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No Petshops!
If you do not want to adopt a rescue guinea pig or rabbit, or
can't find one that suits you - please do not buy from a pet-store.
Why?
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Pet-store
staff often cannot sex guinea pigs or (especially) rabbits - the
two males or two females you've just bought can often end up as
a boy/girl pair, resulting in babies. This means another cage
must be bought to separate the male and female, and possibly
another cage for the babies once they are weaned (male cavies should
be separated from the mother at 3-4 weeks, rabbits at about 10).
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Female
animals are often impregnated in the store, often before they
are old enough for their bodies to cope with a litter, as rarely
are male and female rabbits and guinea pigs in different cages.
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Advice
given to you from pet-store staff is likely to be incorrect.
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If you
haven't yet bought your supplies before going to buy the
animals, you'll probably come away with a whole heap of
inadequate and unnecessary purchases (a tiny cage, salt licks
and/or some sort of horrible grain, berry and honey conglomerate on a
stick).
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A
pet-store guinea pig or rabbit that's sick (and you might not
know it's sick until it's too late) could infect your other pets
at home.
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You could
be supporting
backyard-breeders - people who just breed guinea pigs for
profit in poor conditions.
But it
can't be so bad - having one litter of guinea pigs if my female
is pregnant.
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There
can be as many as 8 babies in a litter, though relatively
uncommon. Most litters average 3-5. You could opt to keep
all the babies, but what if all the babies are boars?
You could very well end up with each of those males having
to be in separate cages because they fight.
Re-homing them yourself? Let me tell you, as someone who
spends a lot of time trying to re-home guinea pigs, it's not
easy to find quality homes for pigs - even harder for
rabbits.
This
pet-store guinea pig is sick, I'll rescue it.
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This
is only contributing to the problem. You are supporting
the pet-store. The animal will be replaced by another
animal, increasing the demand for guinea pigs in pet-stores.
Not only this, but a sick guinea pig or rabbit could infect
your other ones at home. We have personally had a guinea pig
from a pet-store with an obscure illness that got better, he
was then introduced to the rest of the guinea pigs after
quarantine. Three months later, the same bizarre illness
struck some of my own pigs even though the original pig
had recovered.
For more
information about not buying animals from pet-stores (not just
guinea pigs and rabbits) please visit
www.saynotoanimalsinpetshops.com.
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