Buying a store piggy..

I feel horrible to say this, but I bought Bean at a pet store.

Trust me, if I could, I would have adopted a piggy.

I searched and searched for a pig for about 2 months, but the 

closest adoptable piggy was in Oklahoma. And all the animal 

shelters I went to had already given away their guineas.

I was tired of searching, so I gave in and bought a piggy.

A lot of people complain about how their store-bought piggies 

always had a disease, or were sick. Bean was perfect. 

Nothing was wrong. Everything was fine, she was a healthy,

happy piggy.

Also, a lot of people say how pet stores don't really care for the animals they sell. But the piggies at the pet store were great. I examined all of them carefully before picking one, nothing was wrong. 

I have had a pig before, so I know when something is wrong with them.

They were pop-corning, wheeking, and playing with eachother! 

They were so happy! I was glad to see that nothing was wrong with 

them. I talked to the manager and asked him how often they look at the pigs to see if anything is wrong with them. He replied, "We examine them every day. The employees are required to look at the small animals every time they walk by, to make sure none of them are showing any signs of sickness." I was so glad to hear that. So before I bought Bean, I stayed for a while and watched the employees. Sure enough, each time they walked by the tiny small-animals section, they looked closly at the piggies, and the hamsters.

The pet store I bought them from is not well known. It is a small, off-road store. So I guess you could say I adopted them. 

Hmm...yes, you actually could. Because they are sort of a rescue/sell kind of pet store. They take in abandoned animals or animals whos owners can't take care of them anymore. But they also buy animals to sell, so they are a good/bad pet store in my book.

I will admit, about a month after I bought Bean, she had diarrhea. But I believe it was because I fed her cabbage, can they eat cabbage? I don't think they can. I have no idea. I kick myself every time I think of that. I should have researched it before I gave it to her. 

But I think that every piggy, store or not should be given a chance. Just because someone bought a pig doesn't mean they don't care about animals in shelters.

You don't know how long they searched, called, looked, did everything they could to find an animal. 

But before you go buy a guinea pig, be sure to search for one, in a shelter, web sites (guineapigcages.com is a fantastic site, if you are looking for a piggy.) do everything you can to find one before you buy one. 

 

Those cages right there are the kind of cages that breeders use to breed guineas and rabbits. They need more room than that! 

That is also another kind of cage the breeders use to breed guineas. Then, they ship them off to the pet stores. They breed their sows to death, then they just throw the sows away, like trash. 

There is another type of breeding cage. And believe me, that is where guineas in pet stores come from. 

Those cages have wire on the bottom, and it hurts small animals feet.

 

Sometimes, the pigs even get their feet stuck in the wire, and their legs break!

I hope everyone had a fantastic mothers day. 

Bye!

xoxo

~ Mikayla