[Gpdd] MISC- Lonely piggie

Joan jwikler at casco.net
Sun Apr 23 14:57:18 EDT 2006


Hi.  I'm new to the group, and I have a question about my guinea pig
Geranium.

Geranium came to live with us in 2001 with her sister Petunia, who
died last fall.  Someone had snuck the two of them in our van while we
were out doing chores--just left them there with a sac of food.  They
were young adults at the time, as far as we could tell--maybe "teens."

We didn't know anything about guinea pigs, so we  took them to the vet
for a checkup and advice, and then I got on the internet and learned
as much as I could.  We tried to find a good home for them but ended
up keeping them because we couldn't find anybody who we thought would
take proper care of them.

We made a nice large cubes and coroplast cage for them and got them
toys and good food, and both seemed fine till Petunia passed away.  We
already had around 12-13 cats at the time, as well as 5 rabbits and a
dog (all rescues), and shortly after they arrived we ended up with
another 7 rabbits rescued from a horrible situation (we adopted out an
additional 10 rabbits, but it's hard to find quality homes for any
animal, as you all probably know).  Don't worry, the rabbits and
guinea pigs were housed completely separately from the cats and dog.

Anyway, because we had so many animals to care for, we were not able
to put in the time to properly tame Geranium and Petunia, but we kept
them clean and well fed and groomed, and they had a roomy cage and
each other for company, as well as plenty of toys.  They seemed fine.

Since Petunia died, Geranium has seemed depressed.  We tried letting
her visit with some of the bunnies (under supervision!), but she
seemed terrified, and the bunnies were too rough.  We tried taming her
so that she might enjoy spending time with us; but, after many
sessions that seemed to terrify her and no sign of progress, we gave
up.

I know the ideal solution is to get her another guinea pig that she
can make friends with, but it takes all of our available time and
budget to care for the animals we already have, and we really don't
want to commit to another animal at this time.  Also, if we get
another piggie, then when Geranium passes away, she will need a
friend, and so on and on.... 

Does anybody have any suggestions for how we can help cheer Geranium
up?  We feel so bad for her, and would really like to help her.

Thanks.

Joan
jwikler at casco.net






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