Piggie Question

[squeakyarmadillo]

My daughter and I got a wonderful little piggie. We adopted him from a woman that had several children and another one on the way. She had decided she couldn't take care of him any longer.

Sandy (The piggie) was used to being out all the time. The kids played with him and apparently due to a sickness he had as a baby, he was held a great deal. The little guy is seriously sweet. He adores people and wants to sit with us all the time.

The problem we're having is this; We had no clue how much time he would need. We both feel terrible because we're at work and school all day, and although we do take him out for about an hour a night, he's miserable. He's suddenly starting to get a bit nippy, not much, but a bit. When we first got him he was so cuddly, but I believe that now that he's not getting the time/attention he's used to he's becoming a bit miffy.

My daughter and I have decided that we've made a big mistake thinking we could arrange our schedules enough to give him the attention he wants. After much deliberation, we've decided we should try and find someone who has other piggies and would be able to give him more time.

The problem with this is that we really want to make sure that if we do give him away, that we find someone that will take proper care of him. After caring for him we both realize that Piggies are not easy care pets. We dont want him to end up sitting in his cage day after day without anyone taking care of him.

Our question is, what is the very best way to go about this? I don't want to put a 'free' ad in the paper, since I want to make sure he's in a good home. I refuse to even think of a humane society type place, because I know they don't have time to care for him either.

Does anyone have any ideas? We'll keep him rather than letting him go to someone unable to give him the best... we just feel that we're not giving him the amount of time he needs.

[wolfie]

If your only concern is how much time you have to interact with him, many good guinea pig owners only have about an hour a day to spend with their pet. But it sounds like he is lonely. Since guinea pigs are "pack" animals, why not consider adopting him a buddy? If you have an adequate size cage, two piggies require the same amount of work as one. I'm sure that any of the rescues in your area would help you find a compatable friend for your guinea. Then he would always have company, not be so lonely and you wouldn't have to worry about rehoming him. We have 2 adopted boys and I can't ever imagine them being able to handle being the "only", they are definitely joined at the hip!

If you have decided that owning a guinea pig is just too much work, I willl have to defer to the "pros" about the best way to rehome them. Wolfie

[lillybethb]

I agree with Wolfie. We have 2 brothers who are also "joined at the hip" as Wolfie said. We are gone much of the day with work and school, and our little guys just entertain themselves. When we're home, we play with the babies. But when it is dinnertime or homework time, they entertain each other. Our guys are in the living room, so that they are still in with the family. ~~ We clean their cage once a week, but on a daily basis we remove their "corners" because its the only place they do their business. Then we replace that with fresh litter. That's the main "work" for these guys.

If that isn't workable for you, I do hope you can find a home for your guy with some good people. I don't really have any suggestions here, but I do wish you luck with your sweetie.

[Wheek Minded]

It's been a few days but I'm new to the board and wanted to respond to your call for help.

It sounds to me, like you are feeling overwhelmed and really would love to find a way to make it work, rather than lose your newest family member. You are a rare breed and I feel that you are probably the best caretaker that pig will ever know in his hopefully long life. It's so common for people to get a pig with the best intentions and then quickly dump them when they are bored, lose interest or whatever. It's refreshing to see someone who has the will, but just don't know where to turn.

Going on that assumption I want to reassure you that what you are experiencing is more likely the result of having either too small of a cage, and or a lonely guinea pig than anything else. Most of us don't spend that much time physically handling our piggies, as to be honest they would prefer to admire us all from a distance.. hehe.

There is a small chance that your pig may have some health issue that is causing this type of behavior. You also may be holding the pig for TOO long. One of my boys has to go pee about every 15 minutes. Somewhere around 15 minutes he's gotta go and start getting restless. At 20 he starts nibbling on fingers or going all whacky like they are scared and then by 30 they go absolutely crazy. If you don't give him a place to pee, he finally gives up warning me and lets a good HUGE pee and then relaxs and settles down. Usually that place is on you if you haven't given them any other option. It took me a couple months to figure out his ..bladder issue.

If I held either of them for up to an hour they definitely would be nibbling harder and harder trying to tell us to put them down to take a leak. Sometimes we misunderstand what's happening and feel stupid later on.

In addition, nibbling is actually a sign of between with pigs. Does the "bite" actually mean a "taste"? While you may think he's biting you, he is more likely tasting you. Have you read the biting page at Cavy Spirit?

The reason your piggie seemed friendlier, is more likely that he was getting out of the cage and burning up his energy more often, rather than because you were handling him a lot. My boys tolerate me holding them but don't exactly wait for me at the door...unless of course I'm holding a cucumber or other treat! If you use a pet store cage, your cage is too small and what's happening is your piggie is full of energy, lonely and you are feeling his stress from it.

Have you considered how easy and inexpensive it is to build a larger cage the "Cubes & Coroplast" way? When I first got my pig and started exploring the web about cavies, I was really excited to find Guinea Pig Cages, Your Cavy At Home which is a site dedicated to teaching people an inexpensive and easy way to better their cavies life by simply assembling an inexpensive and larger cage. The site has hundreds if not thousands of pictures of people who have done it and many of them just children. The cost is also so cheap to do it that really no cavy owner has an excuse not to try it. Here is an example of just one of them

Guinea Pig Cage Photos - Pixie's & Zinea's Home




Then I found Index of / and CavyMadness, Guinea Lynx :: A Medical and Care Guide for Your Guinea Pig and found out that they all need buddies. So I rounded up a local rescue and signed up a a buddy.

My pigs are in a nice large cage and they keep each other company. Being male, they have their OWN version of friendship as they do bicker a bit on occasion but mostly wherevery one is, the other is quick to follow. I spend about 15-30 minutes a day with them and an hour on the weekends while we clean the cage. I keep them in an area where we are constantly walking by them and talking to them. They have learned words like "Treat" "Cucumber" "Carrot" "Come-On". Words like "treat" can make them "WHEEEEEK" with excitement and the sound of plastic or even the sounds of me chewing a carrot will bring it on. Each time we walk by their habitat to go to the bathroom or get something from the kitchen they get some words from "dad and mom". We stop by and talk to them while they run to a hidey and peek out at us. I ask them if they want a "TREEET?" and if they wheek, they get one. Of course the treat is a piece of cucumber, carrot, celery or other veggie. They have learned what the word "carrot" means as well as a number of other words so they almost communicate with us. Right now, I honestly think they know what "poop" means, since I'm always talking to them about their poops, complaining about their poops, and cleaning their poops.

We have no children so these guys get a lot of love from us, just not all that much time. Guinea pigs do need human interaction, of course, to keep them tamer, but not to keep them happy by any means. As long as they have a buddy or two, a nice large cage, and a daily bit of time to run around in a playpen or other floor area they are quite content.

If you absolutely are dead set on not getting a second pig and/or alarger cage even after reading this:
http://cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm
Guinea Lynx :: Companionship
then my suggestion is to take some time finding a rescue near you who can refer possible adopters to you, or posting an ad here at this site and on petfinder to see if you get someone you can trust to care as much about your pig as you do.

Personally, I think you would enjoy it far more than you know. I'm a 45 year old Cavy Slave and it's the LAST thing I thought I would end up calling myself.

[squeakyarmadillo]

That is a HUGE amount of information! Thank you so so much!

I did end up putting him up on the adoption thread here. A nice woman close by has emailed and really does want Sandy. I've emailed her with his schedule and what it is he likes/dislikes and how much time and attention Sandy will need. I tried to be VERY detailed (and horribly verbose) and told her if she felt at all that it was too much work or may not fit into her schedule to simply decline and there will be no hard feelings at all. I'd rather keep him until we find a good fit. She did write back saying she's got experience with Cavys, and that she understood the amount of work and appreciated the emailed instructions. So Sandy will have a new home soon.

I had a few other responses to a Craigslist ad, but decided in the end that I would only respond to someone emailing from the board here, since they're probably much more familiar with what Sandy would need. (Especially since I got him from Craigslist and didn't realize what I was getting into).

I'm going to copy your post and send it off to the woman that's going to adopt Sandy... I'm hoping that she'll take the cage idea to heart. I had shown her the cavy cages site and let her know that I think that Sandy's cage is too small. I honestly don't have more room for a big cage, so it woudnt have worked for me.

I have to say, I'm very impressed with the kind, thoughtful replies I received here. I have quite a few animals and have always said that if you can't care for an animal correctly, you shouldnt' have it. So I worried that I would get angry replies for getting myself (and my poor piggie) into a bad situation. My daughter and I are so very sad to see Sandy go... but we really want him to be happy.

Thanks to everyone for the posts and the understanding. My daughter and I.. and Sandy.. really appreciate it.

Jenna

[CavySpirit]

I thank you, too.