where did you get your guinea pigs?

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lily 74

lily 74

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Hi,

I am just wondering what is a good way to go other than rescue to get a guinea pig? did you all rescue or is a good breeder an acceptable route?

Thanks:)
 
All of my hairy piggies have been from rescues and I am blessed to have adopted a wide variety of breeds with wonderful personalities. I would always recommed going to a reputable rescue who will find piggies to suit you.
 
mine have come from various places - P@H, local pet shop, we rescued some from adtrader who were in a bad state and rescued from other places, but there are no rescues local to me, so i could never adopt a piggy from a rescue place - i cant drive and my OH wouldn't drive miles and miles to get a piggy, but i haven't taken in any more piggy for over a year now.
 
All four of mine have been petshop pigs, both of my females were pregnant. That's one thing that really puts me off cause they clearly don't know how to care for them. That's just how the cookie crumbles thought because there's very few gp breeders in Ireland and even fewer gp rescues.
 
I have 2 breeder's pigs now coming up to 6, from Manchester.

I have 3 Hull Animal Welfare Trust boys.

3 Preloved Girls

2 Sokel boys

2 Foster boys for Stepping Stones 1 of whom is another Mancunian (Small Paws)

and then I have William who was a Pet Shop Boy who I gave into buying as he was being victimised quite badly.

Quite a mish mash really, but they're all equally gorgeous no matter where they came from. Even the ones who wheek with a Lancashire accent.;)
 
I have 2 ex-breeding sows from a woman down the road from me, 1 boar that was an accidental litter born here (his mum was a P@H guinea-pig) 1 ex-breeding boar, 1 P@H boar, and a local pet shop sow. I can't really decide where I get them from because I can't drive and my Mum wouldn't drive me to a rescue unless it was really close which they aren't :( Though one day I will rescue guinea-pigs and hopefully foster them too but I'll have to wait until I'm older and move out.
 
My three girls are Pets at Home Pigs.Two we had before I even knew about the forum and the youngest girl was bought for me by my other half as an early Christmas gift.

My newest arrival is a little boy from Becklen :)

personally, I would now always try to take on a rescue, rather than buying from a shop or breeder :)
 
1 from Pet @ Home adoption (18month) Boar, 2 Girls Rugby Guinea Pig and Rabbit Rescue, 2 Boars and a Sow from Becklen. xx>>>

All rescues :).
 
I have one (mis-sexed) piggy from a local pet shop and one (correctly sexed) piggy from P@H. There are no piggy rescues where I live.
 
My first boar was from a local pet shop andmy second from a woman who said she had rescued a lot of piggies and bunnies and didn't have the space for them anymore. If I ever get more piggies though I will get them from a rescue :)
 
My first piggy Bailey was from P@H. I got Amber from a colleague as his guineas were mis-sexed and had a litter, Coco was advertised in a local classifieds site. I would have preferred a rescue piggy but Amber had become really withdrawn after Bailey was pts so I had to act fast x
 
Our first two- Nugget & Ophelia were given to us when they were no longer wanted, Lily & Sherbet were from a petshop they were about 6 mths old when we got them, Midge & Panda were also petshop buys and the last 2 Paprika & Maisie were from a garden centre.
 
I don't understand why on this forum it's deemed ok to get a skinny pig from a "reputable breeder" (whatever that is) when people suggesting getting regular pigs from one are close to flamed down with reasons to go to a rescue instead?

I'm all for rescues, don't misunderstand me here, but why is it ok to buy from a reputable breeder only if you want pigs with no fur and not if you really, really want a pig of a special colour, age or hair type not available from a rescue?

(my four pigs are from one of Sweden's two guinea pig rescues)
 
I have 27 Boars ill do them in order so noone gets the wrong picture as i am totally against breeders and petshops now.

My original but passed away boar Boris was from a petshop

My current pigs

Smokey,Bandit & Basil were pre rescue so were from petshops

Ralph-Saffron was from someone who got a sow from a petshop and she turned out to be pregnant(ralph was the product of that)

Windsor-Duke was an accidental baby like Ralph who i travelled 7 hours to collect

Soul & pierre i rescued myself, they lived in horrible conditions, were VIT C deficiant and starving(kids got bored)


These are all my rescued boys

Zanzabar,Baker,Cooper-Beau,Rascal,Bartholemew-Lemming,Blade,Rajah,Rusty,Yoda,Prince,Panda,Prescott,Midget,Louis-Vuitton,Simba,Buster,Chico,Harlem,Oakley,Halo

I also had Brutus from rescue but he passed away a few months ago.

I'm also returning to adopt more boys soon and will never again support a breeder/petshop.
Adopting is by far the best feeling you could get, just to know another little one gets the life they deserve and free's up a place at rescue for another needy piggy.
 
I haven't had any new piggies for 4 years now, so I expect the next ones will be rescues, but Cassie was from a very good breeder, and Holly from a bad one! I don't actually think I paid for either of them though. :{{:| There is certainly an obvious difference between good and bad breeders.
 
My first couple of guinea pigs were from a garden centre - with the usual result of them doubling number within weeks.

Since then, I have gone strictly reputable specialist rescue as I have found that I get the best bargain - the ladies who run the rescue do rehome only healthy, guaranteed non-pregnant piggies and know their charges' personalities, so I have been able to rehome only piggies who I can be reasonably sure will fit in with the tribe. They also are very supportive and helpful and do truly care about their piggies.
 
there are no rescue centres near me :( but luckly some very kind people did a piggy train for me so i now have two guinea pigs from a rescue and one from the adoption part is pets at home, but i will definitely not buy from there again as the poor thing is so skittish
 
skrikopanik said:
I don't understand why on this forum it's deemed ok to get a skinny pig from a "reputable breeder" (whatever that is) when people suggesting getting regular pigs from one are close to flamed down with reasons to go to a rescue instead?

I'm all for rescues, don't misunderstand me here, but why is it ok to buy from a reputable breeder only if you want pigs with no fur and not if you really, really want a pig of a special colour, age or hair type not available from a rescue?

(my four pigs are from one of Sweden's two guinea pig rescues)
Click to expand...

You're right really. I don't think people should be flamed down for going to a breeder at all or for whatever they do (as long as it's not cruelty or neglect), but it does seem like double standards for it to be ok to get skinny pigs from breeders, but not other pigs.
 
I think going to a good breeder is the best option if there are no rescues near you and no way to get a rescue pig. :)

Of course there are good breeders, as in people who love their animals and look after them well. There are breeders who look after their animals as well as anyone on here, and they're not the ones who are neglecting animals and abandoning them, they're not the bad guys.


In Ireland there are hardly any rescues that take small animals, and it's almost impossible to get rescue guinea pigs. It'd be easier in Dublin I guess, but that's very far away from me. Good breeders are very hard to find too.

So one of mine comes from a bad pet shop (the pet shop looked fine so I bought her, because I couldn't find any others, but after seeing other shops in this chain with sick animals etc. I wouldn't go there and don't even buy supplies there).

3 of them came from this good pet shop I know. Still I don't like pet shops that sell animals, but this is a small independant pet shop, and they only have a few animals that they get from people with unwanted litters, etc.

1 was the baby of one of my pigs that was pregnant when I bought her.


Of my four other pigs I've had in the past, one was from a pet shop, one was from an ad on the internet of pigs for sale, one was from an accidental litter that I found out about on a guinea pig forum, and one was from the ISPCA.
 
Gizmo and Nigel were bought from P@H, Christopher was rescued from a pet shop, they gave him to me for free as he was poorly
 
skrikopanik said:
I'm all for rescues, don't misunderstand me here, but why is it ok to buy from a reputable breeder only if you want pigs with no fur and not if you really, really want a pig of a special colour, age or hair type not available from a rescue?
Click to expand...

I got my Willow from a rescue, and she's hairless. They don't always have to come from a breeder.
 
3 where dumped in my garden
1 was from a breeder we don't have any rescues near us
and 6 where the result of 2 litters from said 3 that where dumped in the garden. I didn't breed any of these and all are now fixed living happily in 2 groups
 
Mocha came from P@H and was pregnant when I got her. (Had no idea) she had a little boy who went to live with my friend and a girl who I kept and called Topsy, then got Guiness from P@H also. They were happily living with a neutered boar Fudge (From small localish chain of pet shops). When he became ill and died I found this forum as I was not happy with 3 vets diagnosis or treatment (all ended up completely wrong - up until then I assumed all vets knew about guinea pigs). I then became aware of the number of rescue piggies looking for good homes.

I fell in love with a boar (neutered) in Walsall (I lived in Winchester at the time) and my OH and I drove all the way there to rehome him from the RSPCA, and Sid joined our girls.

I would now never buy another piggie from the pet shop now that I know that there are some very good rescues out there (and found one close to me who also does boarding when we are on holiday).
 
Daisy & willow were from P&H, Albie from a local pet shop, Alfie from a city farm, Peppa & Lottie from a reputable breeder, Shy (rescued) from a grotty garden centre and little Betty from my local rescue.
 
My first two piggies were from a farm when they were about 6 months, as I couldn't find any rescue piggies locally, to be fair they were in great health and lovely, the farm only breeds a small number of their piggies once a year to replenish those they've lost and sell , I have to say that they do not fit in it all with the perception of breeders on here.

After e lost Bubble and Squeak I was going to go back there, but knew they probably wouldn't have any for sale for a while, as they only breed in Feb, so started looking again for a rescue online, I found the guinea pig rehome site but there wasn't any local on there, then I found the forum, joined here, posted asking for piggies local to me, and the lovely Wiebke told me about a new Coventry rescue, Cheylesmore, I e-mailed Jo and a couple of weeks later collected my lovely Fitz and Roy.

Then... we acquired Dinky and Charlie, unintentionally really, they were in P@H adoption and had been put in there by a breeder because Dinky had been born "deformed" with a flat face and noisy breathing and he couldn't be sold, both boys had ripped, flakey ears and scars, and Dinky was tiny (hence his name), I told Jo about them and she said if I could get them to her she'd take them to the vets and potentially rehome them to someone aware that Dinky may have dental issues etc, I took them home for two nights until I could get them over to her, and my OH came home and saw the state of them and offered to have them. So they went to the rescue and a couple of weeks later we ended up bringing them home.

I know people have strong views on this sort of thing, but I do not regret my decision at all, I now suspect Dinky may be deaf and his weight gain is so slight compared with his brother (he's only 500g at 17 weeks), we don't know long term if he'll have health/dental problems and I at least know he's with someone who will be willing to pay for and give him the care he needs.
 
Jake - the pet shop I used to work at (I got him with his late brother Hector)
Lentil I 'rescued' from an aquatics place as nobody wanted him as he was much older then their baby guinea pigs
Bounty I rescued from the West Suffolk RSPCA :) got him from Allan (tillythepig)
 
My boys were from PAH Adoption center, when they were six weeks old (which i found usual to see such young pigs in there, but they were unwanted as they were boys!)

My OH's mums sow and daughter were rescued from a large breeders piggie shed who didnt want their guineas anymore - the Sow Maisie was last one left, so she took on Maisie who gave birth to her daughter May. Shiela was from an unwanted litter, and the boar was an next door neighbour who didnt like him due to his colour.
 
mojules said:
our two boys are P@H piggies but would go to a rescue next time as we now know where there are lots of piggies :))
Click to expand...

Since we got our first two boys we also adopted Rikki & Paloma from Hels at Gretna who are a cute married couple :)). Sadly we lost one of our first boys Jules at end of October last year and so Gizmo was adopted from a Sokel fosterer to live with maurice :)
 
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