Unwanted Guinea Pigs

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Gibbins

Gibbins

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Could you explain why people are relentlessly breeding more pigs when there are so many looking for homes,l have been offered no end of guinea pigs but have six rescues already and struggle to say no
 
Good question @Gibbins.

In my experience there are breeders who breed for profit - sale to pet shops and private sales.

Then there are breeders who breed for pedigree/ breed standards for showing. Some of them are hobby breeders but many sell for profit too. Unwanted or imperfect specimens get sold or given away.

Then there are those who are simply think it would be lovely to have baby piggies - intentional breeding - but don't think it through properly and risk the lives of their sows with pregnancies. Then they can't deal with the additional numbers and sometimes fail to correctly sex and/or separate the sexes so end up with unwanted piggies.

And finally there are those who in good faith buy a pair of piggies from a shop or breeder only to find they've got a mis-sexed pair and have babies or that they've got a correctly sexed pair but one or more are already pregnant due to failure to separate sexes at the right time at source or in transit.

However you look at it you are right - there are innumerable piggies being treated as disposable commodities as a result of intentional breeding and looking for homes. But there are also others who are rehomed for other genuine reasons too- Financial, health, changed circumstances, death, divorce, homelessness.
 
Unfortunately as long as there are pets their will be indiscriminate breeding to make a quick buck :(

In regards to struggling to say no, I know it is difficult. I avoid free ads for this very reason. I set myself a limit and will never go over that. It is important the piggies i have I can afford all medical bills and eventualities for. I do think it pays to have a number in your head and stick to it however tempting.

We can't help every piggy, but by actively participating in the forum we can helps lots of piggies around the world have better more fulfilled lives
 
It's very sad and frustrating. As explained above, there's so many different reasons and not all "breeders" mean to end up with so many. I think there's not much info out there regarding piggies, unless you really research it, and even then, lots of bad info if you look in certain places.
 
Gibbins said:
Could you explain why people are relentlessly breeding more pigs when there are so many looking for homes,l have been offered no end of guinea pigs but have six rescues already and struggle to say no
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Please send those people onto your closest rescue, be it the RSPCA or one of our recommended rescues (see rescue locator on the top bar). It is tough to turn piggies away, but the last thing you want to be doing is to end up in need of a rescue yourself because you cannot cope.

Sadly with there being no system of licensing for breeders and rescues (at the moment, anybody can breed or call themselves a rescue without any checks) and breeding welfare, import controls and strict animal welfare enforcement in place, pets are being treated like disposable toys - and there is a growing number of them. Animal welfare and the strict enforcement of it is not quite cheap when it comes to setting up a system of licensing and regular controls, and at the moment, it is VERY far down on the list of priorities for most governments, especially in the UK.

Education IS slowly seeping through and is starting to make a difference, but unfortunately instead of going for large, expensive pets (sales have halved in the last years), they are now opting for the cheaper, more short-lived small pets - and that includes especially guinea pigs as disposable children's pets where sales figures have tripled in the same period. :(
As a forum and personally, we are trying our best to get the word out that having guinea pigs is a several years commitment, that it is not cheap and we try to encourage our members to adopt rather than shop, but it is a constant and sometimes dispiriting battle. But it is one that has to be fought.
 
Sadly we live in a throw away society without any kind of breeding restrictions. Its easy enough to breed an animal and people think they can make a quick buck from it. Unless strictly monitored and enforced regulations come in its never going to change.
 
After having unplanned babies at the weekend I dont know how you can make money from breeding them. 2 days old and mum is eating me out of house and home x x
 
Elisabeth said:
After having unplanned babies at the weekend I dont know how you can make money from breeding them. 2 days old and mum is eating me out of house and home x x
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Because a good number of breeders keep the pigs in tiny cages where they can't move around enough to burn too much energy and they get fed the minimum... sometimes not even getting fresh veg. Add to that mum can be made pregnant immediately again and they pigs will be sold bang on 6 weeks or earlier (if they can get away with it). P@H sell for around £20-24 per pig. Even if you have 6-9 cages, 1 pregnant pig per cage, increasing number of pups from each litter. £15-20 per pig. £240-£360 for the pups (if they only have two babies) after a 6 week wait, breed the females at the right time and it could be a constant turnover weekly of income. Very sad.
 
Lady Kelly said:
Because a good number of breeders keep the pigs in tiny cages where they can't move around enough to burn too much energy and they get fed the minimum... sometimes not even getting fresh veg. Add to that mum can be made pregnant immediately again and they pigs will be sold bang on 6 weeks or earlier (if they can get away with it). P@H sell for around £20-24 per pig. Even if you have 6-9 cages, 1 pregnant pig per cage, increasing number of pups from each litter. £15-20 per pig. £240-£360 for the pups (if they only have two babies) after a 6 week wait, breed the females at the right time and it could be a constant turnover weekly of income. Very sad.
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Aww that's so wrong my girl was so huge I wouldn't let her go through that again x x
 
To me the saddest part is that a proper system of licensing and control really does work.
Here in Switzerland rescue piggies are almost unheard of (most have a waiting list - we have been on one for over a year now), and it is just not possible for me to get hold of an nu-neutered male without a breeders license (which in turn is not easy to obtain, and would require regular inspections of my breeding set up by the local authorities)*.
The fact that as a member of the general public I am unable to own an entire male guinea pig, means I simply can't make a 'mistake' with sexing or 'accidentally' breed a litter because I think it will be cute to have baby piggies.
So it is possible to prevent the large numbers of unwanted piggies with a good system of controls, but I can not even begin to imagine how hard this would be to implement in the UK. Once the system is in place it works very well, but where to start?
I do agree that education is also a very important step, so at least by keeping our own piggies well and spreading the word, we are doing our own small part to help.

* Just to clarify - I do not want an un-neutered male, and I am not a breeder, or planning to ever be one.
 
These sort of people make me realise why I hate the majority of the human race! I blame the way they've been brought up. The place I work is a family entertainment buisiness and the amount of parents sat there with their head in their phone on Facebook makes me so angry, they can't even act interested in their children for a couple of hours without hurrying their head in their phone. They do anything to keep their children quiet so they buy them what they want whether it's an ice cream or a pet! Then, kid gets bored, gets a different pet, the first pet ends up on free ad site and the cycle continues. This is how breeders can get away with it, because the demand is so high.
I was brought up always having pets and I was never allowed to "get bored" because my mum would always make me go out in all weathers to clean out my rabbits even when I didn't want to I knew I had to. My mum would never in her life give any pet away or get bored with it and so me and my brother have always been grateful for our pets who have spent their whole lives with us. And we we're brought up knowing they are living, breathing creatures with a little brain and heart inside, not some electronic disposable toy!
It's the society we live in where people want to grow up too quickly and where guinea pigs and rabbits are seen as children's pets so when the child is bored they turn around and say "I'm too old for that pet now" which I have actually seen this being said on a gumtree ad! People do not realise how hard they can be to look after and a lot are bought on a whim from pet shop. It's so awful i would love there to be a breeders licence here in the uk, or even if there was an online petition to introduce a breeders licence here in the uk I would 100% sign it!
 
Well we have got to do something but how?our first four were from petting zoo ,they stopped the grant so kids couldn't visit zoo and she wanted us to take another 11 ? Noooo
 
I think all you can do is the best that you can to educate and make people aware.
You also need to have a fixed number that you know you can cope with, and make sure you don't go over it, which is hard when there are piggies that need help. But there will always be more piggies in need, so you have to set a personal limit to avoid ending up in a situation that you can't manage.
 
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