[Gpdd] Announcement--Just Joined

[DEB GANLEY]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: DEB GANLEY 
To: melsrhenry at yahoo.com 
Cc: Gpdd at gpdd.org 
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 12:29 AM
Subject: GPDD--Just joined


Welcome to the Digest--I'm in West Central Florida, in Tarpon Springs, so we're practically neighbors, except for about 5 hours distance!  

First of all, I understand your wanting a variety of pigs--my Potter is probably a Coronet  or a mix--Molly is an Aby & her daughter, Emma, is a fuzzy, pretty long-haired  Aby--must have gotten the fuzzy part from her dad since Molly is pretty smooth-haired.  I didn't plan it that way since  all 3 of my girls are rescues from shelters--adopted, not "gotten."  I hope you'll consider visiting your local shelter,  or going on Pet Finder & seeing what pigs are available from local sources for adoption.  Breeders are a fine source if you're planning on showing your pig, but there are a lot of homeless piggies out there who would appreciate & deserve a good home.

Yes, 2 pigs are a good idea if they're a good match together--Potter was an only pig for 2 years before we adopted Molly & she did just fine but we gave her tons of attention.  As far as cage configurations go, I don't know anything about Martin cages--have you gone on www.cavycages.com ?  They know the industry standards as far as size goes & have the best housing available.  I have 2 C&C house for my girls & they're easy to clean, the right size & configuration. I think you need to figure out how much room you have in your home before purchasing a house, & then decide on how many pigs you can accomodate & physically take care of--they're a lot of work, taken care of correctly!    

There are a lot of junky books out there about GP's--I stick with Peter Gurney's--Dale Selig has an excellent book "The Grown-Up's Guide to GP's"--all are available on Amazon, go into their used book section & check it out--most of my used books from Amazon have arrived in wonderful condition.  

Also, how long is "sometime" as far as you staying put in your new home?  I get the impression you're in the military or in some job that requires a lot of job transfers.  Before taking the plunge of caring for a pig you might want to think about the long-term options--if you're likely to get transferred in a year or 2, you might want to rethink this. Is it fair to the pig to get settled in a home & then get uprooted to a new adoptive home?   These little guys need a forever home.

I hope I didn't insult you by expressing my thoughts-just trying to give you food for thought.   Best of luck--please let us know if yo need any other further info--Deb, Potter, Molly & Emma