Kindergarten Agents. New agents in training

Tyrion Piggyfriend here. Readers of the GPDD will know that my dear friend, Gandalf aka Agent Wizard, passed away recently. I am not an Agent but was Gandalf's right paw pig and helped write up his reports as well as taking care of the other Piggyfriends when all the Agents are away on missions.

Gandalf looked after me when I arrived here as a tiny piglet so I was very lonely without him and our Slave decided to find me a new friend.

GPDDers can skip to the pigtures here as they know the story.

Slave took me to Palace Piggies as they had recently rescued over 300 piggies from a very sad situation and Slave felt sure that there would be a friend waiting for me there.

She found a little black and tan fuzzy babe whom she thought that I might like and we were introduced in the Palace Piggies playpen. This tiny babe ran around the pen and then settled down for a nap under my coat so we were ready to come home with him. Then Lynn and Liz, who run Palace Piggies, suggested that this babe might need a tiny friend to play with. Now our Slave has never wanted to have a trio of boars as it is rare for them to get on - we often have groups of sows but not boars - but against her better judgment, she went back to the adoption shed and came back with another babe - a tiny red ball of fuzz, who also ran around the playpen and settled down next to me. So, Slave agreed to take both the babes. Lynn and Liz said that she could always bring one back if a trio did not work out but anyone who knows our Slave will also know that she could never do that.

Now to the pigtures.....

Here we are in the carrier waiting to come home. The babes were named at Palace Piggies.You can just see Ivan, the black and tan one at the back and Magnus, the red one, is nearer the front. They both sat nicely beside me in the car coming back and we nibbled veggies.

When we got home, Slave put the babes into a tub to take this pigture. I think that Slave was persuaded to take the extra piggy as he looks very much like her Rolo from years ago - before there were any piggy Agents. She loves a red pig.

Here we are in what was Gandalf's and my pen just after we got home.

Here you can see how tiny Ivan is!

And here I am with Magnus, who is just a little bit bigger.

This is the last pigure - all of us together enjoying some grass.

Neither of the little boars shows any sign of dominance. We are all getting on well together at the moment but Slave is keeping a watchful eye out for when they grow. I miss Gandalf ( so does our Slave ) but these little fellows are keeping me company whilst I teach them how to be Agents when they get bigger. They have a lot of growing to do.

When we were at Palace Piggies, Slave asked Lynn and Liz if they knew of a worthy piggy rescue that I could nominate for the proceeds of the sale of our card game. We cannot nominate Palace Piggies as they were the winners a couple of years ago. I'll tell you who they suggested in my next post.

Friday video: Vote for Sharna's cavy sanctuary

Hi there,

Some time ago we asked for your nominations, and one of my nominations was Sharna's Cavy Sanctuary. The sanctuary is in Australia (Brisbane, I believe), and I do not know her in person. But she has been very active on social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, making me feel like I have an idea what she does for guinea pigs. She seems a nice lady who cares a lot about her rescues, but sometimes other people will not be so nice about what she is doing... I am not sure why though, as I have seen her try to get piggies back that went to someone who then did not want it anymore because they were not babies... I hope we can donate to her as she (as all shelters) can need a little help in feeding all those piggy mouths.

From their website:

"We are a small family run, home based, guinea pig sanctuary .
​We believe education is the key to changing the future for guinea pigs everywhere.
​Our aim is to educate people wherever we can, whilst rescuing, rehabilitating and re homing happy, healthy and bonded guinea pigs.
We offer a sanctuary to guinea pigs that are not able to be rehomed, whether due to old age or re occurring illnesses.
We offer boarding and grooming services as well as food, hay and other piggy products including cages .
​We want to support you and your piggies .
​We are self funded and every single cent goes straight back into the sanctuary and the daily running costs for the guinea pigs in our care including vet bills.​"
"We have been helping guinea pigs for 2 years now and have learnt so much in the process and continue to learn more and more .
I kind of just fell into it, you could say i was a little lost at the time with the recent passing of my mum.
Once i saw the huge need for help in the area of re homing and rescuing guinea pigs, i couldn't turn my back .
Once my eyes were opened to the huge problem Australia wide (worldwide too), i couldn't be blissfully ignorant anymore.
Now i just have a burning passion inside for the little fluff balls.
They're amazing pets if you can get off on the right foot with them.
​With lots of contradicting products and information floating around, we like to make ourselves available to anyone with questions or help regarding their guinea pigs."

Here's video of (part of) her setup

#guineapigs #guineasofinstagram #guineapigsofig # #guineapigsofinstagram #guineapigsof_ig #guineapig #guineapigrescue #cavys #cavylover  #cavylove #piggylove #piggiesofinstagram #SharnasCavySanctuary #rescue #adopt #love #commit #sponsor  #rescue #guineapigrescuecentre #rescueguineapig #photooftheday #petoftheday #guineapigposts101 #guineapiglovers #guineapigstagram #animalrescue #rescueanimal  #brisbane #brisbanerescue #Australia

A video posted by Sharnas Cavy Sanctuary 💎 (@sharnas_cavy_sanctuary) on May 11, 2016 at 1:25am PDT

I enjoyed this video of a piggy jumping:

A video posted by Sharnas Cavy Sanctuary 💎 (@sharnas_cavy_sanctuary) on May 13, 2016 at 12:30am PDT

Happy friday!

Mikey and the Guinygirlz Peaches, Tijger and Raani and boar Berke.

p.s. If you still wish to nominate a shelter.... be fast in doing so by commenting here or in the original nomination post who you nominate and why.

New Agent-in-Training

Introducing Raani... our newest cage mate. She joined us after we had to say goodbye to Roos.

A photo posted by @jstaaks on Apr 9, 2016 at 12:27pm PDT

Why Raani? You might wonder. Those of you who speak Hindi, or any of the other languages where Raani actually means something, know Raani means Queen.
Our slaves have quite a long history of being owned by Rex and US teddy cavies, and with the loss of Roos (a US Teddy) they no longer had a curly fuzzy guinea pig to own them. We think this was one of the first times in their guinea pigs owning time that they were without a US teddy or Rex. So of course they had to change that, which explains how Raani came to be with us. Raani is a Rex, and in Latin (and probably some other languages) this is the word for 'King', as this did not seem that fitting for a sow we went for a translation of 'Queen'.

Raani was 6 weeks old and weighed 290 grammes when she joined us, now she is almost 14 weeks old and about half a kilo (500 grammes) in weight! She just keep munching and eating and thus putting on weight. Even when most of us had a pneumonia, or the snuffles at the least, she was fine (as checked by the vet. So far she seems to be a healthy piggy!

Just keep growing, just keep munching, #growing, #munching #guineapig Raani keeps on putting weight!

A photo posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on May 23, 2016 at 1:02pm PDT

The other Guinygirlz: Peaches and Tijger and boar Bérke

Piggy A-Z C is for Charity: Vote for TEAS

What is TEAS?
The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary (TEAS) was established in 2011, to provide permanent care for guinea pigs with additional needs, chiefly dental. We are lucky to have two exceptional vets nearby, who are both knowledgeable and skilled in guinea pig dentistry, with many success stories to their names. It is for this reason that we exist, as the only dental sanctuary in the country.

We are currently HMRC registered, in the process of applying for registered charity status. It has always been important to us to be registered as we wanted everything we do to be official and transparent, rather than just be a ‘back yard’ operation.



Where are we located?
Contrary to popular belief, TEAS is not a large, multi-staffed centre.
The charity is run predominantly by Debbie from her modest, semi detached house in East Hunsbury, Northampton, which is where all the hard work happens. Additional permanent places and supportive care are provided from another modest, semi detached house in West Hunsbury, Northampton.

Who runs TEAS?
There are currently four individuals who form the board and are involved in the decision making at TEAS, two of whom work directly with the pigs. The day to day running of the charity and care is carried out primarily by Debbie Postles, who
accommodates the majority of the residents at her home. Emma and Andrew Hartley currently have nine permanent residents at their home. Steve Turner is the TEAS Sanctuary Treasurer.

What do we do?
As well as providing care for poorly piggies, the board members of TEAS also have to make time for full time, paid employment

No mention of TEAS would be complete without mentioning the Lethals.
A Lethal is usually the product of breeding where both parents have the Roan gene. The result in 25% of offspring is a Lethal which usually suffers blindness, deafness and often has dental issues. There can also be other physicsl issues.
TEAS was founded on looking after Lethals and currenly has 10 Lethals as permanent Residents.
With loving care they can enjoy as long as any normal Guinea Pig.



Stanley came to the Sanctuary from The Littlest Rescue in Bristol, who had rescued several
lethal pigs. Stanley was sent to TEAS because of the specialist veterinary treatment he is likely to need.
Stanley lives with Albert and Basil.



SOME SANCTUARY SUCCESS STORIES
Permanent Residents
Archie - Archie came to the Sanctuary from Cavy Corner. The vet in Doncaster had said he had lost the swallow reflex and he was booked in to be pts. He was brought to see Simon as a last ditch attempt to get help for him, and he began to make progress. Archie lived a wonderful life, but needed ongoing dental care. He survived two abscesses, but his health began to fail over Easter and he was pts. This was almost two years to the day he had been booked in for euthanasia in Doncaster.

Kevin - Kevin was brought to the Sanctuary after being found with his brother Perry in a back garden and taken to BARC. He was in a dreadful state and weighed just 365g. After just three dental treatments from Simon he was fully recovered and is now a strong, healthy piggie, weighing 1.1 kg.


Temporary Residents
Skye - Skye travelled from Wrexham to the Sanctuary to enable her to receive treatment from Simon and the supportive care the Sanctuary offers. She made steady progress and returned home within three weeks.

Cornflake - Cornflake travelled from Exeter. He was a very poorly boy when he arrived but after the first dental treatment he began to eat for himself, and after two more treatments he was ready to return home.

Rose - Rose travelled from Cardiff. She had just started to develop a head tilt in addition to her dental issues and by the time she arrived at the Sanctuary her eye was also starting to bulge. She was immediately seen by Simon who diagnosed a retrobulbar abscess and he feared she may lose her eye. He added lubrication and stitched the affected eye closed and treated her dental issues. Rose needed three further dental treatments and the swift action to close the eye meant her eye was saved. She returned home after spending 6 weeks at the Sanctuary.

Henry Piggyfriend finds his namesake

I have not been desginated as an Agent but I thought that I would share this pigture.

This big, noisy machine comes along every morning to clear up the hay that our Slave drops on the carpet when she cleans out our pens and look it has the same name as me! It seems very happy with its job so maybe we should throw more hay about to keep it busy. It eats hay just like we do.

A Piggy A - Z. D is for Dandelion.

We expect that you are all familiar with dandelions. Our Slave grows them for us in her garden. Here is a photo of some growing in her herb garden.

Most gardeners would consider them weeds but our Slave scatters the seed heads around to ensure that there are always plenty for us to eat. She also brings them home from clients' gardens.

Here is a bunch that she has picked.

They wilt very quickly but when there are guinea pigs around, this is not a problem.

Here is Roisin Piggyfriend enjoying a flower.

And then a leaf.

Gandalf ( Agent Wizard ) loves dandelions.

And so does his best friend, Tyrion.

Our dandelions are very safe to eat as our Slave never uses any chemicals in her garden but if your Slave picks them make sure that they have not been sprayed with anything nasty.

We wish that we could have them all year round but, in England, they are only available from Spring to Autumn so we make the most of them whilst we can.

Do you like Dandelions? Do you have a piggy whose name begins with D for our A - Z? If so, we'd love to see a pigture and a story. Click on Contribute at the top of our page and follow the very easy instructions.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is May 8th in the US. Here is a photoshoot from Dmitri, Agent Popcorn, and Dante Wigglebottom!

Roos in pigtures (with some (friday) videos)

This message has been long overdue. Maybe a week before Easter, our gorgeous Roos was squeaking in pain. We gave her some pain meds, and she seemed to approve a bit, same thing the next day, as it was almost weekend (and vets would be closed) we took her to the vet. She had diarrhea so we got some Cisaral to keep the gut moving and some painkiller (Carprofen) - Both fall in the Piggy a-z for C? but I am not too sure how dutch these names are.. 

Roos can do it too (you hear me say well done Roos!) And will find the cucumber when pointed out to her #guineapigs #treats #TeachnTreat

A video posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on May 30, 2014 at 1:42pm PDT

She seemed to be okay and the diarrhea cleared up, but something seemed not right to me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention she kept getting very bloated, but it did not sound like gas, and felt more spongy. I got a message from my boyfriend who was home earlier then I was, that she was bloated again. This was just before the long Easter weekend. I called the vet hoping to get an appointment that evening. They had a spot, so Erwin (boyfriend) took her to the vet and I traveled to the vet as well... News was not good, she had a bladder stone and it was lodged in her urethra.

Roos' Xray you can see the stone lodged between the hip bones. :'(

A photo posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Mar 25, 2016 at 5:00am PDT

Diagnosis was not so good, and the vet was hesitant to operate, as this would very likely damage the nerves there and make her unable to hold up her pee... So we were left with the choice to either find a vet willing to operate (it was almost eight in the evening then) or have her put to sleep. It was a hard decision to make as up until recently she did not seem ill at all... But mostly because of the small chance of her healing up well (if surviving surgery at all, piggies are just so fragile), we decided to have her put to sleep. She went to sleep very fast, and we were sad, but also hoping we made the right choice in stopping her suffering.

Roos with her daddy @lordthunder666 in this pigture you can almost see how pretty her colour is in real life ;)

A photo posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Jun 8, 2014 at 12:16pm PDT

Roos was a gift from me to Erwin for his birthday 4 years ago. We had her for exactly 4 years, she was 4,5 years old, as she was put down the evening before Erwin's birthday. She was one of the sweetest piggies we have ever had. I remember the lady we got her from telling us, she was very tame. I wondered why she said that, because she seemed very afraid of us at first, not tame at all. However when she got used to us she was really a sweet thing. We could pet her in the cage, and she did the cutest thing. If you stopped petting her, usually she had lain down already enjoying the massage, she would lift up her head as if to say 'Don't stop!'. Towards the other piggies she could be quite strict, after Woopy left us, she was the new ruler, with a bit of an iron paw. But she could also be really sweet snuggling with Peaches (a lot!). This surprised me as well, because when we just got Peaches, Roos would chase her around endlessly...

Roos and peaches have a new hobby: #cuddle time #guineapigs Taken 14 November

A photo posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Nov 19, 2015 at 2:14am PST

Here's some more pigtures and video's of Roos... we miss ya!

More #sleeping Roos #guineapig

A photo posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Aug 6, 2014 at 10:57am PDT

#Roos having second breakfast, or third, fourth, fifth... Who knows? #guineapig #eating

A photo posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Aug 15, 2014 at 4:48am PDT

Piggies got to play outside! #guineapigs #grass #yum #tryingoutrun

A video posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Aug 9, 2015 at 3:52am PDT

An old line up: Lily, Roos (a few months old there), Daisy and Woopy

Piggy A-Z: C for Charity

Some time ago we sold guinea pig card games, featuring our agents on this blog. By selling these games we made a little profit that we would like to donate to a guinea pig shelter somewhere in the world, like we did before with the money we made from selling our guinea pig calendars.

We do still have 5 games left in stock, so if you are interested order you game by filling out the form here. The is based on the dutch 'Kwartet'(quartets) game, similar to the Go Fish! game. The goal is to collect as many sets of 4 card as you can. A set of 4 cards, a kwartet/quartet, always has a theme. In our guinea pig game it can be the type of breed (smoothhaired), the color (white piggies) or something else (like piggies with Flower names). See our previous posts (with some pigtures and a video explaining the rules) about the game here.

So you can still order a game, but we want to start the nominations for possible guinea pig shelters (anywhere in the world)! So please send in your nomination! If you can, send in a little accompanying text about the shelter and why you think they deserve a nomination, that would help in getting votes.

Next step would be to all vote on your favorite shelter. The shelter with the most votes will recieve our donation.

So please, add your nominations to the comments below, or make a post with your nomination. Read how to add a post to the blog yourself, on the 'Contribute' tab below Agent F's pigture.

Friday video: Guinea pig bridge!

Happy Birthday Nugget!

Hello, I am Nugget. My parents adopted me about two and a half months
ago, and I will be one tomorrow. I am showing off a cozy that some
friends sent to me and to Eddie (Agent Confetti), although I am going to
pretend that it is my birthday present. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Piggy A-Z: C for Cucumber

Mom found us some cute little cucumbers at work...

Cucumber tug of war!

Tijger enjoying a snack cucumber

Berke

Berke and Peaches reaching for the cucumber

Success!

Yummy!

Do you like cucumbers?

Grtz,

The guinygirlz Peaches and Tijger, Boar Berke... and the new girl...

New Agent sign up form

This is  Agent King.  I will  soon be  turning  four years old.  I  enjoy cucumbers and  my  real name is Comet.

I  prefer King because my  middle name is King, also because i am the king of sleeping. My  favorite hobby is sleeping.

My favorite toy is a  tunnel and I  love floor time. 

Introducing Dante Wigglebottom

Please welcome a new piggy to our small herd, Dante Wigglebottom! We chose him because Dmitri and Apollo do not get along together, and Apollo needed a piggy friend after Gruden von Squeakcheeks' passing.

We picked Dante because he had bites on his ears, so he was being picked on and we thought he could use a good home. He is a very shy piggy, but loves following Apollo around! He and Apollo are getting along very well. Dante tries to copy what big piggy Apollo is doing. Apollo will be standing on his hind legs watching Dmitri, and Dante will try the same thing.

Please welcome Dante Wigglebottom!

New Piggyfriends

All the Piggyfriend Agents thought that we should introduce some new piggies that have been rehomed here at Piggyfriends.

Louis and Henri came here last month. They are older piggies, thought to be around four and a half years old and were left at Palace Piggies Rescue in West Sussex by their owner, who could not take her pets to her new home.

Here they are in their new pen. Louis is at the front.

Here is another pigture of the brothers. Slave nearly always calls them Henry and Lewis but they don't care as long as the veggies arrive on time.  Louis is on the right. He has more white in his coat.

Louis was having trouble eating so our Slave took him back to Palace Piggies to see Lyn, who is a rodentologist so can do dental work without an anaesthetic. She clipped a little piece from his molars and now he is eating up really well and making up for lost time.

When Slave was there, she looked at the piggies for rehoming and brought home two more, Mimi and Lulu. They are little girls about 6 months old and are part Abyssinian part who knows what! They were taken to the rescue because they belonged to a girl who left home and her mother did not want to care for them.

This is Mimi.

And here she is again. She has a black and brown face.

We can tell them apart because, Lulu, in the next pigture has a black face. They are sisters.

They are not used to posing for photos yet and Lulu was more interested in climbing up the back of the sofa. They will soon learn as Slave is always after us with her camera.

Welcome home Henri, Louis, Mimi and Lulu. We love you all.

A Piggy A -Z. C is for Chicory

Do your piggies like chicory? Most of the Piggyfriends do but, for some reason, Roisin and Niamh refuse to eat it leaving more for the others.

Here is Agent Wizard aka Gandalf enjoying a leaf or two.

 " I don't think that I can eat a whole chicon," says Gandalf. " I'll share it with the other Piggyfriends."

" Thank you, Gandalf. " says Cosmo Dangermouse. " I am rather partial to a bit of chicory. "

Happy Easter everyone!

"What's all this about?" says Tyrion Piggyfriend. " C is for chocolate? I guess that these are all for our Slave as we don't eat chocolate. Why not C is for chicory instead?"

"No," says Slave. " Look round, sweetie, and read the sign."

" Oh! Happy Easter," reads Tyrion. " That's all right then. We may yet get chicory. Happy Easter to all of our readers from me and the Piggyfriends."

Piggy A-Z: C for Carrot tops

We love green spaghetti, aka carrot tops!!!

 

Wheeks,

 The Guinygirlz (Tijger & Peaches in the pigtures)

Friday video: Guinygirlz morning feeding ritual

Mom filmed us getting our morning piece of veggie today...



We were pretty well behaved, sometimes we fall over each other, and lean on the others back to be higher up and run against the window to get to the veggies first. Tijger will start doing spins when she gets impatient.. but today we behaved for the video.

How does your morning ritual look? We would love to see little videos of it.

Have great Wheekend,
the Guinygirlz and boar Berke

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day from Agent Popcorn and Dmitri (who should be figuring out his agent name soon)! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

On behalf of all the Piggyfriends, Angelina ( aka Agent Mouse ) would like to send St. Patrick's Day greetings to all of our readers.

She thinks that the hood of Slave's fleece makes an excellent cavy cosy. Slave hopes that she does not leave any calling cards behind after the photoshoot. Angelina likes everything being green today as that means more lettuce, kale, cucumber, celery and parsley and she hopes that Slave can find some fresh grass, which has been in short supply of late.

Have a lovely day everyone!

Candle lit in the Netherlands

We also lit a candle on 9 March at 20:15 (Mum had to do Pilates till 20:00) and remembered friends lost...

Candle lit for Peter Gurney memorial and my late piggies: Woopy, Daisy, Lily, Chico, Toby, Dunya, Lotje and Guiny, Winky and my childhood piggy Vlekje #guineapigs #memorial #peterGurney

A photo posted by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Mar 9, 2016 at 11:20am PST

Did you light a candle as well? Let us know and we will send your location to Audrey!
 The guinygirlz: Roos, Peaches, Tijger and boar Berke

Peter Gurney memorial candle lighting

We have lots of candles burning here at Piggyfriends. Last year our oldest piggy, Gandalf, did the honours so this year we picked our second oldest, Otto, to help out. Here he is.

"I think that I deserve a reward for lighting all of those candles," says Otto.

We think so too so here he is with a yummy chicory leaf.

Well done Otto!

Did you light a candle this evening? If so, we'd love to see your pigtures. Look for our Contribute button at the top of the page and follow the very easy instructions.

Peter Gurney Memorial: Light a real candle at 9 March at 8 pm (in your timezone)

For those of you that haven't seen the message elsewhere:
"REMINDER: Invitation to light a candle in honor of Peter Gurney and all of the piggies and pets with him at the Rainbow Bridge on March 9th, at or around 8:00 pm, in your particular time zone. This is our 11th candle light memorial in honor of Peter Gurney, who passed away in 2006 in England. He was a tireless advocate for guinea pigs who left the world with a wealth of guinea pig knowledge that we would not have had without him. His books and knowledge has helped all of us. We can share the moment with or without piggies, and all you need to do is light a candle at 8:00 pm. As candles are lit in each time zone, the light will travel around the world for all at the Rainbow Bridge to see and know that we are remembering them on this special day. Afterwards, please tell us where you lit your candle by posting your location to the GPDD, and we will compile a listing of all the places where a candle was lit. This is in memory of any pet you wish to remember, so tell others to light a candle too, and get their location for the list.
Audrey Remembering Gordon, Reese, and Petito"

You can comment on our post to let us know when you lit a candle on the 9th, and we will forward it to Audrey. Please let us know where you lit a candle!

Friday video: A shed full of guinea pigs....