For Guinea pig lovers

Yes a lot of rescues are inundated with guinea pigs at the moment, the same as they are with rabbits. There are a lot of problems with mis-sexing, misinforming and pet shops/chains making money out of selling cute baby animals.

They make lovely pets, but sadly too many are given to children who lose interest after about 10 minutes

true, I even have to shout at my daughter to feed them sometimes.'NOW!YOUNG LADY!!!'and don't get me started about the cleaning out argument- she loves them though and they do watch tv with her often(simpsoms...)

We had guinea pigs the eldest one lived for 8 years, he was the only male one we had so he did get spoilt seeing as we split him from the others at 3 and half weeks old.

Yes, Wiggles gets taken out much more often, he is much more tame and cuddly than the girls, therefore.

Aww, all the happy memories of Eric, Bernard and Wayne - who was at least eight years old when he died. I still miss the way they used to chirrup when I went to feed them...

Is it really the fault of the pet shops in this case? Mistakes happen, sometimes a pair of same-sex animals get on surprisingly well, one gets weirdly fat, and omg babies! But 45 babies over 8 months? You cannot blame that on the shop who didn't sex them correctly before selling them to you. I know people think a lot of silly things about animal breeding, like you "have to" let a cat or dog have a litter before spaying (nonsense), but surely no-one thinks male guinea pigs have a few pregnancies before they become fully male, or something? Come on!

For me, the bigger problem is pet shops perpetuating the myth that they are happy in cages. Guinea pigs run and jump, and of course they can't run on a wheel so they need space! But they still sell the cages that are only suitable for travelling without labelling them as such.

The pet shop comment was more a generalisation on my part, I could add some breeders too in with that, but it was more to make the point that lots of rescues are over-flowing with guinea pigs and rabbits, and in many cases this can be attributable to misinformation from wherever they are obtained (ie often, but not always, pet shops or breeders, and misinformation I meant to include bad information about accommodation and behavioural needs including the need for companionship), missexing leading to accidental litters, and pet shops and some breeders contributing to the problem by adding more animals in to the equation of which few, if any, are neutered before homing.

Rabbits are more my specialist subject but I commented here because I know of small animal shelters/rescues/rehoming centres which rehome both rabbits and guinea pigs (not together of course) and which are overflowing with both & really struggling more than ever because of the general economic situation at the moment. I know of rescues where neutered and vaccinated rabbits have been in rescue for 1, 2, even 4 years, meanwhile a certain chain of pet shops can still sell baby rabbits unneutered and unvaccinated and not have to mop up when things go wrong because of mis-sexing, or misinformation about the animals' needs to the new owners. It is more in rescues interests to make sure that animals are sexed properly and neutered where appropriate, than it is for irresponsible pet stores and breeders who don't give a stuff. (and I know that not all can be tarred with the same brush so that's why I say its a generalisation rather than the whole lot).

ETA: yes mistakes happen, we all make mistakes, but these kinds of mistakes happen all the time up and down the country, and I think the rescue in the article is trying to prevent these mistakes from happening so often by trying to inform and educate pet shops about sexing and the message needs to get out to the wider public too. Totally agree with you about the cage issue, well said.

For a while we had a rabbit and a guinea-pig sharing a hutch, they seemed happy enough together, but things started to go wrong when we moved house. I don't think either of them ever got over the journey (several days).
News to me that guinea-pigs jump, they also don't dig as much as rabbits. I had a dream of keeping some in a near-natural enclosure (under one of these semi-open poly-tunnel things. because their proper home is a lot dryer than most places in the UK), but was always too busy to get it organised when we had the space.

showjumping GP

and another