Guinea Pig Rehome

As with all pets guinea pigs need researching thoroughly before they are bought. Just because the family down the road have a pair of guinea pigs that are ‘bomb proof’ around the children and always at the front of the cage asking to come out for cuddles it doesn’t necessarily follow with all guinea pigs. Most are timid on arrival in their new home, most will settle and develop their own personatlitys, but there is a range of personalitys and these blossom throughout the guinea pig’s lifetime. They may or may not become ‘in your face’ guinea pigs, they may prefer to stay in the shadows at the back of the cage- and that is their choice and their personality. It is not down to age, gender, it is down to their character.

It is often better, therefore, to get an adult guinea pig whose character has developed and is paired up with a compatible friend or two. Reputable rescues and breeders will do this for you.

Before deciding to give a home to guinea pigs read up on their care beforehand, learning from mistakes is good, avoiding them where possible is better. There is much conflicting advice on keeping guinea pigs and it will be necessary to distinguish the correct source. Much advice is outdated, particularly now that the Animal Welfare Act has made some minimal guidelines available to keepers of companion animals. Anywhere that is not reflecting these guidelines is probably not worth pursuing.

When given advice ask ‘why’ this is recommended. Anything backed up with ‘have been doing it for years and not had a problem’ or similar is not acceptable without more concrete reasoning. Often this is a good reason, but there is another one behind it, find out what it is and decide for your self. If an answer is not forthcoming pursue the question elsewhere.

Sources of advice are: other guinea pig owners, vets, rescues and breeders, there is good and bad in each of those groups, it is up to the potential owner to filter out and use the good information. A reputable rescue or breeder will not object to you asking questions, will give advice that is in line with The Animal Welfare Act and will ask you plenty of questions too. Ask about the adoption procedure when you first contact a rescue and what their requirements are, this can save time and money. Many rescues have websites now with their ‘adoption procedure’ layed out, take to time to browse through this, it is time saving for the rescue and is likely to tell you much of what you need to know.