Thistle Cavies’ February Newsletter
Thank you to Thistle Cavies for letting us share their February news letter. It goes to show that, like RGPR, Thistle would rather guinea pigs are surrendered sooner than later. Where guinea pigs are purchased from a reputable rescue/source one would hope that the commitment needed is made very clear to potential adopters.
The pictures show the living conditions for two six month old boars and how they were fed.Certainly for weeks they lived in this garden tub filled 1/3rd full of sawdust. They were fed
straw, white cabbage and apple and carrots that I would have thrown in the compost bin. No
water bottle or hay was offered. Surprisingly they are both in pretty good condition possibly
because they were fed a decent quality of pellet. They both have the beginnings of mite
infestation and both are a bit wheezy and snuffley. I cannot believe that anyone would think theabove tub suitable for living quarters no matter how temporary. I cannot say how they lived priorto this as they were dumped on the grandparents as the kids had lost interest and the Grandparents just did not have the facilities to keep them or the knowledge either. Heck a bigcardboard box would have been better than the tub. As for the vegetables, it beggars belief thatanyone could think this was suitable fare for a piggy. Good grief the carrots are black rotten inbits, the apple apart from there being far too much of it smelt of cider so was obviously past itsbest and white cabbage is a complete no no. Both boys had the sense not to touch it, it was pretty limp so had been there a while. More carrot was found lower down in the sawdust.
Running the Rescue we see our fair share of piggies dumped because the kids have lost interest but it is not often that they are in conditions quite like this two boys were in.
“Oh for parents to think ahead and be responsible because children by their very nature
cannot be.”
We also took in 5 other boars over the weekend, all from one owner who has ill health. In contrast she was devastated to give up her boys and only did it for the boys own good health as they were not getting the attention they were used to but their main needs had still been seen to like claw clipping and proper fedding and cleaning out. It was the baths and the free floor time that the
boys had to do without. As a result two have fungal ears and all have very reddened skin the first
sign of fungal.A couple of treatments with Gorgeous Guineas melts and they will be good as new.
I applaud this owner because she recognised that her piggies needs were not being met so did
the best thing for them by putting their needs before her own.
February 24, 2010
Posted in: Rescue