About

Wheektown is an education initiative that focuses on the evidence-based research of guinea pig anatomy, husbandry, and health, and the reproduction of information and services in western Melbourne.

History of Wheektown

​​In 2015 I began the process of reading thousands of scientific papers in order to write a book on guinea pigs. My specialty in scientific writing has always been the gathering of all relevant information on a topic and moulding it into a single article with no waffling or incomprehensible jargon. I was tired of the sporadic and often inaccurate guinea pig information floating around, and decided to do this with them. As more and more information flooded my notes, however, I realised that a single book would not cut it. As a result this turned into an enormous project that will take many years and many contributors to complete.

I started the Wheektown Facebook page in 2017 as a way of sharing some of the interesting information I was coming across. I also ran a shelter under the same name in 2017 and 2018 that conducted five independent rescues and took in 44 guinea pigs. In addition I opened to boarders and some basic health and grooming services, and developed a series of guinea pig-based board games as a fundraising effort to support the increasing number of guinea pigs seeking refuge in rescues around the world.

Adopting Latté, Cinnamon, Puffie, and Tango from the Gold Coast Guinea Pig Rescue at the beginning of 2016. They, along with eight other guinea pigs, are permanent residents of Wheektown.