A Piggy A-Z. Casper and Cosmo with Carrots

Here are the Dangermice, Cosmo and Casper again. They both love Carrots.

The above pigture is of Casper, who is the Alpha pig - at least he is the one who rushes out and shouts for food when anyone passes their pen. He is not a cuddle pig and made a lot of fuss about posing for his pigture but, luckily, our pigsitter was on hand to keep him still for a moment.

And this is little Casper, who is shy and reserved but co-operated nicely for his pigture so he was rewarded with the carrot.


Do you have a piggy whose name begins with a C? If so, we'd love to see him/her. Find the Contribute button at the top of our page and follow the instructions. It is very easy.

Friday video: New hutch tour: the hayloft (pt2)

Part 2 of the hutch tour of our friend @Bertieguineapig, showing their hayloft. This is the sequel to the video we had last friday.

Another video (that cannot wait till Friday) Happy Valentine's day!

Happy Valentine's Day

Lola Piggyfriend has a secret admirer and he has sent her a Valentine's Day gift box of veggies. " I am a lucky piggy," says Lola, " as our Slave only got a box of chocolates!"

Happy Valentine's Day to all of our readers. Choccies for the Slaves and veggies for the piggies.

Friday video: New hutch tour (pt1)

One of the piggies we are following on twitter (@bertieguineapig) has a new hutch. So to open the wheekend (at least here in the Netherlands it's almost wheekend) here's a cage tour of their new hutch



Have a great wheekend, and give some kisses to your slaves on valentine's day this sunday!
The guinygirlz: Roos, Peaches, Berke and Tijger

A Piggy A-Z C is for Card Game.

Look what our Slave has made using the Card Game.

She hobbled around the local Hobbycraft shop and bought a frame, some backing paper and two packs of stickers with stars and hearts. Then she assembled all the cards in their sets with Spooky in the middle, glued them to the green paper and fastened the acrylic sheet over the top to hold everything in place. This will keep all the cards nice and clean for us to admire forever. For those of you who have not yet bought a pack, Spooky is on the back of each card.

Our pigture is hanging above Cosmo and Casper's pen. The pegs in the pigture attach cards to the top of the pen.

Here is the centre showing Spooky's pigture.

The camera flash kept reflecting on the acrylic sheet so here is a sideways pigture without no reflection so that you can see it better.

Maybe one of our readers would like to make one of these. What do you think of Slave's pigture?

Friday video & Piggy A-Z: C for card game

Hi,

My name is Peaches, also known as Agent Boo.

I want to tell you something about what my slave, with a lot of help from our readers here, has made.
Our readers have send in pigtures of all kinds of lovely and handsome piggies, which slave bundled in one card game.

You(r slave) can order this card game! If they want to order it right now, have a look here.

The dutch game 'Kwartet', also know as 'Quartets', was used as a basis. The goal of the game is to collect as many kwartetten / quartets as you can. Every player starts of with 7 cards in their hards. On the table the rest of the cards are kept on a stack with the pictures facing down, so no one can see what the next card on the stack is.
The game has 11 different categories, most categories are piggy breeds, like smooth-haired piggies, US teddies and Rexes and so on. Other categories include some members of one herds, like the Piggyfriends, Indiana piggies or my herd, the Guinygirlz. There are also other themes like piggies with Flower names and white piggies.

Mom still has 7 games in stock, and hopes to sell those too. So please buy one (or more)! Once those are sold we can make another donation to a guinea pig shelter somewhere in the world. Everyone can suggest shelters and then vote for their favorite shelter. So next to getting a cool game you also get to support a shelter!
Read a bit about the price and order here, send us an email for shipping, but Mikey will contact you with the pric for the game plus shipping before sending the game to you. If you have doubt after ordering and hearing the total price just let her know. Great thing about the card games is though, that they are quite small and fit in an envelope quite easily making them less expensive to send by mail.

Slave was looking for a nice video about playing the 'Kwartet' game, but apparently this is a really dutch game, it is similar to Go Fish! But mum thinks it is slightly different from what she understood from the videos explaining how to play Go Fish!!
But she did find this rather nice very stereo typical dutch/english video for the dutch airline KLM. This game has dutch historical houses, but the idea is the same with our guinea pig game...

Hope we get to sell the last 7 games, and possibly even more...

Agent Boo aka Peaches

P.s. all buyers of the game so far, maybe you can comment below what you think of your game? Hope you are all enjoying it.

Friday video: Agents and the CTU - Cavia Training Unit

We found this video of unknown agents to us, going through the Cavia Training Unit...
We got our own version with a shoebox and chopsticks... not impressed so far.. why go in between the sticks when you can throw it up to go underneath the sticks?

Bosworth visits the vet. BEWARE GRAPHIC CONTENT.

Agent Plantagenet reporting.

You wouldn't know it from this pigture but I had a nasty looking cyst develop on my back just above my grease gland.

Our wonderful Rodentologists have retired and moved away so our Slave took us to see Lyn from Palace Piggies rescue, who has completed the CCT Rodentology course. She decided that my cyst needed to be excised by a vet so we came home again and our Slave made an appointment for me to see Etienne, our lovely vet.

We parked right outside the vet's office and went inside. Rafferty, my best friend, came with me for moral support.

Here we are on the vet's table, hiding in our box of hay. Etienne poked about at my cyst and told Slave that I would have to be sedated for him to remove it. Slave was very worried as she is paranoid about anaesthetics. Etienne was going home to Belgium for a few days at Christmas but as soon as he was back at work, Slave took me in for my operation. He is the only vet in the practice that sees guinea pigs. The others always refer piggies to him as he is a piggy expert.

When she called the vet in the afternoon, the nice nurse said that I was awake and eating hay and could come home straight away. Slave was very relieved and she and her son, our pigsitter, who was staying with us over Christmas came to fetch me home asap.

Below is a pigture of my incision, all sewn up. It doesn't look very nice so don't look if you are squeamish. I couldn't see it but Slave took this pigture. Eeek! I am bald!

I had to be kept on my own in case Rafferty chewed at the stitches and she had to watch that I didn't either. We didn't like this at all and moped so much that Slave put us back together, telling us to be good boars, which we were.

We went back to the vets on Monday for Etienne to remove the stitches but there was still a bit of scab left so he said that we should leave it for a few days and go back this Saturday. My coat is growing back already.

He said that he had never seen a cyst like mine before and looked through all his piggy reference books so that Slave could take a photo to show you. He could not find one so drew a picture instead. He laughed when Slave took a photo of his drawing. Here it is. He is a much better vet than artist!

He said that the cyst was like a honeycomb with each tiny sac filled with pus. It would have been possible to remove the pus from each little sac individually but it was easier to remove the whole thing.

He always used to say that Slave should write a book about guinea pig care but was happy when she said that she contributes to this blog instead.

We have just been to see the vet again and although he was able to remove 4 of my stitches, he decided that we should wait another week to have the rest taken out as there is still quite a large scab.

Here is a pigture of my progress. It does not look very nice but it is only a scab over what our vet said was quite a large hole.


As you can see my coat is growing back over my bald patch. I have to go back to see the vet again next week, when he hopes that the remainder of my stitches can be removed but I thought that I would post this and maybe post another pigture later on when I am all mended. 

Real beetroot...

After seeing that jar of pickled beetroot that no piggy eats, mom remembered we still had a tiny supposed beetroot in the garden. So up I went with my little piggy cam to take a pic of it. It is really small and mom checked for me there is not really a beetroot in the ground attached to it... but it definitely seems more edible than that pickled beetroot!

Signing off,
Agent Bouncy Ball

A Piggy A-Z. B is for Beetroot

Many of the Piggyfriends enjoy beetroot, both the leaves and the root and Slave grows these in the garden for us in the summer.

"Hey, Slave, this is not the sort of beetroot that piggies should have!!" says Susie aka Agent Gemini. " We must only have raw veggies!"

We think that Slave knows this but we are moving on to C in our A-Z next week and this jar of pickled beet was all that she had. She took it from the larder for the humans' salad tonight and thought that it would make a nice photo before they ate it all.

If you feed your piggies beetroot be aware that it will turn our urine bright red - just like it does with humans - so don't be alarmed.

Happy New Year!

This is a little late but Agent Yougie would like to wish everypig a Happy New Year!

Friday video: Presents!

Okay, we know christmas isn't until almost a whole year.

And that the yuletide is over again,

but this is a cute video of piggies

getting their christmas presents...

You always like to watch piggies, right?

We hope you still enjoy this video we found, even though the holiday season is over already...

Double B, for the piggy A-Z: Agent Brave sir Robin aka Bérke

Hi there,

Today we have a double B for our Piggy A-Z: our agent Brave sir Robin, also known as Bérke.

Bérke came to join the guinygirlz herd after our Lily left us. The guinygirlz and their slave Mikey had quite some fun looking at the website of the shelter they would visit to find a new friend. The Kuufke shelter in the south of the Netherlands has all their piggies that are up for adoption on their website with a pigture and a little info about them. They already knew quite some weeks before hand that they would go to the shelter, but that also meant they saw quite some nice piggies pass by that were already adopted by the time they got to visit t Kuufke.
Bérke was definetly Mikey's favorite from the pigtures on the site. Our cousins from auntie Janneke also visited the shelter the same day and they arrived before we did. They got to date Bérke first! Mom was rather worried they would get along, leaving us to find another friend... but apparently none of them were interested in each other Phew. Bérke and the guinygirlz at that time (Daisy, Roos and Woopy) did seem to like each other. Woopy was already quite old at that time, so mom worried a bit the excitement would not be good for her. But she seemed fine with him and just was staying calm and relaxed on meeting him. Daisy however was a it more feisty, she probably already took over the role of boss piggy at that time without us realizing that, but Bérke seemed to like that.

Bérke is also featuring in the card game we made.

As you might be able to see, he looks quite a lot like one of our slaves first piggies: Guiny. She joined Lotje a nice happy redhead as a little piggy. She soon became boss and ruled the cage. She often seemed to need to determine with dad who was boss, she always found she should be the boss of them, but she never won from the human. Slaves would say she was a boar in a sows skin, sometimes we wonder if Bérke is Guiny's reincarnatio and she did really get back as a boar ;)

So if you are still interested in getting an undercover guinea pigs card game, you can still order them! They are 12,50 euro each, plus shipping costs. The good thing is they fit in an envelope easily, which means shipping is not that expensive. Sending a game to the US is 3,45 euro. For current exchange rates google ' eur in usd' for example ' 12.50 eur in usd' and google will tell you what it would cost in us dollars. Mikey likes to use paypal for the payments. If you have no paypal account, we think you can do a one time payment without having to get an account.
If you want to order on or more games, please fill out the form here.
Also know that once the first batch is sold, the proceeds will be donated to a guinea pig shelter somewhere in the world. You can nominate a shelter and that we will vote on a shelter to determine which one gets the proceeds... We hope you will join in the fun!

The Guinygirlz and Boar Bérke

Christmas Presents

Agent Mystery reporting.

We thought that we should post a pigture of our Christmas presents......

........but, as you can see, we... er... ate them all.

Slave brought home a huge pile of Christmas veggies with special treats like parsley and chicory, which are not always available in our local shop at this time of year and her son, our pigsitter, came home for the holidays and he gave us a big bag of cos lettuce and chicory but it has all gone. How did that happen? Now we are down to iron rations until Slave goes to the supermarket this afternoon.

We would love to see your pigtures of presents ( if you have any left to show ). Please send them into us. Find the Contribute button at the top of our page and follow the instructions. It is so easy.

Merry Pigmas!

Merry Pigmas from Agent Yougie, Apollo, and Dmitri!

Ethan (AKA Agent Peruke, AKA Agent Sheep) and Eddie (AKA Agent Confetti) posed for their holiday card this week.  They send best wishes to all!

B (Piggy A-Z): Introducing Agent Boo

Peaches has been on Agent weight (aka 1000 grammes / 1 kg) on and off during this year, but she has never been introduced as an agent. First time she reached Agent weight was already in march this year, and she went down in weight and reached agent weight again in April, June, July and November... So she as been going up and down, but it did not seem to affect her, and it never got really low, or high for that matter.

Anyway, she deserves an introduction as an Agent, as this has been long overdue, especially when looking at the first time she reached Agent weight.

So without much further ado I would like to introduce to you: Agent Boo!

Why Agent Boo? Well, I guess you are all not hardcore gamers, as I am also not, so it's a bit harder to explain. My boyfriend E referenced to Boo, the giant miniature space hamster, when talking about Peaches when we first got her. She was really hard to set up with the other piggies, as she would go from nice to psycho piggy in about a minute. Boo was the companion of a computer character (back in the old days) called Minsc in game the Baldur's Gate. Minsc would talk to Boo in the game, and shout things like 'Go for the eyes, Boo!' If you want to read more about Boo see this link.
Next to Peaches looking like a giant Hamster, the description Minsc would give Boo, did sound a bit like the ferocious Peaches we had at first.
Luckily nowadays Peaches a rather nice piggy, and she loves to cuddle with Roos, her biggest enemy at first.

Agent Boo, together with Agent Tortoise on the right

Hope you all have some lovely Christmas days,

Mieke

p.s. You can still order the Undercover guinea pigs card game, the first have been send already. More info in this post. All proceeds will go to a guinea pig shelter somewhere in the world, which you can nominate and vote for yourselves

Season's Greetings from the Piggyfriends

On the first day of Christmas, our Slave she gave to me....a stocking full of veggies, which I shared with all of the other Piggyfriends.

Here I am, Gandalf, aka Agent Wizard, in my Christmas hat. I am enjoying this bean but I don't think that I want those candy canes. However, I know someone who will.

Here is Algernon Rat, who has come to visit us. He is in party mood too with a very silly Christmas hat and an armful of candy canes. He can take some home with him and share them with Sandy.

And here is a pigture of us both, wishing all of our readers a very Happy Christmas, Holiday, Yuletide, Hannukah or, if this is not a time of celebration for you - have a good time anyway. Good health to everyone and peace to all pigs. ( and slaves too of course ).

"And a partridge in a pear tree, tra la!" "What! Who brought that partridge in here?" " There is no call for a partridge in this post!" " No partridges! This is for piggies and rats only"........CUT............." er... what happened to the peace to all pigs?" "Ho!Ho!Ho!"

B is for Brownie

Our current herd has no piggies who's names begin with B.

But we did have a Brownie once - she was sweet as could be! 

She'd snuggle and kiss and never would miss

A chance to show off her great piggy lips!

Brownie was a pig we had for only a short while but she was awesome!  

One of our piggies died unexpectedly and the two remaining pigs were very sad.  Brownie's friend had also died the same day as ours, and she was so sad she stopped eating.  Her family was looking to find a home where Brownie could live the rest of her days with other piggies, as they weren't able to add more furry family members at the time (brownie was 5.5 years old at this point).  

She integrated very easily into our small herd and was loved dearly.  Sadly Brownie had a heart condition and she passed away as a result of it just two short months later.  We didn't have her for long but she made a big imprint on our hearts!  She was so sweet and outgoing and had the cutest bum we'd ever seen!  One tuft of brown fur curved left and one tuft of orange fur curved right, giving her the perfect heart-shaped bum!  We could never get enough of it.  Don't you think it's cute?!