My Guinea Piggies

Guinea Piggy Purchase

2010-10-30T23:20:00.004+01:00

We popped into The Range today on the way back from a shopping trip and I bought this lovely calendar. We have a similar one for 2010 which was given to us as a Christmas gift last year. The reason I chose this one over others I've seen? The cover model piggy looks just like my Henry!

It is almost November, which means I need to start thinking about Christmas gifts. I'm not sure what I'm going to get the piggies this year. Last year, they got shampoo! *yawn* Perhaps this year they might receive some nice beds instead. I think that they will be better received than a dreaded bath!!

Update on my piggies; Nala has been out and about much more recently. Hermione is still a loud little Missy! She runs up to the cage doors at veggie time every day now. Henry received a hair cut a couple of wheekends ago as he was a little bit of a fluff ball, he looks much better now. The older piggles are also good. It will soon be Penelope, Audrey, Seymour and Mushnik's 1st birthday and Momma and Poppa Pig, Sasha and Mabelle, are as happy as ever!

Hungry Hungry Piggies!!

2010-10-21T18:33:00.004+01:00

I'm still over the moon with the improvements my piggies are making! Here is a little video; apologies, it is a little dark.

Hungry Hungry Piggies from KimberleysWheekers on Vimeo.

The top floor of the cage is where Sasha, Mabelle and Penelope live - these guys are great, they aren't scaredy pigs and have always come for treats and stuff.

The middle cage is where Audrey, Seymour and Mushnik live - they are really starting to come out of their shell!! Despite being almost a year old, they have always been so scared! It has been a bit of a struggle. But recently, they are beginning to be friendlier. They will now come to the cage doors for treats and they don't scatter when I reach in to the cage or put their food in. I'm really pleased with their improvement!

And the lower cage is for my newbies! Henry, the ginger and white peru, has always been affectionate. I put this down to him being on his own after his neutering op and when he wasn't very well after reacting badly to baytril we spent a lot of time with him, cleaning him and feeding him etc. Hermione is the little DEW - She is becoming so brave!! She'll come to the cage door at veggie time, when the door is open she'll lean out a bit, but quickly runs away when I go to put the bowl in. She's only young, 15 weeks old yesterday. Nala is still very timid but she is improving too. She's such a cutie, adorable face, and little tufts of hair behind her ears, gives her a great bed head look!

Even more progress!

2010-09-20T23:54:00.002+01:00

Despite being born here, Audrey, Seymour and Mushnik have always been scared piggies. They are fairly difficult to catch, but once you have them, they love the attention.

Today, they all did something that they have never done before. They each came to the doors of their cage and took flaked peas from me :)

I think it helped that I was sitting on a stool so I could still be seen, but I was at a lower height to them, rather than towering over them. I'm hoping this is the turning point! I'm going to try the same thing each night to see how we progress.

They are now 10 months old, so I hope they become more tame soon!

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Whee are on Twitter!

2010-09-19T22:27:00.005+01:00

You can now follow the piggies on Twitter, where they are known as @LittleWheekers. Hope to Tweet you soon!

http://twitter.com/LittleWheekers

Improvements

2010-09-14T22:19:00.004+01:00

Hermione took five flaked peas from my hand today, yaaaay! She's making great improvements.

Finally! I've figured out how to upload videos

2010-09-13T22:08:00.005+01:00

I've been intending on finding out for some time now how to get the video footage off of my Panasonic Lumix camera and on to the internet. I created an account on vimeo in preparation, but it has taken me some time to work out how to 'aquire' the footage, as the software calls it. But last night, I managed to get a video off of the memory card and upload it to my vimeo account.

I was asked to make a video showing how the doors to my C&C cage work. Now that I know that I can upload video's I'll have to start recording my piggies more often!

Guinea Pig C&C Cage Door from KimberleysWheekers on Vimeo.

Overdue post... C&C cage build is complete!

2010-09-13T19:02:00.008+01:00

The build of the C&C cage was completed around 2 weeks ago. We now have a 5x2 C&C cage to house our three trios - One on each floor with a level for storage underneath. I am really happy with the result. Full credit to Paul for the finished result as whilst I helped by handing over tools when required, he put a lot of time and effort into making the cage for me and our piggies.

This cage was pretty much made up as we went along and there were problems which we had to overcome because of this. But it has turned out well and is easier to clean than their store bought indoor cage set up (yay!). It has also meant that the piggies are now upstairs in the spare room.

So here we go!!

We started with a 12mm MDF board cut to the size we required. We attached six castor wheels to the underside of it;

This is so that the cage can be moved if we need to get behind it, although I don't plan on moving it unless absolutely necessary.

We then attached the corner posts which are 50mm x 47mm lengths of wood;

Supporting bars on the left and right hand sides were also made from the 50mm x 47mm lengths.

The batons and cross supports holding the floors up were made from 38mm x 19mm lengths of wood;

The doors are hinged from the front corner posts; 3 panels open to the left and 2 panels open to the right. The wood used on the sides and bottoms of the doors are skirting boards;

The C&C panels are held in place with metal brackets;

The doors were hung from all levels of the cage;

I wanted two areas for my piggies in the cage, one with incontinence pads and fleece and another with some sort of bedding they can dig about in. I cut two correx trays for each floor;

Here are some more pics of the doors;

We then painted the front of the doors with Protek wood stain, although because it is cream, it hasn't made much of a difference to the original colour, if has just covered over the filler a little bit. We also tacked down 3mm hardboard for the floors of the cage;

Next was the addition of the rest of the C&C panels;

I have used mesh panels on the back wall to prevent spillages and grids around the rest of the cage. The side and back panels have been held in to place by horse shoe shaped tacks.

Latches were added to hold the doors in place.

The first floor cage has been mini-pig proofed with some additional correx because Hermione is still quite small. This will be removed once she's a bit bigger.

We put the correx trays/bedding in place and filled the external hay racks with Oxbow;

Although I'm bending over a little, you can see the size of the cage, it is pretty huge!! (I'm 5ft 6in)

And all that was left is for some piggies to move in!!

Henry, Nala and Hermione are on the first floor. Audrey, Seymour and Mushnik are on the second. Sasha, Mabelle and Penelope are on the third. The ground floor is used for storage, it where all their bits and pieces are kept.

Problems we came across;

* The door latches on the front didn't actually work. Because there is no stationary point, the doors could be pulled open with easy. A piggy leaning on them would have made them swing open and the piggy would have fallen out. We've had to add another latch to the back of the left hand door to hold that one in place. This makes latch on the front of the door work.

* I cut all of the correx the wrong size. This was because I cut it before all the panels were in place so I assumed that it would fit. It didn't.

* The water bottle doesn't fit next to the hay rack (on the right hand side). We'll drill a hole through the correx for the spout another day. This will correct the problem. I'd rather not have it attached to the door.

All in all, we used 20 mesh panels and 36 grid panels (4 boxes of storage cubes), MDF, hardboard, 50mm x 47mm lengths of wood, 38mm x 19mm lengths of wood, hinges, brackets, paint, correx, various screws and tacks. I haven't worked out the total cost as yet.

Soooooo! It's done! Phewwwww!

Welcoming Nala and Hermione!

2010-08-28T11:48:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was a looooooooong day! We set off just before noon to travel to Warrington to collect these two stunning piggies! It was 7 hours before we arrived home with the girls.

Nala and Hermione are two young sows who have been adopted from Becklen Guinea Pig Rescue. They were paired together for me whilst they were in Gretna Green and then moved to Penrith for a little while before moving again to a foster carer in Warrington.

Nala is approximately 13 weeks old and was found at an animal auction in a box marked "ok to go to meat man". Hermione is 7.5 weeks old and was born at the rescue to a sow who came in pregnant with a boar.

Introductions with Henry were done last night and the three of them are currently in a 2x4 mesh panel C&C temporary cage until Hermione is a little bigger as she may be able to escape from the grid panels.

The photo is posted with the kind permission of Becklen. I'll be taking some pics shortly once they are a little more settled.

C&C Under Construction!

2010-08-15T21:37:00.005+01:00

The C&C build has begun. This is the second C&C cage that we've done. I wasn't a fan of the first because it was too large (3x4 grids) where as this one won't be as deep which will make catching the piggies much easier!

Day 1 was yesterday. The base has been completed and is on castor wheels to make moving the whole structure easier.

Day 2 has seen the corner posts and supports to the first floor be complete.

Day 3 will be to get the remaining floor supports in and then to tackle the doors.

Wish us luck!!!

Oh My Giraffe!

2010-08-08T13:17:00.010+01:00

Aside from piggies, it has been said that I'm a little giraffe mad.

I was looking online at vet bed prices as I would like a little piece that I can sit the piggies on when taking photographs and I came across this giraffe print vet bed.

I want it!!!! If I were made of money, this wouldn't be an issue, but I'm not. I would need a 54" x 30" piece for each cage. Since I just ordered lots of fleece two days ago, it is a big no no.

*sob*

I Love Guinea-Pigs

2010-08-07T23:41:00.015+01:00

I love this book! It is called "I Love Guinea-Pigs" and is by Dick King-Smith. I possibly read more when I was younger, but the only book of his I remember reading was "The Hodgeheg". I also remember watching "The Queens Nose" which was a TV series based on one of his books.

But I recently bought this book and gave it a read. I love it!

Hello, my name is Kimberley and I'm a Fleece-A-Holic

2010-08-06T18:14:00.011+01:00

It's true. I'm addicted. A Pigg-A-Holic can never have enough fleeces.

The piggies already have this fleece. Well, they have two of them. Because they have four different fleece designs - and then two of each pattern. But I still bought another one of these the other day. Half price at Sainsburys, where I get all of their fleeces from. And I also got them one each of two of the other designs they have. And they actually have three of one of the designs already. So now they have three blankets of all four designs. Spoilt piggies!

Yet when someone posted on TGPF about this patter being on sale, I went on to the Sainsburys website to get the measurements for someone. And they were 75% off on the website instead of the 50% off like they are instore. No delivery charges for Click & Collect.

So I Clicked.

And I'll be going to collect.

A lot of fleece!

At £1.75 a blanket, who can resist?!

But I have a plan. I'll be constructing a piggy palace shortly. A high rise apartment block for them all. Because this fleece is so light, it will really brighten up the lower levels of the cage and with all the other fleece blankets I might even attempt to make some tunnels and cosies. If I turn out to be rubbish at making them, I'll send the fleece to someone else and pay for them to be made!

Happy Piggiversary!

2010-08-03T18:35:00.010+01:00

It was one year ago today that we brought Sasha and Mabelle home - and what a piggy year it has been! Four bubs and a Henry later, we have now completed our first year of piggy ownership and I, for one, am hooked!

So therefore I would like to wish Sasha and Mabelle a

Happy Arrival Day!

Henry the Barbers Apprentice!

2010-08-01T22:23:00.027+01:00

Over the past few days, Henry has taken it upon himself to trim back his luscious locks in favour of a cropped, shaggy look. He is hoping that his new 'do' will attract a lady friend or two, impressing them so that they decide to move in with him.

In all seriousness, I'm not entirely sure why Henry has started to do this. I think that it may be down to boredom as he is currently living alone until he reaches the 'safe' period following his neutering operation. I am hoping that he stops soon though otherwise he'll be one cold piggy this winter!!

I've had a little look online and it doesn't seem to be too much of an issue. I've reassured him that he isn't the first piggy to self barber! There is a small section dedicated to barbering on the Guinea Lynx and the Peter Gurney websites. After all, he doesn't look too bad and it will grow back. I trimmed the last remaining long bit of hair in these two photos to neaten him up a little.

And so it begins.... At last!

2010-08-01T19:59:00.003+01:00

I decided a long time ago that I wanted to create a blog about my guinea pigs but I never got round to doing it. So I am starting today. We shall see how it goes!