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Interesting webinar by John Chitty

I finally managed to listen, but eek it was tricky, I got about half a sentence, then 5 mins of a spinning circle, then a few more words, and so it went on, it took hours to get the whole of it but it was worth perserevering, this guy is brilliant, so much commonsense and real knowledge. This should be compulsory for anyone with guinea pigs to hear.

I agree with everything he says and it does finally explain why like furry friends, i don't have cystitis or bladder problems in my herd.

He even came up with an additional aspect I hadn't thought of regarding the breeding and rearing. I had been thinking along the lines of genetic differences between well bred and well reared animals and those subjected to the horrors of the factory farming which feeds pet shops with stock, but I hadn't thought of the differences that rearing made as well as breeding. It upsets me to read of these terrified unhandled youngsters going into pet homes, but of course it's not just upsetting for me, but pretty upsetting for them too!

With the couple of 'heart over head' pet shop line guineas that I had, I was amazed by their "feral" nature, they were just terrified of being handled. That should NOT be the norm that everyone accepts, and of course it means extreme stress for these animals right from the start and many remain scared all their lives to some degree or another. We know that cystitis can be caused by stress, it seems so obvious looking at it now.

The careful handling, socialising and accustoming to different foods and different surroundings that well reared guineas get is obviously totally up to the breeder and just like puppies, what they miss early on is never going to entirely be made up for. Mine are always past 8 weeks when I get them, as no decent breeder would sell any earlier,and I hadn't realised until reading the internet that such young babies get sold from shops. So the owner can do their best, but the damage is done already.

Fantastic to hear such an obviously well respected vet with guineas of his own extolling the wet food diet! The temperature thing was another very interesting aspect - having never had central heating in any of my houses , the idea of a house at 20 degrees makes me shudder with horror, but it's effects on weight and respiratory disease made me feel much better about just putting on a jumper when it gets cold! Perhaps that's why I'm slim, along with the guineas - LOL!

thank you so much for helping me to hear this chap furryfriends.
 
Finally watched it and how interesting. For me, there was a bit which I felt to be obvious, but the bits that I didn't know made sense. Explained very well. Can't wait to watch another webinar. Thanks @furryfriends (TEAS) for making us aware of this. About to read the PDF mentioned now. ☺️

Edit: I couldn't get over the adrenal gland!
 
I just listened to the webinar while doing some house chores. I really enjoyed it and he confirmed a lot of things I am already doing for my indoor pigs. There are of course pros and cons to both outdoor and indoor living, but I came out of it feeling good about my pigs living indoors, especially knowing the risks and how I as an owner can help mitigate them. I am especially glad he touched on the sunlight issue, I will definitely be getting a UV lamp tonight. My girls have outdoor run time in the summer, but I was never sure if that was enough, or if it was even a relevant issue at all.

Overall, I really liked how he kept emphasizing that guinea pigs and rabbits have a right to their natural behaviors, a right to privacy, etc. and how we as owners have to provide that. It seems so obvious, but I think many people really don't enjoy that quality in a pet. I think a lot owners need their pet to be human oriented 24/7 and I can see how that may be more of a problem for animals living indoors.
 
h.h.lovecraft said:
I just listened to the webinar while doing some house chores. I really enjoyed it and he confirmed a lot of things I am already doing for my indoor pigs. There are of course pros and cons to both outdoor and indoor living, but I came out of it feeling good about my pigs living indoors, especially knowing the risks and how I as an owner can help mitigate them. I am especially glad he touched on the sunlight issue, I will definitely be getting a UV lamp tonight. My girls have outdoor run time in the summer, but I was never sure if that was enough, or if it was even a relevant issue at all.

Overall, I really liked how he kept emphasizing that guinea pigs and rabbits have a right to their natural behaviors, a right to privacy, etc. and how we as owners have to provide that. It seems so obvious, but I think many people really don't enjoy that quality in a pet. I think a lot owners need their pet to be human oriented 24/7 and I can see how that may be more of a problem for animals living indoors.
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When you purchase a UV light could you please let me know which one and if you'd recommend it. Not re sure which one to get as it's not a very common item to have for guinea pigs. Wouldn't want to get one that is damaging or not right. Thanks :)
 
Tara95 said:
When you purchase a UV light could you please let me know which one and if you'd recommend it. Not re sure which one to get as it's not a very common item to have for guinea pigs. Wouldn't want to get one that is damaging or not right. Thanks :)
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I am in Germany, so I am not sure how much I would be able to help unfortunately because it will probably be a German brand. I was already thinking about making a post asking if anyone could recommend me one because I have no idea where to start either, but I assumed it wouldn't help me much because I am in Germany. I would love to know if anyone here already has one as well. I just started looking now and I am also really unsure, especially because the price ranges are so extreme. I am not sure if I want a uv bulb that produces no heat, or if I can just get a seasonal depression lamp on amazon or something.

Edit: I think I will just make a post about it, maybe someone can help steer us in a general direction!
 
Just had a quick look at the PDF. Thank's for posting.
The research work at the University of Münster is always really interesting and worth looking into.
I did a few simple webinars myself last year and part of my research for these was reading the updates on their research. It's really addictive and luckily a lot of articles are open to everyone.
 
For a long time I've had concerns about how we keep guinea pigs nowadays, suspecting that anthropomorphism is affecting how we keep and deal with our pets. Therefore, it was really encouraging to hear how we can provide good quality indoor homes, whilst allowing them to display normal species specific behaviours. Denying animals the ability to display normal behaviours can be very stressful and it is well documented that stress can impact health. Even when an animal appears to accept what is provided for them, this can be learned helplessness and not actual acceptance of a situation. It is important to remember that we are constantly learning and it is important to keep an open mind!
 
:agr:

Though I do accept that sometimes environmental adaptation for welfare/conservation etc may be an only option. For example, when we stable horses. That is totally against natural behaviour and herd behaviour, but on the same hand is a very much needed management solution for a variety of reasons.

I’ve just managed to catch up on the seminar - interesting stuff
 
I wish I'd known about this, but didn't. Is there any way to watch it now? I tried the link shared but tapping on the play icon does nothing. Is the PDF mentioned a written account of the video?
 
I wonder why indoor guinea pigs tend to have larger adrenals ie more stress? The implication was that those kept indoors didnt have hiding places ... Interesting.

Get this info into schools and pet shops!
 
I have listened to this webinar,it's very compelling evidence,maybe keeping guinea pigs outside with the right care is not so bad after all.
 
I've just been to put heatpads in to my only pair of outside piggies.Fiona was popcorning all over the hutch.ive put 6inches of hay all over the hutch for them to enjoy.
 
eileen said:
I have listened to this webinar,it's very compelling evidence,maybe keeping guinea pigs outside with the right care is not so bad after all.
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Yes, having all my life kept my guinea pigs outside in a more natural fashion, finding their own food, and living in groups, current ones have had to be brought indoors and caged in twos and threes. I have seen a definite difference in behaviour, including more focus on being fed and more stressful relationships with each other. I don't mean the fighting and humping I have seen talked about, I don't have any of that unless something is wrong with one of them - but just a general more quarrelsome attititude, and especially over food. It's interesting, when in a group they are much better at sharing than when they are in small numbers.

Ever since I saw the webinar I've been even more worried that living indoors would be bad healthwise - combining it with all the talk of bladder problems I see here, I'm a little bit paranoid about it. But I do try to keep their diet as similiar as possible to before, and they are all very confident about external factors (they have to be living here!) so hopefully that helps. Plus they don't have a centrally heated house to contend with. I still feel guilty though!
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
For a long time I've had concerns about how we keep guinea pigs nowadays, suspecting that anthropomorphism is affecting how we keep and deal with our pets. Therefore, it was really encouraging to hear how we can provide good quality indoor homes, whilst allowing them to display normal species specific behaviours. Denying animals the ability to display normal behaviours can be very stressful and it is well documented that stress can impact health. Even when an animal appears to accept what is provided for them, this can be learned helplessness and not actual acceptance of a situation. It is important to remember that we are constantly learning and it is important to keep an open mind!
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On subject of many things covered by this thread I agree that we all learning how to do best for our piggies sadly many are not kept by people who don’t use this forum or perhaps don’t care as much as we do.
I find whatever the weather or time of day feed time
A box say small crisps size half fill with hay which I check for hard hay to avoid eye poke few treat leaves mixed up and my 3 as my others in the past go mental when given this excitement is a plenty and love ❤️ the squeaks and play
I have 1 piggie who knows I’m making a box up and she pops away with excitement waiting
Love it so much x
 
Bluebell said:
Yes, having all my life kept my guinea pigs outside in a more natural fashion, finding their own food, and living in groups, current ones have had to be brought indoors and caged in twos and threes. I have seen a definite difference in behaviour, including more focus on being fed and more stressful relationships with each other. I don't mean the fighting and humping I have seen talked about, I don't have any of that unless something is wrong with one of them - but just a general more quarrelsome attititude, and especially over food. It's interesting, when in a group they are much better at sharing than when they are in small numbers.

Ever since I saw the webinar I've been even more worried that living indoors would be bad healthwise - combining it with all the talk of bladder problems I see here, I'm a little bit paranoid about it. But I do try to keep their diet as similiar as possible to before, and they are all very confident about external factors (they have to be living here!) so hopefully that helps. Plus they don't have a centrally heated house to contend with. I still feel guilty though!
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He does say that he hopes he hasn't put people off keeping piggies indoors and I do think that indoor living can be made to work very successfully. I think avoiding keeping the guinea pigs in the busiest part of the house really helps and making sure they have plenty of hideys and safe places to go. Also, feeding the wetter diet really does seem to help with the bladder issues. I can't believe it is just luck that I haven't had any piggies with bladder issues, so it must be something to do with the fact I feed such a lot of salad, leafy veg and grass, which all contains a lot of water. Also, they aren't disturbed much, as they are in a log cabin and not in my house.
 
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