A GUINEA pig rescue charity is "feeling the pressure" as it takes on a huge influx of unwanted piggies.

Mandy's Rescue is based all over Dorset and has 20 foster carers who foster the guinea pigs from their own homes.

The rescue charity takes in unwanted guinea pigs and looks after them until they get re homed.

The non-profit organisation relies on support to cover all the vet bills, food, and hay.

Kirsty Keiper, who runs the rescue, said: "Unfortunately, due to the cost of living crisis we have been seeing an increase of people having to give up their guineas because they can't afford to look after them.

"We have around 80 guinea pigs in our care at the moment.

"Some guinea pigs will always stay in our care because they can't be adopted due to their health needs.

Mandy's rescue charges £25 to adopt a guinea pig.

Kirsty added: "We also get large influxes every now and then when a breeder decides they can no longer breed, we will take in a lot in one day, for example we took 27 in the other day.

"Often guinea pigs that we take in are covered in mites and bites because they have been living in poor conditions.

"We will never say no to piggies however we are feeling the pressure at the moment as it is very time consuming.

"We haven't had as many people adopting recently as we would have liked.

"I've had 20 guinea pigs in my house at one time, another foster has had 40.

"All our fosters are amazing, we couldn't do it without them."

Mandys rescue has an Amazon wishlist where people can help purchase the guinea pig products that they need: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/32KXW3Z9FWPET

You can also donate money directly to their PayPal: guinea.pig.rescue@hotail.com