[Gpdd] (MISC) Solo pig/ Breeding- 2 sows together/ BAD PETCO PROBLEMS!!

[Katy O'Connor]

Hey everyone,

I havent written in a long time but have been reading the digest each day 
adn finally had some time to respond to a few of the things i think i can 
help with.

The first is in respnse to keeping a male guinea pig by himself. I have had 
an odd experience with this. I have 7 piggies - 4 girls, 3 boys. I have 
three girls one cage and the fourth in a separate cage (becasue she doesnt 
get along with the others) and I have 2 boys in one cage and the third in a 
separate. Now I used to have Rodney and Murphy in together, and they got 
along great for a while but then they started to have bloody fights. It was 
a wonderful night, driving to the pet store to buy another 100 dollar cage 
in the middle of a snow storm, but hey, I had no other options besides 
letting them kill eachother.  When they were separte, Rodney (the more 
agressive one) did fine, but Murphy seemed awfully lonely. He just layed 
around the cage and cried when i walked past for attention. Well soon enough 
my shelly had babies, 2 girls and one boy. One they were weaned, I hadnt 
found a home for Teddy, the boar, yet, and i really didnt feel like spending 
another paycheck on a whole new setup for him, so i took a chance and put 
him in with Murphy and its been maybe 3 months and they still get along 
great. I wouldnt trust him with Rodney though.  People on this digest 
explained that Murphy and Rodney started fighting becasue they were 
competing for the females, which makes sense, but then i dont understand why 
teddy and murphy are getting along. I would say as long as you dont have 
females they could be introduced, two boars will get along good, of course 
this is only my individual experince. (You may want to have an emergency 
cage on the side in case fighting occurs, I supposed even with females.)

If you have a pregnant piggie and another sow in with her, it is fine to 
keep them this way. I was in the exact situation when Shelly was pregnant. 
(Little did I know Becky was also due a month after Shelly). They still got 
along, and when the babies were born Becky sort of kept to herself. I have 
them in a big 3 level cage with a cuddle cup on the third floor and she 
stayed up there for a while. I think she was jealous, becasue when the 
babies got a little bigger she would nip them a little and the babies would 
cry and then i would come over to the cage becky would hide, lol, like she 
knew she was in trouble. The only caution, i found out, is if the other pig 
is pregnant (which mine was) to make sure she does not go near the 
afterbirth - this looks sort of like a hunk of raw meat and the mother eats 
it after she is done giving birth to replenish herself - if the other one 
eats it it will induce early labor.

As some of you may remember, I work at Petco, the pet store many of you 
complain about the lack of care they have for their animals.  My store, as i 
said, is very good with animal care. They alwasy ahve food, always have 
water and they get lots of attention. BUT - i have come across some major 
problems i have with the comany as a whole, and their overall disregard for 
animals. First of all, each store hooms up with a local vet clinic we can 
bring our animals too when they get sick. Ours is a good hour away, I 
suppose someone in the comapny doesnt know the definition of local.  A 
couple of weeks ago, we got our animals in, mainly just rats and guinea 
pigs. We get the animals from breeders in New Jersey.  The next day after 
unpacking the animals, we discover all the rats and guinea pigs were 
breathing very hard and sneezing a lot. They werent eating, werent drinking. 
  When we have a sick animal we bring it into the "wellness room" and 
quarantine it, undestand this doesnt make them better, its just takes them 
off the sales floor so Petco doesnt lose business. The worse pigs and rats 
were brought into the back, the rest stayed. Many of them died. It wasnt til 
about a week later I went to the vet on my spare time becasue the manger 
didnt want to send anyone who was on clock and everyone else is too damn 
lazy, that i brough them out there, and we got medicine for them. Many of 
these animals died. I called the Petco care hotline and reported this, not 
that this is petcos fault (it is for waiting to take them to the vet) that 
these animals were sick, but the breeders themselves. Petco should not be 
doing business with breeders who are breeding sick, dying animals. These 
breeders should be shut down. I am waiting for the next shipment of animals 
to come in and if even one of them has labored breathing Im taking it to the 
ASPCA, not to mention quitting my job. If you live on long island or any 
areas aroun long island, please keep a watch on the animals, especially 
guinea pigs and rats, and if they seem to be sick (have crusty eyes, 
breathin hard, sneezing, etc) PLEASE let me know becasue I will destroy the 
companies reputation, trust me.


So sorry for such a long post, just had a lot to say today!

Katy and the crew

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