Meet Fred, George, Victor and Hugo. These are the first guinea pigs I’ve ever had and I’m really happy with them, they make great pets.
Fred and George came from the Sprowston Rescue (which has since closed down) in July 2007. They were 6 weeks old (born on June 13th), so they’ve grown up with me – and taught me all I know! Fred is a slate tan self-crested and George a slate tan smooth, although they both look very ginger and are getting paler with age.
George suffered from a condition called dental malocclusion which meant his lower molars grew at an angle and werent properly ground down by the upper set, causing painful spurs which hurt his tongue and stopped him eating. He had three serious events of overgrowth in his four years of life, and passed away from complications following the last one on 17th May 2011.
Victor and Hugo came to me from the Norwich GP rescue in November 2008. Hugo was a year old and Victor 9 months. Victor had been born in the rescue but been adopted to live with Hugo – Hugo had been bought in a pet shop, but their owners could no longer keep them. Hugo is a chocolate and white mismarked crested Dutch and Victor is an agouti lemon and white Abyssinian cross. Well, those are the best estimates of their colour and lineage from someone who breeds and judges guinea pigs.
Hugo started to suffer from some sort of problem in the spring of 2010 and despite all sorts of tests and xrays we couldn’t find what was wrong. Sometimes he’d be better, sometimes he’d be squeaking again. Then he started to lose weight, just drop a few grammes, then stabilise for months. Eventually we found out he’d got bladder stones, and possibly kidney stones as well, and we managed to relieve that with medication but not before he’d lost more weight. He had a wonderful month of looking and acting pain-free and back to his old cheeky self before he contracted pneumonia and died a few days later on 29th July 2011. He is much missed.
Most of their exploits can be found on the Rodents with Attitude forum.
Read more about Fred, George, Victor and Hugo in “Guinea Pigging“
George has his own blog! George’s Guinea Pig World which is now managed by his brother Fred.
And now they have been joined by Hector and Humphrey. These two were abandoned in a council house and only found when the new tenants moved in. They came to me after two months at the rescue and they were very timid, but have settled in well, partly because of the example set by Hugo, who went and chatted to them through the bars of their run when he did his tour of the kitchen every morning. Hector is a dark brown/black crested shorthair with a few tan markings, and Humphrey is a black and white Sheltie type (longhaired) with a few bits of tan on his tummy. They were probably also a year old and 6-9 months old when I got them in November 2010.
Hector and Humphrey
