Happy Holidays Everyone

" Mine, all mine!!!" says Garnet Piggyfriend.




"We are only having a little piggy joke. " says Petunia. " Every Slave knows that piggies must not eat candy canes." " Especially these ones." chuckles Garnet. " They are made of glass and we are going to hang them on our tree."




" Let's put up our sign, Garnet." says Petunia.






" This is our seventh Pigmas at Piggyfriends, " chorus the two little friends " so we have the honour of wishing everypig and everyslave a wonderful holiday season. We hope that you all have loads of treats and lots of fun and love."





" Nolllaig shona, " says Slave. " Yuletide greetings everyone and happy whatever else you might be celebrating."

Friday Video: Rollin' Safari

What if animals were round?
...
They'd be more like guinea pigs!



Have a nice Wheekend!

Friday Video: Massage

We want one! A massage, that is.



Has a nice Wheekend!

Friday Video: Peek a Boo

This is just too cute


Have a nice Wheekend!

November Piggies of the month: Revy and Abby roo

Just in time before the end of the month November: 

our calendar piggies are Revy and Abby-Roo of the CaliCavyCollective.

Be sure to visit their website: www.calicavycollective.com

----

Ahoy! Revy here along with my sidekick Abby-Roo. I was quite excited to be chosen as this month's calendar piggy - even if I do have to share it with my cage mate. Now, onto the story of how we got our names and Undercover Agent aliases...


I received my name from my foster mom at Orange County Cavy Haven guinea pig rescue. My feisty, domineering personality and rocking awesome eye patch reminded her of a pirate. While casting about for names of female pirates she came up with Revy. The name stuck. My forever home humans had some thoughts of renaming me but realized Revy was the perfect name once the new home shyness wore off and my charming true self emerged. Good thing too, because I certainly didn't fancy being stuck as yet another "Oreo". Naturally, it followed that my undercover alias became Agent Pirate. 

My first mate Abby-Roo (yes, she is currently my only shipmate.. my plans for crew expansion and naval domination shall commence as soon as I finish devouring this lettuce leaf.. and that one... and what's left of hers... oh, and take a nap...) landed at a local shelter with the unfortunate name of Sonic. Our humans met her at Cavy House Guinea Pig Rescue and recruited her to be my ship - er, cage mate. Both agreed that her name had to go as she did not in any way resemble a blue male hedgehog. A flurry of increasingly absurd potential names followed: Lily, Jasmine, Brie, Frosting, Popcorn, Barley, and even Tofu were considered before they finally went to have lunch. Needless to say, I was snickering in my pigloo.


After a good meal (and the return of common sense), they finally settled on Abby-Roo, short for Abyssinian Peruvian. They thought Roo also suited her because her rooster tail-like butt fluff kept smacking me in the face. I may or may not have tried to bite it a few times but that is another story. They gave her the undercover alias of Agent Kermodei because her ivory coat reminded them of the white spirit bears that live in Canada's Great Bear Rainforest.


And there you have it! Agent Pirate, reporting out.

Friday Video: Kitten Therapy

We have just one question? Why hasn't anyone filmed guinea pigs making their owners happy and relaxed? Our J relaxes when she hears us munching hay or when we snuggle up to her.


Have a stress-free Wheekend!

Chaos at Piggyfriends. The Epilogue

Hi all,

Sorry this post is so late, mum is ill and totally forgot to post this for auntie Penny.

The Guinygirlz: Woopy, Roos and Berke

and the new girl...

---

The builders have finished today just in time for Slave's birthday. Here is a picture of the outside of our room. If you enlarge it you can just see some of our pens on the right hand side.

And here is another one of the back of our room.

We are all very pleased that everything is back to normal again. It has taken a very long time, much longer than it should have but we hope that you have enjoyed our little story.

Cast list is as follows....... 

Bosworth was played by Agent Plantagenet

Florence was played by Agent Firenze

Angelina was played by Agent Mouse.

Lotte and Lola were played by Agents 88

Susie was played by Agent Gemini

Otto was played by Agent Mystery

Garnet was played by Agent Big Red

Petunia was played by Agent Flower

Polo was played by Agent Minty

Dorian was played by Agent Silver Streak

Gandalf was played by Agent Wizard.

Max, Tyrion and Rafferty were played by themselves.

Director and Chief Photographer was Agent Firenze.

Catering by our Slave.

THE END.

Friday Video: how a dog adopted baby guinea pigs

Have a Nice Wheekend!

Friday Video: Dear Kitten

First of all, our apologies that we didn't post a video last wheek. But we were really busy and Agent Yougie and Popcorn's pigtures were just sooo cute, that we thought it wouldn't be that bad to give them the spotlight on our blog for a bit longer (thank you, agents! You really saved our furry behinds there)



Have a nice Wheekend!

P.s. Indeed Woopy, Roos and Berke, there is something stirring in the Winky team haystack
P.p.s. two somethings actually ;-)

This and that

Hi all,

There are two things our slaves asked us to share.

First, Mieke will not make an Undercover Guinea Pigs Calendar for 2015.
We haven't recieved much replies yet, thank you to the ones who did send in pigtures.
And if our slave is honest, it really is quite some work, and she decided to not do it this year, maybe next year...

Secondly, we had word from M and the boys. They have succesfully moved house!

The boys now have a great patch of grass for summer! Unfortunately they don't have a good internet connection yet, that will take a few more weeks.
They are all doing well.

Wheeks and piggy kisses,
Woopy, Roos and Berke

p.s. There seems to be a piggy around that looks a bit like our beloved agent F....

p.s. 2 Auntie J, of Bo and Ties, keeps sending pigtures to mom as well, she keeps ooh-ing and aah-ing... What would that be about?

Happy Halloween from Agent Yougie and Agent Popcorn

Chaos at the Piggyfriends: Episode 8. Piggy of the Month

Florence Piggyfriend here.

I was so pleased to be piggy of the month in the Calendar. I can't believe that it is nearly Halloween again as so much has been happening here at Piggyfriends. If you have been following our Chaos story, you will know that our pigroom, which is also Slave's conservatory, had to be rebuilt as it was subsiding. We could not post an episode whilst Slave was away on her holiday as she took her camera with her. Then she brought it back and her computer died. Luckily the repair guys were able to resuscitate it and here we are again.

Slave has been painting our new wall green.
This colour is called Angel's Palace.
I think that it should be called Piggies' Palace.

One of our homes has been moved into the new room.
Who lives here?

"We do. This is our home and it is back where it should be!"
say Bosworth and Rafferty.

" This is my home. Please lift me in
so that I can eat that grass." says Susie

" Our home is ready for us to move back in.
Come on Otto!." say Lotte and Lola.

" Here I am." says Otto. " There is grass to share."

" My friend Angelina is being taken to our home by our pigsitter,
who is helping put our room back in order.
She is not scared now." says Florence.

"And here is Slave carrying her plants back in from the garage!
I'll show you more of our new room soon.
We don't all live in here as some of us stay in the dining room."

Friday Video: Teddy Bear the Porcupine's Halloween Feast

And he's having pumpkin! How adorable is he?


We did some searching on the web after seeing this video, and found out that he helps to educate people, and that he did the voice of Sebastian the hedgehog in The Hobbit; an Unexpected Journey.


Hope you have a nice Wheekend!

Repost: Different piggie breed pigtures wanted for the 2015 Undercover Guinea Pigs Calendar!

Hey all,

So I want to try to gather pigtures of your piggies of different breeds, so we can make a calendar for 2015 with a different breed every month.

This year's Desktop calendar

As always I need your help! So please send me pigtures of your piggies. Pictures that show us how they look (or differ from other breeds) are most useful of course. Any breeds will do, please let us know what breed your piggie is, and if you have pigtures of late piggies in a particular breed, feel free to send them in too!

Every month in 2015 I would like to make a post about that month's particular breed. If you have any explanation about the breed (i.e. Rexes have curled wiskers, US teddies straight), know about special traits they have (for example of rexes it is often said they are bigger then other breeds). Maybe how they came in to existence (a mix of two other breeds) anything that is interesting for us to know, let us know.

Check on the contribute tab for our email address and send us your pigtures!
Please also send me their (agent) names and breed.

Thanks, I hope we can make another gorgeous Calendar for the upcoming year, and of course make a little profit we can donate to a shelter...

You can see most of our previous calendar piggies here. or click on the labels on the right side with Calendar 2014, 2013 or 2012.

Mieke,
and the rest of the blogging trinity (Janneke and M)

The 2012 Wall calendar

Friday Video: for the Birds

Hi all,

We weren't up to writing a Friday Video post so soon after Coco's passing. But we wouldn't want to deprive you of a Friday Video for too long, so here it is. Al least it cheered us up ;-)


Have a nice Wheekend!

Agent Chanel checking out

Coco smiling prettily for Mister R.

We're sorry to bring you bad news again. Our Coco left for the rainbow bridge today. She had been suffering from kidney failure for a while now, but today she was feeling so bad that we went to the vet and helped her make the final journey.

We might write more about the kidney failure and the diagnosis another day, but for today we would like to remember our little diva as she was (and we do mean 'diva' in the sweetest way possible. Every member of our household loved Coco and her antics, even Bo when nobody was looking).

This morning, while Coco, Bo and Ties were waiting for their cage to be cleaned, Coco was lying comfortably on a soft towel. Since she was obviously not feeling well, J wanted to make the cage as comfortable as possible for her. So she made her a nest of hay. In the other corner of the cage she put a wooden house, to make sure that Bo and Ties would leave her be and play with the house.

Huh? Where's Coco?

Coco was lowered into the nest and immediately started looking very annoyed. Next thing we knew, she was dragging her tiny body to the other side of the cage and then sat in front of the house. Every once in a while throwing J a dirty look.

Come on! I'm waiting..

Finally J caved, put a towel in the house, and little miss diva made herself comfortable. Needless to say, no cage mate was admitted into the house. Weak as she was, her pigsonality made up for that (she even got herself a tall, handsome bodyguard)

(Ties) nothing to see here, people. Please move along..

Coco sweetie, we'll miss you. Try to go easy on the other pigs at the rainbow bridge, there's plenty of chicory for everyone

Big Pigs.

When I go on holiday, I always miss my herd of Piggyfriends, so I was delighted to find a few of their big relatives, some lovely capybaras, in Dartmoor Zoo in Devon, England. I am always wary of zoos and am the first to complain if the animals' quarters are not up to scratch but these lovely capybaras had a huge enclosure, which they shared with two nice tapirs and some rheas.

When we arrived, it was a hot day and the first animals that we met were these capybaras, basking in the sun beside their pool.

 

And as you can never have enough capybaras, here are some more. The one beside the tree was obviously having a nice dream as he kept waving his paws around!

Here are their friends, the two tapirs, who were also fast asleep when we arrived and were snoring very loudly. Sorry about the wire but I could not climb in to take a better shot.

Later in the day it rained and the capybaras all woke up and went in search of lunch. Just like our piggies, they love their fresh grass.

When we were leaving, the capybaras were walking in a line like a piggy train to go to their big wooden shelter where they had lots of hay but, unfortunately, there was too much wire in the way for me to take a good pigture so here is one of the tapirs, one of whom was in the pool that they share with the capybaras.

I wish that I had room at home for a capy but their pool was bigger than my garden.

 

Daisy had a bladder stone part 2

I wrote this part last Sunday, when I did not know yet how she would be doing on Monday... 

So after we took Daisy home on friday we force fed her some science recovery and she seemed to be doing pretty well. Our vet was saying we had a really strong piggie, as she thought earlier that day that she would not make it.
I forgot to mention they also removed a polyp from her bladder.

On saturday, we kept a hawk's eye on her most of the day and she ate some chicory (see the video), drank a little and nibbled some hay. Of course we kept up with the force feeding and medicine, and she started to object quite violently. Which of course did not make it easier for us, but I was glad she was this feisty as it meant she was feeling better.

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Look Daisy is eating chicory! #guineapig #eating

View on Instagram

Today, sunday, she is still hanging in there, but she seems a bit less than the day before... It does get faster to hand feed her though but she does not want to eat by herself. Though I do think she ate a little parsley on her own. As we put in quite some food the day before, but did not see her dump any of it on the back side, I tried to separate her from the rest. I put up some C&C grids, gave her hay, a drinking bottle and pellets, put her in to see if she did poop. Within 5 minutes however she escaped, and to my surprise she left at least one poop. I felt like she was saying. "Hey mom, I did a poop, i'll let myself out now, okay?'
A bit later that day she seemed a bit more perky and that was when I think she ate the parsley. Also hand feeding her went a lot smoother. I did notice her tummy seems really swollen, also when she walks she sound like something inside is really sloshing... Anyone have a clue what is happening there?

We are keeping up the force feeding, she had less at this time of day, then she had yesterday. She has antibiotics (novadox: which is doxycycline), Carprofen as painkiller (this is rymadil I think) and cysaral for getting her gut to keep moving (it is cisapride). Today I also syringed her some water inbetween the force feeding, and some oil in case she was so swollen because of gas.

Right now she seems okay-ish, and I really hope she gets through another night, so we can talk and maybe take her to the vet again tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted and hope you will keep your fingers and paws crossed for her. She fought so hard to stay around, so she really deserves to get better soon!

On a happier note: Berke turned 3 yesterday, and he plus the others were happy to see Daisy back. They are sweet to her, and keep her company some times.

Hugs to all your Piggies,
Mieke of the Guinygirlz: Woopy, Daisy, Roos and Berke

Friday Video: when JoeJoe the Capybara meets Puppies

Today we have a suggestion from Pat and the Prairy Pigs (thank you Pat!). She sent us a video with JoeJoe the Capybara and puppies. Since we found lots more video's from JoeJoe with puppies and we couldn't choose. We've decided to post them all. Hope you won't mind ;-)


Puppy play time


Trying to nap with puppies



JoeJoe loves puppies


Joe Joe and puppies

Have a nice Wheekend!

Daisy had a bladderstone :(

Hi all,

Unfortunately we found out our Daisy was ill, this is her story.

We noticed her weight dropped 200 grammes in only a month, and she was wet underneath. So I
suspected cystitis. We tried her on one of Peter gurney's remedies of barley water. But after a few days it was clear to me that wasn't helping enough...
So of to the vet it was. She confirmed my theory of Daisy having cystitis, but she was also doubting a bit if maybe she had a bladder stone, as she thought she could feel something in the bladder area..
We tried antibiotics and a painkiller for almost a week, but Daisy was not really improving.

So back to the vet to see if she did indeed have a bladderstone. This vet gave the same diagnosis: cystitis and she could feel something in her bladder. So I came back in the next day (this was last friday) to have her x-rayed (I had the last appointment the day before) and see if she really
had a dreaded stone.
So I got a call later that day saying she could see 2 things on the x-ray.
2 things? I did not like that...
The first thing was she indeed had a bladder stone, and it was to big to flush it out. The second thing was that she had a huge amount of something in her tummy... it looked like have her belly cavity, and the vet suspected a huge ovarian cyst... She had to puncture these first before she would do an operation to get the stone out. As it took up so much space, it would very likely be in the way for the removal of the stone. We agreed to get the liquid out of the ovarian cyst and then have the vet remove the stone.

Daisy's x-ray, the stone is clearly visible on the top photo.
In the bottom photo you see almost have of her tummy looks dark..

After some time I got a call again, the operation went well, the stone was removed (and about 1 cm in diameter). And she did not find an ovarian cyst.
When puncturing all that came out was air... apparently the huge bubble that showed up on the x-ray was air. The theory was that it was in her appendix that contained all the air, and as she was in pain, she inhaled a lot of air... (Anyone ever heard of this?)
However, she was having a lot of problems recovering and waking up, she started bleeding from her bladder, and it was not getting less so far....
She could put Daisy under again and see if she could fix it, but she was very hesitant to do that, as giving her that extra anesthetic the vet was afraid would give Daisy that last push to cross the bridge...
So she suggested we wait for her body to fix this...
I asked if I could come and see her... and a little bit later I was there.

Daisy was not looking good, cramping a lot because of the pain (she did have painkiller of course, but she was obviously still in a lot of pain) and her lower half was all bloody...
After about an hour the cramping became less, and the bloodflow seemed to almost halt. After a while her temperature was getting back to normal, so the heating in her intensive care unit was turned off.
About an hour later, she seemed to have improved even more, and she seemed more alert, and at some point I think she even tried to nibble the fleece she was on. This is a typical thing Daisy would so in a healthy state. She also moved around a bit more.
At that point I had already spend some hours watching her and they said I could go home, eat something and then get back in 2 hours to pick her up, if she seemed good enough.
And luckily we were allowed to take her home! At that time it was 7 in the evening. So it was a pretty tiring day for me.

Daisy back home, and picture of her stone,
the bottle is one of those small 10 ml medicine bottles

Daisy :'(

Just to let you know: we found Daisy had crossed the bridge early on last monday morning... I am devastated as she was doing so well on saturday after a bladder stone surgery on friday. \Her belly was really swollen, we suspect her bowels were punctured when trying to get air out with a
needle... that caused fluids/air to leak in to her belly cavity and madeher belly make sloshing sounds...
The vet's assistant punctured her swollen belly when I took her body in on mondag, and said only blood was coming out. She suspects she had an internal bleeding.

She was pretty certain whatever it was that they could not have done much
about it, and she was impressed we got her through the weekend at all...

Hug all your piggies from me!
Mieke, Erwin and the remaining Woopy (almost 6,5!), Roos and Berke

P.S. I will post what happened in the upcoming days... (If you are on the GPDD you probably already read it...)

This is Daisy with her boyfriend Agent Zeppelin,
they met when we drove south to get Bérke

Friday Video: Assassin's Kittens Unity

Have a nice Wheekend!

Preparation for Calendar 2015 and new topic: Piggie breeds?

Hi all,

As it is already October, it is time to start gathering photos again for the calendar of 2015.

As always I will collect photos of your guinea pigs. By sending me the pigtures you allow us to use it in the calendar, and on the blog for calendar related posts.
The proceedings will be donated to a guinea pig shelter somewhere in the world, which you can nominate and vote for.

This year I would like to try a slightly different format. Before, we let people send in pigtures of their piggies, and every (group of) piggie(s) would get their own month.
For the upcoming year I would like to give all months a piggy breed theme: so for example one month for short/smooth-haired, one for abyssinians, one for rexes, one for US/CH teddies, one for crested, longhaired piggies and so on. I am not sure we can actually find 12 different breeds but I think we can also fill 2 months for some breeds...

Every month we can have a different breed, that will be discussed on the blog. So describing what the traits of a breed are, and other interesting information about that breed. Maybe we could also have a look at the different colorings?

For both gathering pigtures and more information about the different breeds I will need you help!
So what do you think, are we up for this?

Up to now I have always used Vistaprint for the calendars, because they have offices on all continents it seems, which reduces the shipping costs. I have not really found a better candidate yet, but if you have good suggestions for a company like Vistaprint, let me know.

So assuming we will do the next calendar is a Piggy breeds format, I made a list of what breeds I could think of. Please add a comment if you have piggies in those or other breeds and you can provide pigtures of your current or late piggies.


Happy wheeking,
Mieke

Guinea Pig Breeds (I could think of)
- Short / Smooth -haired
- Abyssinian
- Peruvian
- Rex
- US / CH Teddies
- Texel
- Alpaca
- Coronet
- Crested
- Merino
- Hairless: Skinny and Baldwin
- Ridgeback

I used this video for some inspiration

September piggies of the month: Anya, Boomer & Dargo

Hi all,

Sorry this is so late, but unfortunately I could not get into contact with Jan who owns these gorgeous piggies, but she did give me this info when sending me their pigtures.

Enjoy!

----

Anya
Agent Name:  Agent Demon Girl
Favorite Food:  Carrots
Hobbies:  Trying to take over the pen from Boomer

Boomer
Agent Name:  Agent Athena
Favorite Food:  Green Beans
Hobbies:  playing in tunnels and trying to put down insurrections by Anya

Dargo
Agent Name: Agent Gentleman D
Favorite Food:  Anything
Hobbies:  Staying out of the way of Anya and Boomer

Friday Video: Guinea Pig Theater

Have a passionate Wheekend!

Chaos at Piggyfriends. Episode 7. Progress at last!

Gandalf says to Tyrion,
" There has been a lot of noise outside today.
When we have finished this snack,
let's go and see what has been done."

" Ooh look, Gandalf!" exclaims Tyrion.
" There are walls now and the windows
 have glass in them. "
 " It looks a lot more like a proper room
now," replies Gandalf.

Just then a van pulls up and piles of mysterious flat boxes begin to be unloaded so the boys run back to their temporary accommodation before they are seen and tell the other piggies what they have discovered.

The next day Dorian and Rafferty 

take their turn exploring.

" Those boxes were full of tiles," says Dorian, 

" and now they are on the floor."

" They are very grey and dusty," says Dorian,
 " but they make good camouflage for me! "

" They look black in Slave's catalogue."
replies Rafferty. "I'll be able to hide
amongst them when they are cleaned  up."

The piggies hear another vehicle pull up outside
and sneak around the garage to see
 what is happening. They hide behind Slave's car
and see that a skip has been delivered.
 " Slave will be so pleased to see
all the debris being taken away." they all think.

To be continued............

Friday Video: Hotdog Eating Contest

Have a tasty Wheekend!

Chaos at Piggyfriends. Episode 6. Strange things are delivered.

Garnet looks out of the window and says.........

" Hey gang! I can see a big van parked outside."

The piggies all rush to join Garnet and see a man carrying
pieces of........"What is that stuff?" they all wonder.

" Our garden is full of windows and bits of metal.
What is it all for? " they ask each other.

"Let's all have some lunch and a nap," says Garnet.
"Yes," says Petunia, " then we can go and see
what is happening outside."

" Are you coming, Angelina?" they all ask.
" No thanks," she replies. " I'm still getting dry."
The rest of the Piggyfriends run off.
" Phew!" thinks Angelina.
" I avoided going outside again."

When they all sneak outside ( minus Angelina )
they see what all the strange things are for.
" Wow!" they exclaim, " They are all parts of a new room."
" I hope that man doesn't fall off his ladder," says Garnet.