The Guinea Pig Secret Santa Project

Philanthropy and Guinea Pigs

Out in the big wide world, there are amazing people who dedicate their lives to rescuing and helping abandoned, surrendered, sick guinea pigs. Some are registered charities, some are simply kind-hearted people working, fundraising and donating for guinea pigs..

Whilst the idea that every single day guinea pigs find themselves needing rescue baffles and saddens me, knowing that there are safe places for these beautiful, gentle creatures, where they can be rehabilitated, shown love and kindness, and hopefully found a new caring forever home makes the situation a little better.

I already support Sarnia Guinea Pig Rescue on the beautiful island of Guernsey. I save stamps, send donations, and you can also find items they really need on their Amazon Wishlist. I also follow many other rescues on Facebook, YouTube  and Twitter, sharing their stories, advice and videos on my own social media. Lots of people will offer support by volunteering at their local rescue or sanctuary, they will take in foster piggies at their own home, they will do fundraising events and donate the proceeds. All these are wonderful ways to get involved. Then a few months ago I stumbled upon The Guinea Pig Secret Santa Project.

The Guinea Pig Secret Santa Project - What is it?

This is a fantastic group of volunteers who coordinate a worldwide scheme to send gift parcels to specific guinea pigs living in rescue.

Rescues send in information about piggies, often long-term residents, who they would like to receive gifts for. They provide a wishlist, photos and details of the single, pair, trio etc of piggies to the team at TGPSSP. Meanwhile, potential Secret Santas register their interest in taking part, how many piggies they would like to send gifts to and where they live (roughly, I gave the country and county where I live in my initial contact DM). If you're under 18 your are going to want to do this with a parent or guardian.

The process of pairing the piggies with their Santas takes time and a lot of work, as the team look at a lot of information, including where you are located and if you were a Santa on a previous year, they will try and match you with a different rescue this time around.

What can you send?

You can send as much or as little as you like, TGPSSP suggest a shoebox sized parcel but that's is purely a guideline.

While you are waiting to receive your match and their wishlist, you can start shopping for some rescue essentials, such as:

• Rubber gloves
• Syringes
• Anti-bacterial surface wipes
• Lint-free cotton wool pads
• Choccies for the Rescue team (not the piggies - it's poisonous!)

Your Rescue's wishlist is likely to contain more specific items, like:

• Oxbow Critical Care feed
• Timothy hay
• Natural treats
• a particular brand of food that they use
• particular brands of skin care products
• tunnels and hidies

My parcel included a range of these items, plus a large water bottle, and some products from Gorgeous Guineas. Gorgeous Guineas do a lot of different, all-natural skin care products, designed and created specifically for Guinea Pigs, but try to think what a Rescue or Sanctuary might need the most when you place your order. I chose:

• Lice and Easy shampoo - because surrendered piggies are likely to bring little friends with them!
• CocoNeem Melt - has a coconut oil base, and is used as a treatment prior to shampooing to help relieve scurf and crusty areas of skin.
• Calendula Lotion - which is suitable for using on pregnant piggies and Skinny Pigs (hairless), and is great for soothing sore, itchy and dry skin. Rescues see lots of pregnant sows surrendered to them every year.

NB: Check how you are going to send/deliver your gift, as some carriers cannot take parcels containing liquid.

Also NB: Before you buy any fleece/fabric tunnels, hidies and accessories for your parcel, wait until you receive your wishlist, as many rescues don't have the facilities or time to wash and dry these items, and might prefer, wooden, plastic or cardboard items instead.

I was teamed up with April Lodge Guinea Pig Rescue, and my final 'surprise' gift to them was a pencil portrait of my two Secret Santa recipients, Gonzo and his wife Busy Bee. I wanted to include something very personal in the parcel, and the photo I received of them was so beautiful that I used it to hand draw them onto watercolour paper. I popped it in a board backed envelope and put it in the parcel with everything else.

Pencil Portrait of April Lodge Guinea Pig Rescue residents Gonzo and Busy Bee.
Drawn by Rebecca Reynolds BA (Hons)
aka Pumpkin Becki

Sadly Gonzo passed away just before Christmas, but Busy Bee received her gifts safely, and generously gave her portrait to the kind lady who had fostered her and Gonzo for a time.


If you would like to take part in upcoming Guinea Pig Secret Santas, then pop over to their Facebook page and give them a follow https://www.facebook.com/guineapigsecretsanta/
Sleep tight little Gonzo xx

Gorgeous Guineas Haul and Product Review

Gorgeous Guineas Haul

I've been merrily buying store brand guinea pig shampoos for as long as I've had piggies, but I've never been that happy with the results, and as we have taken on more rescue piggies with more skin issues I've begun hankering after the range made in the UK by Gorgeous Guineas. I first saw the products in a room tour video by  Laura at Piggiepigpigs and went over to the Gorgeous Guineas webshop, carefully reading all the product descriptions and making a mental shopping list.

My final 'push' to actually purchase came last month when I signed up to become a Guinea Pig Secret Santa via their Facebook page (I'll post more on this after Christmas ;) ), where you fill a parcel with essentials and treats for guinea pig/s at the rescue you've been paired with. It's an adorable concept!

Here's what I bought and my reasons:

The ordering process was simple on the website, payment went through without a hitch and the padded envelope full of products arrived in perfect condition within a couple of days. At the wheekend (see what I did there?) my first victims were lined up to be pampered at the spa of Pumpkin Becki.

Using the Gorgeous Guineas products

Molly - Rex coated - Aloe Melt

The first job with Molly was to prepare the Aloe Melt. You place the bottle in a cup of hot (not boiling) water and allow the coconut oil base to gently melt. I had to refill the hot water about three times, and hold the bottle down before it finally became liquid enough to apply.

Warm the Gorgeous Guineas Aloe Melt in hot water

Molly is a big girl. not fat though, she just has extra saddlebags (shown in blue below) from where she was used for breeding by Pets at Home's supplier. They've been checked over by a vet and are not anything to worry about.

You can clearly see Molly's saddlebags where she was used for breeding

The instructions say to use 5ml per piggie, or 10ml for a particularly large one. Molly definitely needed 10ml, not just because of her size, but also because her dry coat drank up the melt gratefully.

Apply the Gorgeous Guineas Aloe Melt all over the guinea pig, including the ears

The melt is worked into the coat from the top of the head, down the nose, inside and outside the ears, along the back and sides. Then under the tummy and over the legs.

Gorgeous Guineas Aloe Melt - Don't leave out the tummy!

Then you leave the piggie for 20 minutes to allow the melt to work its magic. I put her into the floor-time pen with lots of snuggly places to hide in.

Molly after the application of Gorgeous Guineas Aloe Melt. You can see her coat isn't so dry, and it certainly felt softer.

Emmeline and Lice and Easy

This was only Emmeline's 2nd bath ever, and she wasn't besotted by the idea at all.

We have a deep butlers sink in the kitchen, which I filled with approx 4cm of warm clean water. I put Emmeline straight in and began scooping water over her body, avoiding her head. Unimpressed she tried to jump out, so I supported her on my hand and arm to help make her feel a bit more secure. Then I put her on a dry towel beside the sink, squeezed a 10p sized blob of Gorgeous Guineas Lice and Easy into the palm of my hand, spread it between both hands and applied it to her back, legs, tummy and dewlap (under he chin). then I damped down her white blaze on her face with one finger and rubbed a little lather onto it, being careful not to allow it anywhere near her eyes.

I carefully rinsed her off and reapplied the shampoo. While working it in well, I could see bits of dead skin and a few lice gathering in the foam. It was working! She was wrapped in a towel with the shampoo still on, for 5 minutes as per the instructions, then rinsed thoroughly. MrPB then towel dried her while I shampoo'd Molly.

Poor Molly didn't appreciate the bathing process much either, but lots of dead skin and grease lifted out of her coat.

Look at Molly's face!

She was much happier once she'd been rinsed and given a huge Romaine lettuce leaf as a treat :)

Molly loves Romaine Lettuce

Little did she know the process would be repeated the following weekend!