Introducing Angela

This little cream Skinny Pig is named Angela, better known as 'Jelly' and all sorts of derivations, but mostly Angela, Jelly Belly or Jelly Bean. She joined us early in December at the tender age of 6 1/2 weeks old and settled in as quick as lightning.

She was born on 21st September 2009 and in daughter of: Arthur (a red and white skinny boar originally from Karen at KAB Skinnies) & Caramac (a buff carrier sow originally from Michelle at Shanhara Stud).

Within minutes she was running laps around the cage and bumping into older pigs, popcorning up and down the place and wheeking loudly whenever the food bags are rustled in the kithcen. The older sows really couldn't have taken to her any better - they mostly just followed her around sniffing to get to know her scent for a few hours - Zoe spurred to life when the wee thing passed by her first though, probably a maternal instinct kicking in since it was less than a year since she had her own littler, she became very 'heated' and started chasing Fiona around the cage for a lumber.

As you can see she's a gorgeous wee sow, full of confidence and personality, we're very happy to have her with us. More pictures will follow once we've had the chance to snap some quality close-ups

Nick Names

There's an interesting post on guinea pig nick names on the guinea pig forum today, so I thought I would share my girls' names on here too:

Keleigh = Keils (or Keilekins)
Betty = Bets ( or Betso)
Amy = Aims

Fiona = Fi-Fiona
Chloe = Chloe Closet
Zoe = Sowieso (German for anyway)
Bonnie = Bonnie Bonsai

Molly = Big Nose (or Mols or Molekins)
Diane = Muffin
Jenny = Jenny Always in the Way (she always gets in the way when I lift the top layer of fleece in the morning). She also gets called Jens, Jenekins and Wee'nShite (sorry about this last one )

Goodbye Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (?.08.2005 - 24.09.2009)

Twinkle had been loosing weight gradually and her breathing got heavier and heavier. We took her to the vet on Thursday and he operated her the same day. She got her uterus and spleen removed - she had large ovarian cysts and their was a nodule on her spleen. On top of that her kidneys looked mottled. The operation went well and we picked her up the same evening. She went back into her cage and died shortly afterwards. It seems she waited to be in her own home before resting for good.

The other girls said their goodbyes - everything from a lick to a proper groom. Molly seemed very distressed and Betty was grooming her intensely.

We put her to rest under the apple tree, next to Maya. Now my origi-pigs are reunited once more.

Twinkle is leaving a huge gap in our lifes but will always occupy an enormous place in our hearts.

This will be forever her song:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky!

When the blazing sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveller in the dark,

Thanks you for your tiny spark,

He could not see which way to go,

If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,

And often through my curtains peep,

For you never shut your eye,

Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark,

Lights the traveller in the dark,—

Though I know not what you are,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

Quality Time

Just thought I would share a pig-ture of Molly and Amy spending quality time together:

Guinea Pig Crazy

They're all nuts. Betty just ran lap after lap around the cage. Diane tried to mount everybody in sight. Twinkle came out of the cage for a wee sniff - probably for the first time in years. Then Jenny had a gallop around the cage, while Betty, Amy, Chloe and Diane were exploring the wonders of the dining room floor. Then Jenny went to the kitchen to see whether breakfast might be ready. Now Chloe is giving me the evil eye - I should be typing less and feeding more!

Piggy Wash

All 12 Guinea Girls got a bath yesterday following an outbreak of lice. Luckily hubby offered to blow dry them - I couldn't have done this bathing marathon without him.

Most Guinea Girls were quite good. Twinkle bit me to remind me that she doesn't like sitting in the water but doesn't mind sitting on my arm and getting rinsed. Zoe was, as ever, an absolute neightmare. Bathing went relatively smoothly for her standards but then she jumped out of the washing basket when hubby was drying her and I had to crawl all over the second bedroom to catch her.

I didn't take any pictures yesterday, but thought I would share an old one of Maya whom we still miss very much:

Jenny is tweeting

I picked Jenny up for a cuddle today as the rest ran away when I got into their cage and couldn't be bothered chasing them. It's so nice that Jenny doesn't mind getting a cuddle - as long as it's a quick one.

I sat with her on the bed and she got comfy on my shoulder underneath my hair - a very unusual position for her. I was getting a bit worried about this when she suddently started chirping. Jenny never makes any noises, she never wheeps, the most you hear is her snorting nose when it's blocked again - something that is happening quite often this summer - I think she might have hay fever. Anyway, you can understand why I was so amazed at hearing her chirp. And especially when sitting on my shoulder. It wasn't a very loud chirp - nothing like Chloe's chirping which you can hear across the house - but definitely a chirp. I feel really blessed. Isn't she just an amazing pig?

The opinions on why guinea pigs chirp differ greatly. There has never been a satisfactory explication. However, I think I have unravelled the mistery tonight:

Chriping = Tweeting

Check this out:

http://twitter.com/Jenny_Pig

Spoilt Guinea Girls

Hubby stayed at home on Friday and spoilt the Guinea Girls with an extra meal half way through the day:

Chloe and Twinkle Update

Following her historectomy, Chloe is a much healthier pig. She looks absolutely beautiful, although a lot thiner than she used to. You can now cuddle and touch her without her groo-ing objection; somthing you could never have done before. Her character has changed a bit. She's still very vocal and screems at the top of her lungs at dinner time. Otherwise she is more laid back and it looks like she's passed leadership on to Betty who is mounting anything with legs, but Chloe in particular his her favourite object.

Twinkle too has given us a lot of bother over the last month. We noticed her foot swollen and an x-ray showed that the infection has gone into the bone. She has been on antibiotics and pain killers for the last month and the infection has gone down. However her bones are fused now and she has lesss movement in her foot. She's also been treated for mites, not the ugly black kind but a much smaller less harmful one. She had some hair loss under her chin and on her bum, but that is growing back now after the hated injections: poor sausage was screaming even before the needle went in. Once we took her off the medicine she lost some weight, but she's putting some back on and it looks like she too is on the mend.

So hopefully no more vet appointments for a long, long while.

Life without Guinea Pigs

This is how life would look without guinea pigs:

Isn't this much nicer?

Cuddle Cup

I finally managed to make a passable cuddle cup for the Guinea Girls. Hopefully they will like it. Amy sure looks pretty in it.

Mouse in the cupboard!

... a no, it's just wee Cassandra-pig.

This morning I had a cuddle with Cassy in the bedroom and put her down in the hall so she could run back to the cage. Well, a couple of hours when I walked through the hall I noticed a pair of eyes stairing up at me from inside the wardrobe and there was wee Cassy sitting comfy underneath our coats. Poor thing most have lost her orientation and just cuddled up in the first dark corner she could find. Gorgeous wee mouse!

Chloe's operation

Chloe's had her operation yesterday. She didn't just have her ovaries removed. They needed to do a full hysterectomy as they found a growth in her uterus. So unfortunately she had to stay at the vet's yesterday night.

We picked her up this evening. She looks absolutely tiny poor wee girl. She will have to get spoilt rotten to put some weight back on. She's eating and drinking just fine but moving quite slow and deliberate. We've sectioned of the cage so she has a quite corner which she shares with Twinkle who is good company.

She's such a brave wee piggy and we're so glad to have her home with us again.

Chloe likes her medicine

Chloe's really surprising me. She takes her Metacam without complains. I thought it would be a struggle as she's quite a head strong girl and in the past giving her medicine has been an uphill struggle. But now she really appears to like it. Apologies for the video being a bit dark:

Chloe

Chloe has been to the vet as she's been looking very thin (although still weighing over 1kg). She will need an operation to have a cyst removed. So please keep your paws and fingers crossed for her next Thursday.

There will be loads of cuddles and treats for this special girl who has stollen my heart like no other guinea girl!!!

Guinea Pig Paradise

I've been busy redecorating the girl's "cage" and it looks absolutely fantastic now. I think they really like it:

Keleigh

Keleigh was exhaused after a long day of being spoilt.

Perfect shot, hubby!

Guinea Pig Cusine

Just thought I would share this picture with you:

Amy

Amy has come a long way since we got her from Helen's back in November. She really enjoys living with the rest of the gang and is one of the bravest piggies I have: she's now amongst the first to come to the kitchen when I prepare their dinner. And on top of that she is a fantastic cuddler!

The Fall of the Guinea Wall and World War III

It's now been two weeks since I removed the partition between the two sections of the cage to integrate Amy and Fiona with the rest of the guinea girls. While there were plenty of fights at first, I am really pleased with how things are just now and have to admit that they settled down a lot faster than I expected.

Intorducing them gently to each other unfortunately didn't get us anywhere... maybe because of the sheer number of little personalities. So two weeks ago I decided to take the partition away and let them fight it out. Amy wasn't a problem at all. She got chased about a  bit and didn't look too happy for a couple of days but on the 3rd day she was popcorning around the cage. 

Fiona was a different matter. Since she lived on her own for many months before we got her she didn't know how to deal with other piggies. It soon became evident that she wasn't a aggresive by nature, but that she got freightened easily when another piggy came up to her with the result that she would jump forwards to protect herself. However every day we could see her improve and backing away rather then starting a fight. 

There were no more big fights after 3-4 days. However by then Chloe had decided that she really disliked Fiona (who gave Chloe such a huge fright one day that she ran across the length of the cage and was crying in a corner - poor old Chloe). All this week Chloe has been chasing Fiona whenever she got to near, but Fiona didn't really seem to care. And I think Chloe has now established her dominance as I've caught her walk passed Fiona wihtout batting an eye lid a few times now.

What really surprised me is how easy going Betty was over the last few weeks. She can be quite agressive but was actually really laid back this time. Zoe only attacked Fiona once, and looked really feral. Cassandra on the other hand hasstled Fiona for a good few days. I didn't expect that at all. Innocent little Cassy... Twinkle, Keleigh and Diane weren't too bad. Molly can be an agressive wee thing which is completely add odds with her pathetic looks. Bonny had a few nasty moments, which surprised me as she is one of the most laid back piggies ever. Jenny is quite strong minded and can't be bothered with anybody that gets in her way and makes sure they know if they get in her way. 

While some fights looked really vicious, no blood was drawn and no one got hurt. They just needed to establish a new ranking and now that has been done everything is calm again. the first few days were really hard as I don't like to see my girls upset. But the rewards have been immense. They now share an absolutely massive cage and they are all happy. Amy even came to the kitchen last night for some spinach. There were 9 girls in the kitchen last night and only 3 remained in the dining room. I'm sure that Fiona will soon come to the kitchen too. Twinkle will never come through - she's too proud to beg for food. And Molly will come through on one of her rare non-lazy days.

Cage or paradise?

The girls' cage has been rearranged again. The cage has been expanded and now is 3m50 long and 1m10 wide. However the girls had to slightly downgrade: their section of the cage has been shortened by a few centimeters so that the foster girls can have one end of it (3x2 cubes), and the Guinea Girls have the remaining 71/2 by 3 girds.

The foster girls have been renamed to Fiona and Amy and have really made themselves at home: I hope they will one day get on with the rest so that they can all share one huge cage and be one happy guinea girl family!

On a different note, 6 out of the 12 had their bath last weekend. First time Diane and Zoe had a bath. Zoe was surprisingly calm in the water but she just wouldn't sit still when I was drying her. Diane on  the other hand was very well behaved, but I've never seen a more miserable piggy in my life!!! She's such a beautiful piggy now...

Spring is approaching

I think the girls can smell spring in the air. It's still a bit early in the year, but it's slowly getting warmer and the sun shines a lot more often into the piggie room. They all seem a lot more active, which in Molly's case is due to dieting no doubt. I noticed that especially the rexes are getting cheekier by the day. They started roaming the house again and destroy whatever they find in their path. Zoe is desparate to make herself a wee hidey hole between their cage and the foster girls' cage and she is biting the plastic like her life depends on it!

I just can't wait until it's warm enough for them to go outside. It will be the first time the baby rexes get to graze on real live grass! I'll make sure the camcorder is fully charged!

At long last an update

The girls are well. Zoe's two baby girls are no longer babies but proper young ladies. And Charlie is well and truly settled in his new home (see below for a picture of Charlie and Raoul).

The quiet life has finally returned to the guinea girls' world and they enjoy their life of luxury.

The two foster girls Fifi and Fluffy are doing fine too. Fifi unfortunately doesn't get on with any of my girls which means that Fluffy is rejected too. They are however bonded to each other and every week you can see how they come out of their shell and get bolder. They now scream for food like the rest and whenever I clean them out they popcorn around the cage.

Hungry Piggies Anticipating Their Breakfast