Time to eat! Most piggies eventually learn to respond to the sound of crinkling grocery bags. After all, that often means some good veggies are on their way. Our piggie, Popcorn, took this one step further. Just look at her as she attempts to help herself.
It’s almost the holidays and Santa Piggie is coming to town. Santa Piggie will be riding a sleigh soon. With the help of Santa Piggie’s elves, Santa Piggie will be able to deliver gifts to all the good little piggies everywhere in his Santa Piggie sleigh!
Happy Halloween! We decided to get into the spirit of the season by including our piggies this year. Do you recognize the spooky ghost and the creepy witch? They’re Pumpkin and Popcorn, of course! You can make costumes for your piggies too - just make sure you don’t leave them on for more than a few minutes. You can also decorate your cage. Check out this website for some holiday ideas:
http://guineapigfun.com/themecages.html
Make sure all costumes and decorations for your piggies are safe.
If you have any Halloween themed pigtures, send them to us and we’ll post them.
A friend of mine recently slept over. She brought her guinea pig named Cocoa (you can see Cocoa’s photo on the Piggie Friends page). Cocoa is a male and and took a a strong liking to Wilma. They cuddled on a towel together, side by side. We decided that, since they got along so well, we should have a wedding for them! My sister was the maid of honor, my father was the best man, my mother and some friends were bridesmaids (along with Betty and Pumpkin), and Popcorn was the flower girl. We decorated the house with toilet paper streamers and made outfits for the pigs out of chenille sticks and paper. It was absolutely beautiful. Do I love guinea pigs? I DO!
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.
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.
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.
