'I sell my guinea pig's paintings on Vinted - they're gone within minutes'

'I sell my guinea pig's paintings on Vinted - they're gone within minutes' EXCLUSIVE: The guinea pig named Cheesecake from Manchester has a long waiting list for his tiny works of art after his owner, Alexandra Greenwood, taught him to paint You never know what you'll come across when you scroll through Vinted. From clothes and accessories to homeware or collectors' items, it truly is a market hub for anything you might want and more - including rocks from various beaches. This is something I realised after coming across a handmade painting by a guinea pig called Cheesecake. Yes, you read that right. I was immediately intrigued, after learning about the artistic pet on social media, that I had to spend £5 for one of his paintings. But how did Cheesecake even get into painting in the first place? Speaking to his owner, Alexandra Greenwood from Manchester, she said that Cheesecake had always been the quickest learner out of all of her three guinea pigs, saying he often played with dog puzzle toys, and even solves them pretty quickly. She added: "He learned how to pick up his biscuits and drop them out of his pen so that they’d fall on the floor, which I accidentally taught him would get him a treat, as whenever he’d do it and go over and give him something." His painting skills started when Alexandra was a university student and would often study in the guinea pigs' room, with Cheesecake quickly realising if he took one of her pens, she'd pay attention to him. This lead to Cheesecake often picking up the pens and running away with them. Alexandra used this to her advantage by quickly teaching him the command for 'pick up', which she said would be a great skill when she takes photos of him. But then it led to Cheesecake starting to paint. "We started off with watercolour paint since it doesn’t stain and it doesn’t smell very strong, and he took to it really quickly!" Alexandra said. "I had to buy him his own brushes though, because he was totally ruining mine by smashing them into the paper." Alexandra started to list a few of his paintings on Vinted, selling them for £5 in a way for the guinea pig to 'earn his own pocket money' for treats and toys, while also making people smile with his artworks. While people have bought the painting's as gifts for their loved ones, there was one story that stood out to Alexandra. "We had a really special one where a painting was bought for a family member who was in hospital as a cheer up gift and we sent a video of Cheesecake painting it along with it," she shared. "I got a message a few weeks later which was so lovely - it had really cheered up the family member and made all the nurses smile too!" She added: "I really love that people can find joy in little things like this - for ten minutes of Cheesecake’s time, each painting seems to make such a difference." And people really seem to love them, as the paintings went viral online, making Alexandra baffled by how long his waitlist had gotten. "I’m not quite sure how he went viral though!" Alexandra said. "I think someone may have reposted us in a Vinted group on Facebook - after that, we would get up to 20 messages a day asking for paintings, and every time I’d list one on Vinted it would honestly sell within a minute, it’s been so crazy!" Now, she said people love Cheesecake 'almost as much' as she does, as he has a long waitlist of people waiting to get their hands on one of his paintings. "At the minute, he only makes one every couple of days because I don’t want to push him and make it something he doesn’t enjoy, but unfortunately that does mean that there’s an insanely long wait list for reserved paintings and that there’s always a scramble when I post the unreserved ones," she said. And he sure is making people smile, as I ended up managing to get my hands on one of my own paintings, which is now placed on my desk, making me smile every time I look at it.