When do you first fall in love with Guinea Pigs?

JimmythePig

JimmythePig

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
May 17, 2020
Messages
240
Reaction score
616
Points
420
Location
Toronto, Canada
I'm late to Guinea pig love. Growing up we were a dog family all the way.
When did you first realize how much you loved these guys? I'm guessing most grew up with piggy pets, or maybe not.
I would love to hear the piggie love stories.
 
I had a guinea pig growing up along with dogs and all manner of hamsters and budgies but I think I truly fell in love with pigs when I got my current sow Bonnie and her sister teacake who sadly passed away recently, watching these scared little things come out of their shells and seek me out when they heard my voice melted my heart and now I wouldn’t be without them !
- Mia , Bonnie and Frieda
 
I grew up having hamsters, rats, rabbits, then a springer spaniel.

I came home to a Guinea pig one day when my wife got home from work before me (at a primary school) she bought one of the two home for the weekend because no one wanted to have him, I fell in love with him after the weekend, I made sure he never went back as a classroom pet, then I worked on rescuing his brother aswell who was left in the same classroom . Just after I managed to permanently get him with me, a fire broke out right near where he was caged.

They were both 2 years old when I got them, they lived to 6 and 7 years old.
 
Hubby has already been keeping guinea pigs for years when I met him. He's the one who introduced me to them. His last 2 piggies (Tootoo and Noinoi) passed away around 1.5 years before I migrated to UK to be with him. So a couple of weeks after we got married, we adopted my first piggies from RSPCA, sisters Meemee and Deedee. ❤ That was 8 years ago and sadly, both of them are already in piggy heaven. We've had another 7 piggies in the span of 8 years, including my current 3. 😍
 
Before quarantine, I was too busy to always visit my guinea pigs, so my brother always took care of the guinea pigs. During quarantine, I was researching about guinea pigs and found out that they live 4-8 years. I started panicking, because my guinea pigs are already 4 1/2 years old, and I started having nightmares of my guinea pigs dying. So, I started spending a LOT of time with them, and as if I could feel their time coming, a few days later my Guinean pig pooped out his intestine, and was sent to the Emergency Vet. We put her to sleep forever, and buried her. I’m still very sad to this day because this was pretty recent. Anyway, I started to really love my guinea pigs during quarantine when I started getting really worried about them. So now I spend lots of time with my single guinea pig, and I have really started to love her a lot. I hope this helps you.
 
I had piggies growing up but i have to admit they were more my mums pet and I really didn't appreciate them and they didn't have great care and were outside piggies so I could go weeks without seeing them.

then when I was at university (2 years ago) I was really struggling with loneliness and was desperate for a companion animal so I spent a lot of time popping into pet shops to have a look a the buggies and hamsters. one time there was a lone piggie in a small pet shop cage with no hides just a small pile of hay, a bowl full of musili and dirty wood shavings. It was love at first sight and I was desperate to take it home and give it a better life and my fiance felt that too. so we spent the next week getting all the things we thought we needed doing very little research and not knowing at all what we were getting ourselves into. when we went back the next week the poor little piggie was gone and to be honest I'm glad we didn't contribute to that business. but we did end up buying our little boys from pets at home and they've been a huge part of the family ever since and 3 cage upgrades later I'm finally happy with there care.
 
I had guinea pigs as a child, but that was over 30 years when welfare standards and life expectancy weren't so good, so I was very pleasantly surprised getting piggies again as an adult how much personality they have and how much fascinating behaviour they display when kept in the correct housing and social groups!
My husband never had small pets as a child, his family had goats and outdoor farm cats, but he became completely smitten when we brought home lonely little boar Theo, so Theo spent his quarantine and post-neutering weeks living mostly up his new daddy's jumper until he could meet his lady friends!
 
My 1st piggies were from my auntie when l was 7 year old, 2 black and white, l was not allowed to keep them in the house. They would watch for me coming home from school, l would clean their hutch and have grass time with them, sadly they died in the middle of winter. During a bad snow snowstorm, over 6 foot of snow in a week. I married at 16,and my pets were piggies and budgies, both in abundance. And my beautiful rough collie Lady. Now nearing 70,my piggies and dogs are my companions.
 
The guinea pig bug bit me when I saw the school ones. We live in rented accommodation and are not supposed to have pets. However, I thought I'd ask the landlord if we could bring the school ones home for the weekend. He said yes, and that was it! He also allowed us pets. The intention was to keep them outside but he let us keep them inside. I'm so happy we have a lovely landlord :D
 
I had piggies as a child/teenager so I’ve always been a big fan! They were outdoor pigs.
But I started helping at the rescue in my town years ago (now closed) cleaning piggy cages and the obsession started again! A month there and my RB Reggie and Sheepy moved in! I love having them indoors and being able to see so much more of them being pigs! :)
 
I was 19 and asked my mum if I could have a rabbit, she said no and when I saw guinea pigs in a local pet shop I thought they were so cute and asked if I could have them instead. She agreed I could buy my 1st 2(bill and Ted) .My love for them started from there, I didn't know anything about piggies and have learnt a lot from this forum over the years.
 
I adopted an unwanted rabbit and guinea pig from a neighbour when I was around 10. The poor piggie was bald as they were in the same hutch and the rabbit was a Male. I have also had guinea pigs when my son was little and once I retired I got Bill and Ted over five years ago as I could give them lots of my new found time. So around 50 years on and off!
 
This thread's got me thinking - you know, I've never met a female guinea pig? I've only ever had boars and the one that insisted on using me as a poop station was also a boar. He was great though. Never did a pee or anything, it was always just near constant poop, plus he was definitely an aby with a golden agouti coat and he never. stopped. chatting.

Seriously. Not wheeking or anything, but those little chutting noises they make when they're exploring? "Ooh what's here?" "Ooh is there something here?" He was non stop. He couldn't have been very old either, maybe 10-12 weeks at most. He was bonkers.
 
I had Guineas as an 8 year old. My parents loved them but we were responsible for them, with them supervising, that was 43 years ago and I still remember the love and fascination I felt when this tiny baby piggy sat on my hand. When I lost them (they both loved to an amazing age!) I will never forget how distraught I was. I was too upset to go to school and usually I’d have be near hospitalisation before I had a day off school! I the had a gap of of many years and then 18 years ago my lovely husband suggested we get some....that was 18 years ago and omg so many memories, so much love. Best little furries ever! x
 
I had a soft spot for them all my life but it wasn't until I was 28 and finally settled in my own house....I went to help my friend run a stall at an RSPCA open day and had a wander around the centre. I saw Hetty and fell in love, took a deep breath and thought oh let's do this. Shows how long ago it was that the RSPCA were happy to let me adopt her as a single pig! But she was soon joined by Jemima and I have had guinea pigs ever since. So glad I went to help out that day, it truly changed my life.
 
JimmythePig said:
I'm late to Guinea pig love. Growing up we were a dog family all the way.
When did you first realize how much you loved these guys? I'm guessing most grew up with piggy pets, or maybe not.
I would love to hear the piggie love stories.
Click to expand...
I can remember my childhood rather well. We had 5 goats, 8 ducks, 2 dogs, 2 cats and a rabbit. Now I remember that I was very cross that everyone in my family had their own ‘breed’ of pets. So for my birthday I asked for 2 Guinea pigs. We asked around and we found some sweet ones nearby. The Guinea pigs were satins and smooth coated and to be honest I liked them but I didn’t quite love them. They were in a shed quite far away from the door so on the winters nights I had to hop out of the door and waddle down in there. This also meant that it was quite cold to even spend some quality time with them! Then the Guinea Pigs moved inside and I was a lot better at cleaning them out and they became a lot friendlier. At this stage I was starting to fall in love with them! I spent a really long time with them each day and gradually they got more and more friendly. This sounds a little bad... I remember going to our garden shop and just going in there and seeing love at first sight! (2 guinea pigs fast asleep next to each other) So we bundled them in the car and slowly introduced them. They immediately got along and loved life. I wasn’t quite in love with them at this stage. When I fell truly in love with them was when we bought a rabbit. The rabbit got really big and had sharp nails which we always seemed to be cutting! Then I realised my love for these animals. They then moved into a 6f outside hutch and a run and the 4 Guinea pigs and the rabbit all lived together. This is when I absolutely loved the guinea pigs. Sometimes i would have thought about getting more but I just remember that I felt completed with these ones. Hope you enjoy reading!
 
When I was about five, my aunt bought a guinea pig for my cousin and I asked my parents for one as well (Don't judge our parents, it was the 1980's... As a side-note, both my parents had had cats and/or dogs growing up so they knew what it was like having animals home and I guess they missed it as well. They couldn't take care of an animal in the early days of their marriage but by that time, my brother and I were growing more self-sufficient so I guess it seemed like a good time to add a pet to the family).

I adored that guinea pig (His name was Mathurin. Though it recently occured to me that my cousin had named her own gp after a flower and considered her female and we can't both have been right, since the two piggies occasionnaly played together and there were never any babies. Yeah, it was a different time...)

When Mathurin died, I asked for another one, so my parents agreed as long as I took care of him all by myself; I was around 11 at the time. They still kept an eye on things but mostly let me handle the second piggy (Zebulon).

Since then, there's always been a guinea pig (sometimes two) at home, except for a gap of two or three years in high school, when I had decided that I was now grown up and too cool to have a pet. That changed when I started college and realized that most people around me didn't care much about being cool anyway.

So I guess it was love at first sight. :luv:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top