The 'Kind to Cavies' Site
The ultimate aim of 'Kind to Cavies' is to improve guinea pig ownership, and therefore the lives of pet guinea pigs. Kindness is key to the happiness we engender in our relationships with other people and between ourselves and other animals. Kindness in the way we treat others, requires understanding, so based on up-to-date information from advances in the fields of animal health and welfare, I aim to promote better understanding about guinea pigs. In the following pages I introduce the guinea pig as a species, explain what positive welfare is and how we can apply this to our pets; explanations of positive animal welfare and enrichment are missing from many online sites. As a scientist, I have come to realise through my experiences with guinea pigs and their owners, that many guinea pigs do not have their emotional, behavioural or physical needs met. In addition, many owners are not aware of the legal obligations they need to fulfil for their pets' needs (see 'Positive Guinea Pig Welfare').
Over the years, welfare science has changed its focus from minimising negative experiences to promoting positive experiences, to improve the quality of their lives. This change in focus has led to increased attention being given to the emotional lives of non-human animals. Appropriate environments support the emotional wellbeing of our pets. Animal agency has received attention more recently within welfare science; a basic definition of agency is 'the inclination of an animal to engage actively with the environment'. As guinea pig owners we can promote their agency by providing interesting environments as well as compatible companionship, appropriate diets and refuge; this in turn encourages positive physical and mental health.
Guinea pigs are sentient, thinking beings, with fascinating personalities and distinct likes and dislikes. By taking their agency into account, we allow them to engage freely but safely with their environment under their own motivation, so they can choose where they prefer to be in the moment, when they wish to rest, to play, be with each other or have some time alone. We have so much to learn about guinea pigs to truly understand what matters to them in their subjective lives (their life from their own perspective) but at least we can provide what we do know so far, such as compatible companionship, a safe but interesting environment, space, choice and control, a healthy diet, good veterinary care and refuge. The following pages will cover these aspects - hopefully this will give you lots of ideas about how to provide positive piggy welfare, so that it's 'guinea be a good life' for your piggies. - let's be kind to cavies :)