One of my forum members has brought it to our attention that supermarket chain Morrisons is giving incorrect and potentially dangerous guinea pig care advice on its website. Particular innacurate comments include:

- Morrison's say: "It’s important to encourage activity and provide entertainment for all pets like exercise balls...."
This is misleading because it implies that exercise balls are suitable for guinea pigs, something that is untrue and unfortunately can lead to spinal and foot injuries. Most seriously, the spine is not flexible enough to bend without injury or discomfort while using exercise balls.

- Morrison's say: "If you have a guinea pig, add some specially formulated vitamin C drops to their food as they’re unable to produce it themselves."
Vitamin C drops are unnecessary for a guinea pig unless convalescing and in need of additional supplement. Guinea pigs get their Vitamin C from hay, vegetables and their specially formulated dry feed, so Vitamin C drops are not required for a normal healthy guinea pig.

- Morrison's say: "Small amounts of fruit and vegetables make great treats...."
Morrison's are correct in saying that fruit should be given as a treat, but vegetables should be given in a variety every day. A major source of their Vitamin C intake comes from vegetables, and guinea pigs must have them as part of their daily diet for their good health and welbeing.

- Morrison's say: "....try and provide.... plenty of straw for them to burrow in."
Although you can use straw as a bedding, it's not compulsory. Some owners use straw as the main bedding substrate on top of a layer of newspaper, while others use it as an extra source of warmth during the winter months. Occasionally guinea pigs can suffer eye-poke injuries from straw, and although uncommon it must be kept in mind.

If you would like to help us to educate Morrisons, please call Customer Services on 0845 611 6111 or e-mail them by completing the form found here. I'm encouraging people to be polite and helpful to Morrisons, because shouting at them or being unpleasant will understandably make them less inclined to take our advice on board.

For more information, please see this thread on our discussion forum.

Six weeks after members of this forum (and others) alerted Pets At Home to the dangers of the use of eucalyptus in small animal treats, Pets At Home have announced that they will stop the sale of these treats. Here is the response one of our forum members received:

"Further to your recent e mail regarding Woodlands Eucalyptus Sticks for Rabbits, Guinea Pigs and Hamsters 80gm.

Although we believe the product to be safe, we are aware of differing opinions regarding the merits of eucalyptus as an ingredient in small animal treats, so we have decided to err on the side of caution and stop selling them.

I wish to assure you that again that our main priority at Pets at Home is the welfare of all pets, both in store and those that belong to our customers.

If there is anything further I can help you with please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards

Leanne Friar
ecommerce service manager Pets at Home"

How much of this was down to our members sending them letters and making phone calls I'll never know, but I want to thank my members for such a great effort and for the success they have helped to bring in having a major pet supplies chain remove these treats from their shelves.

I would also like to thank Pets At Home for taking our comments and advice seriously, and for once proving that not all large chains ignore their customers.

Please show Pets At Home your appreciation by sending them a thank you e-mail at their address: http://www.petsathome.com/contactus.

I've had it brought to my attention that UK pet supplier Pets At Home is now stocking a wooden chew treat for small animals that is treated with eucalyptus oil. The treat is from the Vitakraft "Woodlands" range and should not be given to guinea pigs under any circumstances because eucalyptus oil is poisonous to them if ingested.

I am sure Pets At Home did not intend to stock a product that is harmful to guinea pigs, so rather than be angry with them, please help us to educate them.

I have already made a phone to call Pets At Home and spoken to a very nice lady who was very concerned. I urge you to please e-mail, write to or call Pets At Home to express your own concerns. Again, the lady I spoke to was very friendly and I'm sure they will take your comments on board. Please see their website at http://www.petsathome.com/contactus.

Over this last week, our friends at Sokel Guinea Pig Rescue have taken in over 70 sick and neglected guinea pigs. They are stretched and doing as best they can to help these poor animals, but they need your help if you can give it. Donations of bottles, bowls, hutches, cages and towels are top of their list, and they also have a PayPal account set up for monetary donations. You can donate to them at our donation point, or via their website at http://www.sokelguineapigrescue.com.

I've finally managed to buy a sound recorder good enough to take some clips of my guinea pigs making various sounds and generally giving me a hard time! You can hear these clips on the new behaviour page which I hope to continue improving, as there are loads more sounds and more information to be added.

I have added a new section called Taming Your Pet to the Piglopaedia which should be helpful to new owners with young guinea pigs.

I have updated the toys page to include some colourful new photographs and toy ideas. My guinea pigs especially enjoyed showing me their toys for the photographs! Thanks to our member eppingstrider for the lovely photo of Fred and George as babies in their Chube! I have also added a list of toy topics from the forum for you to explore. I'm very pleased with the updates to the page and I really hope you enjoy trying some of the fun toy ideas with your own piggies.

New Address: http://www.rodentswithattitude.co.uk/forum

Our old forum has been replaced with a bigger and better forum! It took six weeks to build and it boasts many new features and a more stable environment for our community. The new forum carries my web address, and is hosted with this web site on my personal web space.

We are no longer accepting new registrations to the old forum and on the 30th December 2008 the old forum will close and become a read-only resource. All links to the old forum are being changed to point to the new forum - please change your bookmarks.

Many of our existing members are already moving across with us, and I hope you will come too! We're the same community we've always been, we're just moving to a bigger sofa.

Visitors using Firefox may have noticed the menu buttons on the right scattering across the page. This issue has been fixed and you may now view this site in Firefox as intended.

Today I have added eight new smilies to the forum selection so members can express themselves better than ever before! I have also added a selection of banners and buttons for you to use when linking back to us. You'll find them just below this news box. I hope you like them!

As our Piggy of The Month photograph competition is steadily gaining pace, we decided to extend our prize giving to include a vibrant blue rosette, printed with "Winner" across the middle and our web address around the edge.

After a bit of a break and a three week holiday in Florida, our guinea pig breeds section is now online. The section is quite small at the moment but with the help of our wonderful forum members the page is coming together nicely. My thanks go to Tanya, Lisa, Amanda, Bob and Doris, Sarah, Saskia, Emma and Claire, for providing me with some wonderful photographs.

I'm currently working to improve the toys page and I've added some new photographs. Look out for some more improvements in the coming days.

I have recently experimented with Megazorb for bedding my guinea pigs on. It's been such a success that I've changed everyone over to it - I especially love how Megazorb is far less dusty than woodshavings. Megazorb has now been added to the bedding section.

Merry Christmas! Between eating my Christmas dinner and unwrapping my presents, I managed to upload the bereavement page. I hope many of you find it a comfort. Also, the disclaimer is up and it should answer any of your questions about using the content on my site. I have also archived old updates to this news section in the new Old News from The Hutch page.

A petition to 10 Downing Street has been started out of concern for hairless guinea pigs to prevent pet shops and suppliers from selling them due to their specialist care requirements. If you would like to read more about it or even add your name to the list, you can see the petition at the British Government E-Petition site.