Gah! Seen dream pig in PAH. Come and talk me out of going back tomorrow to get her

[dietcokeandwine]

So we lost our much loved Ginger Pig recently, leaving our little agouti girl in need of a new friend. (We also have two others, a bonded boar/sow pair, but have decided - having talked it through with a local rescue - that we will leave them as a separate pair rather than try and put all 3 together, as personality wise it is unlikely to work).

So I am waiting for a suitable single pig - ideally a young sow -to become available at the rescue so that we can try and bond agouti pig successfully. This will hopefully be in the next few weeks.

Now,obviously I don't mind what we get, I just want a friend for agouti pig but will admit to a quiet hankering for an Abyssinian. I love them and haven't had one since my childhood. A ginger Abyssinian would be my absolute dream (I have a thing about ginger pigs, our lost boy was a smooth haired ginger). But the pigs in rescue, and in local pet shops, tend to be smooth, or teddy, for some reason; I haven't seen any Abbys for ages.

Except of course I go into PAH today (I know, I know but I needed excel nuggets urgently and my usual garden centre pet store is mid renovation) and there she is. A beautiful baby ginger Abyssinian girl. The absolute image of one of my childhood pigs. Inordinately cute.

But I can't. I mustn't. I want to get a rescue pig, not perpetuate the PAH selling cycle. Plus, agouti girl is, shall we say, a bit of a madam , and I want her bonded properly, and to be advised by the rescue as to whether they feel a pairing is going to work. Randomly bought baby pig from pet shop could be a disaster.

So I can't.

But I want to.

She is soooo cute

Come and talk some sense into me please!

[Garnethair]

Pop back and get her

[Teaistheanswer]

Let fate play it's part. Go back tomorrow...If she's still there it was meant to be. I did exactly that with my lovely rabbit and eight years on I'm still very glad I did, she was meant to be with us. Good luck, let us know how you get on

[FernieB]

STEP AWAY FROM THE PIGLET DIETCOKE

You know what you have to do. When Gingerpig was alone (and it took about three weeks to find and adopt Madampig), I did have P@H moments when the piglets were scurrying cutely that I thought perhaps a baby girl would be nice. But I know I've done the right thing adopting Madampig. She's older, was in need of a home and is a much better companion than a baby would have been. Plus she has pink claws

[FernieB]

You do have a lot more options as you could take on a neutered male for your girl - there's usually loads of those in rescues.

[dietcokeandwine]

Sigh. I know, Fernie.

I will hang in there...

[FernieB]

Well done

Have you found a possible pig? Or are you hoping there'll be one?

[dietcokeandwine]

None at the moment...the rescue only have bonded pairs currently, no singles. Mind you that can change at any time of course!

[EastMidsGPs]

You could rescue her from P@H

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Yes, you could rescue GingerAbby from PAH (I'm guessing she's in BabyPig not AdoptionPig) and it would make the whole world of difference to that little cavy .......but.....if they don't get on you're stuck.
But if you go via Rescue you have the back up.


And I can heartily recommend a TeddyPig (though my DD is very allergic to Teddy/Rex) they are lovely springey furred lardy but solid rather than fat, piggies.

I even considered a Gumtree Piggie before I got GP7/GP8 (it was one of those must get rehomed ASAP before I flush them down the loo type ads but the sellers wanted ££ not a 'Good Home'

Stay away from P@H

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Neutered boar is indeed an option yes.
My sows welcomed GP6 (Bert) and scowled at GP7/GP8

[EastMidsGPs]

😂😂😂

[dietcokeandwine]

Uggh.



I have succumbed

I have handed over filthy lucre and bought rescued little ginger abby and brought her home.

I know, I know. Part of me is appalled at myself. Probably deserve to be drummed out of SFA for good. BUT in my defence (apart from the fact that she's super cute) there are a few mitigating factors...

• Agouti pig has been quite subdued this week...and I really felt she'd benefit from a new friend sooner rather than later.
  

• I've been in touch with three separate rescues over the last few days...
  

Rescue 1 currently only has bonded pairs, and I (a) don't have the right sized hutch for 3 and (b) suspect a bonded pair would be a bit much for agouti pig (it was certainly a disaster when I tried to bond her with our current pair, full on RAGE with our very dominant boar, proper had-to-chuck-a-towel-over-and-separate-them-quick type disaster)
Rescue 2 had a couple of single sows, but both are currently living on their own due to showing major aggression to every single pig they'd tried to bond them with...so highly unlikely to work with agouti pig!
Rescue 3 have some possible pigs... but won't rehome to us as we have young DC . Strict policy of only rehoming to families where youngest DC is 9 or older. Our youngest is a preschooler, so that was the end of that.

So back to PAH I go. And baby ginger abby is still there. And the thing that finally tipped me over the edge is that I realised, on that second visit, that she is almost certainly a Satin. Which enabled me to convince myself that I am kind of rescuing her...in a way...hmmm...yeah right...but anyway . Thing is - I know about the osteodystrophy issues with Satins (I have one already, my other rescue girl's a Satin, although happily has yet to show any signs of OD), and can be properly on it in terms of managing the condition with pain relief etc if she does develop it. Chances are, the average PAH buyer won't have even heard of it, let alone know what to do about it.

And the employee who sold her to me was, at least, a guinea owner herself, and when I initially enquired about the females had already commented that ginger abby 'seemed to be nearer the bottom of the pecking order' before I explained my dilemma with agouti pig.

So there we go. The deed is done . Sorry guys. But happily I am pleased (and bloody relieved) to say that the gamble seems to have paid off. Introductions to Little Madam (aka agouti pig, although she now looks HUGE compared to ginger abby) went well. Agouti pig definitely showed that she was boss, but ginger abby has let her get on with it (whilst being confident enough to take her share of the food etc), and so far, all is well...

[WhiskyChick]

Where is the cute new pig pic????

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Yes new piglet Pigtures will be required.

So................

NewGingerPiglet was obviously looking out for you (probably someone else coooo-ed over her luminous coat and she gave them a Mad-Cavy Glare to scare them off) and Yes, Satins do have specific requirements WRT health/bones.
And she probably fibbed and acted all LowDownThePeckingOrder to make you fall for her (Worked too!) so you'd take her home.

I tell you what though, I'm really about more specialised pigs slipping into places like P@H , most people won't bother reading up (like the little fuzzies who turn out to be long haired and need more grooming)

I'm visualising a beautiful little red eyed ginger piglet now

[Bleurghghghgh]

I've read every single post in this thread and only just realised you were talking about Guinea pigs I was wondering how so many people knew so much about pet pigs

[dietcokeandwine]

70 totally agree re the more specialised pigs. Think there were a couple of Texel babies in the boar section, too

Ginger Abby is actually dark eyed but her coat is a really deep glossy kind of almost ruby ginger (if that makes any sense whatsoever). Whereas our ginger pig was much more sandy in colour. Our other satin girl has almost the exact same deep glossy colour on her nose.

Pigtures...baby Abby on her own, meeting agouti pig and then (this afternoon) doing a bit of a BFF snuggle in the haybox.

See why I couldn't resist?!

[PurpleDaisies]

Aw, she's gorgeous! Both your piggies are adorable. Hope they carry on getting along well.

[dietcokeandwine]

Bleurgh sorry. Don't worry, you're not the only one. Other posters read the abbreviation GP and assume we're talking about grandparents. Or doctors. And get v confused

Have also attached a pic of my other gorgeous satin girl which shows the coat similarity (aside from the fact that she's a long haired breed - not satin coated all over but still officially counts as a satin).

[Bleurghghghgh]

whilst I am disappointed they are very cute

[Trottersindependenttraders]

She's so tiny! Very cute pigs, I can see why you couldn't resist.

I'm new to Guinea pig parenting and reading this thread, I have a lot to learn!

[Mochasmumma]

Our two littles came from P@H, no rescues near us (the nearest one is RSPCA an hour and a half away and they said we were too far) and the P@H adoption centres didn't have any boar pairs for the whole period we looked. I was horrified at how few questions they asked, we already had a set up so weren't buying anything except the pigs - but I feel like we saved our two and realistically they aren't going to stop any time soon. One of ours is long haired too and I do think we at least saved him from an uniformed owner and a lot of matted pain.

[Mochasmumma]

Sent to soon - and your pigs are gorgeous!!!

[EastMidsGPs]

So you took my advice and rescued her then she is beautiful, baby piggies are just the cutest thing.
It is good SFA has lovely new pigs to get to know, there have been too many sad losses recently.
.
I had to succumb to P@H for Sadie as we were on holiday with gps at my brother's when old Sophie died and Mollie went into a decline really quickly, think being in strange place and different routine hastened this. Was worried we'd be taking two corpses home .. didn't know a rescue there and doubted they'd agree to us rocking up asking for a friend for Moll and then disappearing 300 miles away. So P@H it was.
However as Sadie is so disobedient, and totally pretends she doesn't know her name if I call her or say no, I am convinced she has a Norfolk rather than EastMids accent
She does however acknowledge and respond to DH, telling him of all the terrible things I do to her so she must understand 'Surrey'

[anotherglassofred]

Adorable piggie and don't feel bad about getting her from P@H. We had a similar situation. DD(13) wanted them for Xmas. Local rescue closes all of Dec (understandably although they have waiting lists for piggies) so I popped in P@H when she was at school and they had four sows two of which I wanted to take home there and then. But not my decision. Left the shop feeling that I had left DD's pets to the mercy of unscrupulous buyers. Four days later went back with DD and they were still there! I felt it was meant to be. So brought them home even though it was way before Christmas but we had bought everything already so completely set up. Had some dominance issues but they have settled down now and we couldn't have asked for better piggies. Good luck with yours.

[atheistmantis]

I think it was your duty as a responsible GP owner to rescue her from pah. We did that and have one rescue and one pah rescue, he's much healthier than either of the two we had from rescue, gp2 seemed to live at the vets and gp3 seems no different.