Zebedee the guinea pig: The survivor
Back in the day, when the kids were younger and all at home, I used to write quite a lot about guinea pigs. We got our first guinea pigs – Eric and Daisy (Daisy was male!) – back in 2014 and I adored them. I adored all of our subsequent guinea pigs too. For such small creatures, they were real characters and all different.
Now the kids are grown up, we’ve got Hetty the cockapoo and I spend a lot more time running. But guinea pigs are still part of my life. Well, guinea pig is still part of my life. I just have one now – Zebedee.
When his predecessor, Henry, passed away in early 2023, I wasn’t quite ready to let Herbert be my final guinea pig. But I also knew my guinea pig journey was coming to an end. (For now, at least – I may choose to go back to them in a few years.) So I wanted to find a rescue who was a similar age to Herbert, my gorgeous ball of white fluff.
Zebedee, an Abyssinian guinea pig, came from the local animal shelter. They told me he was one year old. They couldn’t actually agree whether he’d only just turned one or whether he was nearly two. The information they’d got from his previous owners was patchy. Herbert was two and a half, so it would have been nice if he was a bit older, but he was so sweet!
To be honest, I very nearly took him back. He bullied Herbert and it was stressful. But I didn’t want to give up on him. He’d already been rejected by his previous owner. Gradually Zebedee and Herbert got to know each other and were able to share a space without fighting. Herbert lived his last few months with a friend and I was grateful for that.
Zebedee came to us in March 2023. In May 2023, he was finally able to live with Herbert. In January 2024, Herbert sadly passed away.
I must admit, I did a lot of thinking about Zebedee. Was it right to keep him? Guinea pigs are social animals who like to live in pairs or groups. Should I take him back to the animal shelter, so he could go to live with another guinea pig?
But my heart wasn’t in it. He’d had enough change in his short life already. He’d gone from his first home (where I suspect he wasn’t well cared for, because he gained a lot of weight once he came to live with us) to the animal shelter. Then from the animal shelter to us – first living separately from Herbert, then living with him. I felt that he was best off staying here.
I still sometimes question whether I’ve made the right decision. You can’t be sure whether or not a guinea pig is happy, but he isn’t doing anything to suggest he’s not happy. He’s eating, including taking vegetables from my hand, and he makes a ‘wheeking’ noise when I go out to him.
I worried about writing this post, in case I jinxed him. When guinea pigs get ill, they hide it very well. So by the time you notice something is wrong, they are already very ill and are often dead within two or three days. None of our guinea pigs have ever quite made it four years old, but you hear of guinea pigs living to seven, eight or more. I always joke that Zebedee will be that guinea pig who lives until he’s seven.
Even if he’s at the lower end of his estimated age, he’s already outlived several of his predecessors. If he’s at the upper end, he has already outlived them all.
Zebedee the guinea pig is a survivor!
When one of our Guinea Pigs passed away, we didn’t get a companion for her sister (as where does the cylcle end??) and I swear to this day she way way happier by herself than she was living with her sister. She had lots of company with us.
Thank you! It’s reassuring to hear of someone else who didn’t get a new companion and found their guinea pig was happier. It is a long cycle and we’d been replacing guinea pigs for nearly 10 years. In the end, you do have to either let one live alone or pass them on to someone else where they can be company for another guinea pig.