Like many cavy fanciers, my interest started with repeated requests from my eleven year old daughter to have pet guinea pigs. After explaining that we needed to be properly set up before bringing home new pets and how taking care of guinea pigs would require a commitment to caring for them that would need to be honored, a day out at the markets with friends changed everything.
My darling daughter appeared, with a small fuzzy critter in her hands "Look!" She exclaimed, "Look, what I have! Don't worry, Tash says it can live at her house for now." Well it didn't take long for my girlfriend to see the error in her impulsive yet well intended decision to buy my daughter a small, curly, long haired male guinea pig. We were both bombarded with questions, followed almost immediately by incessant nagging about when she could bring him home.
My darling daughter appeared, with a small fuzzy critter in her hands "Look!" She exclaimed, "Look, what I have! Don't worry, Tash says it can live at her house for now." Well it didn't take long for my girlfriend to see the error in her impulsive yet well intended decision to buy my daughter a small, curly, long haired male guinea pig. We were both bombarded with questions, followed almost immediately by incessant nagging about when she could bring him home.
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| Zavier |
Before I knew it, the day had arrived, hutch at the ready, Zavier became our first family guinea pig. Very soon a trip back to the markets to see the same breeder brought us Wobby and Abby. They settled in quickly and memories of many, many baby guinea pigs being produced by my childhood pet guinea pigs prompted me to keep Zavier separate from the girls.
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| Wobby |
There was lots I didn't know though and I spent hours researching. I
soon discovered there were several breeds of guinea pigs or "cavies" and
I really wanted to get my hands on some of the fancier ones.With my
girlfriend Tash on board we set about finding a breeder who would sell
to us. We soon realised there are two distinct categories, backyard "breeders" and other novice owners; and the cavy fanciers, elite breeders and showers. The pedigree fanciers are a fairly tight knit society. They all know who the other club members are and they definitely are not keen to sell their pedigree cavies to random people with next to no experience. Tenacity, determination and further education saw us each bring home our very first pedigree. Tash's a small Abysinnian sow and mine a very young sheltie sow, who we nicknamed Minnie.
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| Minnie |
Little did I know, this was the start of a hobby that would soon become a very serious passion.
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