Guinea pig forums

Hi everyone,

I wonder if anyone here who has guinea pigs is a member of a dedicated guinea pig forum. I got two guinea pigs for my 30th birthday a few weeks ago after not having any for a few years due to living in a very small house. I have kept guinea pigs since I was 5 and love them lots

I now have Daisy, who is white with pink eyes and is quite a character. She is curious and adventurous, very vocal and loves eating, and Cinnamon who is a calmer piggy and very cute. Here they are:





I'm planning to get a male soon as well and let them have babies once or twice and then have the male neutered. I'll keep some of the babies and find loving homes for the others. I just love watching them interact in larger groups and the process of pregnancy and birth is so fascinating, especially for the children.

My problem now is that I would like to be part of a guinea pig forum, but the main ones I can find are extremely in favour of rescuing and rehoming guinea pigs. That is, of course, admirable and noble, but the problem is that they take it to the extreme that in their opinion anyone who wants to breed them is completely irresponsible and will let them have 50 babies a year and dump them all on the rescues' doorstep.

(On a sidenote, I've enquired with my local guinea pig rescue to adopt a male, but was told that they will not rehome a guinea pig if they are going to be used for breeding, and they were not particularly polite in telling me so )

Then there are forums which cater to breeders of purebred guinea pigs for show, which is not really what I'm interested in either. I'm just looking for a forum for people who like and keep guinea pigs to share on all aspects of guinea pig keeping (including responsible breeding).

Any recommendations?

having shown rabbits for many years, I honestly believe the type of forum you're after possibly won't exist, sorry.

With rabbit forums there were only really two types

those interested in breeding and showing of the animals - pretty much exclusively pure breeds. They tend to look quite unfavourably on "back-garden breeders"

The owners forums, much more centered around care and welfare, most of these tend to be quite anti-breeding

I don't think any rescue would rehome if they knew the animal was going to be used for breeding - they would see as exacerbating the problem which they are trying to resolve.

And this is my honest opinion, I'm not meaning to be inflamitry, just something I'm quite passionate about: there really isn't much point in breeding heinz 57 to heinz 57, what's the point? There is next to no outlet for the babies, you may get some interest from an advert in the local paper/shop, but you'd be very lucky to be able to rehome the whole litter this way. Most pet shops these days only deal in pure breeds. Also what you charge for the babies is also unlikely to cover the cost of the weaning period, especially if heaven forbid, something goes wrong and you need a vet.

you may want to think why you want to breed the piggies, what are you hoping to achieve with it? What are the benefits to both you and more importantly the piggies. What do you plan to do with the babies if you cannot find homes for them? Do you have the time and space for them - do you know enough about their needs during this period?

Anyway back to the forum question, you may want to look at the cavy club, The British cavy council, one of the regional cavy clubs or breed clubs for links to forums. It could also be worth you while looking at the various rabbit forums as they tend to have a cavy section. Happy hunting.

Btw your piggies are very sweet looking - they are fascinating animals to keep!

we have kept piggies for several years now and are now down to one extremely cute one - ceasar. I don't know about forums, a few years back we did breed ours- and had 4 babies. I found v little info on the internet, but they had a straight forward preg and birth ( 2 females got preg , both had 3 and 1 was stillborn and another died after a few days) i knew my freind wanted 2 and already had all the equipment and we kept the other 2 and would have been able to keep them no matter how many we had had, (we have lots of room) It was a great experience for the kids- i was preg with my youngest when they were born and i think more nervous about the birth than my own !

Thank you both for your comments, particularly charliesam for being the first person who seems to understand what I want to do. You've summed it up very nicely. In fact, I'm utterly puzzled by the opposition I have faced in the last few days discussing this on the internet. Could this be a cultural difference? I grew up in Germany and lived in Australia for a long time and have never experienced any opposition like this before. I'm really quite upset about it, because I am a responsible person and would only let them have a couple of litters, keep some of the babies, find loving homes for the others, and be prepared to take them back if circumstances change.

Is this possibly another side to the extreme views on animal rights in this country? (There are protests every week outside the life sciences building in Oxford because people object to ethics approved experiments on mice that have the potential to make a great difference to people's lives in the future - completely unheard of in other countries, but that's an issue for another day.)

Christina, thank you for your detailed response. I appreciate it. You're the second person who has suggested that breeding is perfectly alright if you're breeding purebreds for show, but not if you're breeding for pets. Why is this? What's the difference?

The main difference is knowing the backgrounds of the animals and the lifespans and health of the previous generations(and that means not just direct relations i.e mother father gradparents, it's the entire litter each of those relations came from). Without knowing that information and breeding 2 animals of unknown backgrounds they may be carrying hidden recessive genes for health problems and your babies may end up dying or suffering from genetic health problems at a young age. Ethical breeders minimise the chance of this happening by keeping detailed health records for all their lines.
There's also the ethical issue of adding to a population when rescues are full to bursting, a lot of people don't believe it is right to breed a litter for the experience of it when animals which are already here are spending their lives in rescues.
If you want the experience of raising a litter have you considered fostering a pregnant piggie for a rescue until her babies are old enough to be rehomed?

I think it's as Tara84 said, its the ethics of contributing to the population while rescues are fit to burst. Maybe they shouldn't be so militant or hostile about it but I can understand it. You sound very responsible but I suppose they take the point of view that anybody that homes babies for you could have homed a rescue piggie, not that you wouldn't get them homed or dump them.

We are not going to get a guinea pig/s now as our dogs chase furries. We adopted two labs 3 months ago, both were neutered after handing into the rescue and before adoption. When we were looking it appeared to be pretty standard, animals were either neutered or if too young, you had to agree to neutering when older (usually given a voucher).

I think adopting a pregnant piggie sounds like a great idea, presuming it would settle with another piggie while pregnant (I don't know enough about them)

You're very welcome and I think Tara summed it up perfectly in her post

The main difference is knowing the backgrounds of the animals and the lifespans and health of the previous generations(and that means not just direct relations i.e mother father gradparents, it's the entire litter each of those relations came from). Without knowing that information and breeding 2 animals of unknown backgrounds they may be carrying hidden recessive genes for health problems and your babies may end up dying or suffering from genetic health problems at a young age. Ethical breeders minimise the chance of this happening by keeping detailed health records for all their lines.
There's also the ethical issue of adding to a population when rescues are full to bursting, a lot of people don't believe it is right to breed a litter for the experience of it when animals which are already here are spending their lives in rescues.

Pet breeding always has and always will be an emotive subject with those for and those against.

Thanks everyone. I think I will leave it for now and think about it for a couple of months before I decide what I'm going to do. You've given me some food for thought