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Skinny Pig - have you seen one?

marchi1990

Mama Doe
On the weekend I went to a large garden centre.

In the 'pet' department they had for sale two 'Skinny Pigs.' I had never seen or heard of these before. They basically look like naked Guinea's.

Have you seen them? They have to live inside because the cold can kill them because of their lack of fur.

I would be really interested in what people think about the breed - they were selling them for £130.
 
ive not seen one in the flesh but i have seen alot of them online, seems to be the latest fad, not sure i like them really, a guinea pig should be a little cute fuzzy thing scuttling about the lawn, not something you have to keep warm indoors or else it will die
 
Yep they need a lot of specialist care. I was really surprised when I saw them in the garden center but hopefully the heigh price will stop impulse buying.

I think they had a Baldwin when I went in (which is similar but does not have the fuzzy bits of hair).
 
I've seen one in the 'flesh', as it were (I knew someone with one). I'm not a fan of them being sold in garden centres or pet shops at all. There seemed to be a bit of a fear in guinea pig circles a few years ago that they were going to be a bit of a fad. I don't think it amounted to much, luckily.
 
We had a pair of these in college. I am not a fan, I might rescue one if it was in dire need and they are lovely little critters but I don't think people should be breeding guinea pigs to be hairless. It's not natural for them. It opens them up to all sorts of dangers - a minor scuffle with other piggies that normally wouldn't cause any damage can result in severe cuts and scratches because they have no fur to protect them from it. I think they are also prone to dry skin and skin conditions.

A friend rescued a pair of hairless rats and it was a case of constantly checking for even minorly sharp areas on toys designed for rats in the first place, applying skin ointment to scratches, even the bedding had to be soft, if you used hard paper (like from a shredder at an office) they would get paper cuts, so imagine the issues with straw / hay for hairless guineas :shock:

So as cute as they are, they are hard work and in reality, they are genetic mutants with a unnatural genetic problem that in the wild would result in death :oops:

ETA: in rats I was told its done by breeding two rex rats together, but I don't know the details exactly
 
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Totally against breeding animals that have any kind of deformity and hairless animals are worse than most. At least other deformed guinea pig/rabbit breeds can keep themselves warm.

I think it's sad that there's such ahuge demand for animals that are so far removed from what they'd look like naturally.
 
I think most of you are probably right; it is a shame that we have come to a point that we are purposely breeding animals to look a certain 'way'.

Needless to say though, I did take a shining to them. I would be unlikely to buy one but if there were some in need I certainly would not say no.

But I am surprised at the amount of problems they encounter :shock: That is sad really.
 
I really want two, but utterly refuse to buy any due to the bad breeding of them
 
I've seen them, my friend had two. They are not my cup of tea in the slightest but I'm glad they are quite pricey to buy as they are less likely to be bought on a whim.
 
We had one arrive in rescue recently. Luckily she went to a fantastic indoor home and we didn't have to list her for rehoming as i can imagine it would've attracted totally the wrong people :( We called her Winnie the Skinny :love:
 
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