Books That Help You Know Your Guinea Pigs Better
We get asked a lot for book recommendations, by new and experienced owners alike, because there's a big array of care guides out there. When you're surfing Amazon or walking through a store, it's hard to quickly sort through the book choices and figure out which ones are worth the money, which ones are inadequate, and which ones are really similar to books that proceeded them in the marketplace.
So we've been reading them. We don't recommend a care guide that we haven't read every word of. If we find a lot of individual points that are wrong, that commit sins of omission and/or sloppy incompleteness, or that perpetuate the myths that guinea pig rescues everywhere are trying to kill, we don't recommend a book. If there's at least one chapter that we want to rip out in its entirety, we don't recommend a book. If a book is too short and/or rudimentary to even be called an intro guide or quick start guide, we don't recommend it.
Fortunately, on the literary side, we find a lot less to take issue with. Thanks to the kids, parents, and teachers in our circle of adopters, we're also acquiring quite the little library of storybooks and chapter readers. While children's books are so much fun to read that it's worth doing your own legwork, we're offering a starter list of good reads here.
The Penultimate Primer On Piggies
If you can only buy one care guide...
Proper Care of Guinea Pigs (Proper Care of...Series)
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 11/22/2009)
Peter Gurney is one of the world's best-known experts -- if not THE expert -- on all things guinea pig. His book should be in every home where there are guinea pigs.
Human slave to a sizable colony of guinea pigs, he offers unique insights into guinea pig behavior and tips for guinea pig care that are not found in the many formulaic care guides on the market.
Other "Instruction Manuals"
More Care Guides We Can Recommend
These are books that I have read, and I'll add more as I find more to recommend (but won't list anything that I haven't read every word of).
The Guinea Pig: How to Care for Them, Feed Them, and Understand Them (Family Pet Series)
Full of beautiful photographs of all breeds of guinea pigs, this book has recommendations for everything from diet to entertainment. It includes illustrations for trimming toenails and cleaning ears, and a table that describes symptoms of potential problems. This book is highly readable and easy to scan for just the information you need. It's the perfect book to leave with your "pig sitter" while you're on vacation; it covers all the basics that they're likely to need to know while you're away.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/22/2009)
A New Owner's Guide to Guinea Pigs
Another good field guide for owners, this book has highly useful chapters on nutrition, health, and behavior. We like the full list of poisonous plants that is included because it will prevent (well-intended) owners from getting TOO creative with providing their guinea pigs with forage treats.
Amazon Price: $12.95 (as of 11/22/2009)
Guinea Pigs (Animal Planet Pet Care Library)
Published in late 2006, this book is full of solid, accurate, responsible advice. They score extra points for encouraging readers to explore adoption options first, and for discouraging breeding for all the wrong reasons (e.g., idle curiosity, "because it would be neat for the kids to see," etc.). Not particularly thrilled with their advice to feed guinea pigs cooked greens -- I have never met a healthy guinea pig that liked eating mushy food -- but there's enough good information in this book to offset this.
Amazon Price: $9.56 (as of 11/22/2009)
For Your Kids -- Or The Kid In You
One Of Our Favorite Story Hour Reads
Sammy: The Classroom Guinea Pig
Amazon Price: $16.95 (as of 11/22/2009)
Whether you're a parent of young children, or a teacher who wrangles a classroom full of young minds every day, this story of Sammy the classroom pig will be a fun read for you and the kids.
This beautifully illustrated book details a day in the life of Sammy and his efforts to communicate his needs to his classroom caretakers, and their efforts to understand what he's trying to tell them. Without being pedantic, the storyline effectively teaches children what their pets require of them on a daily basis, and indirectly helps teach what most rescues stress on a daily basis -- one is fun but two are happier.
If you like to collect all things guinea pig, this is a definite must-add for your collection!
More Story Hour Suggestions
Adorable Ways To Promote Reading
We think that books with ANY furry stars are great investments but, of course, we're biased where storybooks with guinea pigs are concerned. Here's just a starter list.
Gullible's Troubles
Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 11/22/2009)
I Love Guinea Pigs: Read and Wonder
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 11/22/2009)
John Willy and Freddy Mcgee (Board Buddies)
What do guinea pigs do when they're home alone and bored out of their minds? They explore! On this day, our story finds our heroes checking out the "tunnels" in the family pool table -- until the family cat's own boredom-buster sends them scurrying back to their cage.
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 11/22/2009)
Guinea Pigs Don't Talk
Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 11/22/2009)
Charlie Hits It Big
Okay, as with a lot of children's books, adults will have to check their grown-up minds at the door and not question too much the fact that this bright and ambitious pig was able to hail a cab, much less fly to Hollywood, on his own. Tap into your inner child and you'll enjoy this book as much as your kids. What really makes this book noteworthy is its full-color illustrations, which perfectly capture the guinea pig attitude.
Amazon Price: $14.44 (as of 11/22/2009)
Hard To Find But Worth The Hunt
The Book That Launched A Nationwide Search
We think that timeless books should never go out of print. Most of the time we don't understand the logic behind why some books go out of print sooner than others.We first discovered "Brian and Bob" by Georgie Ripper through the library and fell head over heels for it. We were stunned to find out it was out of print, but were determined. And so we started combing used and rare book dealers across the country looking for a new or used-but-like-new edition. Finally, we found one -- with a New York dealer who had just gone online.
This is a story of Brian and Bob, guinea pig roommates who live in a pet store and pass their time playing "I Spy". Despite not having a home yet, they're happy because they have each other. One day, though, they get split up when a child comes in for a guinea pig, leaving them heartbroken by the separation. There is happy reunion, eventually, in a sweet turn of events.
If you can't find this through a bookstore, definitely get it from your library (interlibrary loan makes everything available).
Someone For Everyone
Lending Support For Some Aussie Friends
"Someone For Everyone" is an enchanting story, told with full-color photographs, about a guinea pig waiting for a new home for much too long after her siblings left for their new homes. Sitting sadly in her cage, this lovely and lonely little pig gets advice from the other animals in the store about why it's taking her longer to find a home.This book especially touched us. Every once in a while we have a pig -- or a pair of pigs -- that we think are, to use Cindy's word, just "awesome" but, for some reason, take longer to get adopted out than we can understand. This book illustrates perfectly that it's all about personality and timing -- finding just the right match between humans and guinea pigs at just the right time. And, sometimes, the perfect match takes a little more time to find...but when it shows up, it's for life.
The book was written and published by two writers in Australia, and is available for purchase online. The book is $19.95 (Australian currency), which works out to about $18.66 in U.S. currency (based upon the currency exchange rate right now); when you order through PayPal with your credit card, your cardholder will handle the conversion and will likely show you the charge in U.S. currency on your next statement.
Get yours today!!
Books From Across "The Pond"
Don't Ask Us Why We Can't Easily Find Them Here
Written by the same author who brought us Paddington Bear (who we also adore), the six books in this collection star Olga da Polga, the little guinea pig with a big imagination. With more than 130 pages in each book, it will take you and the kids a few days to finish one book -- but it's time well-spent.The collection includes:
- The Tales of Olga da Polga
- Olga Follows Her Nose
- Olga Takes Charge
- Olga Carries On
- Olga Meets Her Match
- Olga Moves House
If you're lucky, you can find these books through used book dealers in the U.S., but you'll have a hard time finding the whole set. And the likelihood of finding several through one dealer means you'll end up spending more on shipping than on the books themselves. You can find them new through The Winking Cavy Store in the U.K.; the prices, even with the currency exchange rate, are reasonable as are the shipping costs.
by GPRescuer
Whitney is the Vice President of The Critter Connection, Inc., Connecticut's original guinea pig rescue. To pay for the home that her brood of gu...
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