Cage Space: A spacious cage which is at least 150cm long and 60cm wide (or equivalent) for a pair of piggies.
Indoor Home: Their primary home must be indoors throughout the year.
Enrichment and excercise: At least 1 hour of exercise and play outside of their cage each day. This can be in the form of a secure outdoor run during the summer, but a piggy-safe indoor space will also need to be available for bad weather.
Safe Bedding: Avoid wood shavings or sawdust as bedding. Opt for safer alternatives like Megazorb, Fitch, Tea bag bedding, Carefresh, or alternatively invest in fleece or Vetbed cage liners.
Feed: 24/7 access to plentiful hay is the most critical element to a guinea pig's diet. We also recommend feeding a small amount of extruded guinea pig nuggets as well as fresh veggies.
Children: We ask that any children living in the home are brought to meet the guinea pigs at the rescue. We will help educate them on how to interact calmly and respectfully with these gentle creatures. Guinea pigs must be considered family pets, with the ultimate responsibility for their care falling on adults.
School or Non-Private Environments: To ensure consistent and high-quality care, we do not rehome guinea pigs to schools or other non-private settings.
Outdoor Homes: Guinea pigs are sensitive to temperature extremes and we do not rehome guinea pigs to live outdoors.
Single or Rabbit Housing: Guinea pigs are social creatures and thrive in the company of their own kind. Living alone or with rabbits can lead to loneliness and depression.
Breeding: We prioritise finding loving homes for guinea pigs and do not rehome them for breeding purposes.
Respecting Bonds: We value the strong bonds that guinea pigs form and never separate bonded guinea pigs.
Expert Supervision: If you have a single guinea pig, we facilitate a bonding process at our rescue. This involves a 24-hour observation period to ensure compatibility.
Personalised Matching While your piggy is with us we closely observe their interactions with our guinea pigs. Not all guinea pigs are compatible, and we prioritise their preferences to ensure a suitable match.
Neutering: In some cases, we may recommend neutering male guinea pigs if we have exhausted other options for successful pairings.
Initial Contact: Reach out to us via our contact form to express your interest in adopting a guinea pig.
Home Assessment: Tell us about and provide pictures of your setup. In some circumstances we may schedule a home visit to ensure your home is suitable for guinea pigs.
Meet the Piggies: Visit us at our rescue in Richmond to meet our availabe guinea pigs and find your perfect companion.
Donation: Once you've found your furry friend, we ask for a dicsretionary donation which allows us to continue to run the rescue and help more guinea pigs in need.