On Friday the Bird Lovers Only Blog posted a really exceptional comment about bird breeding, a message which I feel needs to be spread far and wide:
Because of the ease of breeding parakeets, cockatiels, quakers, lovebirds, and other small birds such as these, these birds have become grossly overpopulated. Even if I wanted to, at times I wouldn’t be able to GIVE these birds away. There are just not enough homes out there. And even fewer homes are available for such high maintenance birds such as cockatoos.
This is a sentiment that just can’t be repeated enough. People should NOT be breeding these birds right now. There are plenty already born who are in need of homes, and THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH HOMES OUT THERE.
This is true for almost all other pet species as well, certainly for guinea pigs and rabbits. The breeders who are contributing the problem are primarily the ones who breed to serve the pet store market, so you can make a difference by choosing not to shop at stores which sell live animals. Please spread the word about this. Speak through your pocketbook, by buying your supplies from rescue-friendly stores which do not sell live animals, or from internet suppliers.
Please visit the Bird Lovers Only Blog to read the entire post, and please donate to them to support bird rescue.
I recently participated in an interesting on-line discussion about “starter pets”. I get asked about guinea pigs and rabbits as starter pets quite often, but I usually address these questions on a species-by-species basis. However, I think it would be good to look at some overall questions about the concept of beginner pets.
This is Part One of a three-part series. In this part, I talk about how we define beginner pets, and considerations for beginner pets for adults and for kids.
What defines “good beginner pet”?
Many novice owners who are seeing a good beginner pet have never cared for another organism before, and may need to be taught even the “obvious” things about an animal’s basic needs (like how often to change the animal’s water). So they want an animal who has relatively simple basic needs. This can either mean that they don’t need things like specially controlled environments (like amphibians), or just that their food and environmental needs are commonly available at any store, and don’t need to be ordered on-line or bought from a specialist.
Occasionally, a novice may have helped care for family pets in the past, but they have time constraints (college students), so they might not mind an animal having more complex basic needs, but they want to be able to provide a low time commitment to caring for the animal.
In almost all cases, money is often a concern, so cheap to care for becomes part of the definition.
Most novice owners also recognize that, by definition, a beginner will make mistakes, and they want a pet who won’t be harmed by these mistakes. This component is often the most important to non-novices: one of my vets defined a good beginner pet as, “An animal which can’t be seriously damaged by minor mistakes made through ignorance.”
So, taking all of these considerations into account, a good beginner pet is one which:
Has simple-to-meet basic needs
Has a low time commitment
Has a low average/expected cost of care
Cannot be harmed by simple mistakes
What about beginner pets for children?
The answer to this question depends very much on what the parent means by a pet “for the child”.
Do you mean a pet that the kid can do 100% of the chores, with no supervision? There is no such pet. Get them a plant or a pet brick instead. The selfish, ignorant decision by parents to use an animal to “teach responsibility” is literally the #1 reason small animals die or end up in shelters:
I think it’s unfair to both the child and the pet to make pet care a burdensome task for a child. So there’s never an appropriate age to “make” a kid “learn responsibility”, not when another being’s life is at stake.
Now, if a child WANTS a pet, and claims to understand the responsibility involved, I still think it depends on how much the parents are planning to be involved. If your kid makes a mistake in care, or gets bored and whines that they don’t want to take care of the pet anymore, the parent MUST to be willing to make it a learning experience. By this I mean they must explain the ramifications of any mistakes, and if necessary, to be willing take over all the responsibilities without going the “well then we’re getting rid of it” route. There’s hardly a worse lesson to teach a child, than the idea that animals are disposable.
When I was growing up, we had “family” pets where, rather than teaching responsibility by forcing us to practice animal care, my parents demonstrated responsibility, by teaching that commitment to care was a prerequisite to enjoying an animal. For example, we weren’t allowed to take the dogs out on unaccompanied walks unless we had helped with their care every day for 3-4 days in a row. If we got bored, or busy with other childhood commitments - well, too bad, no walkies for us that week. This form of modeling responsibility I respected, even as a kid, and I think is an excellent way to do it.
So if by “good beginner pet for a child” you mean a pet that the adult will be, in word and deed, wholly responsible for, but the child will be “told” the pet is his and will be allowed to do a lot of the care, under supervision: Any pet that the parent can care for, is fine for a child to help with.
Now there’s one exception to this. You also have to consider the age of the child when allowing them to be around any animal (supervised OR unsupervised). Before a child should be allowed to participate in the care of an animal, the child needs to understand consequences (don’t poke the cat in the eye, don’t feed the dog your chocolate bar EVEN once), needs to be able to follow instructions (the cat gets one half-cup of CAT food, not a giant pile of dog food), and also needs to be old enough to have some control of their reactions.
I mention this last item, because a fairly young child may be able to follow a supervised cleaning/feeding schedule, but how old do they have to be to not instinctively react in ways that could harm an animal? When you’re holding something and it nips you (even gently), what’s the instinctive reaction? To open your hands and drop it. A fall from as little as 12″ can break a guinea pig’s leg (it’s happened to me). I’ve also seen kids get mouthed by puppies, and react by trying to hit the puppy. The kids mostly weren’t being malicious, they were just trying to push away the noxious stimulus of the perceived bite.
So even if the parent plans to supervise closely and take ultimate responsibility for animal care, a child should STILL not handle a pet without close adult supervision, unless they are old enough to be able to withstand a surprise nip without reacting harmfully towards the animal.
Tune in next time for Part Two, where I’ll talk about how to do enough research to determine whether a certain pet is right for you, and also some considerations about the costs of caring for a pet.
On August 12, we got an email requesting us to take in a sick pig:
I’m desperate! I have a sick guinea pig and I will be leaving to go out of town on Thursday for a wedding that my daughter is in. I don’t know what to do as I had planned on leaving the pig with a neighbor but I now feel that she needs more care than an inexperinced person. I do not have the time or resources to take her to a vet. I suspect a possible jaw malocclusion as she tries to eat but cannot seem to chew. She has diarhea and is losing weight. I really just noticed today how sick she is.
Can you or do you know of anyone who can help? I don’t want to put her down.
Thanks,
Normally, we don’t take owner surrenders, and this attitude is exactly the reason why. If your pig is sick and you cannot afford medical care, euthanasia is the only humane choice. But this person was seeking to absolve themselves of responsibility by dumping their problems on someone else. By helping them, we reinforce that this is acceptable behavior, rather than making them deal with the consequences of their choices. But my NC coordinators both badly wanted to take this poor piggy in, so I agreed.
My Charlotte coordinator Andrea went to get the piggy, named Trixie, from the owner. This horrible person was not even willing to donate even a DOLLAR to help cover vet care costs. Why? Because she had just spent $1,000 on her horse, and her daughter was in this wedding and had to buy a dress, and they both had to fly out, and it was all SO expensive.
Incidentally, she was only feeding the pig the cheapest, seed-filled, Walmart-brand pellets, and baby cereal (unacceptable under any circumstances).
Trixie seemed to have a raging upper respiratory infection. We took her to the vet on August 13th and got Baytril and a general physical exam, which showed no problems with her teeth. Andrea syringe fed her, gave her subcues, and there seemed to be improvement over the next day or so. She was even eating hay and drinking a little water on her own. Then on August 15 she took a turn for the worse. Andrea put her on the floor for playtime and Trixie completely freaked out, hobbling and trembling and doing weird little jumps. It was like a seizure but it wasn’t steady, it was like a popcorn only she squealed each time, like she was in pain. It was anywhere from a few seconds to a whole minute or two in between each one. Eventually these subsided and she seemed calm again. But Andrea knew Trixie definitely had something wrong with her joints and her shoulders/legs, and needed an X-ray to diagnose.
First thing the next morning, Andrea got Trixie in with Dr. Lauren Powers, who is one of the best exotics vets in NC. They did the X-rays and the findings were unbelievable: Trixie had almost no bones left. Every bone in her body was degraded, showing a swiss-cheese pattern similar to the calcium-leeching disease osteodystrophy. Only Trixie was not a satin. Our regular vet in Cary reviewed the X-rays and asked if she had been starved. Presumably, her condition was caused by terrible malnutrition. As is common in OD, her bones and joints were probably causing her tremendous pain, to the point where it hurt even to eat.
All of us were in shock (including both vets). Andrea dosed her up with pain meds, but we finally decided she would probably need to be euthanized. There are a few reports of OD being reversed through calcium supplementation, but given the extent of the the damage, and the amount of pain she was already displaying, we didn’t think we could give her a reasonable quality of life long enough to reverse the bone damage. We decided to wait till Monday in case our vets or anyone on GL came up with any better ideas.
On August 17, Trixie chose her own ending. Andrea found her dead in her cage around 4pm EST.
I’m so sorry, Trixie. I’m sorry your former owner was so heartless as to starve you to death because you weren’t worth spending money on. I’m sorry that three vets, $200 in diagnostics and medications, and all of our tears and anguish over the last five days weren’t enough to save you and give you a chance at a better life. I hope you find peace, comfort, and plenty of good food as the newest member of Death’s herd. You will find many new friends waiting for you there as well.
Piglet, our little toothless wonder, has been chosen as Sponsor A Guinea Pig’s Piggy of the Month! SAGP is run by the same wonderful person who runs the two adopt-a-guinea-pig blogs we link to (down there, on your right). This blog spotlights Sanctuary piggies all over the country and helps draw attention to their special needs and the needs (especially financial) of the rescues who care for them. We’re so grateful to SAGP for this great publicity opportunity!
Piglet is still going in every month for an anesthetized molar trim (which is where all the monthly medical costs come from) , but we did have a great breakthrough in the last month - she’s started to eat baby lettuce all by herself, not even needing it cut up! Other veggies still give her trouble, and we still haven’t seen her show any interest in hay, but at this point, any progress is good progress.
Since I’ve become a rescuer, I’ve found it more and more difficult to look at cute photos of animals on the internet. I constantly find myself getting upset at the poor husbandry or the rampant backyard breeding, saying things like “That’s a horrible cage” or “Oh no, they’re feeding that bunny a seed mix” or “Why on God’s earth do you have fifteen litters of rabbits right now!?!?!” I feel guilty looking at cute animals when most of them are in need of rescue, and the end result of a search for happy pictures is a very sad rescuer.
So now, for your viewing pleasure, I offer you happy rescue animal pictures instead! Every one of the pictures that displays on this page is an animal which has been rescued by ACR&S or one of the rescues & shelters we support:
Hit refresh on your browser to see a different photo!
A random photo page is also located on the ACR&S website, here.
First we have pictures of the Sanctuary. Our house is a split level, so from the kitchen/dining area you go down a short set of stairs to an area which is pretty much one giant room.
To the left is the Pig Room. In addition to a non-functional fireplace, a couple of couches, and an unused treadmill, it holds our 16 pigs who are housed in six C&C cages which we refer to as the Condos. Three cages are 3′x7′ (2.5 by 6 grids), divided with a pair on either side. Three are 2.3′x7′ (2 by 6 grids); two of them house a pair of boars and one houses a triple. We always try to give the intact boys a little more room. There’s enough floor space between the couch and the condos that we can spread out a big picnic blanket and give the pigs a 4′x8′ playpen.
I clean the top condos by standing on a step stool and having my lovely and talented assistant hand me clean bedding so I don’t have to climb up and down. I’m definitely getting a bit old for all the climbing; I think within the next 5 years we’re going to do away with the top levels. But for now it still feels far easier than in previous houses, where I was ducking a ceiling fan while cleaning. It only takes us about 40 minutes to clean all 6 condos.
We actually only have 15 pigs living in the condo right now, since Pudge is sick. He’s in our hospital cage, which is a 2 by 2. It’s harder to catch a sick pig for daily medication in the condos.
At the far left of the Pig Room is a pair of bunny cages. These are our Big Buns and they’re over here because we’re trying to bond Jeannie with BunBun & Roo to make a triple, and they get along better if they can’t see the other rabbits. Jeannie is in a 4 by 3 and Roo & BunBun are in a 3 by 6.
The rest of the rabbits are over to the right in the Rabbit Room. In the front are Rosemarie and Dodger, who share a divided 3 by 6. We’ve been trying to bond them but it doesn’t seem to be going so well. All the bunnies have boxes which they like to climb on, and the partial lids on their pens are to prevent them from going visiting unsupervised.
Behind Dodger & Rosemarie are Daisy & Wordsworth. They’re in a 3 by 7, but since Daisy is an especially athletic jumper, we use 36″ dog x-pens for them instead of 28″ cube walls, which makes them lose about 1.5 sq ft on each end. So their pen is effectively 3.5′x6.5′ rather than 3.5′x7′. They don’t seem to mind, though.
One of the nicest features about this new house is that we have a dedicated half-bath right next to the Rabbit Room. We keep extra bowls and bottles in here, as well as medicines, grooming tools, and our scale and weight books (everypiggy gets weighed weekly).
Now for the Plush Pet Adoption Kits!
As I described earlier, we’re raising money and awareness through the sale of some really cute toy “adoption” kits. Each one has care and adoption information (targeted towards kids) along with a toy bunny. Here’s a video of some of the toy bunnies, from Lindsay, who has adopted and fostered for us, and who co-coordinates the SPCA Bunny program and the Raleigh Rabbit Meetup Group:
Now, all of these toy bunnies were donated from supporters. So they represent an, um, eclectic variety of stuffed rabbit toys.
There are some that are very cute.
There are some that are fairly ugly.
There are some that are dignified.
There are some that have no shame.
There are some that seem to be missing an eye.
There are some that seem to be missing ears.
There are some that seem to be missing their entire face.
(Don’t worry, kids, none of these bunnies are really missing anything.)
There are some that are shaped like realistic bunnies.
There are some that have no discernible shape at all.
And there are some who will EAT YOUR SOUL.
The full set of photos can be found here, and you can see the individual kits on Petfinder.
Love comes in many shapes and sizes, and this is the story of a very special pair of pigs, and the love they shared.
Chuck was our very first rescued piggy. He found us just before Easter 2000. He was a teacher friend’s classroom pet, and when I first saw him I couldn’t believe there existed an animal that looked just like an ambulatory mop head.
I offered to pet-sit him over Easter, and was not sorry when he was left with me for good. He came to us in a tiny, filthy cage, with no decent food, and I quickly learned all I could about proper guinea pig care. Unfortunately, that was before I had Internet access, and what I learned was hardly sufficient. I did get him onto a better diet, with hay and lots of veggies, but didn’t yet know about C&C cages, so he lived in a big Rubbermaid storage bin.
We soon came to love Chuck and he was definitely “loving” in return. He would purr contentedly while being cuddled, and one Christmas, I was taking care of Chuck while my parter DKMS was with his family. He called and left a message for me on the answering machine - and when I played the message, Chuck started wheeking frantically as soon as he heard his daddy’s voice! But at this point, Chuck was still “alone” from his perspective - we didn’t have any other piggies for him to play with.
About two years later, I had started getting into rescue. One of my earliest rescues was Spanky, a funny looking white pig with red “glasses” and a red “ribbon” around his belly.
As much as we loved our piggies, we still didn’t know the truth about guinea pigs’ social needs, so we thought (mistakenly) that intact boars couldn’t live together. We kept the two in separate storage bins and they never interacted.
One day, I came home and found Spanky missing from his storage bin. Yikes! (I was also mistaken about how high they could jump.) I looked everywhere, terrified that he’d gotten stuck behind the fridge or escaped into the space where the dryer vented. About forty panicked minutes later, I was near despair, when suddenly Chuck’s cage caught my eye. It looked a little fuller than usual… had Chuck somehow doubled in size?
Tired of being alone, Spanky had hopped out of his own cage, and into Chuck’s!
From that moment, the two boars were inseparable. They were our first experience with pigs living socially, and learning that this was possible motivated us to start keeping all of our pigs in pairs or groups.
Another year passed, and we finally learned about C&C cages, and Spanky & Chuck were moved from their storage bin up into a spacious 10 sq ft cage. Some boars, when moving from cramped quarters to larger ones, start displaying aggression as they finally feel able to claim a “territory”. This never happened with these two. They would always follow each other around, would happily sleep in the same pigloo, and Chuck would gently nibble Spanky’s ears to groom him.
In August of 2003, Spanky became ill and spent a few days in the vet hospital. After his surgery, we brought Chuck to visit with his friend. As soon as they were placed together, Chuck started calling loudly. Spanky, still sedated, actually managed to chortle softly in response. Chuck climbed back and forth over Spanky’s shoulders, trying to entice his drowsy buddy to play, wheeking and purring all the while. They had clearly missed each other and were happy to be reunited.
It has been several years since both Chuck and Spanky crossed the Bridge, but they are still remembered as the most loving, affectionate pigs - with one another, and with humans - that we have ever had the pleasure to rescue. Their love for each other, and the love we felt for them, inspired us to go forward with this rescue, and to educate owners about how to give their piggies the best lives possible.
So this day-after-Valentine’s day, if you have a single piggy, I hope you will take a moment to think about how much you love your little furry friend, and whether you could show your love by making his life better. Your piggy will love you more, not less, when he has the love of a piggy friend to share with you!
If you’re looking to adopt, be sure to check out our Petfinder page in the next few days! We just took in eight little piggies last night and their pictures will be up very soon!
I don’t plan to do many unscheduled entries, but I just had to post a link to a newly-discovered rescue blog: Saving Argus. It’s the story of a horse who was locked in a tiny pen for sixteen years, and just this past December, was rescued and is being rehabilitated. I’m only halfway through and utterly enthralled. I urge everyone to read it.
