Gorgeous Guineas Blog

Wishing you and all your piggies a very Happy New Year in 2009.

We’ve got a bright, shiny new website up and running, so why not check it out?

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Here are the last posting dates for delivery by Christmas:

• Rest Of The World - 5th December
• USA / Canada - 10th December
• Europe - 12th December
• UK 2nd Class - 18th December
• UK 1st Class - 19th December

Orders MUST be received by 5pm the day before to ensure that you’re not disappointed.

We will close at 5pm on Friday 19th December and reopen on Friday 2nd January 2009.

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Saturday’s Piggy PM at Tilehurst Veterinary Centre was a resounding success and we raise a whopping £540 for Reading Guinea Pig Rescue. This will go towards buying some new blocks of hutches, water bottles and litter trays for the guineas in Karen’s care.

Huge thanks go to all the volunteers who helped to make this day such a big success, along with everyone who came along and spent so much money!

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This autumn Reading Guinea Pig Rescue will be holding their 3rd Piggie PM thanks to Jenny the Vet and her staff at Active Vetcare in Tilehurst, Reading. It will be on Saturday 8th November from 2pm onwards, so make a note of the date if you would like to come along.

The ’skeleton group’ of volunteers are already planning their tables etc and hope to raise even more money and have an even better time than last time - if that is possible! We want to buy litter trays for each of the cages which will be filled with hay for playing in. If enough money is raised, we will put it towards some new caging made by Homes 4 Pets who made our last block. Gorgeous Guineas, Planet Guinea and The Hay Experts will all be coming along with lots of exciting things for you to buy for your guineas:)

It has been suggested at past Piggy PM’s that we hold some sort of Guinea Pig Show, but we feel that this just couldn’t be done in an afternoon. We also know from experience that not all guinea pigs are suited to shows - be it Prettiest Sow or Self Adult. Therefore we have decided that a “Pigstar Pigture Competition” is needed. We would like to find:

• The most Gorgeous Guinea.
• The most pampered Guinea.
• The funkiest hairstyle (natural or clipped/groomed)
• The best child’s pigture (so pigture to be taken by a child!). A child is 16 or under.

More details about how to enter can be found on Wheekers World and in Planet Guinea Newsletters. The event needs to raise money so donations will be asked for at some stage, but as the provider of the pigtures these will just be optional donations. Pigtures may go on to be used in future literature or calenders etc.

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Recently we said a fond farewell to the lovely Florence. She died just a month short of her 9th birthday.

Flo was a lively, nosey, feisty, “in your face” sow who captured the heart of everyone who met her - there was just something magical about her. She had a zest for life, right up to her last day. Flo was always optimistic that some extra food or a nose rub would be coming her way whenever anyone came to see her:)

Flo was already 3 when I adopted her and spent 6 happy years being a Gorgeous Guinea. She lived a life of luxury with her “toyboy” Marbles who turned 6 last month. Flo will always have a special place in my heart because without her, Gorgeous Guineas would never have come into being.

In the next few weeks we will be making a special shampoo in memory of Florence. All profits from the sale of this shampoo will be donated to Reading Guinea Pig Rescue, so watch out for an announcement.

Here is Florence’s story, written by Karen at Reading Guinea Pig Rescue…..

23 September 2008: tonight there is a new star on Planet Guinea. It is three shades and almost moves towards you with expectation. All the stars are special, but this one is important too.

Florence arrived as a guest here at Reading Guinea Pig Rescue after being surrendered along with her rabbit hutchmate who was also being terrorised by the family dog. Said rabbit went to the rabbit fosterer and Florence stayed here to find her Forever Home. Florence wasn’t proving to be the easiest sow to find a friend for so we asked for an experienced home for her - this fitted perfectly with the fact that she was long haired. Her pigture in the paper sparked a number of enquiries and her new Human was eventually found. Chrissie, her new Human, offered to build Reading Guinea Pig Rescue a website in order that more guinea pigs in Reading could be rehomed. In 2002, computers were quite new to me and I appreciated this offer very much.

This was just the beginning though….not long afterwards I had a group of 15 fungal pigs admitted to the rescue. Chrissie was able to foster 2 for me and the rest stayed here for treatment. Chrissie is a qualified (human) Aromatherapist and said that she would very much like to help these sows with some shampoo and oils that she had made. As all the Veterinary treatment was failing, I gave her the go ahead and her 2 semi-long haired crested sows became 2 gorgous Coronets. This was just the start of many skincare products to come for many rescue and privately owned guinea pigs. Dear Florence, I am eternally grateful that you introduced us:)

Karen (Planet Guinea, where all the stars are special)

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The London Championship Show is on here in Reading on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September 2008.

This is the largest show in the South for guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, gerbils, hamsters etc. As well as the show there are always lots of trade stands where you can stock up with goodies for your guineas.

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Last week we received our first order from Finland!

Apparently guineas are kept by a lot of people in Finland and they are well looked after - it seems that hardly any are available in rescues which is good to hear.

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Despite all the effort you put into getting your guinea pig the best possible Veterinary care, things can still go horribly wrong as Cakey’s story illustrates.

Cakey is a lovely 2 year old Golden Agouti Boar. Sadly he lost his brother a few weeks ago to a respiratory infection within just 24 hours, despite good Veterinary care. As a result, he was on his own and needed a new friend. His kind Human tried to find him a boar friend without sucess, and then decided to have him castrated and let him choose a wife at the appropriate time. Cakey’s problems started soon after the operation.

Here are some tips from his Human to help others avoid what she and Cakey have been through:

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Did you know that they have guinea pigs in India? Well, last week we received our first order from Bangalore! It was duly despatched and took just 4 days to arrive. The nice Human that made the purchase was delighted with the speedy delivery as it usually takes around 20 days for products to arrive from the USA.

Apparently guinea pigs aren’t that common in India compared to cats and dogs, but it is nice to know that at least a couple of them are now being pampurred with our products.

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You might have noticed that Tea Tree Oil doesn’t get much of a look in here at Gorgeous Guineas. Why not, when it seems to be so popular everywhere else? In my humble opinion, it is over-used, over-hyped and over here. Mostly grown in Australia, it is touted as being successful in helping many skin conditions including parasitic and fungal problems. It is said to be anti-bacterial and anti-viral, sounding like an altogether wonderful product.

So what’s the problem? Well, it is a very harsh oil that can cause allergies and skin sensitisation if used inappropriately. There are gentler oils / herbal ingredients that are more appropriate and effective for use on guineas with skin problems. Some people even seem to think that it will “treat” Mange Mites when in fact the only product that will do that for guineas is Ivomec / Xeno 450. These type of Mites live under the skin rather than on it and cannot be treated with shampoos or sprays.

What most people don’t know is that Tea Tree Oil can degrade rapidly with age and when kept in less than ideal conditions. Essential Oils should always be kept in dark glass bottles (usually brown or blue), away from sunlight and in a cool, dry place. The most popular but inappropriate place where they are found is in bright sunlight on the window sill of a hot and humid bathroom! In less than ideal conditions, D-limonene (one of the constituents of Tea Tree Oil) breaks down as it ages, and produces eczema inducing peroxides. Oxidised Tea Tree Oil has been shown to be 3 times stronger than fresh Tea Tree Oil, and the degraded product was shown to be a moderate to strong skin sensitiser.

Essential Oils should NEVER be used undiluted on guinea pigs as they are far too strong for their sensitive skin. Using Essential Oils without knowlege about what they can do, safe dilutions, and withoug doing a patch test first is not recommended. Special care is also required with babies and pregnant sows. Just because products are natural does not mean that they are safe when used without the relevant knowledge and precautions.

Essential Oils can also be fatal for cats, so care is required if you have cats and use them. More information is available here.

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