Buying Guinea Pigs From Pet Stores

Cavy Kung-Fu said:
I've never met a piggy who's aggressive, scared maybe but never aggressive :)
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Mine sometimes when we play hates when my hands touch the blankets and runs towards my hand to bite it.


And yes animals from stores can be very aggressive , I had a rabbit who was so aggressive I couldn't go nearby the cage :s. It depends how the people of the store are ....
 
Aleksiss said:
Hi! I have had about 3 gp in my life and I bought them all from the pet store .... sadly one once had a fungus but except for that ... they were ok :))) sincerely I think that doesn't really matter where you get it ... there are pet shops and pets shops , some are really bad others care about their animals you know ..

Anyway take two if you have the chance ,it's better :D
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welcome italian fellow! :woot:
I also bought a piggie at the shop many years ago, you know here in Italy we have very few rescues (and also very few piggies on sale). I was lucky and you also had luck with yours. But where do pets on sale come from? there was a report tv programme some weeks ago (by Le Iene) and it explained how illegally puppies and other pets are breeded before going on sale into shops. Maybe abroad the situation is different, maybe there are serious controls, but in Rome last March there was a great requisition of a huge herd of guinea pigs aimed at the shops' customers. Most of them seemed to be healthy and had been treated with medicines. But I wonder: what kind of medicines? what kind of antibiotics? maybe also the healthy ones had a damaged gut for the use of inappropriate treatments... You know, there are no serious controls in breeders producing the meat we eat, who knows what happens with pets' business...
For this reason I say, it is better to go to a serious breeder or to take a piggie from a private who had a not wanted pregnancy at home...
 
rome_italy said:
welcome italian fellow! :woot:
I also bought a piggie at the shop many years ago, you know here in Italy we have very few rescues (and also very few piggies on sale). I was lucky and you also had luck with yours. But where do pets on sale come from? there was a report tv programme some weeks ago (by Le Iene) and it explained how illegally puppies and other pets are breeded before going on sale into shops. Maybe abroad the situation is different, maybe there are serious controls, but in Rome last March there was a great requisition of a huge herd of guinea pigs aimed at the shops' customers. Most of them seemed to be healthy and had been treated with medicines. But I wonder: what kind of medicines? what kind of antibiotics? maybe also the healthy ones had a damaged gut for the use of inappropriate treatments... You know, there are no serious controls in breeders producing the meat we eat, who knows what happens with pets' business...
For this reason I say, it is better to go to a serious breeder or to take a piggie from a private who had a not wanted pregnancy at home...
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I agree but in my area I had few shops that used to breed their own animals and they were nice people ... sadly they closed ... otherwise they take them from breeders (cos I asked before buying ) they kinda ship them like ... idk goods that is so bloody bad

Sadly I didn't know about this the first times I bought piggies ...and I regret it even because in Italy sellers don't even know their diet. My first 2 pigs died cos of the food the seller gave me :| and I was too small to even know what the hell I was giving them
 
Aleksiss said:
I agree but in my area I had few shops that used to breed their own animals and they were nice people ... sadly they closed ... otherwise they take them from breeders (cos I asked before buying ) they kinda ship them like ... idk goods that is so bloody bad

Sadly I didn't know about this the first times I bought piggies ...and I regret it even because in Italy sellers don't even know their diet. My first 2 pigs died cos of the food the seller gave me :| and I was too small to even know what the hell I was giving them
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we have lived a very similar story... in 2000 maybe rescues weren't an option here and with these two new piggies I have I had to reach Bologna from Rome... by train (but I cound visit that city, too!). But my piggies came home with a medical report, poo test, a lot of info about their past and they had been well educated to the correct diet (my old piggie was a stubborn!).
You say correct info: here you must be careful even with the choice of the vet... there are dishonest vets who say "yes, I nurse guinea pigs, I know them very well" and then they know less than me...
 
Aleksiss said:
Mine sometimes when we play hates when my hands touch the blankets and runs towards my hand to bite it.


And yes animals from stores can be very aggressive , I had a rabbit who was so aggressive I couldn't go nearby the cage :s. It depends how the people of the store are ....
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Yes piggies might bite if they are scared but they are not aggressive.

Rabbits are different, people think they're cuddly but they're not. If you try and pick one up there's a good chance they'll bite. They don't like being manhandled like that and prefer to come to you. Being picked up is actually pretty traumatic for a prey animal.

Animals are rarely aggressive, generally I find that if we're bitten it's something that we do that causes it.
 
th
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
Yes piggies might bite if they are scared but they are not aggressive.

Rabbits are different, people think they're cuddly but they're not. If you try and pick one up there's a good chance they'll bite. They don't like being manhandled like that and prefer to come to you. Being picked up is actually pretty traumatic for a prey animal.

Animals are rarely aggressive, generally I find that if we're bitten it's something that we do that causes it.
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yeah i agree, the one I had was probably traumatize to a level he would growl to us... and it was pretty scary to be honest... and we never did anything to her :(
 
Sometimes unspayed does can get territorial esp if they dont have a large (at least 10 x 6 foot) space and lots of enrichment.
 
Please do not support pet shops. I know they are convenient, but they force breed piggies until they die. They often do so much inter-breeding that your piggy will be genetically prone to die earlier. My poor pet shop pig (whom I adopted because he was unwanted) has such an illness.

Not to mention, pet shop piggies are not well taken care of. They are aren't given basic food they need for nutrients and not well looked after.

However, unwanted piggies that you adopt have so many benefits. They are well taken care of by the adoption shelter or organization. You adopt them based on personality, because they are known to the shelter. They have most likely recently been seen by a vet and treated for any illnesses. And you'll be giving a piggy who was tossed away a forever home.

If you give money to pet shops who force piggies to breed as a piggy mill, mistreat baby piggies, and never give proper care, what you're doing is telling pet shops "here is my money, keep doing what you're doing".

Please do not support the killing and ruthless abuse of innocent lives.
 
Aleksiss said:
th



yeah i agree, the one I had was probably traumatize to a level he would growl to us... and it was pretty scary to be honest... and we never did anything to her :(
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Unfortunately animals can't always tell when you're being friendly, it's difficult to separate human emotions from animal behaviours but it's nothing personal. We just have to adapt to their wants/needs :)
 
CheeseMommy said:
Please do not support pet shops. I know they are convenient, but they force breed piggies until they die. They often do so much inter-breeding that your piggy will be genetically prone to die earlier. My poor pet shop pig (whom I adopted because he was unwanted) has such an illness.

Not to mention, pet shop piggies are not well taken care of. They are aren't given basic food they need for nutrients and not well looked after.

However, unwanted piggies that you adopt have so many benefits. They are well taken care of by the adoption shelter or organization. You adopt them based on personality, because they are known to the shelter. They have most likely recently been seen by a vet and treated for any illnesses. And you'll be giving a piggy who was tossed away a forever home.

If you give money to pet shops who force piggies to breed as a piggy mill, mistreat baby piggies, and never give proper care, what you're doing is telling pet shops "here is my money, keep doing what you're doing".

Please do not support the killing and ruthless abuse of innocent lives.
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That's a tad extreme, pet shops aren't great and I'll always suggest rescues but the ones in the UK at least aren't quite that bad lol.
 
Maybe it's just the ones in the states I just know what I've seen from videos I've seen on Dodo. Also, seen so many piggies in petshops being fed iceburg lettuce and kept in a tiny aquarium with obvious symptoms of ailments. It's really sad here for small pets and puppies/kittens.

(WARNING very disturbing photos, this is just a link to prove my point This Is Where Petco And PetSmart Get Their Animals )

Obviously, if you do not have an adoption shelter around and a pet shop is your only option, you are NOT a bad person as you are saving a piggy life and giving him a good home. I just hope to spread awareness about big box pet shops and how they treat our beloved little friends.
 
CheeseMommy said:
Maybe it's just the ones in the states I just know what I've seen from videos I've seen on Dodo. Also, seen so many piggies in petshops being fed iceburg lettuce and kept in a tiny aquarium with obvious symptoms of ailments. It's really sad here for small pets and puppies/kittens.

(WARNING very disturbing photos, this is just a link to prove my point This Is Where Petco And PetSmart Get Their Animals )

Obviously, if you do not have an adoption shelter around and a pet shop is your only option, you are NOT a bad person as you are saving a piggy life and giving him a good home. I just hope to spread awareness about big box pet shops and how they treat our beloved little friends.
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Yes I've heard awful things about Petco, it's not superb over here but I don't think it's quite as bad as back yard breeders we have. They're the worst imo the conditions most of them are bred in are appalling.
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
Yes I've heard awful things about Petco, it's not superb over here but I don't think it's quite as bad as back yard breeders we have. They're the worst imo the conditions most of them are bred in are appalling.
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That is horrible to hear. :( In Texas, it's just too hot to do such a thing and guinea pigs are jut not that popular.
 
Actually, my niece got her fingers bitten by a teddy bear hamster while handling it in a pet store.
 
I don't believe any video peta is involved in as they over exaggerate everything to suit their needs and they take the worse case scenarios and make it,sound like that's how it is everywhere...peta,kills more animals each year than the humane society ..and the video for petco shows rabbits petco doesn't sale or have they ever sold rabbits...peta use to go to dog shows and take the dogs out of their cages and have them running around in the middle of busy streets,thinking it was better for them..but if you want to believe them go ahead yes their is probably some truth in their videos but most I don't I wouldn't put it past them that they do half the stuff in the videos themselves to try and prove a point
 
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