As a child, I always had dogs as pets because my mom was fond of them. But over the years we also cared for other animals. I remember having love birds, pigeons, chicks, a turtle, fish, hamsters and cats as pets. I never would have thought of having guinea pigs as pets had my children not asked for them. I didn't event know guinea pigs were available in our country! I think the movie "G-Force" had a lot to do with it!
I searched the internet for information about guinea pigs and discovered there were a number of breeds. I decided to start with the cheaper variety since I wasn't sure if my kids would be fond of them or not. The cheapest is actually what the petshops call "ordinary" or the American Guinea pig. I don't quite like that it looks like a rat without a tail. So I decided to go with Abyssinians. We bought a pair from a breeder through Sulit.com.ph. Well, my children loved them. But it's actually me who does the caring for them... feeding, cleaning, grooming...
I was already happy with our pets until I saw Peruvians in a petshop. On the internet, photos of Peruvians looked like wigs on the floor. So I didn't think I would like them. But in person, they were so adorable! However, they were a lot more expensive than abyssinians... actually, about 5 times more expensive! So again I searched the web for a good deal and luckily found one that was both affordable and adorable. The seller was from a nearby province, but I was determined to buy so I went ahead and travelled the distance to buy our first Peruvian. I only wanted the white one but my husband thought the other one was also cute. I checked and found out both were girls though the seller advertised them as male and female. The price was a steal, so we bought them both.
UPDATE (June 14, 2011)
It's been 8 months since I bought our first pair of cavies. Now we have 2 Abyssinians, 5 Peruvians (1 - I won in a raffle), 1 Abyruvian and 1 American (yes, also bought an American because I loved his color!) Will also be buying my first Sheltie next month.
