All across Los Angeles and Orange Counties, there are guinea pigs in shelters waiting for new homes.

Most of them wound up there because they were an impulse purchase and their owners were not prepared for a long-term commitment, or because they required too much care. Many are dumped in boxes outside the shelters in the night and we will never know where they came from or why they were left there.

Once inside, guinea pigs face unique challenges that makes their stay in the shelter a very difficult and dangerous time. Shelters are usually equipped to house cats and dogs, so they often do not have proper food, housing, and other supplies for small animals. If you visit your local shelters, you will find many guinea pigs being fed hamster food, rabbit food, or even cat food.

Yet even more serious is the danger posed by wire mesh flooring, which is not suited to a guinea pigs small, tender feet. A guinea pigs feet can slip through the gaps in the wire, and this often results in injury.

Yet even more serious is the danger posed by wire mesh flooring, which is not suited to a guinea pigs small, tender feetSometimes the injury is severe, requiring sutures, splints, surgery, or even amputation. Once a guinea pig gets his feet caught in the wire, he may try frantically to pull his foot out. The most common injury in this case is a broken leg. Injured animals are very rarely adopted.

Here you see a couple of shelter guinea pigs trying to balance themselves on wire so that their feet do not fall through. Wire floors, especially unsanitary ones, are a major cause of foot infection (pododermatitis) in guinea pigs.

There may be many reasons why animal shelters are not able to provide solid-floor cages for guinea pigs. A shelter with better funding, educated staff, progressive policies and dedicated volunteers will be better able to care for its small animals.

How Can You Help?

• Donate Items that we can bring to help shelters feed and house its small animals. Some shelters will use kitchen cutting boards to give the guinea pigs some relief from wire floors:

  If you donate your old cutting boards, OCCH will bring them to shelters. Plastic is better than wood because it can be sterilized.

  Other items that we can take to the shelters:

  - Large bags of Carefresh, aspen, or kiln-dried pine shavings
  - Plain guinea pigs pellets (Oxbow, Mazuri, or Kaytee brand)
  - Grass hay (Timothy, Orchard, Oat, 3-way)
  - Water Bottles
  - Food Bowls that can be sterilized
  - Towels, fleece, rugs, or other soft washable bedding
  - Igloos and hidey houses to make them more comfortable
  - Digital Cameras! So that shelter scouts can take photos of shelter guinea pigs for our website. This helps them get adopted!

  *** To donate an item for shelters, please email cavyhaven_adoptions@yahoo.com ****

• Donate to the Veggie Fund so that guinea pigs in shelters can have vegetables which provide them with Vitamin C, which is essential to guinea pig health. Shelter scouts usually bring veggies for the small animals and they often pay for this out of their own pocket. Even a few dollars can provide a whole lot of nutritious green veggies which the piggies love. Donations to the Veggie Fund will be distributed directly to the shelter scouts so please contribute!

• Volunteer to be a shelter scout. If you would like to volunteer at a shelter, you can join the Shelter Exchange program and help other "scouts" provide food for small animals in the shelters -- and help them get adopted by taking their photo. Shelter scouts bring supplies to shelters to make life a little more bearable for the animals there. They also give the critters some sorely needed cuddling and reassurance. To volunteer as a shelter scout, please email cavyhaven_adoptions@yahoo.com

We would like to make it our goal to improve the conditions for guinea pigs in shelters in our area. We can't do this without your help!