If you are interested in cavies but
do not know if they are the perfect pets for you,
you can have a try by renting a
couple of cavies from a breeder!
This is also a good idea if you suspect
that you might be allergic! If you buy
young cavies at a pet shop
and then find out that you can't keep them,
maybe because somebody in your family
proves to be allergic to them,
they usually will have grown so much
since you bought them that the pet
shop will not take them back.
Or if they will, these cavies might
end up as snake food because they are considered
"too big to sell"!!!
Just contact a breeder close to you
(you can get adresses through the cavy clubs)
and say that you want to rent
two real tame and grown up cavies as
pets for a couple of weeks or months.
Make sure to get real tame animals -
cavies that have been shown several
times are usually very tame.
You'll have to make sure that you get a
big cage and all the dry food
(should be mostly hay)
and bedding they will need from the breeder,
and a complete list of what vegetables to feed them.
You'll also need some written information
on how to care for them.
Be sure that you can buy the cavies
you rent if everything turns out OK.
When you have had them as members of your
family for a while you will probably
not want to give them back if you can avoid it!
The price of the cavies will probably
be a lot lower than the price for young cavies,
since there really is no market for older
cavies. Nobody seems to want them,
and the breeders have no use for them...
The breeder will probably just be
happy if you decide to keep the cavies,
maybe you will even get them for free,
but you will have to pay for the cage, though,
if you do not build a bigger one yourself
and return the rented one to the breeder.
Probably you will get two female cavies whose breeding days are over. Most cavy breeders do not breed females that are over three years old, and at this age they are no longer showable (other than in Pet Class) so any breeder ought to be happy for your offer! Since cavies can live to be around seven years old (a few live a lot longer) these grown up cavies might be just the perfect pets for you.
One very nice thing about getting your piggies from a breeder that breeds to exhibit is that you easily can obtain very nice looking show quality cavies! Maybe just like these two...
Last update: 25th of November 2002.