Foster Homes

We do periodically place some of our adoptable guinea pigs in foster homes, as the demands  and/or occupancy rate at our rescue require us to.  Foster homes are particularly helpful to us when we have a surrendered litter of guinea pig babies who need to be handled a lot, have  abandoned or neglected guinea pigs who need the rehabilitative socialization that comes with extra-focused TLC, or need to keep the occupancy rate at the rescue to a manageable level during our peak times for vacation boarding (adoptables are temporarily placed into foster homes).

Foster homes also help us handle the large influx of guinea pigs that occurs when:

• roadside or petting zoos close (as in the case of the Catskill Game Farm closure in 2006) or are forced to close by the authorities
• animals are taken away by the authorities in hoarding cases
• breeders close their businesses (or are forced to close by the authorities, as in the Pennsylvania case we helped with)
• a large number of guinea pigs are simply abandoned (as in the Baltimore case we helped with in the early years of the rescue)

On occasion, we place senior or special-needs guinea pigs into foster care with experienced handlers. This is done on a case-by-case basis,  as much depends on the skill of the humans involved and the needs of the guinea pigs in question.

How It Works

We are always on the lookout for good foster homes. Orientation is required for those who do not have any experience caring for guinea pigs. We will set you up with all the necessities for the guinea pigs we put into your care, including a C&C cage, hay, food pellets, and cage accessories (water bottle, food dish). You supply the fresh veggies and fruit and the TLC. We have frequently had foster homes who only took the loan of a C&C cage, and covered all other expenses as “donations in kind.” We are always grateful when foster homes are able to do this, and are happy to provide documented acknowledgment of such donations if you need it for tax-deduction purposes.

We strongly prefer to have foster homes within 30 to 40 minutes of the rescue’s location in Durham, Connecticut. Foster pigs, if/when illness arises, are treated by the rescue’s veterinarians at Pieper Olson in Middletown. Where ailing pigs are concerned, it is best to keep travel time to a minimum; healthy guinea pigs get stressed out by car rides, and long drives place even more stress on sick pigs. Logistically, for the humans involved, we have consistently found that when foster caregivers need to transport a guinea pig to the rescue, travel times much longer than 30 minutes are difficult to manage when vet visits occur after 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Please contact us for further information.