Nopig should be lonely - Goldie's story

Goldie's snoozing wrapped up in my dressing gown on our bed

As everyone knows guinea pigs cannot be kept by themselves: they get very lonely and quickly wilt away. Having lost a couple of old sows recently we started to look for a lonely pig we could give a good home to and this is how Goldie's joined us. There are now three guinea pigs in the household, so no matter what, nopig in the house will ever be lonely.

Goldie's come from a good home and was well cared for. After her companion sadly passed away the family had to make a difficult, but the only right decision to give her a new home where she could continue to enjoy the company of other pigs.

She settled in very quickly, is very tame and used to human attention, loves her red bell pepper, occasional piece of carrot and freshly cut grass more than anything.

Goldie's previous owners were just like so many others a victim of Pets at home regular missexing mistake that put them in the middle of guinea pig explosion. Not knowing that guinea pigs reach sexual maturity and become fertile as early as 4 weeks old the family ended up with even more guinea pig babies very quickly and did the best they could to rehome the pigs responsibly. By then the family knew how to tell the difference between female and male guinea pigs.

Goldie is a very cheeky and active character. She is very intelligent, learns and remembers everything in the new household very fast, is no longer stressed by the unfamiliar new smells and sounds of the house and won't let us pass by without being vocal to attract out attention to the fact that the last blade of grass has just disappeared in her mouth and she needs more. We can tell she absolutely loves sleeping on the soft fluffy vetbed (a kind of machine-washable guinea pig carpet bedding). She has now fully settled in and falls asleep in no time when around us on a sofa.

Her companions are Tigra and Bruni. Tigra is around 3 years old and Bruni will be coming up to around 6 years old soon. They are a kind of guinea pig celebrities - their stories and photos were printed in the only magazine of its kind in the world, The Guinea Pig magazine. All the three pigs live indoors with air purifier unit in the room and enjoy temperature-control air conditioning to keep them nice and cool in hot weather, because hot weather can be as deadly to guinea pigs (heat stroke) as the frosts.

On Goldie's arrival she was given worming treatment and her nails were trimmed to make sure she's healthy and comfortable.

Guinea pig worming

guinea pig essentials kit: worming and nail trimming

As a standard guinea pigs should be wormed at regular intervals every 3 months, so on arrival Goldie's had a portion of Xeno 450 (Ivermictin) - a couple of drops applied between the shoulder blades, which she didn't even notice. Many pigs can be suddenly lost without any symptoms to internal or external parasites infections, which can be easily prevented by worming them every 3 months to ensure there are no parasites in the bloodstream as well as living in the fur on the surface of skin - it wouldn't be possible to see most of them with a naked eye, although the damage they do to guinea pig health is very significant and can kill. They can be picked up from other pigs or from hay or even grass and are not transmittable to and from other species.

Guinea pig nail clipping

guinea pig nail trimming scissors

Every guinea pig owner has a pair of special scissors to trim guinea pig nails regularly, it is best to do it every two-three weeks, but it depends on how quickly each individual guinea pig's nails grow. Goldie was surprisingly calm when we trimmed her nails and now she finds it easier to run around. This is the pair of scissors we use to clip guinea pigs' nails: they have a blunt end, so it can't hurt the pig - most of them don't enjoy the procedure, wriggle and try to get out, this makes it using normal sharp-end scissors impossible to use safely. These special scissors also grip very well as they have sharper inside blades than normal scissors, so they never slip to nip more of the nail away than needed - if the pig bleeds from the nail "quick" that was cut too short it poses a risk of infection. Detailed information about how to clip guinea pig nails can be found on Guinea Lynx with a lot of other information about guinea pig care.

Finding your guinea pig a new home if circumstances have changed

Sadly quite often guinea pigs that are given away for free end up as free food for pet pythons and snakes or a training toy for fighter dogs. Even a small price would give them significantly more chances of finding a decent home, although small animals rescues are the best option.

When people bring home a guinea pig they will have to be able to afford appropriate nutrition, daily fresh vegetables, regular worming and vet treatments, which all adds up to a lot more than keeping a cat or a dog in the end. You can also get a very cheep vet insurance for the other four-legged friends, which you cannot do with a guinea pig. Free toy is what a lot of rehomed guinea pigs end up as - forgotten, not cared for and biggest majority of them not surviving even one more birthday in a new home.

A guinea pig rescue is the best place for a guinea pig to go to if the circumstances have changed. There is a guinea pig rescue locator on the guinea pigs dedicated forum.