Preface
The
A to Z of Guinea pigs is going to be just that.
An A to Z of housing, husbandry, habits, veterinary care, the lot.
I happen to have a
brilliant vet but many vets are not as skilled as they should be in treating
these animals, and freely admit it. So it is vital to arm owners with as much
information as possible about their veterinary care to enable them to treat
them themselves. However, if all the sundry matters concerning guinea pig life
are given a wider coverage in a book, I feel that even the skills of owners
proficient in veterinary care will need to be called upon less.
It is amazing the number
of questions I get from owners who have become concerned about the health of
one or more of their animals because of a certain behaviour pattern. It may
have been a pattern that had been there all the time and they have just had not
noticed it or it may have suddenly developed.
Living with so many of the wee beasties for such a long time I have become very
familiar with all manner of behaviour patterns that I tend to ignore them. I
have categorised and stored them neatly away in some corner of that thing I use
for a brain and thought no more about them until the inevitable question is
asked about one of these behaviours. It’s about time I made them accessible to
all guinea pig owners. It’ll save them a lot of grey hairs and their guinea
pigs constant scrutiny!
When it comes to housing then I really do have a bee in my bonnet, for being
imaginative in this vital matter can only be of benefit to both people and
piggies. My main sow pen now takes up one side and a half of my studio flat, is
equipped with water features out of which many of my sows drink and at night
the subdued lighting is very similar to that which is used in stage lighting.
People are very impressed by this but point out that it must be expensive to
run. In point of fact, it is all low energy lighting that costs very little to run.
I have not subdivided this book into housing, habits, veterinary sections etc
for I think it is far better to have a book which is straight forwardly
alphabetical for ease of reference. Indeed some of the subjects I shall be
dealing would be difficult to neatly categorise.
I hope that as a result of this book, both piggies and people will learn a
great deal more about one another’s needs.
Peter Gurney
COPYRIGHT 2002