescue l think l know why a lot of people end up buying piggies.
Take today for example a nice man phoned me wanting to adopt a pair of piggies for his daughter. He had a large indoor cage and was knowledgeable about piggies. I offered to send him information about the 2 pairs of boars we have available. But he politely declined as his daughter wanted baby piggies.
This is a common scenario for me, people tend to have fixed ideas about the piggies they want, either wanting a particular sex or breed or as one lady said 'cute', or sometimes they want one similar to a pig they had in the past. Fair enough selecting the sex if they want to pair up a bereaved pig, but if you are getting a pair what difference does it make?
We just have piggies and in my eye they are all special in some way, but people can't get past their preconceived idea of the type of piggies they want.
I absolutely love it when people say 'l don't care what they look like' !
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To be fair I had no idea what sex to get and it was actually a thread on this forum that pointed me towards getting females!

When I started my research I was tentatively looking around pet shops and breeders and passed up boars.

Then after learning about rescues on here, I too phoned up asking for females but saw Ronnie and Geoff on their website and fell in love.

They were 11 months old and the rescue were appealing as they had been there since they were tiny but nobody wanted them because they were brown!

A month later I saw that the two boars from the pet shop were still there. They were also around 11 months, had been at that particular pet shop for 2-3 months but had been transferred from a branch as they couldn't sell them.

After much soul searching I bought them and I love, love love my boars!

I feel so sad that they are passed up by people, the rescues are stuffed full of boars yet there is a long waiting list that people are prepared to go on for females.

I think if people do a bit of research it brings up a lot of negatives, boars fighting and how to clean out impacted anal sacks etc. and I think it just puts people off which is a massive shame as they are an absolute joy!
 
I've only ever had boars tbh, but they've never been anything but great pets and entertainment so I'm not sure I'm missing out somehow.

Question for those of you saying only to sell pigs in pairs - what do you do if someone has a single boar or sow and wants to get another to pair up? I mean, if they've lost one from bereavement or something, would getting one be acceptable at that stage? Genuine question, I'm just not sure how to phrase it better.
 
Eileen's Mum said:
I can understand the cuteness of baby piggies but I got mine because I wanted to give a home to 2 overlooked adults. Eileen was also offered to me as she has one eye and was deemed unsuitable for sale. I love Eileen dearly and my other unexpected babies but do find the 2 adults so much easier to look after. I also didn't care what colour they were, what type of fur they had. I agreed to take all 3 without even seeing them. I first saw them a week after I had officially said yes!

I agree that it would be great if more people were interested in older guinea pigs and the benefits of owning them.
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I never set out to have piggies, always had bunnies and cats!

However, Tilly desperately needed to get away from her awful home so we adopted her. She was about 2.5 years old. We then adopted Hettie, around 1 year old and now Colin, around 3 years old.

So, have always had older piggies and have never wanted a baby piggie! They always seem so lively! I prefer a sedate older piggie :)
 
Lorcan said:
I've only ever had boars tbh, but they've never been anything but great pets and entertainment so I'm not sure I'm missing out somehow.

Question for those of you saying only to sell pigs in pairs - what do you do if someone has a single boar or sow and wants to get another to pair up? I mean, if they've lost one from bereavement or something, would getting one be acceptable at that stage? Genuine question, I'm just not sure how to phrase it better.
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Oh yes I think of course that would be acceptable. But, how would you prove to a petshop that you had another piggie at home that you were going to bond with a singleton!
 
*kate* said:
Oh yes I think of course that would be acceptable. But, how would you prove to a petshop that you had another piggie at home that you were going to bond with a singleton!
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Which is where the whole problem scenario comes in - but that's a scenario some people would actually be faced with. I know I would if (god forbid) I lost one of my boys in the near future.
 
Lorcan said:
I've only ever had boars tbh, but they've never been anything but great pets and entertainment so I'm not sure I'm missing out somehow.

Question for those of you saying only to sell pigs in pairs - what do you do if someone has a single boar or sow and wants to get another to pair up? I mean, if they've lost one from bereavement or something, would getting one be acceptable at that stage? Genuine question, I'm just not sure how to phrase it better.
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Recommend a good rescue that helps you bond your pig to a new friend :)
 
Lorcan said:
And if there isn't a rescue nearby?
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Don't know much about it but I think Tim from this forum organizes a pig train, so you could see a pig from a rescue further afield and they would help transport them. Not sure how it would work with bonding though as normally you would take your pet to select their own buddy. Somebody who knows better might be able to throw some light on that.
 
spock said:
Don't know much about it but I think Tim from this forum organizes a pig train, so you could see a pig from a rescue further afield and they would help transport them. Not sure how it would work with bonding though as normally you would take your pet to select their own buddy. Somebody who knows better might be able to throw some light on that.
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That's cool for people on the forum though, but what about people not on the forum? Rescues aren't always easily accessible for everyone, much as though we'd like them to be. People don't just go to pet shops to buy animals on a whim, there are people who buy them from there because there's nowhere else available.
 
Lorcan said:
That's cool for people on the forum though, but what about people not on the forum? Rescues aren't always easily accessible for everyone, much as though we'd like them to be. People don't just go to pet shops to buy animals on a whim, there are people who buy them from there because there's nowhere else available.
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:agr: I guess people then go to local breeders or look on the free ads.
We all love our animals and want pigs from whatever source to go to a loving home.
 
I think everyone on this thread feels this way, its just turned to a" how we can promote the best possible welfare for the animals" kinda thread!:)
 
spock said:
I think everyone on this thread feels this way, its just turned to a" how we can promote the best possible welfare for the animals" kinda thread!:)
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Which , imo , is only achievable by fighting the right campaign.
By trying to get governments to impose things to breeders and sellers.
By having the right ideas , to make it somehow profitable for a government that will have to put a structure in place to police the law it just created .
The key is money , always . No government will do it for free , or write laws that are too expensive to police when more urgent matters require funds and attention.
Therefore , there will have to be not just the right ethics and morals as far as animal welfare is concerned but also the right incentives and programs for any individual , group or organisation to be taken seriously by a government .
Protest and propose .

After all , we all cry about carbon emissions , how much fuel gets burnt every day , yet we have car manufacturers producing cars running "x" amount of miles for a litre of fuel .
I don't know about you , but how come nobody thought of producing an engine that runs ten times longer for a litre of fuel and increase the price of fuel by ten times , after all , what difference would that make to your wallet , or theirs for that matter ?
 
CriLondon said:
I echo a lot of that , my very humble and perhaps to many silly opinion is that if there should be any campaigning going on , it would have to be extremely strongly targeted towards breeding standards ( conditions , welfare , frequency and quantity) aimed at reducing the numbers thus in the long term one should achieve healthier pigs and people would be pushed towards rescues more .
And most importantly , rather than "fighting" people going to these shops , campaign to obtain selling standards.
Make these shops sell these pets under the right conditions , you can't just walk in and buy certain species .
You apply for one , you get info documents and questionnaires .
Are you suitable ? Yes great , here's your pets have a lovely life .

Only governments can impose and police this , there's no other way , shops and breeders are simply not going to impose it upon themselves.
But , as with everything , it's aaaaaalllllll about the £€$€$£...... MONEYSSSSS!
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You are totally right.
In Switzerland there are literally NO guinea pigs in rescue.
None.
And pet shops here sell them, and indeed this is where most people buy them from.

When we first decided to get guinea pigs I searched on all guinea pigs needing a home within a 2 hour drive (remember Switzerland is pretty small - I can get to the other side of the country in just 3 hours) so this is a huge radius.
I found less than 6 guinea pigs in total, and applied for several pairs from different places.
I was flat out turned down by the first place (children under the age of 10, plus we are not Swiss) and put on a waiting list at the second place.
I was on the waiting list for 18 months before I was contacted. 18 months for a potential pair of rescue guinea pigs.

As a member of the public I am unable to buy an entire male.
Every single male guinea pig on sale in Switzerland is castrated (done before sexual maturity at 3 weeks of age, so no 'whoops' litters either).
To obtain an entire male I would need to produce my small animal breeders license, which is very difficult to get, and requires annual breeding facility inspections (amoungst other things - I don't know all of the details as it isn't something I would ever consider).
Here you options are to buy direct from a licensed breeder or from a pet shop, but in both places you will be asked a lot of questions and have to prove that you have an adequate set up (in our case we needed photos and a receipt for the hutch in the photos).
You have to provide ID, and your personal details are recorded and entered into a database.

And it works.
Species specific small animal rescues are pretty much non existent, because the main welfare issues are addressed at point of sale, whether that be in a pet shop or at a breeders.
 
Lorcan said:
And if there isn't a rescue nearby?
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It is rare that there isn't a rescue nearby, but pet shops don't offer bonding help or returning animals as they're not stock so it's not something a pet shop could physically do. You also can't do home visits, bonding and in that case you can't even guarantee they HAVE an existing animal to bond a single to. People lie all the time.

I think it's better for someone to go further a field to do it properly than just pop to a pet shop with their fingers crossed who probably don't have the experience to bond piggies successfully. There could be serious injuries.
 
Swissgreys said:
You are totally right.
In Switzerland there are literally NO guinea pigs in rescue.
None.
And pet shops here sell them, and indeed this is where most people buy them from.

When we first decided to get guinea pigs I searched on all guinea pigs needing a home within a 2 hour drive (remember Switzerland is pretty small - I can get to the other side of the country in just 3 hours) so this is a huge radius.
I found less than 6 guinea pigs in total, and applied for several pairs from different places.
I was flat out turned down by the first place (children under the age of 10, plus we are not Swiss) and put on a waiting list at the second place.
I was on the waiting list for 18 months before I was contacted. 18 months for a potential pair of rescue guinea pigs.

As a member of the public I am unable to buy an entire male.
Every single male guinea pig on sale in Switzerland is castrated (done before sexual maturity at 3 weeks of age, so no 'whoops' litters either).
To obtain an entire male I would need to produce my small animal breeders license, which is very difficult to get, and requires annual breeding facility inspections (amoungst other things - I don't know all of the details as it isn't something I would ever consider).
Here you options are to buy direct from a licensed breeder or from a pet shop, but in both places you will be asked a lot of questions and have to prove that you have an adequate set up (in our case we needed photos and a receipt for the hutch in the photos).
You have to provide ID, and your personal details are recorded and entered into a database.

And it works.
Species specific small animal rescues are pretty much non existent, because the main welfare issues are addressed at point of sale, whether that be in a pet shop or at a breeders.
Click to expand...

This is what we need to be looking up to guys, not hating shops that sell pets but getting everyone on the same page with care, breeding and welfare. Only laws and legislations can make something like this possible for us, we just need to make them do it because they couldn't care less lol.
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
This is what we need to be looking up to guys, not hating shops that sell pets but getting everyone on the same page with care, breeding and welfare. Only laws and legislations can make something like this possible for us, we just need to make them do it because they couldn't care less lol.
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Indeed , indeed!
 
Swissgreys said:
You are totally right.
In Switzerland there are literally NO guinea pigs in rescue.
None.
And pet shops here sell them, and indeed this is where most people buy them from.

When we first decided to get guinea pigs I searched on all guinea pigs needing a home within a 2 hour drive (remember Switzerland is pretty small - I can get to the other side of the country in just 3 hours) so this is a huge radius.
I found less than 6 guinea pigs in total, and applied for several pairs from different places.
I was flat out turned down by the first place (children under the age of 10, plus we are not Swiss) and put on a waiting list at the second place.
I was on the waiting list for 18 months before I was contacted. 18 months for a potential pair of rescue guinea pigs.

As a member of the public I am unable to buy an entire male.
Every single male guinea pig on sale in Switzerland is castrated (done before sexual maturity at 3 weeks of age, so no 'whoops' litters either).
To obtain an entire male I would need to produce my small animal breeders license, which is very difficult to get, and requires annual breeding facility inspections (amoungst other things - I don't know all of the details as it isn't something I would ever consider).
Here you options are to buy direct from a licensed breeder or from a pet shop, but in both places you will be asked a lot of questions and have to prove that you have an adequate set up (in our case we needed photos and a receipt for the hutch in the photos).
You have to provide ID, and your personal details are recorded and entered into a database.

And it works.
Species specific small animal rescues are pretty much non existent, because the main welfare issues are addressed at point of sale, whether that be in a pet shop or at a breeders.
Click to expand...

Why can't we do this?
 
spock said:
like the NHS
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Which in turn need to pay for sick/injured people from countries at war which have no hospitals left as they've all been bombed or the doctors have fled and cannot be cured and land at uk airports daily .....
 
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