Saltine the Guinea Pig, Success in a Small Size
Saltine is a silky smooth black and white guinea pig who was transferred to Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS) from Everett Animal Shelter (EAS) in August of 2023. At the time, SAS had an empty critter room and EAS was overwhelmed with pigs. They took in Saltine and five other unrelated guinea pigs to help EAS with their capacity. SAS guinea pig foster lead volunteer fostered Saltine in hopes of bonding her to their resident pig, but it wasn’t working.
Her foster volunteer said that, “Saltine got so scared when she was around other pigs that she would attempt to bury herself under them, and then be upset that they were on top of her, and then bite, which would trigger cavy drama. Despite our best efforts, our younger pig was not having what Saltine offered. They did not even remotely tolerate each other and it did not improve over time. But, Saltine was clearly a stressed out piggie who needed to decompress, so we [continued to] foster her and set up a spare cage next to our girls. Over the subsequent weeks, Saltine came out of her shell, became first handle-able then downright cuddly. She was interested in our girls and they would talk to each other.”
Saltine had come a long way, but our critter foster team identified her need to bond with another pig or pigs to be happiest. Guinea pigs are a social species who thrive in herds, but it isn’t always an easy task. One of our talented Licensed Veterinary Technicians was already fostering a bonded pair of baby pigs – Kabocha and Munchkin – and in mid-December generously offered to try introducing Saltine to them. Our guinea pig foster lead reported: “There was some initial piggie conflict instigated by Saltine, but since [the foster parent] knows pigs and intervened right away, they were able to move beyond it and became a bonded trio. They were adopted a few weeks later!”
Guinea pigs are particularly friendly and cuddly in nature, and although they don’t tend to do well when housed with other types of animals, they are social creatures and need companionship, both with other guinea pigs and their human family. Guinea pigs do the best in groups of two or more other guinea pigs, most commonly being groups of sows (females), or one or more sows with a neutered boar (male). Less commonly, but still possible given certain circumstances, two or more boars can live together; in this case, the boars must have enough space, be introduced young, and no sows present.
They are also the most common creature found in the SAS critter program, and Saltine is one success story of many. Meet Robert, Lead Volunteer of Seattle Animal Shelter Critter Program, who handles many small animals like Saltine every day. Robert started volunteering with the Seattle Animal Shelter in 2007. At orientation, most people lined up to sign up for the dogs or the cats, and very few for the critters, so he went there. He’s worked in several positions: volunteer coordinator, intake, and head volunteer. He and the critter team (volunteers and fosters) work with a wide variety of creatures – guinea pigs, rabbits, canaries, pudgies, mice, rats, chinchillas, snakes, bearded dragons, turtles, tortoises, lizards, sheep, goats, pigs, and more; all are accepted and taken care of through the critter program.
Robert’s favorite moments are found seeing families come in and find an animal that completes their family. “Seeing a family come in with kids, who are meeting a guinea pig for the first time, it’s so fun to see them talk about it and bring them home.”
Half of the critters are stray and half are surrendered, and the main obstacle to the program is workforce. Nowadays, with grant funding from donations to the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation (SASF), the critter program is supported by a full-time Foster Coordinator, which helps bolster the team and get animals into temporary care homes. Fostering for the critter program is somewhat similar to the dog and cat program, with a few differences. Usually, it means bringing home the environment for the critter (rather than just your home), with specific sleeping areas and enrichment items.
Seattle Animal Shelter volunteer help is always appreciated – you can go to the shelter to volunteer your time there, you can foster for the shelter, and you can share the shelter’s @SeattleAnimalShelter social media photos, videos, and other posts.
What’s important to understand is that no matter what kind of creature you’re dealing with, it’s best to not just pass critters around from neighbor to neighbor — bring them to a shelter or rescue so they can rehome them properly. And know that every animal, no matter how small, deserves to have the appropriate environment, resources, and family.