Before you read this post, did you know that guinea pigs are in shelters?

Eww! I bet. Thank goodness you rescued them! I've seen some pretty nasty cages. I don't know how people can let them get like that. My dad said that my grandpa had a great way for teaching him to clean cages (not that kids should have full responsibility for a pet). Once he didn't clean the hamster cage, and his dad told him he wouldn't want to sleep in that. My dad left it anyway. And in the middle of the night, grandpa dumped the cage out onto my dad's bed. He cleaned the cage ever since.

Oh cool! I've met Fenella before a few times. :) I live a few hours north of her. Of course I don't mind you adding to the thread. :) I can't remember if it was last year or the year before that I went to the piggie round up there. If you saw when there were cage building demos, that's when I was there helping out with that.

Wow! $25 is pretty darn good for a neuter! I haven't had any success with free roaming piggies, but I use Cavy Cages (www.guineapigcages.com) and build them around 9 square feet per pair of piggies. Works really well. The rescue I volunteer for uses those as well with the minimum size being 7 square feet.

Fernella is such a sweet woman. The piggie that we adopted from her, Sarah, wasn't wanted anymore and the male we had was pretty picky about mates. We had him fixed and let me tell you, he wouldn't come near me for about three days when he came home from the vet. The vet was really impressed that we were getting him fixed and he only charged us $25.00. When we lived in San Diego I always sent tons of people to her instead of going to PetSmart or PetCo, I hated seeing them in those tiny pens. Ours were / are all free runners and I'm hoping to get some pics of them up soon.

You're very welcome! It is my hope that this post will inspire people at the very least, to say when they hear someone talking about getting a guinea pig, "Did you know that you could find guinea pigs in a shelter?" Spreading the word will help to make sure people do know about them, and will adopt. As it is now, so many people don't know and that's the only reason they aren't helping. A lot of caring people like yourself are out there, and they just don't know or they would help. So spreading the word definitely helps!

Very cool that you've saved some piggies! Yes, out here we get a lot of rabbits. There are generally at least 20 in every shelter out here. I used to volunteer for a rabbit rescue, fostering rabbits and bringing supplies to shelter rabbits I couldn't take home. I've also adopted a hamster before from a rescue, and I've transported one from a shelter to a new home. I've even fostered rats. It's amazing, all sorts of pets are in shelters. It sucks that people view pets as being so disposable.

Glad to hear it! Spread the word that guinea pigs are out there too. I've also adopted some hamsters from shelters near here. We don't get gerbils often in our shelters since they're illegal (so when they get them, they are put to sleep if no one can drive them to another state), but in any state where they are legal, they could possibly be found for adoption as well.

Aww! Wow, that is a big guy! Guinea pig pregnancies are pretty dangerous, and unfortunately, having stillborns is common. Most people missex piggies the other way around (thinking a male is a female), hehe. It can be difficult at first to know what to look for though. You probably already have it figured out now, but for the benefit of others reading, here's a good link with sexing photos: http://www.cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm Lucky pig to have you! A lot of the shelters out here give away free pigs. At least doing it through a vet somewhat shows that people who get them will be people who visit the vet when things are wrong. That's kind of a nice arrangement there. Out here, all we can hope for is that they'll raise the adoption fees above snake food shop prices.

I did - I got my big guy (Cujo) from a vet that our local humane society gives the guinea pigs to to be adopted. There was no charge for me to take him home. About 3 lbs and around 10-12" long (told ya he was my big guy lol). A real sweetie - very even tempered and loving. Not sure what his is - Abbyssinian maybe? His coat has whorls in it (not flat coated). He's what I call chinchilla gray and white. Will post a pic if I can get him to sit still long enough lol....along with the Skunk (my avatar) and his momma (Little Dude)....yep accidently got a female (and yes I DID triple check before I got it) - about had a fit when when I realized Little Dude was pregnant! She had 4 - Skunk was the runt - the other 3 were stillborn :(

That's cool. I see piggies on there a lot and often wonder what types of homes they get, because a lot are listed for free. Good to hear! To me, that's still adoption if you're rescuing guinea pigs from a private home looking to adopt them out. In fact, the rescue I volunteer for has 3 adoption programs: adopting foster pigs, adopting shelter pigs, or adopting from the private adoptions list. Those piggies definitely need adopting as well! Otherwise, eventually the owners would probably get frustrated and they'd put them into a shelter.

Yep! I've even got one of my zebra finches from a shelter. I'm always amazed by what I see in shelters. Goats, chickens, even a peacock! Guinea pigs don't get any shots, but pets that do all get them at the shelter. Dogs and cats are usually already spayed/neutered as well. And in many shelters now, rabbits are already altered as well.

It really is scary how all pets are now victims to our "throw away" culture. When you're done with something, it just gets thrown away. And unfortunately, now this seems to include pets for many people. To me, I'd feel horrible if I ever put an animal in the shelter (I wasn't even able to bring a rabbit in that wasn't even mine!). But many people just fool themselves into thinking their pet will surely be adopted. In the case of exotics especially, people often don't even know they are there... so how can they be adopted?

Glad to hear it! I love the seniors. Senior cavies are just such special pets. So glad to hear you had a wonderful experience.