Your first guineas

Jess565

Jess565

Junior Guinea Pig
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I was having a look back at old photos and found some of my first guineas.
This was Freckles and Magic I think this was 1995/96.
I wanted a rabbit but my mum said it's cruel keeping rabbits in captivity. We had a small local pet shop we used and they suggested guineas and I've never looked back!
Sorry if this type of post has been done before but I'd love to hear how and when guineas came into your lives 😊
I was about 11 and it was a family effort looking after them but I wish we had the knowledge we have now for looking after them. We used to rent books from the library on care guides for guineas. They were so out dated 🤨
 

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My first Guinea Pig was called Snap. I was about 11 when I got him too. My Dad made him a cage and I loved him with all my heart. I was bereft when he died. I’ve loved furry potatoes ever since!
 
These two lovely ladies were my first piggies. I'd never had pigs as a child, and these two girls were only here temporarily from a friend for winter. Sadly my friend was unable to have them back home and was heartbroken to have to rehome them, but I had fallen in love and offered to keep them here, she was so happy with that!

These two girls were amazing, Tika (dark one) was shy but loud and Peri was such a 'human' pig and loved everyone and everything! They started my piggy obsession!

Peri was actually found dumped in a box in front of the pet shop my friend worked for at the time and Tika was chosen as a companion for her.

Tika
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Peri
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I had guinea pigs as a child - my first one was Goldie, a fluffy gold and white piggy.
Then as a Christmas/ birthday present came Pepi, a Himalayan and Scamper, a black and gold Aby.
They had babies , we kept Jinx and Patch.
As we are talking 1960s / 70s I do cringe when I think back to what we thought was good care of guinea pigs.
I wish I still had photos but my memories are clear of my beloved piggies.

It took nearly 40 years before I was in a position to have piggies again and they are so much better looked after now
 
To be fair, I had Snap in the 1980’s and he had a pretty good life after we rescued him. Unfortunately, he never had a companion, but he had all the right foods and an outdoor run in the summer. I used to let him run around the kitchen every day after school and he was truly loved. I used to pour over any guinea pig books I could get my hands on, but they were all pretty basic. Looking back, other than giving him a bigger run and a companion, I don’t think I’d do a lot different.
 
Got my first pair of piggies 20 years ago, when I was 11. Cinnamon and Nutmeg - both brothers. Cinnamon was quiet, but loved being cuddled, while Nutmeg used to chat to anyone who held him! Technically my sister and I shared them, but my sister wasn’t that interested, so I ended up doing all the cleaning out/feeding etc. That’s probably what started my love affair with guinea pigs.
 
My first piggies were Pufu and Muffin and we got them on the 19th of January this year from the local shelter.

Unfortunately Muffin passed away this Wednesday after a vet didn't knew how to safely treat her fungal infection.
Pufu is still with us, has already for a month a new wife and is in the process of getting a second one.

Pufu:
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Muffin:
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My first guinea pig was actually not really mine. She was a classroom pet (that was common at the time where I grew up, to have a class pet like a hamster or a guinea pig.) The teacher was a friend of ours and used to have us care for her in the summer and on Christmas vacation and on March break. Apparently her husband got a guinea pig hair in his tear duct and needed it surgically removed and didn't want the guinea pig back in the house or something crazy like that! Anyhow, she was a cute little crested pig, red and white with a single little rosette on top of her head.

I went to a French immersion school and my dad always used to call her 'le cochon guinea' (literally 'the pig' with 'guinea' afterwards.) Of course, in French they are really called 'cochon d'Inde,' which translate to 'pig of India,' which is every bit as incorrect as the term guinea pig in English! LOL!

I wish that we had the same info we had now in terms of larger housing space and keeping them with a friend. Their actual social needs are still really seldom discussed here and back in the 1980s there was little to no information about how you really should keep guinea pigs. I wish she had had a friend to live with! Nonetheless, we did the best we could with her with the info that we had at the time, and she was a lovely girl and lived to be about seven or eight. I remember her fondly!

Here's an old picture of her!
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Besides Caramel above from my childhood, these are my first two pigs from the more recent past (even though even this is about ten years ago now!) Linney is on the left, Frenzy is on the right. They were both sweet girls... Frenzy sadly passed away before age two following complications from a really nasty dental abscess, but Linney lived to be almost seven and was the resident tyrant queen of both Frenzy and Sundae. I miss them both. Such sweet girls.

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