A warm welcome to Guinea Pig Helpline...
Guinea Pig Helpline, and all its associated services, is run by Laura Humphreys. Laura shares her home with 14 guinea pigs: five boars (three neutered) and nine sows, ranging in age from 1 year to 5 years. The rest of the human family - her parents and three year old twin brother and sister - are thankfully very accepting of how large a role guinea pigs play in Laura's life!
Laura is currently studying a number of subjects from home. The main course she is studying is run by the British Association of Rodentologists (B.A.R), based at the Cambridge Cavy Trust (CCT) Guinea Pig Hospital, which is luckily very close to where Laura herself actually lives. The course Laura is currently working on is the Rodent Health Advisor (RHA) diploma. This gives Laura a good insight into many areas of guinea pig medical problems and their treatments.
Due to agoraphobia Laura is unable to complete the RHA course at present, as it requires a 3 day hands-on tutorial at the CCT hospital before the examinations can be taken. However, once qualified as a Rodent Health Advisor, she will move onto the full rodentology course, known as G-BAR.
Other courses that Laura plans to study include diplomas in Animal Communication, Homoeopathy, Aromatherapy, Bereavement Counselling, Healing for Companion Animals, Remedial Massage and Medicinal Herbs.
Laura is a qualified Reiki practitioner, trained to Second Degree (Okuden). She hopes to be in a position to train to Reiki Master level within the next few years.
Laura has a number of ambitions and goals if her life, all involving education on the care and welfare of guinea pigs, their wellbeing and their medical care. Her ultimate aim is to work as a homoeopathic rodentologist, offering services such as holiday boarding, health advice clinics, grooming clinics, educational workshops and educational literature.
Despite not being as experienced as many other guinea pig keepers - Laura has "only" had guinea pigs since 2003 - she has dedicated her life to these animals since she brought that first piggie home. The past 6 years have been spent researching their care, joining in with a wide variety of guinea pig internet discussion forums and learning a lot from various sources, such as vets, rodentologists and other "guinea pig people"! Laura has a good reputation for her advice on the forum she frequents, holding a privileged position of Forum Buddy on The Guinea Pig Forum (a recognition of her support and knowledge), and she was a Moderator on a former, major UK piggie forum.
The guinea pig world is very opinionated at times, the views of some aspects of guinea pig care being highly debatable and often rather heated. Laura is sympathetic to as many views as possible, she discusses as many options as possible, making the owner feel they are completely involved in the advice given - not just stating the facts, but working things out and helping the owner to make a decision that is right for them and their guineas.
Laura set up the Guinea Pig Helpline website in November 2009 to offer a number of services that could benefit guinea pig welfare and provide some education to those in need of some advice. Please do feel free to have a browse around the website, and to get in touch either by telephone or email, should you have any questions.
Meet Laura's Piggies: The 14 HGs (Humphreys Guineas) The oldest pig is Delilah, estimated to be 5 years old, while the youngest are Elijah and Errol who were born in rescue in January 2009. In all, I have four seniors (aged 4 years or older), six aged under 2, and the rest are somewhere in the middle! I currently have seven separate groups - all pairs - as for various reasons certain pigs cannot/must not be allowed together. Each pig has a double-barrelled first name, and each name has a particular theme or meaning behind it. As a general rule, the boys are "apples": ...and most of the girls are floral names, some paying tribute to pigs that I lost soon before adopting a pig in need in their memory: Gwenivere, Dexter, Jasmine Saffron, Willamina, Breanna Meghan, Franklyn Delilah, Sophia Elijah, Errol Pandora, Harrison
13 of the pigs are rescues; Dexter is my only remaining pet shop pig. Some of the rescues are from Guinea Pig Rehoming Norfolk (GPRN), some from Wood Green Animal Shelters, one from Honeybunnies Rescue, and one - Jasmine - was from Green Fields Rescue back in 2005.
Dexter-Pippin, Franklyn-Edward, Elijah-Ruben, Errol-Alexander
Jasmine-Peaches (floral)
Gwenivere-Petal (floral)
Saffron-Willowrose (floral)
Breanna-Charleyrose (floral, and tribute to Charlie)
Willamina-Tuppyrose (floral, and tribute to Tuppence)
Meghan Lottie-Rose (floral, and tribute to Lottie)
Pandora Phoebe (tribute to "Beefy", her friend in rescue who passed away)
The only exceptions to any themes or tributes are Delilah-Grace and Sophia-Mae, and Harrison-Llewlwyn. I chose their names just because I liked them and they suited!
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