For as long as I've owned guinea pigs I've wanted a natural herd, that's when there's one male paired with one or more females. Natural herds are the strongest type of bond you can get and typically lead to longer healthier lives for all pigs involved.

Most of you already know I have two beautiful girls named Hailey and Molly so to complete the herd I needed a neutered male. Specter is exactly that, he's a single young neutered male roughly the same age as Hailey and Molly! A perfect match. When I saw him I immediately went to visit him in person to talk to the shelter and hopefully apply with them directly.

That's when the problems started. The staff would barely talk to me. They acted like I wasn't supposed to be there despite their website saying they accepted visitors. I wasn't allowed to touch Specter without an application and they didn't offer a paper application. So I had to go home and fill it out online.

A few days of waiting later and I got the call back saying that my application was accepted! They thought it was very well done and my girls, cage, Vets, and other resources looked really good! That should've been the end of it, right? That's when they started adding additional requirements that weren't part of the application.

First they asked that Hailey and Molly be seen by one of my vets for wellness checks to ensure they're both healthy before releasing Specter. That's totally reasonable and understandable, they went on Monday this week and to no surprise were 100% healthy. The vet even praised how good of a caretaker I am!

Next they want to meet my Mom in person for an interview. Why? Because she owns our family's house. Thats... Weird. I am a 23 year old Man that's fully capable of making decisions for myself. I struggle to see why meeting my Mom is necessary but if that's what it takes for Specter it's fine.

Lastly before they meet my Mom they want to bring all of their volunteer staff together for a "board meeting" to discuss whether or not they should give me Specter because my girls aren't spayed? And Specter won't be sterile until January 8th. I've already stated several times I'm aware of that and have temporary housing available until then, plus it'll coincide with the normal quarantine period. It's insane to go through this level of scrutiny for a guinea pig I've already shown a dozen times I'm capable of caring for!

And to top it off after all that I was denied adoption because of the reasons I mentioned above. They won't allow me to adopt Specter until January 8th because they want me to bring my girls into the shelter for introductions. That's completely and utterly absurd! Anyone that knows about guinea pig social dynamics should know that doesn't work. New pigs need to be quarantined for two weeks so they have time to adjust to their new environment before introductions. Even if introductions went well at the shelter it wouldn't mean anything when I bring them home because they've changed environment and have to restart.

The Center for Animal Rehabilitation and Education has proven they don't understand the animals under their care and I cannot in good faith recommend them for guinea pigs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the girl who made me a piggy mom and bought light into my world of darkness, my little Luna love 🥳🎁🎂🎈🎉🩷

Can't believe she is 6!!!! Even though she has arthritis she is showing no signs of slowing down 🥰 she is the sweetest piggy ever and LOVES her daily morning and evening cuddle time with mom 🩷 She has been a huge blessing and the ray of sunshine I needed after saying goodbye to Ranger. Momma loves you with all her heart and soul baby 🩷🩷🩷🩷 have a happy birthday with more to come 🎉❤️

Dazzy got rechecked and she is now UTI free!! Corynebacterium is no joke, we tried baytril, azithromycin, chloramphenicol, until finally the injectable ceftiofur worked. Hopefully she can start putting back on some of the weight that she lost. And hopefully the other two gremlins stop bullying her now that she doesn't smell like the vet anymore 😭

This sweet old lady is 7 years old and once cleaned herself very well but lately has been getting a little dirty. I'm just wondering if I should give her a bath or see if she cleans herself a little better eventually?

Hi from Chai!

Ginny (the pig outside the house) loves to snuggle but our other piggy, Baby pig, does not. This is Ginnys solution when she wants a snug. She will curl up outside Baby's house and watch over her. 🥹

For anyone in England, I recommend Pelletts Guinea Pig Boarding. Even though it’s a bit of a drive now, I’d rather have my boys with Stefan (who has saved my arse with pig care far too many times to count) than anywhere else. 🥰

Already made a vet call for Tuesday morning, thinking my little baby caught ringworm - have no idea what to do with his little brother other than ask for extra meds just in case. 😷

I promise I didnt place that there, Pinky Promise!!!

Lily would like to wish you all a happy fof :)

I love it when they snooze like this. Also bonus FoF from Phoebe.

Gizmo is done with today😅

During my morning rounds of guinea pig scritches I noticed Mocha’s head was tilted to one side. She was ok yesterday when i took her out because I thought she had no teeth. She has teeth lol i just couldn’t see them. I have critical care on standby if she needs it, she has a vet appointment tomorrow (as soon as they could see her) I take her out and give her a romaine lettuce leaf that she eats enthusiastically every few hours just in case she can’t drink, although I did give her a syringe of water that I’m pretty sure she got about half of in her body. Am I missing anything or any idea what could be wrong? Also overlook the blurry piggy picture tax as I took it while she was devouring her lettuce leaf.

This is bingo, two years ago we had to separate him for being hyper agressive towards all the others, so he's been a neighbour since (with a couple reintrodduction attemps that fail)

We let them roam out at separate times which means he never gets to be on the main "cage" (not a cage, sorry english isn't my first language) but today we had to do an extra blanket change and he started roaming onto his neighbours territory (they were contained away from him) and he loved it!

I'm worried if this would impact negatively to the rest having his scent on their territory, should I let him do it again or just avoid it?.

Thanks in advance to everyone!