"Wheeky" Clean

soggy Rhiley

 Yesterday was cage cleaning day, so I put the boys in their carrier bag which I normally put them in whilst I clean their cage.  They were however very fussy yesterday and there was much rumbling and wheeking and head butting, so I decided to put them in separate carriers.  Sherlock kept running away from me and playing in his tunnel which was rather amusing.  I also decided a buddy bath was in order.

get me out of this carrier bag!

Peekaboo!

Mom I don't want a bath

I'll come out if you give me some parsley!

 So I ran a nice warm bath for the boys and plopped them in the nice water (just up to their tummies).  They don't mind the bath part so much... just the drying part afterwards!  I make sure to never put water on their faces and I just gently rub their little ears with my damp fingers.  They get their paws cleaned and I wash there little tummies and fluffy bums.  Piggies should not be bathed very often as they have sensitive skin, so once a month maximum.  Unless you have a guinea pig friendly shampoo, just warm water should be used.

We don't want to have a bath mom!

Sherlock standing so nicely in the bath

Wet piggies bonding in the bath

Rhiley looking unimpressed

 Next came the drying part... I put down a towel on the bathroom floor and placed the boys on it and rubbed them gently dry, although Sherlock kept running onto me making me nice and wet and smelling of damp piggies.  Rhiley does not like getting dried with a towel, he cries, so I make sure I am especially gentle.  On a cold day I normally blow dry them on a cool gently setting, but since it is so warm I made sure they were nicely towel dried and put them into their nicely cleaned hutch with some nice veg for dinner.

Towel Dried Piggies

Rhiley was very cross with me

 When they were nice and dry I decided to do the first Christmas photoshoot with the boys since they looked so clean and fluffy.  So I set up a chair with a blanket and some nice parsley in front of the tree and clicked away!

 Can't wait to get started on the boys gifts!  Will be blogging soon... cheers!

Deck the Halls with Bunches of Parsley

The Boys' Tree

As the holiday season fast approaches I have been setting up my Christmas tree and buying presents etc.  I decided it was only fair that the boys get their own tree, so this is their little tree which I will put their presents under.  I also got them some cute little Christmas hats for the boys (I can see the photos already!).

My Tree

Things have been so busy at the moment with work about to close, but I have promised the boys lots of fun things for the holidays!  I am going to make them a nice outdoor play pen, some new beds for Christmas and I am going to plant a nice veg patch!  I think they will be excited to have mommy all to themselves for a whole month!

Piggy Love

Can we have parsley for Christmas mom?

I can't wait to get going on all my projects!  I am also going to visit a piggy breeder with a friend of mine who loves piggies as much as I do!  We are going to have to do some serious resisting this weekend as I would just take home as many piggies as I could carry if I could!  So wallet will stay at home...

Don't bring home any more piggies mom!

We want you all to ourselves!

In my next post I will hopefully have some super cute piggy Christmas pics!

A Good" Wheek"end

You know it's going to be a good weekend when it starts with a visit from granny and some yummy parsley...

My mom came to visit this passed weekend and she loves to spoil the boys with treats, cuddles and toys.

nom nom nom

The boys have really bonded nicely now, there is almost no rumbling from either one and they enjoy snuggling together and will seldom allow me to hold them apart.  It makes me very happy to have them snuggle up with me on the couch and watch tv without arguing or rumbling.

some tv after a long day of eating and sleeping, it's tough being a piggy

I am planning on making all kinds of goodies for them during my leave over Christmas  especially since they love the things I have made them in the passed.  They really love their fleece forest the best, so hopefully I can make them some toys they will love just as much for Christmas!

Fleece Forest!

 Otherwise we had a fun weekend, got to play on mom's bed which is always fun, and had to pose for a few pictures, much to our dismay...

Yay play time!

I love snuggling with granny

No more pictures mom!

Is this my good side?

My close up

Sleepy time

Off to have some yummy veggies for supper!!  Bye for now!

nom nom nom

Keeping Cool

Wow it's hot in this fur coat!!

We have been having a hectic heat wave the last week or so with temperatures of 36 degrees!  I know I have been struggling to stay cool and I am not wearing a fur coat.

I have been trying to find ways to keep my boys happy and cool.  I have put ice water in their water bottles, made sure their veg is nice and chilled and includes cucumbers and watery veg so they keep hydrated.  They have a little fan over their cage and my mom made wonderful cooling pads for them.  They are filled with rice and put in the freezer (can be put in the microwave when it's cold, just a cautionary note, when heating up in a microwave just put a cup of water in as well, the rice is very dry and can catch alight) and then laid underneath their fleece and their houses to keep them nice and cool.  It has been a very successful project and I will definitely use them heated in winter.

Nice Cooling Pads

Fleece Covering the Cooling Pads

The boys took full advantage of the cooling pads and stretched out on them as soon as I put them into the cage.  I feel much happier knowing they can keep cool in this heatwave.

Yummy Carrot Tops are the Perfect Snack on a Hot Day

Snuggle Buddies

The boys had a nice relaxed weekend which involved mostly snuggling, playing and eating.  It has been really hot at the moment so I have been trying to find ways to keep the boys cool.  They have a small fan near them and no hot blankets.  I also have been using chilled water in their water bottles. My mom is great at sewing so she is going to make me some chill/heat pads for them so they can keep cool in summer and warm in winter.

As you can see, they are very happy together now and enjoy cuddling and playing together.  It makes me so happy to see my two boys getting along.  I love sitting with them on my lap while I watch tv.  I have been noticing though that Rhiley is growing at a heck of a rate.  He is only 5 months old and weighs a Kilogram already!

Chubby Little Rhiley Bum

I'm planning on taking the boys to my parents place soon so that they can play on the grass, Sherlock loves these outings, but Rhiley hasn't had one yet.  I'm sure he will love it!  I'm just waiting for it to cool down a bit first so that they don't overheat!

I'm not fat, I'm poofy...

Construction Time

We are getting a bigger cage!!  Yay!

So I got out my power drill and I got to work on extending the cage with the help of my mom.  It took one long day, but it was very worth it.  The boys were so happy, there was lots of running and popcorning and there has not been a fight since.

The New Kitchen

My boyfriend admiring my handy skills after he taught me how to work some power tools

The Finished Cage

A Pigs Eye View

My boys were happy, and so was I, they now had lots of space and some places they could go if they wanted alone time.  It was a lot of work, but I will never look back, it was so worth it.  This brings me to where I am now and to the joys of living with my guinea pig boys...

Now that we have lots of space we love each other again!

Teenagers...

Things were going great with the boys for the first few weeks, but one night Rhiley hit adolescence with full force (yes guinea pigs have teenage mood swings too).  There was chasing, mounting and squealing, I sat motionless on my bed watching this whirlwind of fur flying around the cage, I won't lie, I was scared.  I however did not intervene, as I read that boys need to sort out their issues unless there is blood involved.  Luckily for me they calmed down and there was no bloodshed.

I decided at this point that I needed to make arrangements for having two boys now instead of a girl and a boy.  This meant changes to the cage, I wanted it to be bigger and to give them two eating areas and two sleeping areas to avoid conflict.  From the research I did I came to the conclusion that space + boars = happy boars.

The other thing I tried which was successful was a buddy bath.  This means you wash your piggies together with piggy friendly shampoo and then dry them with the same towel so they smell the same.

Mom We are All Wet Now!

Sherlock Gets a Friend

Sherlock was now a healthy four month old, mite free, happily housed and fed little piggy, but I still felt he was lonely as I work all day.  I also did a lot of research with regards to piggies and every source stated that a piggy needs a friend.  So after careful consideration I decided to have Sherlock neutered so he could have a little girlfriend (I know my blog says living with guinea pig boys... I'll get to that).  I had read that guinea pig boys don't always get along, so I didn't want to take the chance.

I booked Sherlock in for the surgery at an excellent exotics vet and like a baby I took my boy in and cried all the way home.  I waited by the phone the whole day and the minute I was allowed to collect him I was in my car armed with love and parsley...  I picked up a rather groggy pig who was grateful for his parsley treat.  He took about two weeks to recover, but recovered very well.

One Day After His Surgery In His Hospital Bed

 I knew that when getting a new piggy you must quarantine it for two weeks before introducing it to another piggy so you can check if it has any illnesses which can be passed onto your existing piggy.  Sherlock still had two weeks to go before he was allowed to be in contact with a female after his surgery, so the timing was perfect to adopt Faye.

My Little Faye

She was so tiny and so sweet, but caused me much anxiety as she refused to eat for the first two days.  I had to syringe feed her and nurse her to health.  She also needed to be treated for mites, I used revolution this time, much better.  I was very excited for her and Sherlock to meet, and finally the day came.  I introduced them on neutral territory with my boyfriend so that we had two pairs of eyes and hands in case something went wrong.  Sherlock looked confused and made a kind of hissing sound at first, but then came and sniffed her and ate some veggies.  He then proceeded to start licking her face and I knew they would be friends.

A few days later after a couple more introductions I cleaned out Sherlock's cage and put the two piggies in together, there was a fair amount of chasing and rumble strutting from Sherlock, but all settled down very soon.  I was happy that my Sherlock was happy. However as the next few days passed I noticed some strange behavior from Sherlock and Faye which made me question Faye's gender.  She was so tiny it was so hard to tell, so I did some more research about sexing guinea pigs and to cut a long story short, Faye turned out to be a boy piggy (hence the title of this blog).  I decided to rename him Rhiley and to keep an eye out for any aggressive behavior with the boys, truth be told I was nervous as I had heard all kinds of horror stories about boars fighting.

You Mean to Tell me I'm a Boy??!!!

My Boys in Their Cage Together

The Cage...

So... I am a designer which made this part a bit easier.  I drew up plans for a cage that I wanted to create for Sherlock and I asked my boyfriend to help me with the construction of it.  I covered a large masonite board with waterproof vinyl for the base and began to start putting together the wood structure.  I used a storage container for the eating area and made a nice ramp from some guttering padding and fabric.  I covered the sides of the cage with perspex and my mom sewed some nice new fleece blankets to use instead of sawdust for the cage (I found out this causes respiratory problems in piggies).  Fleece is easier to keep clean (I vacuum it every morning with a hand held vacuum cleaner) and it is a nice soft padded floor for little piggy feet.  I have a toweling layer beneath the fleece to keep it dry and I change the fleece once a week.

The whole process took two days and a lot of blood, sweat, love and tears.  Finally the cage was ready and Sherlock was put into his new lovely home.  He was so happy and enjoyed a nice long popcorning session.  He figured out the ramp very quickly and I could see the change in him instantly, this was one happy piggy.  The cage ended up being 75cm x 1.7m long.  I was very pleased with the result, not only did it look great, but was so much better for Sherlock.

The Base is Complete

Frame Work Going Up

Perspex and Double Storey On

It's Finished!

My Boy Exploring His New Home

Upstairs Dining Room

Sherlock Learning to Use a Ramp

Sweet Happy Piggy