Wheek & Squeak

If you are thinking about adopting or buying a guinea pig, there are many things to bear in mind.

It should be a commitment for the guinea pigs lifetime, so please dont get them if you know in a year or two your circumstances will be changing and you will no longer be able to keep them.

Do not buy them just for the children, only get them if they are wanted by the whole family.  The novelty very soon wears off with children and within a month or so they are not even looked at.  I have lost count of the number of times parents bring their guinea pigs here saying ‘the children kept on at us for ages saying they wanted guinea pigs and promised to look after them and now they dont even look at them’.  The majority of guinea pigs in rescue come in for this very reason.  Children cannot be responsible for looking after guinea pigs, the adult has to be the main carer with the children helping.  Children will not pick up when an animal is sick, when it has lost weight, checked whether it is eating or identify skin problems, just looking in the cage after the children have cleaned and fed them is not enough.

If you are sure you can offer the right home and are getting them for the right reasons please make sure you have the right hutch/cage, run etc to make their life a happy one.

First of all, make sure you get two, they are very sociable animals and love the company of other guinea pigs, please do NOT put them with rabbits.  Their diet is different, they can be killed or hurt very badly by the rabbit (not intentionally) and they prefer the company of their own kind, who they can talk to in their own language.

Hutches or cages should be at least 4ft x 2ft for two guinea pigs, the bigger the better.  Two tier hutches are not ideal for guinea pigs, there have been many cases where guinea pigs have fallen off the ramp and been hurt very badly.  Some guinea pigs just refuse to go on the ramp, so it is much better to get a large hutch on just one level.  The hutch should be made of either loglap or tongue and groove for outside and there should be somewhere for them to go inside during the cold winter months.  This should either be a dry shed with daylight, not damp dark and draughty or indoors. 

Please make sure when they are outside that they are well covered over at night.  Also that they have secure catches.  Little pieces of wood are not secure, these can easily be knocked by a cat, fox, dog etc or even work loose.  Good quality bolts should be fitted to keep them safe.

Hutches with runs attached are not suitable for guinea pigs unless it has a door where you can stop the guinea pigs going in the run in bad weather.  You should only put your guinea pigs in the outside run when the weather is fine and the ground dry.  If they are allowed on damp cold ground they can suffer greatly as they are prone to respitory problems.

It is also unsafe to let your guinea pigs run free in your garden, they should be in a secure run with plenty of shade.  There have been many cases where guinea pigs running free in their garden have been attacked by cats, neighbours dogs, ferrets, magpies, sparrowhawks and other birds of prey and this is with the owners being present, so please keep these little creatures safe as there only defence is to run which isnt much help with the animals named above.

Also bear in mind that guinea pigs will need to go to the vets at some time and this can be costly, it can easily run into £100s and that could just be for one operation.  Keeping any pet is not cheap and you owe it to them to keep them healthy and free from pain.

Before getting any pet you need to do your homework and find out as much about them and their needs as you can.  After reading about them it will give you an idea if the guinea pig is the pet for you. 

After reading this you still think guinea pigs are for you your next stage is where to get them.

Most people, I guess go to pet shops.  Baby guinea pigs are very appealing but they dont stay babies for very long.

I personally am very against pet shops selling any animals.  The staff in general have very little knowledge of the pets they sell.  The shop is there to make money so they will basically sell to anyone, along with flimsy made hutches that are far too small, a run, feed usually their own brand and lots of unsuitable treats, salt licks etc to build up their profits.  I have no problem with people making a living but not to the detriment of the animals they are selling.  I will add at this point there are some small very good pet shops but sadly they are in the minority.

Often they are mis-sexed and you have a female that is pregnant.  The new owner having no knowledge of baby guinea pigs does not realise that the male babies need to be taken away from their mother at about 4 weeks otherwise the males will mate their mother and sisters.  So the new owner could then have up to 4 sows pregnant so in 4 – 5 months you could end up with say 14 guinea pigs.

The majority of guinea pigs in Rescues orginally came from a pet shop, in my case I would say about 70% comes from one particulary pet shop.

Getting a guinea pig from a Rescue (I know Im biased)  really does help give an unfortunate guinea pig a chance of a good life.  It was not their fault that they were sold to an unsuitable home.  With most Rescues you will get very good advice from experienced people and usually this support lasts right through the lifetime of that guinea pig.  Rescues are not money making businesses, they are there for the benefit of the guinea pigs and only survive on donations.  They are passionate about their animals with their main aim to finding the best possible home for them.

Most Rescues have non-breeding policies for very good reason, there are more pets looking for homes than their are good homes so by breeding only makes the situation worse.

When you contact Rescues and they say that pets should not be bought only for children, that they have a non-breeding policy and that hutches should be big enough for the guinea pigs to actually be able to run in,  it is because they care that the animal gets a decent life in a decent sized hutch and its not that they are being unreasonable and difficult.