Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 19:20:15 GMT -5
My 10 year old twin nephews had a pet guinea pig. It lived in a pretty tiny cage (around 14" x 24" footprint). It also was alone. I used to try and convince them that they don't do well alone and that they need more space.
One time I was over, I held it. I was shocked at its nails. They were curled around back on themselves into spirals like this:
I didn't know anything about guinea pigs but it didn't look right, so I googled how to cut them on my phone, and demanded that they get me a toenail clipper so I could trim them. I cut the guinea pig's nails and scolded them and said make sure to pay attention to this in the future. I scolded the parents too, they had some half-assed excuse about how they usually keep them trimmed. Riiiight.
Fast forward a few months, I was over there last night. I find out the guinea pig they had before had died. Now they had 3 new guinea pigs, adults around 1 year old they got off Craigslist. Fortunately, now they had a larger cage, one almost the size of a Ferret Nation footprint. Still only one level. I do now know if this is enough space for 3 guinea pigs.
Anyway, I pick them up, 2 of them have pretty long nails but one of them (which they got from a separate seller) had SUPER long nails, curled around in spirals, again, like that picture above, except longer. I scolded them again, I couldn't believe they still didn't bother to take care of their nails. Once again they made excuses, they said we have only had these guinea pigs for a few weeks now, and we can't afford to have the vet cut their nails, and we don't have a special nail trimmer. Whatever. BS. I clipped the pig's nails.
This time I looked it up online to research further, and found out that this much nail growth was probably MONTHS worth of growth, not weeks. So in both cases my sister and her kids lied about normally trimming their nails. The new pig with the curly nails was less than a year old, I think there is a decent chance that his previous owner never cut his nails and maybe they were never cut his entire life. I have to stress that these nails were even LONGER than the ones in that picture above. He couldn't even walk right.
Just wanted to rant. I love my sister and her kids but sometimes they are just dumb as rocks when it comes to caring for their animals. They claim to be animal lovers but sometimes they seem more like animal hoarders than lovers. If you can't take good care of an animal, it doesn't matter how much you want it or love it, you should not keep it.
Their kids almost treat animals like toys. Maybe because guinea pigs are kind of boring and don't do much, maybe they think it is OK to treat them that way. For example last night when I went in the room, one nephew had fallen asleep while playing with the pig on his bed. The boy had one of those plastic igloos on his bed and he had blocked the exit with a pillow, and the pig just stayed inside there, apparently lacking the initiative to push his way out or burrow out or whatever, he was just sitting there inside the igloo with a little pile of poo
Ferrets they are not... Personally I find them dopey and boring pets but but they still deserve to be treated respectfully and kindly.
One time I was over, I held it. I was shocked at its nails. They were curled around back on themselves into spirals like this:
I didn't know anything about guinea pigs but it didn't look right, so I googled how to cut them on my phone, and demanded that they get me a toenail clipper so I could trim them. I cut the guinea pig's nails and scolded them and said make sure to pay attention to this in the future. I scolded the parents too, they had some half-assed excuse about how they usually keep them trimmed. Riiiight.
Fast forward a few months, I was over there last night. I find out the guinea pig they had before had died. Now they had 3 new guinea pigs, adults around 1 year old they got off Craigslist. Fortunately, now they had a larger cage, one almost the size of a Ferret Nation footprint. Still only one level. I do now know if this is enough space for 3 guinea pigs.
Anyway, I pick them up, 2 of them have pretty long nails but one of them (which they got from a separate seller) had SUPER long nails, curled around in spirals, again, like that picture above, except longer. I scolded them again, I couldn't believe they still didn't bother to take care of their nails. Once again they made excuses, they said we have only had these guinea pigs for a few weeks now, and we can't afford to have the vet cut their nails, and we don't have a special nail trimmer. Whatever. BS. I clipped the pig's nails.
This time I looked it up online to research further, and found out that this much nail growth was probably MONTHS worth of growth, not weeks. So in both cases my sister and her kids lied about normally trimming their nails. The new pig with the curly nails was less than a year old, I think there is a decent chance that his previous owner never cut his nails and maybe they were never cut his entire life. I have to stress that these nails were even LONGER than the ones in that picture above. He couldn't even walk right.
Just wanted to rant. I love my sister and her kids but sometimes they are just dumb as rocks when it comes to caring for their animals. They claim to be animal lovers but sometimes they seem more like animal hoarders than lovers. If you can't take good care of an animal, it doesn't matter how much you want it or love it, you should not keep it.
Their kids almost treat animals like toys. Maybe because guinea pigs are kind of boring and don't do much, maybe they think it is OK to treat them that way. For example last night when I went in the room, one nephew had fallen asleep while playing with the pig on his bed. The boy had one of those plastic igloos on his bed and he had blocked the exit with a pillow, and the pig just stayed inside there, apparently lacking the initiative to push his way out or burrow out or whatever, he was just sitting there inside the igloo with a little pile of poo
Ferrets they are not... Personally I find them dopey and boring pets but but they still deserve to be treated respectfully and kindly.
Guinea pigs are not my cuppa either. I don't find them particularly intelligent but I don't condon people being cruel to them 
I'm so glad you at least clipped their nails Mikey! 
;D lol So that would be the minimum. I guess I just feel like the base alone would be small for 3 animals. Do they have a good wheel to run on? (Saucer style now wheel style). If they don't get out enough that might help them get some exercise.