There are lots of new piggies on Small Pets- Welcome :)

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Of course we need/want to see Pigtures of the new arrivals ('tis The Law)

And feel free to ask any questions and somewhere amongst the collective powers of Small Pets/ Super Furry Animals, there will be answers.

There are loads of food threads. What they can/cannot eat. How often.
Bedding- what's good/what isn't.

How to cut their pesky claws
How to bath them and tell the tale

Weird things about sows . They go into season. They can pee out the back at a 90 degree angle. They can get various cysts and mammary ,ovarian or uterine growths.

Weird things about boars. They are space greedy. They can get impaction. They will dominance mount a male cagemate. Grease glands. Boar Glue.

Take time to get to know them.
Their noises. What do they mean?
What are they like when they're well, you'll pick up quicker when they're ill. They can do the Well-To-Dead very quickly

What do they need in Winter? In Summer?

Do you know the nearest Guinea-Savvy vet? You hopefully will never need one, but in case you do.

Weigh them. Keep a note. Every week if you can. Often weight loss is one of the first signs of illness.

Feel their coars and bodies. My girl has a lump under her armpit, hasn't changed , we monitor it.

Love them. They are shy. They are prey.
They will pee you, but 99% of the time they'll let you know, you have to read the signs. Ours 'dance' backwards , that's our cue.

They are the most vunerable, easy going, good tempered animals. Even my piggie who is feisty (mine are all Rescues) isn't mean but she's like a spring.

They thrive on routine. If breakfast is 8am, it's 8am. They will happily wheek if the fridge door opens or you have a bag of crisps.

They are lucky to be with you. There are 10000s in Rescue but also 10000s on gumtree who are waiting to be "got rid of" because The Kids Lost Interest/I Want a Puppy/ I Haven't Got Time.
You though, are lucky to have the unending love of these little animals who WILL take over your life.
For the next few years , if you are lucky, 8-9 years.

[dietcokeandwine]

Lovely pigs everyone

We finally welcomed a new friend for our ginger pig yesterday. Gorgeous little cream agouti girl, from a local rescue, around 3 months old, seems tiny next to lardy ginger pig and good lord she is speedy I had forgotten how fast a baby guinea pig can move!!

Hope all the new arrivals settle in well.

[froubylou]

70is my new rubble pig is a bit dim too. Little Trevor is as sharp as a tack.

Rubble tries to squash under the bedroom wall in their hutch. He won't fit but tries every time.

When I open the hutch door for ds to see them little trev shoots down the ramp to the lower level. Rubble dashes backwards and forwards then hides in plain sight in the bedroom.

And it took rubble a good few days to work out how to get back up the ramp. Trevor been up and down since day 1.

I sat with them last night for half an hour watching them munch their salad. And because I have not let ds have them out for cuddles (too hot to be bothering gps) I gave each one a good long cuddly munch on cucumber.

They are definitely ds's gps though. Not mine. 😆

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Oooh little cream agouti girl is gorgeous dietcoke , I bet Ginger is delighted and bamboozled in equal measure

froub mine never cottoned onto ramps (wide,shallow carpeted, may no difference)

[EastMidsGPs]

Yesterday the weather was so lovely and I left work early. The girls are allowed to roam free in a small section of the garden when supervised. First Sadie has been given this privilege as she was too small and speedy last summer.
We have a small edging wall, 1 brick height as a boarder. None of our previous piggies including Mollie have ever bothered with this wall. Sadie couldn't leave it alone until she had mastered climbing back and forth over the wall. Once she was confident she then encouraged Mollie to try .. It was a bit more of an effort to get her plump hips over .. But climb over she did! Now have 2 piggies who can 'escape' into the nearest lavender bush .. And Sadie is back to being called Sadie No!
Millie's face was a picture when she was told off for wandering, I swear she actually looked mortified 😀 chucking it down with rain today and same forecast for tomorrow, hopefully they'll have forgot how to climb when they next get out.😏

[EastMidsGPs]

Mollie .. Idiot .. Haven't got a Millie ........ Yet😏

[MsMermaid]

Ginger and Ninja are so scared and shy! We've got them out on the floor in a playpen atm and both of them immediately found a dark corner to hide in and they're refusing to come out. It's a huge playpen for them, I'm trying to entice them with carrot, but they'd rather sit huddled in a shoebox.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Mermaid can you get them a tunnel?
Pets @ Home have the plastic flexible ones or the cardboard hay tunnels.
Ours love to pootle through a tunnel, I think they like the noise of their little claws.

Make them a Guinea Village - lots of boxes (no staples or sticky tape) cut two doors and arrange so they can wander through them.

Guineas never lose the "We are Lunch" fear, no matter how old and lardy they get and no matter how many times they expect a Black Mamba in their Pighouse but instead it's a plate of nice veg....................

[MsMermaid]

Oh, they have a tunnel, and a hidey, and a corner of the run covered with a blanket. There's loads of places for them to hide and wander through. They did eventually explore a bit, but they huddled together looking scared for a good half hour before they ventured out to explore. I assume they'll get used to it, the more often we put them in it. It'll be a daily thing after dd2 has gone to bed for a couple of weeks, then we'll try letting dd2 be around with them too.

[EastMidsGPs]

In 6 months time they'll be different piggies carry on what you are doing, establish a routine, provide a pile of parsley and let them find their way. Sit still but keep talking and they'll get used to your voices and will be reassured. When indoors mine do wander about, they have a blanket down a tunnel and usually a box of some sort. And a pile of parsley which they always eat. They do go off the blanket and wander about. But, I've done this with all my piggies, and always have an older one, simply because they've never died in a pair! And any new youngster has been 'shown what to do' by the older pig
I promise you that if you put the time in and do the same things as a routine Ninga and Ginger will soon be more confident.

However until they are bigger, fatter, and slower, I'd contain them in some way ... Otherwise you'll spend many frustrating hours trying to catch them

[FernieB]

They'll get used to you and their surroundings - it's still early days. Try a few boxes or tunnels spaced a little way apart so they have to dash to the next one. Put things a few inches away from the box that'll tempt them - loo roll tube stuff with hay/pile of fresh grass/dandelion leaves/parsley etc. They'll have to pop out to eat. Pigs are very, very interested in food. If you then back away a bit and leave them to it, they'll start to explore.

My 5 year old lardy boy still dashes for cover if I go near the run - apparently I look almost identical to an eagle. They're prey animals so will always hide and try to run away. Once you catch them, they're content to cuddle, unlike bunnies (glares at Current Bun). As they get older and more lardy, they get much easier to catch.

[MsMermaid]

Yes, we've noticed how hard they are to catch :) Last night I just herded them into a box to transfer them from the playpen back to their cage. Dh is better at catching them than I am, but even he takes a while to get one.

[EastMidsGPs]

I don't think this is intelligence, more routine, but we always say IN when we want to catch ours and usually sometimes they both go and sit in the tunnel which makes them easy to catch ..
But again this has passed down the generation .. And works better in their outside run than indoors where Sadie dashes off at will
I did in the past have 2 who would climb onto your hand if you put it on the floor near them and said HAND. But never managed to train any others to do this.
Have to say I spend a lot of time 'resting' - lying down near to them ... But I am an idle so and so and am not really training them !!!

[FernieB]

We have a shallow cat litter tray that I use to transport them, their water bottle and food bowl out to their run. If I put it down in their run, they have now learnt that means bedtime and usually they jump in (unless it's really sunny). That is routine though and also I had an older pig to teach the younger which helps.

[froubylou]

I have just bought an igloo and a tunnel for trev and rubble. They have a double hutch but weren't really using downstairs and I assume they felt a bit exposed.

Now the tunnel and igloo are down there they are using it a lot more. Well Trevor is. Rubble is still a bit wary. But I have been putting their veg down there and rubble is so greedy he is venturing down a bit more.

[EastMidsGPs]

Loving little Trevor

[EastMidsGPs]

I have been out at a workshop all day. Piggies were given their breakfast before I went. DH has had sole charge all day. So pigs have been in their run until about 4pm when DH did cuddle time. I come home to find all three of them watching the football commentaries on Sky. Sadie is transfixed by Geoff Spelling and his voice.
So I breeze in say hello and look for cuddles. Girls are having none of it. Mollie grumbled and complained and ignored the parsley I offered ... And I've since been given the cold shoulder whilst DH is the best thing ever
They have just ignored me as I've been to check on them .. Mollie actually kept her back to me ..dissed by a fireball .. Whatever next?!!

[EastMidsGPs]

Fur ball.. Not fireball

[froubylou]

Trevor is a dude Eastmids. He is very smart. He knows now that when I open the hutch it's usually for food reasons. He also squeaks when I open the shed door where gp is kept.

So when I open the door he bolts downstairs and sits chuntering in the tunnel. He then creeps up the ramp sniffing for salad/veg offerings.

If non is forthcoming he scuttles back down the ramp so he doesn't get picked up or inconvenienced in anyway by annoying people.

If there is some he does a flyby. Scuttles up, grabs a bit of whatever he wants and flicks it down the ramp.

No flies on Trev lol.

Rubble is very calm in comparison. He is just interested in keeping his tummy full lol!

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Ha! Bless them.
By tomorrow, they'd have BABAGOT (Built A Bridge And Got Over Themselves) and will wheek at you for breakfast.

We were outsmarted by The Lardy Boar , he did not want to be caught Than You. We had him coralled (we thought) between the bars of the run and the heavy wooden hidey box. I put my hand through the bars to prod his ample rump and move him, little bu**er kept twizzling round and pootling off .
Didn't help, of course that DD was peeing herself laughing at her lovely boar outwitting me (No supper for you DD, can't starve the FurBabies)

We bought them a Rabbit Run (Gumtree) it has been scrubbed,disinfected,painted,height adjusted (ie legs chopped) and 2 doors cut in the side .This will go inside the run, to give them as much safety/shelter as we can.
Just need to get some old ceramic tiles to go under it and a lino cutoff for the floor, and we're all set.

[EastMidsGPs]

So they were there waiting for breakfast .. Noses pressed against hutch door. Decided to work from home this afternoon, so girls were able to play out in the sunshine.
Went to fetch them ..Sadie bouncing all over the place ..... Mollie lying sort of on her side with her back and large bum to me, ignoring me. Oh No my thinks Moll is on her way out picked her up (cue loud grumbling) and took her to the run.
Went to fetch my work .. As I passed run on way back there she is trundeling through their tunnel, and then settle down to a good half hour of mowing
Boy am I paying the price for leaving her yesterday

[MsMermaid]

Ginger and Ninja are happily munching grass in their playpen. So much for the frightened piggies of the other day, fresh grass cut from a lovely long patch at work is all that was necessary to tempt them out of hiding.

I still cant manage to catch them but they seem quite content (not quite happy yet) to be herded into a box to be moved.

[fortifiedwithtea]

The Fortified pigs have discovered Blueberries. Just saying

[EastMidsGPs]

Blueberries ... Well Sadie might as well have a blue mouth to go with her usual green one

[EastMidsGPs]

MsMermaid. You will be surprised at how quickly they get in a routine to be caught. Not easy when they're super speedy tho!
We used to smile at SIL she used corall her bunny between two tennis rackets to start the process of getting it back in the hutch
Have they started to show their personalities yet?

[froubylou]

Rubble has taken to standing sadly by his food bowl glaring at me when I am washing the pots.

He has food. Just not freshly decanted from the bag food. With the nice bits in it not the nasty pellets. Am not buying muesli for them anymore. They pick out the best bits and ignore the bits they don't fancy much.

Trevor is still a fly guy. Me and ds were gp harassing earlier on. Whoosh and he is gone down the ramp and into the tunnel. Pips back up every few minutes to see what he is missing.

Rubble is too greedy to be fly. That boy is all about his tummy.