Guest Number 9

Agent Bumblebee (all will become clear)

Agent Bumblebee lives in Illinois with her 14 brothers and sisters.

She is definetely the boss pig, loving to have her own way no matter what.

Her real name is the same as the Greek goddess of Wisdom and War and the main city in Greece is named after her.

Get your guessing hats on

Rainbow Bridge Disney Dog

Sad news report today.

Yesterday Mummy's parents had to help their dalmation dog Disney over the rainbow bridge.

They adopted Disney when he was 1 year old and he has been with them 14 years, me is told that is a very good life span for a large pure bred dog.

Disney was a rubbish guard dog as he loved everybody who ever visited, when he first met Daddy he jumped up put his paws on Daddy's shoulders and looked him in the eyes. (Daddy is 6 foot tall so that is a big dog)

Mummy says he was very silly as Dalmations are bred for stamina not intelligence (they used to run alongside coaches so they are very muscular dogs)

For the past year or so Disney had been suffering with dementia but in the end he developed stomach cancer and it was kinder to let him go to the rainbow bridge.

Goodbye Disney Dog now free of all problems

This Himi is a Her-i

Agent Thunderbear is a Himalayan guinea pig.

She is not show quality as she has a white heart shaped smudge on what should be the dark part of her nose, she passed this onto her children, because of this her breeder found her a new home with the computer nerds.

Breed standards for Himalayans they have a white body with black or chocolate coloured points.

The points are found on the nose (known as the smut) and the feet the ears should also be dark coloured.

Himalayans are born white and then the points develop as they get older.

The points can also fade due to bright lighting and become lighter when warm and darker when cold.

They have ruby eyes.

[caption id="attachment_487" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="Agent Thunderbear (what a cutie)"][/caption]

Guest Number 8

Agent Thunderbear (after her olympig running team)

Agent Thunderbear lives in the Nederlands with her brother and sister and 2 human computer nerds.

She hates being lifted up but has devised a clever way to get her cuddles, she gets in a tube or cuddle cup that can then be lifted.

She loves all food (way to go)

And enjoys a good chin rub (me bites anyone who goes near my chin)

Ready go guessing

Stormy Weather

Here in the UK we are being hit with nasty storm, the weather humans say we have winds of up to 85 miles an hour and we have lots of rain.

It has been very noisy over night keeping us piggies awake as the wind howls down the chimney and made the letter box flap (me kept thinking me had surprise visitor)

Me hopes all the other UK piggies and their humans are OK, we have no damage (touchwood, why silly human superstition)

Me also hopes our international friends are not suffering with bad weather conditions.

All agents please provide weather reports for your area, this is important information in case any piggies wish to go travelling.

Tricking Mummy

We made Mummy feel really guilty.......

During the night we dragged the food bowl into our bedroom area underneath the mezzanine floor, we then emptied it on the floor.

To really confuse Mummy we then dragged the empty bowl back to where she had left in.

When she got up in the morning we stood round the bowl looking sad.

She felt so guilty she got us a new bowl of pellets and extra fresh food to make up for it.

When she changed the fleece in the evening she found all the food................

We are in the dog house (which means Daddy got out)

heeheeheehee

Chunky Chocolate

Agent Thornton is a Self Chocolate, his mummy says he looks like a chocolate cake with cherries for eyes, better not let Mummy see him she might eat him. (just kidding)

The breed standard for a Self Chocolate says the colour should be like a good dark chocolate bar and the eyes should be dark ruby.

Show faults include the appearance of lighter creamy hairs especially around the face.

Here he is

[caption id="attachment_460" align="aligncenter" width="509" caption="Agent Thortons Looking Yummy"][/caption]

Guest Number 7

Agent Thorntons is a boy from a mixed herd in the UK

His agent name is a famous chain of shops in the UK (one of mummies favourites)

His mummy says he is a bit porky but would be good at flattening enemy agents by rolling on them. (we wont tell you what he said about her)

Agent Thorntons came from a local shelter and has never told his Mummy about his past (a truly dedicated agent)

His real name is also a variety of confectionary that mummy is very fond of especially the giant version, it is also something humans use to keep their clothes from falling off.

Hope me has confused you enough get guessing

Bizarre Animal ER

Check out the brave little piggy in this show he appears about 5 minutes in to episode 8.

Strangely his name is Bubbles just like Mummy's first piggy, but he looks just like me without the crown.

Me didnt think much of his Daddy grrrrrrrrrrrrr

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ntg52/Bizarre_Animal_ER_Episode_8/

Remember Remember the 5th of November

Why?? Does it have anything to do with guinea pigs?? No!! so forget it.

OK seriously...........

For those of you who might not know here in the UK the humans celebrate something known as Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night on the 5th of November.

Many, many years ago a human called Guy Fawkes plotted to blow up the houses of parliment, the plot was foiled and so every 5th November the humans celebrate.

They light great big bonfires and burn scarecrow like things called Guys, they also let of lots of fireworks.

Fireworks are noisy and make bright lights.

Me is a big brave indoor piggy so fireworks dont scare me, but some of you guys may be scared by fireworks (me knows lots of dogs are and they are way bigger than piggies)

If you are scared make sure your human lets you stay in a place where you feel safe (indoors being cuddled gets my vote) and also where you are sheltered from the worst of the noises and bursts of light.

If you are big and brave like me enjoy the show.

Me Didnt Know

Last night Daddy held something out to me, it looked like a finger but it smelt really nice so me licked it and it tasted nice.

Daddy took it away and then bought it back again for me.

Me got worried Ghost might want it so me grabbed it hard in my teeth and tried to pull it away with me.

Daddy screamed like a girl. (He does that ALOT)

It was his finger!! he had been dipping it in apple juice for me.

Stupid Daddy grrrrrr

Ready Teddy Go!!

Agent Cannonball is a Teddy type of piggy (ahh sounds so cute)

Teddies are considered a rare breed and as such they only have a guide show standard not a full standard.

Teddies are similar to Rexes although their hair is straight, shorter and plusher than a Rex.

There are 2 types of Teddies the US teddy and the Swiss or Ch Teddy, can anyone tell me the difference as me dont know.

Over to Agent Cannonball............

Me is Agent Cannonball and me is a black Teddy piggy! We Teddies look Rex piggies so you have look carefully to tell between a Rex piggy agent and a Teddy piggy agent. We both have short, dense coats that make us look very fuzzy and very handsome. Rex agents have crinkly whiskers while we Teddies have longer and straighter whiskers. Teddies have longer tummy fur and have soft fur all over, like a teddy bear!

Me was the last piggy at a pet shop. Me was trying to make myself look small in a corner when The Big Hand picked me up and put me with two strange piggies for a little bit. They sniffed me and that was okay but then the fat golden one tried to sit on me! A few months later I am bigger and I shake my big rump at golden piggy. There is another piggy with crazy hair that is my best friend forever. He has black and white whorls all over and likes to move the pigloo bases around for our stealth operations. If I am taken away from my piggy friend I squeak so loud my ears flap and The Big Hand brings me my friend!

Me is very good at hiding in my carrot cube. When I hear something happen - door shut, fridge opens - I burst out of my cube squeaking at full speed into a pigloo base! Then me remains perfectly silent so nobody knows where me is. Me lets the humans know I am on full alert and watching them at all times!

[caption id="attachment_446" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Agent Cannonball Undercover"][/caption]

Guest Number 6

Is a mere youngster at 6 months old (even younger than Ghost)

He has chosen the name Agent Cannonball me thinks this is because if he curled up that is what he would look like.

Agent Cannonball lives with his 2 older brothers in Michigan in the USA

His favourite food is Loftys

Despite claiming not to be famous, he has recently appeared on You Tube and in a photo shoot for Halloween as a Pirate Piggy

Your final clue is that his real name means Blessed in Latin

Can you guess who he is??

Butt Bath

Me is sure there are other boys who can relate to this sad tale.

Us boys have a spot at the base of our spines where a tail would start that is called a grease gland.

This spot can get mucky and cause your butt hair to matt, also when it is mucky it makes a good environment for parasites such as mites (yuck)

To stop this happening us boys need regular butt baths.

Sunday was butt bath day...........

Ghost is a wuss and panics when he gets wet so Mummy and Daddy literally put him in a bowl of water on the floor and just bathed his butt.

Me is a big brave boy who enjoys a bath so me went in the kitchen sink.

Daddy lathered me up nicely with shampoo and then set about cleaning my butt.

Sadly he got carried away removing the matted hair and me now has a little bald patch on my butt!!!!

Stupid things these humans

Radiant Red

Or should that be radioactive.........he sure is bright

The breed standard for Self Reds says they should be a mahogany red with dark red/brown ears and dark feet and eyes.

Lets meet Agent Big Red

Hello Agent F.

I am very honoured to be included in this privileged group of secret agents.

I have thought long and hard about a secret name and I decided that Agent Orange was good but our Slave tells me that it is the name of something not very nice so I would like to be called Agent Big Red instead.

I am a Self Red piggy and came from a breeder of self reds, so, unlike most of the Piggyfriends I am not a dolly mixture. I should have been either a stud or show pig but I have an eye condition called entropion, which causes me no trouble but meant that I was unsuitable for either vocation so my breeder had me neutered and asked her Rodentologist if she could find me a new home.

Our Slave goes to the same Rodentologist so I came to live here at Piggyfriends.

Our Slave does not approve of neutering and I wasn't very keen on it myself, but it does mean that I can live with a group of lady Piggyfriends called Hope, Peony and Petunia, which is very nice, even though they try to grab all the veggies first. That hasn't stopped me growing to a sizeable three and a half pounds.

Agent Big Red ( aka Garnet ).

[caption id="attachment_422" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Agent Big Red"][/caption]

Guest Number 5

Guest number 5 has chosen the name Agent Big Red

Big Red is a boy from a mixed herd in the UK

He is the first of our super selfs, can you guess what colour he is?

His real name is a precious stone that also relates to his colour.

Big Red weighs in at 3.5 pounds (that would explain the big part of his name)

Unlike most of my friends Big Red is not a dolly mixture he is the real thing!!! WOW

So start guessing

Super Self's

In the guinea pig world what a self means is that the piggy's hair is all one colour only.

There are only breed standards in place for a limited number of colours as well as hair colour the standards specify what colour ears and pads should be for the hair colour.

Me has friends in a variety of single colours, and you will meet them soon.

Where standards exist me will provide them, otherwise sit back and enjoy the guinea pig rainbow.

Coming soon...........

Me Has A New Favourite Word

FUGACIOUS it means elusive, ephemeral and fleeting.

Me thinks it brill coz it starts the same way as my real name.

It will make me sound mysterious, and we all know the girls love a mystery man.

Rumble Rumble

Me Can See You

Me was having my afternoon nap, me curled up on left side of cage and Ghost was curled up on the right.

Me sleep with eye half open and me saw Ghost yawn, that was ok but he also shuffled slightly towards me.

A few minutes later he stretched, again he shuffled towards me.

Well me let this go on until his nose was about 2 inches from my nose, then me gave him a glare and backed all the way away from him into the corner.

Dont try and fool a sleeping agent!!

Terrific Tricolour

[caption id="attachment_390" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Agent Patchwork "][/caption]

Agent Patchwork is a tricolour of very unusual colours.

Tricolour literally means that a piggy has 3 colours of hair, we cant find a breed standard for tricolours apart from the tort and white.

Patchwork is lilac, white and tan (ginger) she has red eyes and we and her human Mummy have never seen anything like her before.

Patchwork is definetely one of a kind.

Guest Number 4

Agent Patchwork (you will know why when you see the photos)

Patchwork is a girl piggy in an all girl herd in the UK.

She joined the herd when her previous owner could no longer give her the time she deserved.

Her real name is an alcoholic drink usually served with salt and lime/lemon.

Not many clues to work with this time.............

Treatment of E Cuniculi

E Cuniculi is at present incurable, me hopes sometime in the future some clever person will find a cure but for the moment it can only be treated and managed as an on going problem. There is still lots of development ongoing.

Regular treatment with Ivermectin and Ivomec or Panacur appear to prevent an infestation taking hold. Ivermectin is for treating external parasites like mites while Ivomec and Panacur are worming treatments for internal parasites.

Make sure you get enough Vitamin C and water in your diet as these are essential for overall good health and its believed they can prevent infection taking hold.

When an infestation has taken hold this should be treated with antiparasitic drugs from the Benzimidazole range.Most commonly used are Albendazole, Oxibendazole and Fenbendazole (Panacur)

They antibiotic Baytril should be given in addition to the antiparsitic drug this helps fights any other infection that may be present and improves the general immune system.

To treat pain and inflammation Metacam can be given.

This is only a basic outline and me wishes to thank all the humans out there who have provided links to relevant websites, and most importantly of all, thanks to those who have taken the time to include the information on their websites.

As with any illness make sure your human seeks advise from a qualified vet as soon as possible and make sure your human goes armed with their own suggestions of what to look at.

Me doesnt know if it was E Cuniculi that made Hershey ill but me does know that her Mummy and Daddy did everything they could for her and that they will miss her terribly.

Me also knows there will always be a little piece of my heart which says Hershey in memory of my sweet shy sword wielding friend.

Goodbye Hershey may your story help others.

[caption id="attachment_402" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hershey Mothers Day 2008-September 2009"][/caption]

Symptons of E Cuniculi

My tribute to Hershey continues with what symptons should give you a warning that E Cuniculi may be a problem, especially if you as a guinea pig live near a rabbit.

Kidney problems such as frequent urination and increased thirst

Paralysis, a weakness in the limbs and inability to move

Head tilt or wry neck

Eye inflammation, cataracts, weeping eyes and eye rolling

Loss of appetite followed by weight loss, which in turn can cause problems in the gut such as stasis

Neurological damage leading to convulsions and loss of balance.

Behavioural changes such as wanting to be completely alone, probably hiding in a corner.

While these are all symptoms of E Cuniculi infection they can also be caused by other problems, so do not immediately assume that the problem is E Cuniculi although keep it is mind for a vet to check as its rare in guinea pigs and could be over looked.

A blood test known as a titer will be needed for an accurate diagnosis.

[caption id="attachment_403" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hershey Mothers Day 2008- September 2009"][/caption]

What is E Cuniculi

A Tribute to Hershey

Me had never heard of E Cuniculi until it was suggested as a possible cause of what was making my friend Hershey ill and eventually lead to her crossing the rainbow bridge.

With her human family at first Hershey was shy earning her the nickname Hershey the Meek, with her guinea pig friends on our virtual pirate adventure she was a CHEEKY MISS instigating the great bum pinching scandal.

When she got ill Hershey showed her Mummy and Daddy she loved in the best way she could by over coming her shyness and accepting and demanding attention even play fighting with Daddy over the syringe, the best gift of memorys she could have left with them.

[caption id="attachment_404" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hershey Mothers Day 2008-September 2009"][/caption]

So what is E Cuniculi?

E Cuniculi is a protozoan parasite largely found in rabbits.

It is a Zoonose which means it can pass between different species eg from rabbbit to guinea pig.

The spores are eaten from infected hay where they can survive for months.

Once inside they travel round the body before leaving in the urine which in turn leaves spores on whatever is peed on to be eaten again.

Like mites in guinea pigs in rabbits it is believed to lie dormant until other factors such as stress, dehydration or a different infection allow it to take hold.

Even though a rabbit may have no symptoms they can be a carrier.

He Made It

Me knew me should have made the target higher but a promise is a promise.

Spooky is now 1kg and me must allow him to become a secret agent.

Me had trouble with him choosing a name, first he wanted to be called Spooks like the TV program, me said thats not very secret is it.

Then he wanted to be called Phantom, til me told him there was a cartoon with a human man in a skin tight purple jump suit called Phantom and that was not a good look.

We have finally agreed on Ghost so from now on Spooky is secret agent Ghost.

Me thinks me may regret this...........

Blonde Moment

Spooky had been annoying me so me backed him into a corner and humped him to show him who was boss.

What me didnt notice was that Spooky had run out of the corner and me was really humping a roll of hay (blush).

For some reason Mummy found this highly amusing.

Awesome Abby's

Whorlwind is an awesome Abby also known as Abyssinian guinea pig.

As you can see from the gorgeous photo Abbys have very unusual hair. Abbys are a variety of short haired piggy.

The name Whorlwind comes from the fact that Abbys have Whorls or Rosettes all over their bodies.

Breed standard for Abby's require 10 Rosettes in specific areas, 1 on each shoulder, 4 down the back, 1 on each hip and 2 on the rump. Where the rosettes meet should also make a straight line.

But what do we care about breed standards? WE DONT!!

Is that me hiding in the background? NOPE its a lookalike wheeeeeeeeeeeeek

My Next Guest.......

Agent name Whorlwind

Your clues are; Whorlwind is a female piggy.

A member of an all female herd in the UK.

Her Mummy once belonged to the late great Peter Gurney and arrived at Whorlwinds home complete with 5 little surprises one of the surprises was Whorlwind.

Her real name is sweet sounding and her colour is chocolate sweet again.

She appears to enjoy honeydew melon.

Why Does He Do It??

For no reason at all Spooky will suddenly stop what he is doing look at the ceiling and wheeeeeeeek really loudly.

His ears move back and forward in time to him wheeking his lungs out.

This is not because me is mugging him of food, or because the fridge door has been opened or a bag rustled.

Me dont know why he does it, its so random!!

Me is a BOY!!

As if shampooing MY carpet wasnt bad enough, Mummy has bought some rugs for us to use during floor time.

They are PINK!!

Does she not know guinea pigs can see in colour??

Humans Grrrrrr

Me has spent ages glanding the carpet during floor time so Spooky knows its MINE.

The stupid humans has only gone and shampooed it all.

Me now has to spend ages dragging my butt all over it again.

Pffffffffffffttttttttttt

Capybara's on the TV

Here in the UK last night.

There was a very short clip on BBC1's Walk on the Wild Side.

Needless to say Mummy got all silly over them

Why are His Ears so Hairy

OK me knows one of my ears is bald due to fungal infection, but even my good ear is nowhere near as hairy as Spooky's.

He appears to be growing a small dense forest of hair on his inside ear flap.

Is this yet more evidence that he is not really a piggy?

Or should my ears be hairer?

Nah me is perfect

While Mummy isnt Looking

Me is gonna grab a dead leaf and eat it.

Ok Mummy is engrossed in her book, target dead leaf is just outside the bars of my outdoor run.

Right keep belly right on the ground stretch out as far as me can and creep slowly forward........now stick teeth through bars and grab dead leaf.

CRUNCH

Pffftttt why dead leaf so noisy the crunch made Mummy look up and now she has stolen my leaf!!!

Mummy Needed a New Pet.........

so me and Spooky hid under our pop up tent and made it move around.

Hey presto one giant snail pet!!

What is it about Humans..............

and Capybara??

Dont get me wrong Caplin Rous is my hero me is eating to be like him, but Mummy dragged Daddy all the way to somewhere called Beale Park just to see 2!! Capybara.

She is still on about this divorce thing as Daddy run the camera battery out taking photos of Praire Dogs and shouting Alan at them (Walk on the wild side explains all)

There was only enough battery left for 2 photos of Capybara Mummy not happy she took some more on her phone but they are not as good.

Heres a Capybara fix for you all

He is at it Again

We have a cardboard chube to run through and hide in but Spooky keeps pushing it round cage with front paws.

Worse than that he is trying to climb on it!!!

Whats a Divorce??

Daddy said Mummy's tummy would be a perfect bouncy castle for guinea pigs and she said she wants a divorce.

What does it all mean??

Treating Fungal Ear Infection

You will all be glad to know my ear is a lot better now in fact me just has some peeling skin (not the same as scurf this is old damaged skin being pushed off by new healthy skin!!)  and bald patches otherwise me is as good as new.

When Mummy took me to the vet they gave me a prescription only medicine (POM) called Canaural this is really a treatment for dogs and cats with ringworm.

Mummy had to put this on the bad part of my ear once a day for 2 weeks and use cotton bud to spread it around, she has to do inside and out of my ear flap.

Now a week and a half later me is well on the way to recovery.

The problem with Canaural is it contains steroids and is not suitable for long term use, Daddy is worried that now me has had one infection me may be prone to more the same way he is with athletes foot. (yuck)

Mummy doesnt want me on steroids long term so she has ordered a Lavendar and Myrrh lotion from Gorgeous Guineas in case infection comes back.

Piggyfriends Mummy has also told her to give my ears a good scrubbing with my Vet Sect Repel shampoo, Mummy says Daddy will have to do this as she is a wimp, Daddy will do it when I have finished my course of Canaural. (Piggyfriends can you ban your Mummy from giving my Mummy ideas please)

Guinea Lynx suggest using Nizoral shampoo  http://www.guinealynx.info/fungus.html (human dandruff treatment)

Others suggest any human dandruff shampoo containing Ketoconazole could be used (Mummy is wary of this)

Other suggestions include Iodine/ Betadine, Miconazole Cream and Aloe Vera Gel not sure what countries these are available in.

Mummys favourite suggestion is on Peter Gurneys health pages and this is an essential oil mix. Peter suggests using Tea Tree, Lemon Grass, Lavendar, Calendular and Patchouli oils in a carrier oil (he suggests almond oil) in a ration of 1:9. 1 drop of essential oil to 9 drops of carrier oil. http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/skinp.htm

Peter also suggests Grapefruit seed oil 20 drops in an egg cup full of warm water and then painted onto infected area. (me guess you paint it with cotton bud not paintbrush!!)

If me does keep getting infected Mummy intends to make me some herself.

If anyone know of any other treatments please feel free to post them here.

Spotting Fungal Ear Infection

Here is how Mummy found out I had a fungal ear infection

1) When she was stroking me my bad ear felt thicker than normal.
2) When she looked inside she could see big flakes of scurf, these looked like thick slightly yellow dandruff (in my earlier pigture you can see one on the left hand edge of ear flap)
3) Me had small patches of dried blood, these are caused by me scratching coz it irritates (Mummy not convinced by that as she hasnt seen me scratching but doesnt know what else it could be)
4) My ear was a darker pink than normal (normally they are grey with a hint of pink)
5) The ear felt hot to the touch my other ear was cool
6) When Daddy tug gently at the hair it came out in clumps held together by the scurf.

7) Some of the scurf fell out with just gentle running of fingers over the ear, like human dandruff falls out.

8) Some of the scurf was like dandruff and some was waxy and sticky (yucky my poor ear)

9) Trip to vet to confirm (although Mummy thinks they just agreed with her diagnoses)

How do Guinea Pigs get a Fungal Infection?

Well some sources say that Guinea Pigs can be carriers for fungal infection in the way that we are carriers for mites.

While most of the time the mites and fungus are not a problem in certain circumstances they can take over and cause us problems.

Suggested triggers of fungal infection are stress, diet, environment, humitdity, heat, age, outside infection and genetics.

In my case it could be heat and humidity we have had a brief spell of hot humid weather here in the UK, when the humans are at home the air conditioning is on but when they are at work it can get rather warm.

Of course me could blame it all on Spooky causing me stress and interfering with my environment heeheehee.

Certain Fungal infections can be contagious (Spooky showing no signs but Mummy is ready to treat him if necessary) Infections can also be passed from Guinea Pig to human and presumably vice versa mainly RingWorm (Daddy was worried that his athletes foot may have caused my ear problem, stupid human if he had stuck his toe in my ear me would have bit him hard)

Humans should was hands thoroughly before and after handling an infected piggy (my humans are addicted to hand washing even before me got an infection its amazing they have time to do anything else)

This is not a Circus

Me thinks Spooky is planning to run away and join the circus.

Instead of eating the hay in our toilet roll tube, he is putting his front paws on it and rolling it round the cage.

Most un-guinea like hmmmmmmmmmmm

Sassy Satins

Hi AgentF,

It's me, Piggy Galore. Sigh.. slave let me finally have the computer to write you a blogpost. Feel free to cut it up in bits if it's too long. I'm also adding a pigture of me that you can place in your blog. It is not easy to see that i'm a satin on a photo because of my dark hair; but i cannot help that.. so.. here it goes;

Hi All! Agent F asked me to provide you all with some intelligence concerning my condition. My spyname is Piggy Galore and I'm a little diva and am very gorgeous, thank you very much (not that photogenic though; you should see me in real life).

[caption id="attachment_308" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Piggy Galore a Sassy Satin"][/caption]

I have Osteodystrophy (OD) which is a metabolic disease that affects my bones. (You can read more about the disease here: http://www.oginet.com/Cavies/satin.htm) The calcium from my bones is slowly drawn from them and this has painfull side effects, I'll tell you more about them later. The only guinea pigs with OD thus far, are satin pigs. I am a satin pig and I feel that it is important that AgentF's readers should know what they are and look like, so that they know about the risks that are involved with this breed.

So what does it mean when a pig has satin hair? First of all, satin is not the same as a silkie. When you're a silky, you have a certain hairstyle (long hair) When you're a satin, you have a certain type of hair (extra shiny) regardless of style. It can be short, long, messy or with curls. The hair is so shiny and soft, because the hairs are hollow on the inside.

So when you're a satin pig owner; what are the signs you should be looking for? Not all satins get OD, but is good to educate yourself so that you can help your pig if he or she is in pain.
- Weight loss; as a owner, weigh your satin regularly. Our jaws become instable and weak and this makes it harder to eat, which in turn affects our teeth because they keep growing.
- the bunny hop; although we are very similar to rabbits; we don't hop unless we're in pain.

So what to do when you suspect your satin has OD? You can go to a vet. I was diagnosed by an OD expert at 1,5 yrs old. She could feel it in my jaws. Later on we also made an ex-ray photo. My vet also taught my slave to check my lympf nodes in my paw pits; because when my OD is bothering me nowadays it is usually because my joints are inflammated and they get bigger. When this happens, my slave feeds me Carprofen (0.5ml, twice a day) for a few days until I feel better. My slave also removed obstacles out of the cage and hung the water bottle at a height where I can reach it easily. She also has a rubbery disc (snuggle safe) that she can put in the microwave to keep me warm and comfortable all day (like a hot water bottle)

Btw I am 4 years old and a strapping 3 lbs *looks really proud*. There are rumours that only satin pigs in bad conditions develop OD. But I was spoilt rotten (like any guinea pig diva ought to be) and well bred (you can ask for my pedigree if you dont believe me..) and still I got OD... just so you know, thank you very much.

Piggy Galore

Me also found this link to research into OD in Satin piggies (AgentF)

http://www.guineapigwelfare.org.uk/satin-guinea-pigs/

Can You Guess Who It Is

The next post will be bought to you care of another secret agent piggy here are a few clues to her identity.

She has chosen the secret agent name Piggy Galore as she is a Diva pig.

She lives in the Nederlands with her brother and sister pig (they get on most of the time) and a human mad scientist.

Thats your clues

Extra points if you can guess which little piggy put on another 40g in the last week and now weighs 851g and has been out for some grass with no tummy problems

Is he Really a Guinea Pig??

Me and Daddy suspect their is something very un-guinea like about Spooky.

We have a few clues

Clue 1 Spooky loves digging most other piggies will tell you this is weird.

Clue 2 Daddy caught Spooky climbing the cage bars must un-piggy like, Daddy said if me tried that the bars would break hmmmppphhh

We Love This Blog

Its Caplin the Capybara's blog, he calls himself a giant hamster but he is really A giant guinea pig (well he must be) he is definetely a LAPS piggy!!

Thank you to the human who shared the link, we are trying to view all the archives (a long task for 2 guinea pigs)

http://gianthamster.com/

What Was the Point of That Then

Mummy gave us a dried corn on the cob, so me and Spooky pulled all the yellow corns out and scattered them all over the cage floor.

What we supposed to do with it now???

We Have Been Watching......

Walk on the Wild Side on BBC1 its very funny.

They have real wildlife footage which has been voiced over.

We love the sleeping seal and the mouse flower delivery service.

Agent A for Agouti

Here are some clues to guess who Agent A is thats if you cant tell from the beautiful pigture.

Agent A lives in the USA, she has a whole photobucket album dedicated to her and like me she is famous on the guineapigjamboree.

Agent A has dark eyes and ticked hair which makes her an agouti, unlike Spooky whose ruby eyes make him an argente. Eye colour is the only difference between Agouti and Argente.

Agent A has dark brown hair with black undercoat and tan ticking she also has a tan tummy, we think she looks like a cinnamon agouti.

As you can see from the pigture she is a gorgeous girl.

[caption id="attachment_288" align="aligncenter" width="160" caption="Agent A for Agouti "][/caption]

And in case you missed her on the jamboree here is the link again

http://www.gpjamboree.com/rest-and-weelaxation/page/2/

She is second piggy on the page.

Thank you for your contribution Agent A.

Humans are Strange

Mummy told us that there will be a funeral for our friend a week Friday, so Spooky said he would help dig the hole in the garden (he loves digging strange piggy) and me was going to help chose the pot and the plant to mark the hole.

Mummy says humans dont get buried in the garden (this must be because they are not as important as guinea pigs)

Mummy says our friend will be cremated and then the ashes scattered in a garden of remembrance (so they do go in the garden Mummy lied)
where they will help lots of beautiful plants to grow.

That way our friend has never really gone. We are glad about that.

Goodbye My Friend

My friend crossed the rainbow bridge at 11:45 this morning.

Mummy says that now she is free of pain and reunited with her beloved cats Big Boy and Chloe and the hammie who went everywhere with her, even for road trips in her MG.

While we may miss her she is in a happier place now, its just us left behind who are sad.

Agent I you are right humans are very leaky when sad.

Munchees when me is less sad and mummy has stopped leaking me will be blogging again.

In fact me has a special blog which another under cover guinea pig has helped with. Agent I for your information she is a she.

Thank you for all your kind words and thoughts.

Me will be back with you soon

Me is Very Sad

Mummy told me last night that one of our special human friends has the big C, sadly is has spread throughout her body and she is in hospital waiting to cross the rainbow bridge.

My friend is very good to me whenever she goes abroad she goes straight to the pet section of the hyper market to find guinea pig treats for me.

She banned her neighbour from using weedkiller on his overgrown garden so she could pick fresh dandelions for me.

She would share her beans and lettuces freshly grown with me and she would never throw a kitchen towel roll tube away she gave them to me to play with.

Mummy says the doctors are making sure she has no pain but that is all they can do for her.

I hope you understand I will taking a little break from blogging to devote my energy to my friend.

Dont worry I will be back and with a special post from a guinea pig secret agent friend.

We Went in the Garden

Sunday was sunny enough for us to be allowed out into the garden (woooooooohoooooooooo)

Spooky was only allowed out for 15 minutes in case it upset his tummy again, me was allowed out muuuuch longer.

It has been 3 days since we went out and there has been no problem with Spooky, so next time we have a sunny day he can come out for 30 minutes.

Mind you that could be next year with the Great British weather being what it is (big sigh)

Compromise

Following the advice of the ever knowledgeable Piggyfriends me has decided to let Spooky start as a spy NOT a special agent just a spy for now.

His first mission was to get down the side of the cage and report back.

Well he got his head down there but his butt was too big (heeeheee) he tells me all that is down there is more carpet and the legendary dust that my humans collect.

Must find more small corners for him to investigate, there must be something good somewhere.................

Passing the Message on

Me dont know if any of your humans can help Cavy Madness but please click the link to see if there is anything you can do.

We must use our global piggy power to help all the guinea pigs we can!!!

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=244434920710&ref=mf

Me has Decided.............

that when Spooky weighs 1kg he can become a proper undercover guinea pig

Today he weights 694g and is complaining about having to wait so long.

I think I am being fair.......

Me Broke Free....................

actually Daddy moved the bars out of the way so I could visit him in his half of the prison.

Spooky stayed in bed.

Me and Daddy laid on the floor for cuddles.

Mummy if there are any wet patches it WASNT ME

Wrongly Accused.........

me and Spooky came out for floor time and when we went to bed Mummy found wet patch on carpet.

She gave us this evil look like what one of you peed on my carpet.

Then she put her finger in it (humans are weird) and then smelled her finger (very weird)

Turns out Daddy was to blame, the wet patch smelt of cider

We got bored.............

of staying in, so we are back out running around attacking the piggy prison bars.

We will escape (evil laugh)

Reverse Psychology........

For the last few days me and Spooky have been lulling the humans into a false sense of security.

When Mummy opens the cage and sets up our ramp for floor time we have refused to come, instead we chase each other round the cage.

We plan to do this until Mummy starts to relax and not watch us as closely and then we will attack (me means escape heehee)

Its always good to have a back up plan!!

Diet???

Daddy says you now need 2 hands and to bend at the knees to pick me up.

He says me needs to diet............. NO WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

Stupid Human

Me Glad Me Got Clear Nails..............

Mummy cut me and Spookys nails yesterday, me went first and me was bribed with romaine Mummy cut my nails fine although she did say they are getting thicker and tougher to cut.

Spooky was bribed with carrot and Mummy only managed to cut his back claws and she cut 2 too short and they bled... she was too scared then to do the front.

Me can report Mummy was more upset than Spooky

Thistle Cavies

Hey guys just thought I would tell you about a guinea pig rescue here in the UK (they are actually in Scotland)

They are called Thistle Cavies (who would have guessed) and through their website humans can get piggy treats and human treats (what more could a human want)

Humans in the UK can also help by recycling their old mobile phones (hands off my phone humans) and printer cartridges.

All they need to do is visit the website and ask for some special posting bags to be sent and start recycling.

Mummy even recycles the cartridges from work to get even more and of course she pesters her work colleagues, friends and family to give her their old cartridges.

So any piggies in the UK whose humans are not already recycling for charity, get your humans helping those piggies.

http://thistlecavies.tripod.com/

Guinea Pigs Dont Like Heights.....

according to some humans that is.

Me and Spooky have no problems with heights.

When me was a baby I nearly gave Mummy a heart attack coz when she turned her back for a few minutes I climbed all the way to the top of the stairs (heeeheee)

Me couldnt get down again and Mummy had to come up and spoil my fun (rescue me)

In our cage we have a mezzanine floor and Spooky is forever jumping up there and then off again, me ventures up occasionally when me is not sleeping.

The problem guinea pigs have with heights is falling, if its a distance we can jump by ourselves (a single step or onto mezzanine floor) we should be ok anything higher than that and injuries can occur.

Humans should make sure we are extra secure when being carried, Mummy always wraps us straight in a blanket to carry us anywhere.

If an accident does occur and we fall/ drop from a height, the humans should watch us very closely and any sign of pain or unusual behaviour we should go straight to the vet (ohh joy)

So remember friends we are guinea pigs and not mountaineers and we should only climb/jump to a height we are happy with!!! (not all the way to the top of the stairs)

If you do get carried away wheeeek loudly until your human rescues you (but never admit to being grateful for rescue)

Me is in Trouble

Mummy has told me off.

Heres what happened.......

Spooky was asleep in the corner under the mezzanine floor, so me went over and nudged him out of bed, then me peed in the corner and went to the other side to sleep.

What me do wrong??

Mites

Now Spooky is feeling again he is helping write this post about mites.

Unlike me, Spooky has actually suffered from mites, they made him lose patches of hair and caused him to have black scabs over his ear and back.

Luckily for Spooky, Daddy spotted the problem at the petshop and then Mummy and Daddy kept pursuing the issue until Spooky got the right treatment.

If you have mites its important for humans to act quickly as mites can be fatal to guinea pigs if not treated properly.

One of the most obvious signs to look out for is excessive scratching, this is because mites bite and make us itch, we can damaged ourselves with the scratching as well. Mummy says Spooky didnt appear to be scratching much at all but he did have hair loss and black scabs.

The treatment for mites is Ivermectin drops, these are placed on the skin around the neck and down the back. (Mummy could only get Ivermectin in the form of Xeno450 which appears to be a brand name and has cured the problem) If one guinea pig has mites we will all need treating just in case.

Ivermectin will need to reapplied 2 weeks after first treatment, this is to allow time for the eggs to hatch, the second dose then kills the second generation, 2 doses is normally enough however it is always wise to be cautious and another dose may be needed.

After leaving the second dose to work, guinea pigs will need a bath to wash any dead bodies (eugh) out of our lovely hair, leaving us clean and pure again.

http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/skinp.htm

http://www.guinealynx.info/mites.html

Anypig with any more advice or observations, please feel free to comment........the more we know the better wheeeeeeeeeeeeek

New Way To Have Your Hay

When Spooky had diarrhoea Mummy wanted him to have hay but didnt want him to poop all over it and then eat it, so she stuffed toilet roll inners with hay so he could eat it out of them.

We love getting our hay this way, we can pick the inners up and hit each other with them (like gladiators)

We can both start at opposite ends of tubes and see who can eat to the middle first (like silly humans digging channel tunnel)

We can attempt to get both our heads in at one end (not very successfully)

We can drag them round the cage so the other piggy cant get it (heeeheee)

They are so much more fun than a hayrack.

Me does miss having big pile to play in but Mummy says it makes cleaning our fleece easier as well (whats that got to do with anything??)

Me Has Forgiven Mummy...........

Me knows me hasnt sulked for very long over the indignaty of being put in a box (me does have good reason to forgive)

Mummy came home yesterday with lots of treats for us from Pampered Piggies me has a new parsley bell (Oiy Spooky thats MY bell) we have Oxbow hay cakes and we have meadow herb cubes and apple cubes, and a new chube (Spooky got diarhoea in old one YUCK)

We also have samples of new food to try hmmmmmmmmmm

We is gonna be busy munching for a loooooooooong time!!

Prison Break Foiled..........

Humans grrrrrrr

Mummy must have told tales to Daddy coz when she came to clean us out last night instead of our prison circle we went into a big cardboard box that Daddy bought home (from which there was no escape)

Me is sulking now!!!

Prison Break..........

Mummy put the guinea pig prison bars into a circle and put me and Spooky in the circle while she cleaned us out, she thought this would mean she didnt need to keep such a close eye on us (WRONG)

Me found where 2 bits joined and started pushing it, it closed in on me but it did move a little bit so I aimed toward TV and kept going (didnt get very far and Spooky didnt help)

Anyway me now has an escape plan to keep pushing next time Mummy cleans us out.

Heeeheeeheee

G Force Update.......

It appears me is not the only one to have concerns about the G Force movie those guinea pig loving people at guinealynx are also concerned and have come up with 2 information flyers for the not so well informed humans.

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102639438904&s=818&e=001Br8fPsZUCaGT3c6vc47oCVpWFesrFdw8jJL1hiOxiIGco1rHURLHoJDGlQTV222sGUIEhmTTl6VANr-jkg3gu3uUrKhWtbMeoh4qTcprod_TlgfkcSORLB-IyCd3bANL5hUfQx33V0YzeuXHTF8L2g==

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102639438904&s=818&e=001Br8fPsZUCaFj3uae6sQWQuN7k6MJ85cWXcITPc4CgDUllAE5G4R1bAz8Pd8KBjwAtJwDiXq-gujJWZagAAdT35-BtOQ0l4r5h7nHZ23qXy1mvWKsBSrtsLKzfO0MkZH1S28FNkiwbq4YvTS6-uooBdlLuRhvjMoc

While I am quiet happy being a super hero in my own head and virtually online, the idea of humans believing we can actually do these stunts scares me, so me is making Mummy print the guinealynx information and get it displayed in the local vets and pet shops to advise humans who may want their own super hero guinea pig what that really involves.

Me has no objection to the film in fact me is looking forward to watching and cheering along (dogs + cats have had the limelight way too long), but those simple beings we know as humans need strict supervision and good advise and its our job to make sure they get it!!

Me is NOT a Hurdle

Spooky has got it into his head that when I go to sleep in the middle of the cage what I am really doing is making a hurdle for him to jump (NO Spooky I want to sleep)

It wouldnt be so bad if he could actually jump over me everytime, but no he is not that clever and he keeps landing on me or knocking me as he passes.

Need to sort him out but I am too lazy to move

pffffffttttttt

G Force........

As you probably all know there is a movie coming out soon about an elite team of hero guinea pigs (Hollywood have somehow found out all about me) known as G Force (guinea pig force)

This movie is not out here in the UK yet but we have seen trailers (the cartoon guinea pigs are nowhere near as good as the real thing)

The trailers show guinea pigs travelling around in large plastic balls and while this is fine for cartoon guinea pigs we dont want the humans to get confused and think this is ok for real guinea pigs.

Unlike Hamsters, Guinea Pig spines are not flexible enough for us to be able to run in a ball, putting us in a ball can cause spinal damage.

Humans dont get confused NO BALLS for guinea pigs!!!

Guinea Pig Prison

Having Spooky was supposed to provide me with a useful distraction tool, he was to create mischief drawing attention away from me, so I could escape and get behind the sofa or the TV!!

The humans have cleverly stopped this idea using brightly coloured bars, they section of the end of the living room with no wires to chew (that includes my favourite headphone wires) allowing me access to only one end of the sofa (this only needs one human to watch)

Its a proper guinea pig prison (damn them) grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

But dont worry I do intend to find a way out, Spooky you do something silly while I go around and push all the bars........................

Me Has Eaten The Bag Handle

Well fellow guinea pigs you remember I was successful in my mission to chew the strings off my pop up tunnel??

Last night daddy left its special bag on the floor, so I chewed through one of the handles.

Well what did he expect I am a guinea pig!!

Mummy was Right............

Sort of.......

She said Spooky would grow up to be as big as me and then he would start humping me.

He is nowhere near as big as me and he is trying to hump me!!!!!

Boars Behaving Badly??

Or just Boars will be Boars?

Do your humans watch over you and panic over every small disagreement you may have with your cage mates?? If so this brief guide may help to reassure and let them know when it really is time to panic.

Ear Pulling- this is a form of grooming, normally it doesnt hurt the pig being groomed but accidents can occur, if the groomed guinea pig is ending up with bleeding, sore or ragged ears then you need to stop the grooming. (humans may need to seperate you and your friend) If there is no bleeding then humans should leave you alone to get on with it.

Rumble strutting- this is how us boars show each other who is dominant, there is no aggression shown with this action just a slow wiggling of the hips and bum sometimes accompanied by a rumbling noise. No need for humans to panic.

Humping- another way of showing dominance, be warned we can hump from any direction (heehee) again no aggression, no biting just a quick hump and off again, no need to panic.

Bum sniffing- boars love sniffing bums and following each other around nose to bum, again nothing to worry about but if guinea pig being sniffed starts to get fed up it could be worth removing sniffer to give him a break (me too old to keep running all the time)

Head Butts- we do this when we are fed up with whatever the other guinea pig is doing, we normally butt the backside but we can butt anywhere, no teeth are used and the guinea pig butted is not hurt, its a warning for them to stop what they are doing and behave. No panic.

Neck Rubbing-we have scent glands in our necks and like to make the other guinea pigs smell like us, so we rub our necks over their heads, no need to panic.

Nips- not bites teeth are used but skin is not broken as long as this is not accompanied by teeth chattering, things should be fine, keep an eye in case of esculation.

Teeth Chattering- this is warning sign that fight could be about to kick off, humans should keep a close eye on this in case somepig ends up getting hurt.

Showing Teeth-big yawns designed to show how big and strong your teeth are (not to be confused with yawning when tired) this again is an aggressive move and could indicate a fight is about to begin.

Biting/Fighting-this is a very bad sign especially if blood is drawn, this really means that we cant be friends anymore and need to live seperately, humans should break this up by throwing towel over the biters before somepig is seriously hurt.

The general belief is that we do this during our hormonal stage which can be from 3-18 months (thats a long time) if we both make it together passed the 18 month mark, we should be happy living together forever. (Mummy has fingers crossed for the next 2 years heeeheee)

Here is a website dedicated to us boars http://www.susieandpigs.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/home.htm

I am sure there are lots of things I have forgotten to mention, so feel free to add your comments.

Is this True???

Mummy says I should stop rumblestrutting and humping Spooky as soon he will be as big as me and hump me back eeeeeeeeeeeek

Is this true???? (it cant be no piggy is gonna get as big as me I am a LAPS pig and proud!!)

Spooky = 468g (see nowhere near as big as me)

Me is a Hair Dresser

Since I have been allowed back in with Spooky I have decided his hair needs a bit of work.

At first I started to eat it coz Mummy had managed to get syringe food in his hair, so Mummy and Daddy gave him a wash (Spooky is a big wimp he dont like bath time)

When he came back clean I decided I wanted to make him into a punk so I have kept on trimming his hair. Spooky dont mind its the humans that have a problem with this.

Mummy has been looking on the internet for advise about barbering and even the late great Peter Gurney cant explain why we do it.

The suggestions vary from it being a sign of dominance, boredom ,stress, genetic or not enough hay, me I just want Spooky to be a punk.

If I was eating my own hair this could be a sign of mites and should be checked out.

The advice to humans is leave us guinea pigs alone we will sort it out, if Spooky dont like having his hair cut he will tell me and eating all the hair is no problem for me I poop it out again.

Mummy says if I make Spooky bald she will have to seperate us, I am just making him a punk mummy OK.

Mummy is calling me Sweeney Todd (heeheee the demon barber I like that)

Are any of you hairdressers??

Spooky update;
Weight = +25g = 413g
Eaten= hay, dried pellets and banana

Poops = nearly normal

Me is a Role Model

Daddy decided that as Spooky's poops have firmed up enough for him not to walk poop everywhere and as he was looking so sad and lonely he need a role model ME!! (can you think of anyone better? thought not)

I went back in the cage with Spooky and I think we should change his name to pritt stick as he has been glued to my bum ever since.

Thats when he is not trying to steal the piece of hay that I am in the middle of eating.

He has followed me about all over the cage munching away (dont know why the humans are worried about him not eating) I mean I am hardly getting a look in and when I do chose a piece of hay thats the piece he wants to eat!!

Spooky has gained 16g overnight and his weight is now 388g hurray a step in the right direction.

He had another tiny piece of carrot (wheres mine hmmmpppffftt, oh yes I had to go back to old cage to have a salad heehee) and more banana (he can keep that)

So being with a hero like me is obviously good for him!!!

Keeping Cool (its sooo hot)

Well my little corner of the UK is being hit by a heatwave (the weather people promise it will be cooler for the weekend)
Here are ways to keep cool until then;

My humans are very extravagant and have air conditioners this means at the flick of a switch I have all the cool air I need.

Other ways you can stay cool include filling bottles with water and freezing them, then standing them in front of a normal desk fan, when the fan blows you get extra coolness from the frozen bottles, or wrap the bottle in a towel and have it in your home where you can lean against it and keep cool. (wrapping it in a towel is important otherwise you could end up frozen against it, not nice!!) Outside piggies can have a damp towel placed over the front of hutch, this will need to be kept damp throughout the day.

You could convince your humans to invest in a cooler tile, these work by giving you something cool to sit on  (without getting stuck to it) as they are made of marble they stay cool.

Get your humans to leave the curtains half shut as this helps stop the sun getting in and making your room too hot.

If you are outside in the garden make sure you stick to the shady areas, to keep cool and to prevent getting sunburn on your delicate ears and noses.

Guinea pigs can get very ill with heat exhaustion, the link belows tells your humans what to look out for and how to treat it.

http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/heatstroke.htm

Any other hints and information we can share?

Fresh Water

Now things are hotting up and summer has finally hit the UK (sure it will be over by the weekend) I thought it would be a good time to remind you all that guinea pigs need fresh water everyday.

It doesnt matter if you dont drink all of it, that is no excuse for the humans to leave it there, would they like to drink a glass of water that had sat on the table all night?? I dont think so!! At least dead flies cant get into water bottles so guinea pigs have an advantage there.

I have pure unsweetened cranberry juice added to my water, to give me extra vitamin C and also to help prevent painful urinary tract infections.

So make sure your humans get you fresh cool water everyday and make sure the bottles are checked for leaks or worse than that not letting the water out.

Of course if your humans need reminding to get you fresh water you can always play with the bottle and empty it on the floor of the cage.
Thanks for that tip Agent I ;)

Me Has Eaten Both Strings

heeeheee

Mummy is calling me a little devil, I have chewed through the string on the other end of the tunnel, and then left the soggy bits on the floor to be cleaned up.

Mummy now has to squish tunnel between her legs before fighting to get the bag over the top.

Very funny to watch!!

Me Has Eaten A String

Heeeheeee mummy didnt stop me in time tonight and I have managed to chew through the string at one end of my pop up tunnel.

That will make life more entertaining for her.

Me Been on Holiday

Sorry for not updating blog for couple of days but me has been away.

Mummy and Daddy went for proper holiday without me (why bother) and I went to stay with Granny (wasnt she lucky?)

Granny spoilt me with lots of super treats, but now that I am home I will make Mummy and Daddy think I was neglected so they feel guilty for leaving me heeeheee

Only problem with Granny is she talks all the time, me glad of some peace and quiet now I am home, oh and of course she didnt know I could use the internet so she didnt let me online hmmmppptt

Other than that it was a good holiday.

Sleeping Humans!!!

Mummy and Daddy are supposed to watch while I have floor time to see all the funny things I do and to stop me getting into mischief.

We had floortime as usual and then the humans were watching a film, I jumped into bed for a quick snooze and when I woke up they were both asleep!!!

Mummy was curled up on the sofa dribbling, Daddy was on the floor snoring, and where was the camera for the blackmail shots?? upstairs where I couldnt get it grrrrrrrrr

With no one to watch me being brilliant and no camera for me to play with I stayed in bed until they woke up again.

Why Cant I Have the String

Why do humans spoil my fun all the time??

I have a pop up tunnel that comes in its own little bag so it can be tidied away when floor time is over, to help get it back in the bag at each end it has string attached so mummy can tie the string and it doesnt pop up.

I like to sit in my tunnel, or just outside, and chew the string, whenever I do this mummy always stops me.

Sometimes I have managed to get a lot of string in my mouth and mummy has to gently pull it out again complaining about how soggy it is, she then puts it so it is on top of tunnel and I cant reach it no more why??

Me wants to eat the string!!

My new mission is to eat that string!!

All About Hay

As every good guinea pig knows hay is the must have essential for every cage/ hutch.

Hay has many uses, it is essential for keeping teeth worn down (remember guinea pig teeth grow constantly) the fibre helps keep your digestive system working properly (no soft or hard poops thank you very much)

Hay is also a good plaything, it can make a tunnel, a nest a castle anything you want and can imagine really, it can help keep you warm in winter and when you want to nap you can hide under the hay from the annoying humans.

I have 2 types of hay (me special you know) I have meadow hay to use for bedding and playing and burgess excel herbage timothy hay for eating (dont tell mummy but I eat the meadow hay as well heehee)

Make sure your humans know to provide you as much fresh hay as you can eat and some spare to play in, and make sure they dont get confused with hay and straw, straw can hurt guinea pigs if it pokes them in the eye, hay is much softer.

Well I am off to play king of the castle in my hay.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeek

Me Wanna Share

Well Daddy was sitting on the floor with me last night, with what was obviously a very yummy drink in a carton.

I jumped up with my front feet on his hands to get a taste and guess what he did..... he poured some onto his hand yuck (some went on the floor to but mummy doesnt know)

Well I was not happy with that so I jumped on his hand again and tried to nibble the carton and grab the straw but he wouldnt let me.

Now if he wanted to share my drink he could have it straight from my bottle no problem, these humans have no idea of manners and sharing.

Pffffffffffttttttttttt

I want my food in the Bowl!!!

Well whenever mummy gives me my fresh nibbles she puts them in my food bowl, I race out of bed to the food bowl and drag the bit I want back to bed.

Well the other day mummy put the food next to me in the bed area pffffffffttttt, I had to get out of bed drag the food with me to the bowl, put the food in the bowl and all so I could pick the food out of the bowl and drag it back to bed with me.

Mummy says she was trying to save ME time!!!

Hmmmmmmmmmmppppppppppphhhhhhhhhhh

Me Has Spurs

Like many other guinea pigs I suffer from spurs on my front feet.

These are hard dried bits of skin that grow out from the foot.

Here is link to good description and photo on the guinealynx website.

http://www.guinealynx.info/feet.html#spurs

The spurs on the piggy in the photo seem to grow out of the bottom of the foot, mine grow up the side up of my feet and are also a lot darker than the photo.

Mummy thinks I may have got mine from sitting with my feet overhanging my old mezzanine floor which was plastic and uneven due to chewing (I now have a melamine mezzanine floor) who knows I may have developed spurs anyway.

When mine get long they irritate me so I either have to wait for mummy to cut them down with the nail clippers or I chew them off myself.

I have sometimes pulled them with my teeth but that hurt and made them bleed when they came away from foot where they were attached, I have learnt and now I only bite the side bit off NO PULLING.

I prefer to remove them myself so whenever mummy tries to cut them I throw myself about and wriggle and try to bite to put her off, she can be determined though and between us we keep them short.

If you have spurs make sure you or your human keeps them trimmed down as they can catch on things and pull off causing you pain and bleeding and risk of infection.

You have been warned!

Naughty Daddy

Me was in the garden mowing the lawn and Daddy gave me some flowers through the wire so me ate them.

Daddy then called Mummy and said are these alright for him to eat I have just given him 4.

They were daisy's

Mummy hasnt been able to find anywhere that says if they are good or bad, luckily for me they didnt make me ill (lucky for Daddy to he didnt have to sleep outside!!)

The lesson is you cant always trust your human

Now do any of you know if daisy's are good or bad?

Me is Famous

Along with many other guinea pigs!!

I appear on the guinea pig jamboree, a blog dedicated to photos of cute guinea pigs (and who could be cuter than me??)

Check me out here
http://www.gpjamboree.com/bathtime/

Despite what captions say me loves bath time.

Its not a Subway!!!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!

Well I finally suceeded in my mission to get behind the sofa, and I must say the cats have a better sofa than mine if they get to a subway.

I got behind the sofa and all I found was dust and dead flies YUCK!!!

Then I realised its not a subway, its a ........... time machine, I had gone back in time to before the horrible noisy hoover was invented, what else could explain all that dust???

Now I need to figure out how to make it take me somewhere interesting.........................................

Reading for Humans

If your human is anything like mine they love reading about and looking at pigtures of us guinea pigs.

Mummy says for cute pigtures and handy tips your human should read the books by the late great Peter Gurney, the man was seriously addicted to us!!!

There is also a webpage of health tips your humans might like to use here is the link   http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/

For detailed anatomy and an indepth list of foods and what they contain mummy likes the Guinea Piglopaedia (try saying that after your carrot rum!!) this is written by Margaret Elward and Mette Ruelokke.

So now you can get your humans reading and while they are doing that you can get up to mischief heeheeeheee

And yes humans really can read!!!!

If I Cant get Round it.............

Last night even though mummy and daddy were both watching me I decided on a new route to get behind the sofa.

Trying to pull the plastic out would be too noisy so I tried to climb over it.

Mummy caught me with my bum stuck in the air and belly wedge on top of the plastic, not very comfy, not very dignified,  not doing that again!!

Pffffffffttttt

Cuddle Time Is Over.........................

Now I love a cuddle as much as the next guinea pig, there is nowhere more comfortable to sleep than in a cozy human lap, the problem is when I have napped and am refreshed I want to be let go and the humans are not mind readers.

Here is how I have trained them to know cuddle time is over;

I have a special towel to cuddle on, so when I want to be let go I bite the towel, if they ignore that I bite it again, if they ignore that I bite it one more time if they still ignore that............................. I poop on the towel.

It took a couple of times to train them but now they know, let me go or I will poop on you!!

Some piggies use the bum dance in the same way, wiggle your bum while walking backwards and if they dont let you go before you finish the dance poop on them.

We will get these humans trained!!

Me has Discovered Coriander

Last night for the first time in all my 2.5 years I tasted Coriander.

Mummy was making vegetable (yummy) curry (yucky) so she gave me some of the fresh coriander, I have one word for it.............

YUMMY

My Favourite Things

Carrots with green bits and grapes with no pips,
Long sunny days and a mixture of hays,
Playtime with dad and driving mum mad.

These are a few of my favourite things

Romaine lettuce hats and long lazy naps
Plotting and planning and scheming and scamming
and eating beetroot to make purple poop

These are a few of my favourite things

A parsley bell that tastes so swell
My tunnel and tent and paying no rent
Food to my door and a quiet place to snore

These are a few of my favourite things

Protecting Daddy

Last night me and daddy was watching a scary film called Alien Ressurection, we were watching with the lights out and these horrible alien creatures kept eating the humans.

In the middle of this the doorbell rang really loudly, so I jumped into daddy's arms to make him feel safe ;) ;)

Mummy opened door to strange man bringing her lots of food stuffs (I thought only piggies got home delivery food!)

When the strange man had gone and door was locked again I jumped out of daddys arms so he would know he was safe again.

What a brave piggy I am.........