Renovation!

Wow... Pumpkin and Popcorn may have started off as tiny little furballs, but they’ve grown! In fact, they’ve grown so much that we’ve had to build our piggies a loft. We realized their space was too small when they were not as active and when bickering became common. After considering many possible designs, we finally decided to add on a small 2x1 loft with a fleece covered wooden ramp leading to the top level. Within a few minutes, adventurous Popcorn was the first upstairs. She happily explored the new hay filled space. Betty soon followed, then Wilma but poor Pumpkin was too scared to venture upstairs. With a little coaxing, we taught her to use the ramp and now they all take turns running up and down. Boy are they fast! They bicker less now and they’ve become much more active. All this, and we didn’t even need to take up more floor space (something my mom was very happy about!). If you want ideas on building or expanding a cage, write to us or check out the links page and visit Cavy Cages. They have step-by-step instructions and photo galleries of people’s cool and creative cages.

The Guinea Pig Pignic

Have you ever heard of a pignic? They’re really cool. Last Sunday, my family and I went to one. When we arrived, our guinea pigs were checked to make sure they were healthy and to double check that they were all females. After getting a clean bill of health, our guinea pigs were placed in the girl pen. There was also a boy pen. If your guinea pig did not behave well, you had to put it in a special “time-out” pen. One guinea pig bit three guinea pigs on the nose! You can guess where that pig was sent. It was a fun day and we enjoyed sharing our pigs with other people. It was also lots of fun meeting other peoples’ pigs. We saw a Texel, a Teddy, several Americans, Peruvians, Silkies and even a Coronet. By the way, Queen Betty made good friends with the Texel. The people who hosted the event had contests with the following categories: longest hair, messiest hair, the heaviest, the lightest, and the people with the most pigs. Although ours did not win, we all had a wonderful day and hope to go again in September.

To find a pignic by you, please visit the links page and click on cavy madness. On this website, you will find a link to “pignic central” where you can find dates and locations of pignics all over. 

Great Guinea Pig Books

Besides playing with guinea pigs, one of our favorite things to do is read about them! Here’s a list of some of our favorite books:

1. A Tale of Two Guinea Pigs, by Lisa Maddock. This book is very, very funny. It’s about a 9 year old girl who loves solving mysteries. When she meets two guinea pigs, Teddy and Pip, she must solve the mystery of where their human friends have gone and why no postcards have been sent. Along the way, she discovers the guinea pigs’ big secret. Teddy and Pip can talk! Visit the website for this book to learn more about them. You can also write to Teddy and Pip and even get a response. www.teddyandpip.com


2. My Guinea Pig and Me, by Immanuel Birmelin. This book is non-fiction and has beautiful pictures. It contains lots of information about guinea pigs and also has fun ideas for things to do with them, such as building a guinea pig playground. This has been one of our favorites!


3. Guinea Pig Gang, by Ben M. Baglio. This is a fiction book about a girl named Mandy Hope who loves animals. Her parents are vets. She starts a guinea pig club for her friends.


4. The Proper Care of Guinea Pigs, by Peter Gurney. In this book, there are beautiful pictures and lots of interesting facts to learn about guinea pigs.


5. Great Big Guinea Pigs, by Susan L. Roth. Did you know that guinea pigs were once as big as buffalo? This story is about a mother guinea pig who tells her baby guinea pig about how guinea pigs evolved. It is based on actual recent research and the pictures are collages made from all different kinds of paper.


6. Your Guinea Pig, by Wanda L. Curran. If you’re interested in breeding or showing your guinea pigs, this is the book for you.


7. Charlie Hits It Big, by Deborah Blumenthal and illustrated by Denise Brunkus. This is a book about a guinea pig that goes out on an adventure in Hollywood. My sister and I really enjoy this story. It always makes us laugh!


8. Guinea Pigs, by Karen Bawoll. This was our first guinea pig book and is excellent for beginners as well as people who already have guinea pigs.


9. I Completely Know About Guinea Pigs (Charlie and Lola), characters created by Lauren Child. This is my favorite Charlie and Lola story of all time! Lola gets to take home the class pet, Burt the guinea pig, for school vacation.

Guinea Pig Art

If you enjoy drawing, you can try sketching your guinea pigs. They make great models because guinea pigs are really cute and if you give them a little food they’ll often sit still eating it while you draw them. Below are some pictures of piggies that I’ve drawn. So get your sketchbook, start sketching and send us your pictures. We’ll post them.

Bathing Beauty

Yesterday we gave Betty a bath. Most books will tell you that guinea pigs don’t need baths very often but when we put Betty in the tub the water turned brown. Betty has long hair so it drags a lot through the litter. Although we brush her regularly, her hair can sometimes get knots. 

We began by filling with water a small, shallow litter box that we bought for this purpose. We placed it in our bathtub. We made sure the water was not too cold and not too hot. We then placed Betty in the tub. She was calm for the most part - at least at first. We then shampooed her with guinea pig shampoo we bought at the pet store. Once she was soapy, we dumped out the sudsy water and Betty tried to climb out of her small tub and run around our big tub! We rinsed her well with clean, warm water from the tap and wrapped her up in a dry towel. Next we put Betty on a towel on the bathroom floor and dried her with a hair dryer. While doing this, we kept brushing her with a soft brush. Then, we trimmed up the hair and layered it around her rear to help her stay a little cleaner. Sometimes Wilma chews on Betty’s hair and layers it for her. We trimmed her nails and - voila! A beautiful Betty!
Here are some tips to help you groom your guinea pigs -
1. Trim their nails about once a month (unless they get long sooner than that). Frequent trimming prevents the quick from getting too long. Be careful not to cut the quick or it will bleed. We use a regular human nail clipper for this. There are clippers made specially for guinea pigs, but ours works just fine.
2. After trimming, the nails may still feel a little rough. Mu cousin, M.P., gave me this idea. Try filing their nails using an emory board. Be careful not to file their skin. I filed Popcorn’s nails this way over the weekend and they’re smoother now.
3. When bathing, make sure the water isn’t too high, too hot or too cold. The water shouldn’t be so high that it gets near your piggie’s face. Use a clean cloth to clean the face if it needs it.
4. Make sure your piggies don’t get a draft while they’re wet.
5. A hair dryer can get very, very hot so make sure your piggie doesn’t roast. Keep your dryer held at a distance and keep the air moving quickly over the piggie.

The Great Outdoors

03/23/10 01:29 PM

There hasn’t been much blogging lately because, like many homes in our part of the country, we had a flood. After the big rainstorm, the weather became beautiful. In fact, it was so beautiful that it was good enough for the guinea pigs to play outside. We took our herd out. It was only the second time out for Wilma and Betty and the first for Pumpkin and Popcorn. They all seemed a little nervous at first, but eventually they got used to it. Betty liked to bask in the sun. All the piggies enjoyed nibbling on our untreated grass.
Here are some pointers if you decide to take your piggies out for some sunshine and fresh air:
1. Make sure your grass is untreated.
2. Stay with your piggies at all times and watch for cats, dogs, hawks and any other possible dangers.
3. Make sure you have a safe pen with a closed door so no pigs can escape. We use the same cubes that we used to build our cage. When held together with zip ties, the cage folds up nicely and can be stored easily.
4. Try to clear the pen of leaves and make sure there are no poisonous plants in the area, such as buttercups.
5. Make sure your piggies aren’t too hot or too cold. On warm days, piggies should have shade so they don’t overheat.
You can see a short video of this on our Piggie Movies page.

Fluff and Flan

We had some exciting news this week. My cousin’s guinea pig had babies! They don’t know if they’re boys or girls yet but they do know that they are VERY cute. Their names are Fluff and Flan. Fluff is the one with the spot on its nose. Their mother’s name is Cannoli and their aunt’s name is Burrito. Notice any theme here? Guinea pigs love food and we love that all these guinea pigs have food related names. You can see a video of them on the Piggie Movies page.