Hello and welcome to the popcorn and Piggy at podcast, which is your audio guide to all things guinea pigs. Thank you for joining me today. Hello. Welcome back. Welcome if you are new hello, I'm your host Sam and this podcast is a place where together we share our love for all things guinea pigs their big cheeky personalities. Yes more fluffy physical bodies and how we can ensure that they get the best life possible so that we in turn can benefit from their interaction love and overall.Keep nests. This podcast is brought to you by popcorn and piggy popcorn and piggy. The brand is your One-Stop shop for Unique cute and funny guinea pig clothing mugs greeting cards and stickers and we are taking over the Internet by our YouTube channel Instagram and Facebook accounts. So that together our community the pop corners will change the stigma around guinea pigs being easy and disposable pipettes and instead spread the word that guinea pigs are the best animals in the world. So that's after the intro now, let's get into this week's episode. What's the fuck good is a welcome back have I got a special podcast episode for you this week? We have the awesome Scott or Scotty from Scotty's animals. And this is an interview with him. So in this podcast you are going to learn all about him. If you don't already know him his YouTube channel his own guinea pigs. He has a variety of board. So we are talking all about ball relationships and bonding. looking what it's like to be a volunteer at the Ellie Guinea Pig Rescue and what that entails his Al happy allergies Nails the guinea pig and his main story and so much more this episode is a long one because it's an interview episode and you know me I like to get to know the person behind in this case the YouTube camera and and bring them to you in so that you guys can get to know them more to so let's get into this week's episode so that you guys can hear all the teufel goodness that's got to he has to share with you in this wonderful interview. Welcome Scott to the pot. Okay. Hey pop corners. It's great to be here name. The popcorn is yeah. No, it's great. You've you're starting a cult. Basically. Well, he's a guinea pig Community is almost It totally is it really welcome to the podcast Scott, please introduce yourself and your YouTube channel, which is probably where most people know you from and if they don't know you obviously they can get to know you so over to you to introduce yourself. Yeah. Well, I'm Scott it were you can call me Scottie and my channel Scotty's animals. Let's see. I'm a volunteer at the end. La Guinea Pig Rescue, and I also make videos about mostly about guinea pigs, but also about other animals. I have a cockatiel and some fish and and and you know, whatever animals happen to come my way that you know, I find interesting. I'll try to you know learn about them and if I can capture, you know some video then who knows Which is awesome because one of your latest videos on your YouTube channel is the desert woodrat. I think is that right it yes it is. I was wondering how current we were going to get with this or yeah, so I just moved to the desert and lo and behold I'm acclimating and there's creatures all around me and some of which are used to coming in and out as they please I guess. So, yeah, I read Relocate the Desert Rat it's funny because at the very end of the video I concluded that whoever has been living under my my washing machine in the laundry room was not the one I caught but last night at Sunset as I sat out there enjoying my new surroundings another almost identical rat. If you sit still enough of it, it just will walk right over your foot. And so I lot of people in the comments were like you got to get a trap because I caught him. With a trash can and some parchment paper because I ordered a trap but I was able to catch him quicker than the Trap arrived but the Trap did arrive and just in time for me to catch this new rat who's sitting right behind me in a tupperware and he's about to go to the same spot with his friend later on today. It seems like it's going to be a thing. I loved that in the sense that you were able to catch them. Was he alive and release them and give them their natural habitat that was amazing? Yeah. That reminds me. I hope it doesn't screw up the audio but I did I set the Trap up after I caught the trip the guy last night. I whoa desert chipmunk. There's so many animals out here. It's hilarious. But I set the Trap up again to make sure to see if that was the one in the laundry or if it wasn't so there's a third one. Oh, no. Like I caught the eye caught the laundry rat? Okay, he's still got an apple and he's in a pretty big cage. He's probably scared but we'll finish the podcast. It's still nice and cool in here. And then wow, I'll take these these two out to that spot. Is that exciting like being on one of your videos right now the exclusive on yes, so that that that video is coming. Oh my gosh. Wow, so I can't let's talk about this so it for anyone who's not on your channel and doesn't know about you and you've been based in La you've been helping at the LA guinea pig Dusky for numerous years, but you've upped and moved its let's focus you're calling it The Desert aren't you? So let's just just give people an idea of sort of your location comes to visit is the podcast. They just can't see things. So let's talk about what your noose around current location. Okay. Well, I'm near Joshua tree and the Twentynine Palms military base. So anybody who has Google can kind of pull that up and triangulate sort of where I am. But yeah, it's it's lizards and little prairie dogs. And there's a lot of palm trees that live out on this direction and Joshua trees more as you get closer back. West towards the city, but yeah, I mean, I'm only on 15 minutes from Joshua Tree National Park and I can see it right out my window. But yeah you were talking about how long I've been volunteering. I looked it up just earlier and I think I first my first Contact was in 2012 with the elegant a pig rescue and amazing. Yeah, I kind of got sucked in just like everybody I I lost one of my pet store pigs. You know, I made there's there's so many paths into guinea pigs. And one of them is of course you go into this you go into a pet store. And of course you have this moment with them and then you know, it doesn't matter if you know, you know, that's it, you know, so I didn't know that there were guinea pig rescues and My boys they lived harmoniously for of about three to six months. Maybe maybe I was in denial, but at a certain point I just, you know, I had to separate them because it was just constant daily fighting but they lived happily side by side. They laid down touching each other through the grids, but it was just one of them had a you know, dominance complex you the little one Oliver and so, you know whenever they were together he was Would just always try to prove his dominance and big Louie was just like he would tolerate it for a while and then he would just be like, you know, push them away and then you know, then they just wouldn't trust each other. So while I find I had to for a while and one was literally twice the size of the other and it was the same the little while yeah dominance issues. They got something to prove I can understand that so when I when I lost Louis Um, I thought there's got to be a rescue somewhere. And yeah, it was it kills me because you know people have guinea pigs for years and have no idea what they're doing and they Google and it just pop right up, you know Guinea Pig Rescue and you know, it's a way in the corner of the valley. So where I lived in La as like practically an hour away and traffic but everything is you know, so, you know, I went there on the week. Right. Yeah people I get messages from people all around the world and they're like, yeah, you know, the nearest rescue or shelter is an hour or two hours away. It's like it's nothing, you know took to go and be with people who actually know what they're talking about driving an extra hour can save you months or Years Of Heartache. Absolutely. Yeah and just not only finding people who know what they're doing, but I did an episode recently about Care as well and actually finding a vet who's also guinea pig Savia. Sometimes again, you need to put icing thing one. Who knows they're doing people. Yeah people have told me that all the nearest vet. That's these guinea pigs is 45 minutes away. It's like in a rural area. I get it. You're going 60, you know, well, I'm miles an hour, but you miss international audience. But yeah, you're driving at top speed for an hour worth versus in Allah and you're just sitting there stuck in traffic. For an hour to go five miles, but you know do what you got to do to fuck to get that, you know high quality care that your babies absolutely so what you say as well also volunteering your time to the rescue and helping the rescue because not only do you get something out of obviously helping the rescue but rescue gets so much by your health as well. So I guess this is a natural kind of a leeway into that. So let's talk more about I guess what it's like being a volunteer at the LA, you know, because I think it's fair to say especially because the yellow Guinea Pig Rescue have an amazing YouTube channel, which guys definitely check it out. If you haven't and obviously again plug for Scott's got these animals on YouTube as well or the links in the show notes and but yes, is there pretty much every weekend I think and yes every weekend you do that. Well, so like I said, yeah I met saskia and my duties have evolved over time. I'm my responsibilities have kind of grown as I've gotten to know Sasuke and Sasuke is amazing. She's been doing this 20 years. It started. It's always been pretty much out of her home. But over the years, you know, it used to be a small apartment in Santa Monica that she was doing this and I think you know, she was also working through Pet Shops at a certain point and helping, you know, facilitating adoptions like that, but At the current location spin about over 10 years that she's been there and I met her seven years ago. So I was doing more freelance work at the time which gave me days off. And at first I was able to help transport pick up piggies that were coming to the rescue from shelters. She would say, oh there's a piggy at this animal shelter. Can you go grab him and bring him here? And back in the old days. We don't really do much neutering at the rescue at all. We try to bond boys with each other which is what I ended up really specializing in but after you know, sometimes six months or a year of one guinea pig failing play date after playdate and they're just still here and still hear those ones, you know after we have three or four of those we used to take them down, too. And Diego because we companions which is another amazing rescue. They knew some vets that would do discounted and and neuters with a vet that we trust that had a really good track record. So I would transport, you know anywhere from five to ten guinea pigs in my little Volkswagen Golf all loaded up and then I would drop them off in San Diego and then bring the ones that had been neutered back so I did. That for a while and saskia was like why don't you come on the weekend and help with adoptions? And I just how its it is really cool. There's a culture. So we all sort of have learned from each other what each other has presented during the adoption process and it's really just all comes from saskia's knowledge. But then at the same time, we've all been volunteering a lot of us for so many years that it's been crazy. You see a lot of the knowledge of evolve especially around food and calcium and things like that. But also just the approach to bedding and you know, everything really it's so having this internet Community has allowed all of these thoughts to really You know even five years ago. I didn't have like a fully stocked emergency kit. I have some things but you know now I'm like, oh, yeah, you got to have some children's benadryl, you know in just in case of the off chance because it's not even about your Piggies who knows you might be somewhere and you know, you find some scraggly piggy like actually just sitting there on the side of the road. It happens all the time the most crazy stories about where people you know, because I am there every Sunday said every Saturday and people come in and you know, they're like, oh I found this guinea pig five miles out on a hiking trail and you know, and and this is like a canyon country, you know, this isn't you know, this isn't like some magical, you know forest with berries to eat everywhere. This is like rattlesnakes and like, you know Cliff sides that was Freddie Ellie Guinea Pig Rescue. And and I we both did a bunch of videos about Freddy when he came in as he was. really dirty and dehydrated and what he made a full recovery found found a great home and a good match and Yeah, it's it's crazy. I have to say that those videos as shocking as they are because you know the state of the guinea pigs when you or saskia and everyone at the rescue finds them, I love those because especially like your nails, you know to see where he started years. Now. Those are like pretty interesting video. So I guess let's talk about Nails because I think Nails is oh gosh, isn't he? Males, he's getting really big. I was going to go grab him. So I lost well scuff. He's grabbing Nails guys Nails you have came in with was it mange you found him? Yeah. Well, he he was yeah, he was in a feed store in San Bernardino, which is about two hours away north of Los. Yes, and somebody messaged me saying that they've had them for a couple months and they've been trying to treat him but they don't know what to do. And yeah, it's It was a great opportunity, but it's also it's still it's like my videos aren't reaching if you know still like the feed store. They couldn't diagnose this as mange and the heartbreaking thing was they actually had a dewormer paste that they could actually have cured him with but they just they just sounded over. We you can Ivermectin is a paste is a drops that you put on the ears of guinea pigs at Vince might slice and parasites we give it to all the pigs when they come in for health checks. We do free health checks for all guinea pigs at the rescue no matter where they came from, but you can also use a horse were more paste. It's I don't know what I like a wormer. It's like deworming but it's that's called horse were more paste and you just put a pea sized amount in their mouths once a week for three weeks and it would cure them and they have it because it's a feed store they you know have stuff for her. Nurses but they just didn't know so I drove there and I got him and he was seizuring. He sees, you know, when they get maintenance that bad they're just their nervous systems are overwhelmed with how Chi they are and and they just can't take it. So I took him and and just we have a treatment, you know, we just give them the Ivermectin and then we give them antifungal baths just in case he did have ringworm also. It was just a mess. But now he's huge. Thankfully this is a podcast but you we're doing a video chat for technically you can see ya. He I think he's a Teddy. I'm not still not entirely sure what the difference between a Teddy and a Rex is but he used to have really Fin fur and even when it filled in you can still kind of see his skin and now it's just so dense, and he smells really good. Yeah, no, it's I love all my kids. But if you want to see literally where Scott was talking about there, you know how you know nails came in to be originally. I think he was a foster Pig wasn't me but you can with them and obviously had to keep him which I'm so glad because it has to see more of him to and but yeah, if you want to see the as the original how he came into how he is now check out Scotty's Channel. Yeah. Yeah, and the first video was actually for Ellie Guinea Pig Rescue. I think it was called mange seizures something like that. But yeah, yeah when I hold him, I just can't stop thinking about the whole thing. But he has this funny thing where guinea pigs are really smart, you know, of course and and so if I tickle him under here, he will I don't know if he'll do it when I'm holding his paws like this. But yeah, so you see go go and they'll go and he'll bite. My finger and he'll move it out of the way if I tickle underneath here and he'll completely bite and move my fingers gently. So he not just a lot of them. He doesn't he doesn't not like Gary know he doesn't like he likes it on top of his nose and on his cheeks. He is really playful. Like if I sort of scratch him and tap around and like Pat around his cage and kind of scratch the log I can get him to kind of popcorn and run around. Yeah, I better put him back. Some pigs like it's going to distract me. It's too distracting is too cute. But yeah, I definitely like some Piggies love chicken scratches and others don't and I've got a few that same I've got one who absolutely loves it and just will go crazy and just literally forever be like like Gary does in the video. So just put a scratch music. Yeah, and then I've got you um who are kind of like nails who don't bite or don't nibble, but they kind of will you That poor to like grab my finger and say no no. No. Yeah, I would say probably in my experience the majority I'd say 70 percent of pigs don't like their chin scratched because they are prey animals. So it's this whole underneath thing is like, you know off limits, but wouldn't that also is what makes that you know, 30 40 % special cuz There's they're really being vulnerable with you. And that's what I like. The most is finding out what each Piggies personality is and what they like and don't like and you know, I mean, okay, let's spend this time now. Yeah, we can go back to the rescue. Yeah. So you got you have quite a few piggies in your life. Let's go through and talk about the piggies in your care at the moment. Okay, but I was also going to say that like people come in to the rescue and And they say I have a million stories that start out with people coming to the rescue generally or somebody specific came in to the rescue specifically, but yeah people come in to the rescue and they're like like just last weekend. I hope they're not listening people coming to the rescue and they're like, I've been searching for three months for a black, you know Abyssinian or this or that or do you have like a long hair? I mean I get it especially if you have a Bunch of pigs or if you've never had but like I get the reason and and if you're willing if you got your heart set on a type of thing and you want to adopt and and your you wait are willing to wait but what they look like. Totally like basically doesn't matter like after the first hour when you get them home, you're just like, oh you're sassy or you're shy or you're super lazy or end and even I mean what you discover can change over time, but it's amazing how yeah their personalities reveal themselves to you. And for instance we're talking about my Piggies. I can just start off a mention Mike you guys have probably more skinny pigs. Listening than people who even know about my channel, so Abby's Pig huckle who is a silver agouti Martin. That's what Michael looks like almost identical if if Abby does a action movie starring huckle and she needs a stunt double. Mike would be perfect. He's a little he's a little chubbier. But with the right camera angles, I think it could still work. What was I going to say is that he his? Leti is He's so kind of lazy and he wants to hide everywhere. But yet at the same time, he'll like be in hiding spot and he'll I can hear him like demanding food from me. And then I'll put like a sliver of something kind of just on the edge of where he doesn't see it and then I'll kind of like push it to where he can see it and I'll hear like and then he like grabs it and it like just disappears it like moves backwards. It's just like the weirdest but when they parents like a funky wasn't it? Yeah. Well and Timmy does it to will sometimes they're just like super excited about what they're getting but well that's another thing at the rescue people ask me. Well, what is the purring mean and it's a Smurfs reference and I guess we're getting to the point where some young kids don't even know who the Smurfs are. I'm like they're blue right Katy Perry. Was it Katy Perry Smurfette or something? Like if that doesn't bridge the gap between the old sport but anyways in the Smurfs, they use the word Smurf to mean pretty much everything. You know, I'm smurfed out. You know, I go Smurf me that pail of Smurfberries, right? It's just but for some reason in context you understand what it means and that's what the purring is if if a firecracker went off. They might go bad, you know really short brief one. If you put two strange pigs together. They're going to be bad Rumble starting and which you know, I guess to the untrained ear it all sounds the same but because they are a bunch of pers, but they are subtly different and they do have totally different meanings. And yeah, I think once you find the guinea pigs for a certain that the time you actually acknowledge and know the different peers totally. Yeah. Yeah and just in general, yeah. all their different sounds yeah there once you kind of it doesn't take long, but once you can detect them then interacting with them, it's yeah, you're speaking their language and that's part of the whole guinea pig ownership. I should get back to all the piggies that that I have but a lot of people they're trying to get the piggies to get on to their level and it's like if you would just well when it comes to having your Piggies raised up on a table, I would say you do want your Piggies to be on your level, but when it comes to their personalities and communicating with them, you've got to get on their level and Stop adding your crazy emotions onto them and trying to you know, and just and also accepting. Yeah the that they are animals and you know, and but it's yeah, it's not like they're not like Starter pets, like people say or like like I've had yeah that I mean we could go off on a tangent forever about that. But yeah, it's like you can't expect them to do things that they can't do but at the same time when you meet them on their level, it's like there's no limit to the surprises and the layers of their personality that you can discover like there. Yeah there. They're awesome. It's exactly like you say, it's basically, you know, knowing everything about the guinea pig species. So the fact that their prey animals like they need shelter like all their basic care, you know giving them time to settle in they love routines and and so getting them there to feel comfortable in your home. That's when they really sort of Excel and because they feel comfortable they let their guard down a little bit so you get to know their personality and they become you know, the Adams or the you know, that's the pigs that we all know and yeah, yes, and and that's kind of the fun thing about all the guinea pig channels is it doesn't take very many videos watch. My pigs are not always like their personalities aren't always the star of my videos like some other guinea pig channels, but when I watch those channels, It is amazing how quickly I get to know the guinea pig specifically and it's just like, you know. Yeah, you just it's like, you know them like like their friends. I want to listen to a bunch of other PE channels, but we don't probably don't have time. Yeah, so should I list all of my Piggies? Yes, I think you started with Mike and then you remain mentioned. Mike won't be a Mike lives with Timmy. And and yeah Mike's a silver agouti. Timmy is a satin Abyssinian. And he has a satin guinea pig syndrome. So that basically means he has joint issues and and basically like arthritis an advanced form of arthritis, but we've got a couple treatment options going for him. And you know, he's still it's amazing as much as he seems like he, you know has mobility issues. Is when it's veggie treat time you just comes running. So it's it's it is funny that sometimes he forgets how sick he is or I take it easy old man, but he's not old he came from the rescue. He is one of those ones that was dumped in a park with mange and he was pretty much almost exactly like nails he went through. The same recovery with seizures and he was wrapped one of my earlier videos. I think I showed some pictures of him. Yeah. He looked very scraggly but there is something kind of he look like a skinny pig. So that's yeah. That's what mange pigs look like if it's really bad. Basically, they look like skinny pigs. Just Werewolves of hair. Yeah bits of hair. That should be lots more hair. Okay, survive the next kind of cage or group I guess is the way to okay. Let's see. Yeah, it helped her from looking at them. Okay. So T me and Mike are kind of in the middle to their left is Billy big Billy is a Chui and he was born at the rescue. And yeah, Billy was one of these situations where I had a pig. I'm pretty sure I had a pig Louis who wasn't getting along with anybody and but he was super awesome and I never gave up and for years, I would always try to pair them up with whoever came in as a foster. And incidentally he finally paired up with Mike. Actually. I've since rearranged the group's because Mike can pretty much get along with anybody and instead of having a bunch of like Timmy being bullied by somebody and Mike being bullied by somebody I put them together because they are the most docile and that way Timmy won't be bullied as much because of his condition, but I got Billy as a baby to go. With my Wild Boy Louis and that worked for a couple months. And is then as soon as Billy kind of grew up and became a teenager. He started challenging Louis. And so I you know, you start out with one pair and then the pair's breakup and you think oh, well, it's easy to just add a baby. That works like 50% of the time maybe the baby becomes a teenager doesn't it? So you can go through the whole thing again sometimes yes, and so that's but by that point you're already attached. Yeah, so so and I never had a cooee before the for some strange reason. So for those people who aren't familiar with the term kui's are the larger guinea pigs normally just Orange and white and they were bred our bread for food and South America, so don't go Googling it. But if you do it guys if you need to prove if you Google it be prepared that has two pictures look like the cover of an Oxbow food bag and the other half are on a dinner plate. So but for some reason they started showing up in pet stores in America in California, and for three or four years people all we would get for surrenders people would come in with these huge wild pigs and they were completely frightened and they all you know, they all look the same they had kind of long noses smaller eyes huge feet and they were just gigantic and super strong. And just like Billy they when they're babies. They're like these cute little hamster sighs, you know surprises Billy is crazy tame and he has no idea of the power he holds but he's the other pigs did and they and so, you know people would come in with their small children and they're just like we this is we wanted a guinea pig. We don't even know what this is looks like a guinea pig. But so there was this epidemic so we at the Guinea Pig Rescue, there was a barn before we had the NorCal 700. Situation the barn had lots of female qu he's just a bunch of them some neutered boys, but a lot of the Neutered boys for some reason or a lot of the boys in general we could pair up easier, but especially if they were neutered but the girls would just be really scared. We just so we just had a bunch of the wildest ones living in the barn and some people over the years, you know, they all got adopted because people would be like that's what we want. We want a crazy. Wild Chui and we're going to we're going to tame them. Maybe they did maybe they didn't but there was some really, you know, kind-hearted patient people out there that that's what they wanted to get into but then they stopped showing up and now we see a lot more skinny pigs in the pet stores. So there's there's always some Fad in the pet store guinea pig. World. Yeah, like you say they almost go through Trends. Don't they? Yeah. So let's lie. So that's that. Let me let me know so that's Billy. So but yeah, it's it's almost like there's always some crazy. Well, there is some crazy story behind every pig that I have but sometimes it actually it's not just about the individual. It's it goes to something bigger. So next to Billy is nails and piggy Smalls and for the names guys well, It's so the way Nails was named is right when I got back from San Bernardino and I was like we got to name him something tough. And the guy that was just some guy walking out of the rescue and he's like, why don't you name him nails? That was like I thought I was recording too and I was like, yeah, it's like that's amazing because it's like, you know, he's like because he's tough as Nails I was like Of course, so that would just yeah became his name but Biggie Smalls, he was an owner surrender and that was just his name, but at 4:00 in the morning last night. I hear a rumbling because my bed is just on the other side of the window and the guinea pig room. I've such a crazy setup now, so I heard a rumbling in a commotion followed by tooth chattering Biggie Smalls. You can probably see Yes, there's this huge divider. So it's like almost two grids high and somehow Biggie Smalls jumped over it into Billy's cage and he's been doing that for the last week or so, but I just keep making the wall Higher and Higher and you've gotta jump. Yes, but I mean, he's like he's yeah, it's like two grids High. I don't I have no idea how he's doing it. So Yeah, so then opposite them is Gary and pipsqueak they each have their own 2 by 3. And then down below is Snoop and Nate and that's I'm still devising plans on figuring out how to get my singles together in some way. You know, I'm including Gary and pipsqueak, you know, what laughter so I've got what I've got five single boys. So I figure there's got to be at least a combination of two in there. But I always say that it's I feel like in my experience it's been about it's about 20% chance of any two given boys that you put together are going to actually Bond maybe less. It's just that at the We have so many single boys that we can try that. We are almost always successful after three or four tries and it's crazy. So we'll have like three really bad seemingly fights the pigs will like chatter and it seems like they won't even calm down and but you know, sometimes the people drive from ours, you know, because as I said, you just go 5 miles you're still you know, it's an hour and you're still in LA. so people come from pretty much all around and I don't want them to leave, you know without a match and because they won't give up they'll have to just come back the next week or a month later or whenever they have time and On the fourth try it's amazing like with with boys with girls. It's almost always like a match right away. But with boys, it's crazy. They could be huffing and puffing and drew blood and and then you put in the right combination and they're just like they run around in circles. They'll do some humping some butt sniffing the poop will fly, but then they're laying down and you know taking naps together and it's awesome. That happens like every weekend so nothing smellier than ball bonding. Oh man. Well, okay. It's pretty funky. But I would say when you're at the health check station and one of our volunteers cleans the like more pocket. Yeah, that's funny thing. Well, it's the same thing. It's just that's like a concentrated. You'll get like a very condensed Cloud. There's a boar bondings Court of more of a fine. Fine Mist the Wind Blows the right way, but also we do the boar bonding right next to where the horses are. So there's also all sorts of smells filtering through I try to take a Claritin within 24 hours of before I go to the rescue I bet yeah, I'm allergic to Timothy Hay which wow, yes. I sort of have built up an immunity, I guess because I swim in it every day. But yeah, I like break out in hives especially if I get like some random either a small pack of some random brand that I've never got and it's got a lot of dust in it or they sell these huge Bales at the rescue. And when I first started volunteering there before I realized how allergic I was Sasuke would be like, hey, can you go Bale some? Hay and so I was like in there with like a pitchfork and you know, like classic. There's like a hole room with pile of hay and I was like bailing it and putting it in bags and later that night. I was like, I just, you know, I started getting like asthma-like symptoms like my lungs are all like wheezing and like I probably shouldn't do that anymore. Wow, so I guess you know, this is quite a topic in the sense of sometimes people actually. Have to give up their guinea pigs because of health issues. So that's yeah. How do you deal with the fact that you know, Timothy is okay and that all you know, you could do meadow. Hey or something like this and this is a part of a guinea pigs diet. How do you then and it's worse? That drink during a magic. Yeah, well during allergy season when like flowers are blooming or it turns out they've also apparently pine pine cones. There's you know, these little bristles that come out and there's a lot of pine powder. It's like a yellow powder that can be very you can be very allergic to so the combination of all that and the horse dust and everything. It can be worse at Times what so like I said Claritin. Really helps but on a day-to-day basis when I'm feeding the hey, first of all, I tried to hold my breath and then I'll feed the hey and then I'll immediately wash my hands get any hey - my arms and rinse my face. It used to be. Yeah, I'd like feed a big pile of hay like because I'm leaving the house. So I'd feed a pile of hay My pigs because I'm leaving and I'm going to be gone for a few hours and then I would just get in the car and I'd be sitting in traffic and you know, I'd like scratch my eye or my nose and I had watched my hands and I've got like this. Hey dust all over my face and I'd be sitting in traffic then all of a sudden my eyes would get itchy. And you know, I'm allergic to cats to I think so. It's kind of like that. But yeah, if I breathe the dust, it's bad. I have a air purifier so but I would say that's that's the main thing is washing your hands before or right after you. You know feed feed your pigs that's going to be the main thing. You could try other Hayes sticking with the same type consistently probably will help. I have a air purifier which seems to actually work better than I would expect given. It's just this little battery shape thing that sits on the floor and makes noise, but it does seem to actually make The air because when there's lots of hey Dustin there I can feel it. Like when I breathe in I'm like, oh, I better not breathe that but if I run it for a little bit and then come back into the room. I'm like, you know, that's actually nice. Yeah, but I have I don't have air conditioning out here. I have what are called evaporative coolers. So they're kind of like air conditioning but it like sucks air in from the outside through Little pads that are dripping that are wet that like a get saturated with water. So it evaporates so because it creates like a vacuum suction into the house if I close the other windows and open the animal room a crack when I'm cleaning or when I'm pouring out the pine bedding, which I use for some of the pigs that dust kind of gets sucked out the window. So I've found well, yeah, I couldn't do that at my old place but the because of this whole vacuum situation. Yeah, the combination of the air purifier and that some people are super they they'll react badly with some allergy medicines. It seems that like everybody finds the one that works and all the others don't work. if I have Benadryl I slip into a coma for like half a day. I just I can't move I can't move. Well, I guess is you know, it's the same as anything. We all have different tolerances of certain drugs and things and I'm one of those where I try not to take anything because those tablets that say non-drowsy they make me drowsy. So I just don't take them. Yeah, and I found that Claritin seems to help at least with that whole itching and sneezing kind of a thing. I just yeah, I just take it before I go to the rescue and it's seem to have been helping over the years. Yeah. Well awesome. So I guess to end off let guys listening to the podcast know where they can find you and obviously take all of your amazing content into their education as well and get to know you. Yeah, well Scotty's animals. I've been relatively successful at everything that I if it's Instagram or YouTube or whatever. It's just Scotty's animals and if you Google it then they all seem to pop up so through no credit of my own. I guess there's some the only Scotty's animals out there, but I have Instagram and I have a YouTube page. I'm learning all the social media but it's so it seems like each one kind of serves a little bit of different purpose. So on my Instagram, I will try to post photos of my pigs if something cute is happening or a lot of the times I will post like a one minute trailer of my latest video or if just something crazy happens or like like if Gary lets me pet Him under his chin, then I'll just post a video of that and the way fate that those also go to Facebook to so it seems like some people have Facebook and some people have Instagram. So both of those content kind of go to both places at the same time, but I also have just a regular website. And the first part of it is basically all of my social media kind of there's all these widgets on my website where it shows my latest. No, and also my guinea pig rock band music video, which is awesome. Yeah, that was a labor of love for a few months after I shoot my educational videos. I'd spend the we hours of the evening. Yeah, that was even the digital magic. But yeah check that out that it was really really fun. So yeah Scotty's animals. I also there's like links to supplies and stuff that we recommend at the rescue there. And I have a patreon page at patreon.com way right that you can support people who do things that you like on a monthly basis, but I post for them a lot of random things like this is a secret. So I did a cartoon version of myself as I'm learning this new cartoon software, but Yeah, I'm I'm working on it some cartoon guinea pigs. And so that's like on patreon last night. I was posting some of the as I'm building the character just posting like videos of of the in the process just you know for the heck of it, but my idea is is I'm going to have some guinea pigs cartoon guinea pigs, and they're going to be sitting in a pet shop and they're going to be over here. Bring the pet store employee giving bad advice to potential guinea pig owners and they're going to be like that's all wrong. You know guinea pigs need eight square feet or you know, that guinea pig food is horrible. Look at the seeds in there or you know, amazing. Yeah, so and and and also it could be like right so that I wanted to be an opportunity for fun. So like this guy doesn't know what he's talking about and he could be like and guinea pigs eat their poop. Okay. I'll give Them that one I don't know. I've always loved cartoons and I have a film and cartoon degree. So it's the technology and the channel are all kind of coming together at the right time. I have an audience. It's I have 15,000 subscribers as of now. I don't know how many people actually still watch but you know, there's a potential there for lots of education and lots of fun because it is cool that you know, I do get so many messages people are saying, you know, if it wasn't for you and saskia, you know, you've improved the life of my pigs or some people really say like, you know without that one piece of information, you know, I would have lost my Piggy and You know now they're doing fine. But there's also people that are just like, you know, I was feeling super down and this video just you know, really made me happy or you know, I don't even have guinea pigs. But you know for whatever reason there's some reasons, you know, people can't have guinea pigs, but you know, they can love them vicariously through me and and and so yeah, it's It's been a real surprise and been really great really amazing. So well, you are doing lots of amazing things. I am truly one of those subscribers that watches every video. So that's amazing and continue to do the awesome work that you are doing. Thank you Sam. No worries. Everything Scotty has mentioned will be in the show notes. I'll also link l a Guinea Pig Rescue as well so that you can check those out if you are local and like Scotty says they also do free health checks. So check them out. So thank you very much Scotty for being part of the podcast this week. Oh, it's my pleasure. I hope my rambling answers. I hope there's a some nugget of goodness in there by pop corners. Thank you for listening to this week's podcast episode. If you enjoyed it, please leave us a star rating and review it on the Apple podcast app and share it with your pinky friends. It really helps us get our message that guinea pigs are the best animals in the world and I'm not supposed will pets to more people if you aren't already follow us on Graham I username is at popcorn in piggy where we'd love to connect with you and learn all about you and your guinea pigs. Our Instagram account is linked Below in the show notes along with all our other links to our social media. Thank you once again for listening and we'll be back next Thursday for another episode. See you then. Bye.
In this episode, I interview Scotty from Scotty's Animals and we talk all about his Youtube channel & guinea pigs, what it's like being a volunteer a the L.A. guinea pig rescue, male guinea pig relationships & bonding, what it's like having hay allergies & owning guinea pigs and so much more. Enjoy listening! Guinea Pig Rescue Website - https://www.laguineapigrescue.com/ ETSY SHOP FOR LA GUINEA PIG T-SHIRTS - https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScottysAnimals  The Popcorning Piggy Podcast is all about guinea pigs. We share our love for guinea pigs, your stories, care advice and interviews with other piggy businesses and rescues. 