How one content creator’s guinea pigs got millions of views

It’s not everyday that a video with your pet takes the internet by storm - but that’s what happened to Remy Gumbs.

Whether she’s dancing with her guinea pigs or serving them up a banquet of vegetables, her videos have attracted hundreds of thousands of followers across social media. But how did her journey into content creation begin?

We spoke to Remy to find out more about her ion for animal welfare, the positive effects of her content and her girl gang of guinea pigs.

“I’ve always been quite a creative person”

With 17 guinea pigs, two dogs, and a snake, Remy is no stranger to rescuing pets. Her love of animals began as a child, “I’ve always grown up loving animals, my mum’s a massive animal lover as well.” she told BBC Bitesize.

Remy started posting guinea pig content towards the end of 2024, something she described as happening quite organically. “I love editing, that’s like one of my favourite things to do,” she said. “It was more like a hobby, never a job. If I ever went on holiday or ever did anything with my friends […] I was always that person out to take it the extra mile, like sending my friends long videos that I’ve just edited.”

Casting her mind back to the first animal video she posted online, Remy explained that it all started with an unassuming guinea pig rescue. “It was quite a funny story,” she recalled. “The rescue centre told me it was a girl, so when I came back I put her in the girl pen.

“The next day I picked her up properly and realised it was a boy. Within 24 hours that boy has got every single guinea pig pregnant. So I woke up maybe four months later with loads of baby guinea pigs!”

Her soft spot for guineas pigs developed whilst she was studying animal management at college. Remy explained that during the summer holidays, students were able to take home and look after variety of animals.

“Guinea pigs was always the one that I most enjoyed looking after. They are quite misunderstood animals, especially when it comes to welfare,” she shared.

“I think people underestimate rodents in general. I’ve always loved rodents, whether it’s ferrets, rats, mice or hamsters.”

'Wheeking' her way to the top

Remy’s content has since reached a large audience, with one video of her dancing and feeding her guinea pigs amassing more than 14 million views on TikTok.

“When one viral video popped off, I was like ‘oh, this is just going to be a one-hit wonder’, it was funny to joke about with my mum and dad,” she said. But interest in her content only increased from there, “I grew 100k [followers] in a very short time and then it’s never kind of stopped.”

Since developing an online following, Remy has experienced a number of pinch-me moments. She tells us that one of her videos was reposted by the American singer SZA. She was also shared by the official Instagram social media . “I thought it was a scam,” she said. “I was double checking it like, is that the real Instagram, though?”

But despite these moments, when it comes to online presence, Remy believes it’s healthier not to overthink it. “I try not to spiral into how many followers I have and what’s going on,” she said. “[But] then when someone mentions it I'm like oh, yeah! I’m the guinea pig girl.”

The influence of Remy’s videos has extended far beyond the screen. She told us that she has received messages from people who say her content has had a positive effect on their mental health. One element of this means keeping her videos authentic.

As someone with dyslexia, Remy said that saying stuff wrong and keeping her content unscripted led to a lot of nice comments.

“I think that was the turning point for me. That was like, do you know what? I’m going to carry on, because it’s having a very positive impact.”

Looking to the future, Remy hopes to use her platform to spread information about animal welfare, whether it’s discussing cruelty-free products or challenging misconceptions of different animals.

“I think that's one of like my underlining messages in my content, people are like, ‘oh, I thought [guinea pigs] were just like dumb little animals’, and they’re definitely not,” she said,

“If you give them time and let them like, fully show their personality, they're very clever. I've quite liked unwrapping their personalities.”

This article was published in May 2025