01/02/2014
On February 1st 2014 - EPGPR and Crawley Guinea Pig Rescue & Sanctuary worked together (with help from two volunteers) to remove 35 terrified guinea pigs from a house in Ditton, Kent. The owners of the property had asked for help. The guinea pigs were living in a very run down, converted aviary with no real shelter, everything was wet, filthy and very, very smelly.
The boys were living in metal breeding cages, 3 and 4 to a 2ft x 2ft space and the girls were in 2 small metal cages, 8 to a cage. The living accommodation was foul, the food bowls were suspiciously full of muesli and the majority of the water bottles had water, but the bedding was gross and you could see staining on the inside of the cage where old bedding had been allowed to pile up. The stench was unbelievable and the floor very wet.
We quickly found that the guinea pigs were also sharing the converted aviary with wild rats (seen moving around in the rafters above the cages). The woman had already told us that she had lost some guinea pigs and we quickly realised that a lot of the girls were missing their ears, presumably from having been attacked by the rats.
The guinea pigs have now been split between 3 local rescues and are currently being bathed and cared for whilst we try to find other rescue spaces for them.
The boys were living in metal breeding cages, 3 and 4 to a 2ft x 2ft space and the girls were in 2 small metal cages, 8 to a cage. The living accommodation was foul, the food bowls were suspiciously full of muesli and the majority of the water bottles had water, but the bedding was gross and you could see staining on the inside of the cage where old bedding had been allowed to pile up. The stench was unbelievable and the floor very wet.
We quickly found that the guinea pigs were also sharing the converted aviary with wild rats (seen moving around in the rafters above the cages). The woman had already told us that she had lost some guinea pigs and we quickly realised that a lot of the girls were missing their ears, presumably from having been attacked by the rats.
The guinea pigs have now been split between 3 local rescues and are currently being bathed and cared for whilst we try to find other rescue spaces for them.
Bath day.
With help from one of the rescue volunteers the 18 that are temporarily at EPGPR have here all had a bath and pamper session - some had so much poo encrusted on their feet it was impossible to find their nails. All are a bit threadbare and need to put on weight.
One of the boars has a retained testicle which will be monitored until he is strong enough for surgery.
One of the boars has a retained testicle which will be monitored until he is strong enough for surgery.
07/02/2014
Sadly, Badger one of the long haired boars was found in his forever sleep this morning :(
Growing in Confidence!
Already they are beginning to settle down and pop out when food appears - we've even had the odd wheek!