Sasha and Mabelle are my first guinea pigs. We decided that we were going to get two piggies so as soon as the cage arrived, we put it together and dashed to the local pet shop.
I had already decided that I wanted a pair of sows as I had read that boars are more likely to fall out over time. I also didn't like the idea of trying to bond a new boar if we were to lose one.
So there we were in the pet shop, looking at all of the sows in the pen. We had been visiting the shop in the few weeks prior to getting them and there was an agouti boar who we had taken a bit of a shine to. Unfortunately, he was a boar. So we chose the agouti sow instead. This is Mabelle.
Choosing a friend for her was difficult. All of the other piggies were black and tan, they were all smooth coated apart from one who was an Abyssinian. After speaking with the assistant, we made our choice. This is Sasha.
Sasha and Mabelle came to live with us on August 3rd 2009. They got on ok, Mabelle was a bit mean sometimes and wouldn't let Sasha up the ramp etc. but overall, they got on fine.
Then they started getting on a little too well.
A trip to the vets confirmed that Mabelle wasn't a sow at all, she was infact a he. We went back to the pet shop to tell them that they had made a mistake but we didn't get a brilliant response. They offered to swap Mabelle for a sow. We said no.
We decided that we wanted Sasha and Mabelle to stay together. They lived apart whilst Mabelle recovered from his neutering operation and until he was 'safe'. During this time Sasha grew and grew and grew!
On November 17th 2009, not long before I came home from work, Sasha gave birth to four babies. She had three sows and one boar. We named them Penelope, Audrey, Seymour and Mr Mushnik. You can read about her other babies here. This is Penelope.
Penelope was the biggest of the babies and weighed 88g when she was born. She didn't resemble Momma or Poppa Piggy at all. I hadn't particularly liked red or pink eyed animals before she came along, but she quickly became one of my favourites.
These days, Penelope is a pretty grumpy piggy! She rumbles a lot and wants to be top piggy. Sasha and Mabelle just ignore her rumbles.
Penelope's favourite place to rest is on top of the pigloo. She likes to survey the goings on of the household from a place she has claimed as her own.
