June 11, 2007, 1:42 am : Guinea Pigs

I went out on Thursday, i had the car as i’d driven my sister to work so i could make an appointment. Well, i’d had a bad week mostly so thought i could cheer myself up in the pet store, looking at all the cute furry creatures. The brids were beutiful, the hamsters were so cute in their sleeping pile, they even had a pair of tiny tortoises in a tank.
Recently one of my friends bought a guinea pig and called him Oscar. Well right at the back of the shop are two pens, the nearer of them had two boy guineas and and a boy rabbit, the pen behind had three girl guineas. I spent a while talking to the shop assistant, which i normally hate doing, but i get hyper and talkitive when i haven’t slept. So, after about half an hour of asking about what cage, and how to care for them i said i’d think about it, see how much money i had and talk to my sister before i decided.
When i got home i told my mum what i was thinking and, surprisingly, she liked the idea (though she did tell me she would never hold or touch them - she has mild rodentophobia). She thought that instead of talking with my sister i should surprise her and get them before i picked her up from work. I gave my room a quick tidy, so the cage had a place to go, and checked i would have enough money in the bank for it all, which i did, just, then headed back to the pet shop.
I spent about another 2 hours in the shop. We, the shop assisant and i, talked more about do’s and dont’s of guinea pig ownership and took a look at the three girls (the boy’s were already sold). There were two tricolour and one brown girl, all short haired. The assistant first picked up the brown one to show me but noticed one of her eyes looked watery and swollen. She checked it with the manager who agreed the guinea should be seen to by a vet before they could sell her. They had told me they had a seven day returns policy if any health issues showed up but if i took the brown one home knowing about its eye that policy would be void. I felt bad, but we looked at the other two, the tricolours. They were beautiful, the markings one them were totally different so they could easily be told apart. One of the things i had brought up with the assistant was that i knew guineas were social animals and needed a lot of company, and it was generally better to go with another guinea than a rabbit as they have been known to harm guineas and that chances are my company wont be enough. The result of this is of course i had to buy two of them, and as the two tricolours were more than likely sisters they were most likely to get along and both looked generally healthy.
So that was it, i decided to buy them. The next thing was to sort out what cage i wanted. The pet shop i went to is brillient, they have a starter kit for every animal. So, in the case of the guinea pigs, i could get; a cage big enough for two with house, bowl, water bottle and hay rack, a bag of complete food, a toy, bag of hay, bag of straw, bag of sawdust, mineral lick, animal friendly disinfectant and a book on guinea pig care for £55.99, i added a wodden tube, a portable carrier and a cage fan for hot days to it. It’s a good thing i don’t believe in omens as things wouldn’t have been good for me, first with the brown guineas bad eye and then when i chose the cage i then found out they were out of stock, only had the one on show left. But they agreed to get that one down from the wall and clean off the dust. The day was boiling hot and even in the air conditioned store i was feeling thirsty so i left to get some water at a near by shop while the assistant got the kit together, when i got back it was laied out so all i needed was to pay and get it all to the car. Paying was easy, if painful to my bank balance, but i needed help getting the cage out so a male shop assistant was asked to help. I left the guineas in a box in the shop deciding i would come back for them after taking everything else out so they didnt have to sit in the hot car while i fumbled about with everything. Once the guineas were in the car i made sure all the windows were open and the box was secure in the seat and headed home.
I took the guineas in first then needed dad to bring the cage in while i carried all the bags of supplies up to my room. i quickly set it all up, put in the beding, food, water and furnishings, then opened the box to put them in their new home. As tempted as i was to get a first photo of them i thought it best not to as they were cuddled up in a corner looking quite scared, they had after all been in a small dark box for about half an hour. Lifting them carefully i put them in the cage and left them to settle in.

Of course being me i couldn’t just give them average names. For hamsters the name must be some sort of pork product, rabbits should all be currency (as males are bucks and females, does), but i never really seriously considered guinea pig ownership before, so hadn’t thought what route to take. I did think a while ago that naming after countries might be an idea, but it wasn’t too appealing to me. Of course i then ralised what guinea pigs are most famous for - scientific testing, cosmetics inparticular. After that it didn’t take me long to think of Shampoo, and for a secong guinea pig, what goes better than Conditioner?! Of course i like to shorten names, so my two little girls are called Shammy and Connie.
It wasn’t long before i managed to get my first video of the two so here it is;

The larger one with an orange bum is Shammy, and the smaller ove with red only on her ear is Connie. Both are still settling in but are much loved in their new home.

1 Comment

1. baby Says:
   July 1st, 2008 at 7:45 am

   Nice website!!

   
   

Leave a Reply