Happy Christmas to our Readers

On behalf of all the Piggyfriends, Otto wishes you a very happy Christmas. We know that many of you have different holidays to us so we wish everyone a happy time whatever they celebrate. As you can see, Algernon Rat is here for the holidays.

My friend, Niamh, has joined me for this photo. Slave knew that I would still but Niamh disappeared amongst the tinsel before she would pose. Unfortunately we do not have an outtake as Slave had to put her camera down before rescuing her from the hearth, which is behind us in the pigture. Don't worry, the fire is not lit.

We hope that you all have a wonderful time with loads of yummy veggies. We were rewarded with parsley for posing for our photos.

If you have any holiday photos, we would love to see them.

Nollaig Shona Dhaiobh. Happy Christmas EVERYONE!

Helping.

Mimi aka Agent Diva 1 is helping with the Christmas decorations.

Friday video: Success! (Binky learned to spin as well)

And Binky also learned to spin! #guineapigs #spinning #clockwise #counterclockwise #tricks

Een bericht gedeeld door Mieke (@pandameisje) op 22 Dec 2017 om 3:39 (PST)

Have a great wheekend! Hope you all have lots of veggies for christmas Raani, Binky and Cookie plus slave Mikey

Thanksgiving Pigtures

The following pigtures of Apollo (brown piggy), Dmitri (mostly black piggy), and Dante Wigglebottom (white and black piggy) were taken for the Thanksgiving holiday back in November. Apollo has since passed on, but you can tell he was quite the ham in photo shoots!

The Piggyfriends' grass is frozen!

Slave cuts fresh grass for us every day but this morning she came back in and said that it had frozen!

"She offered us these cauliflower leaves instead. Much as we love a cauli leaf it is not the same as a pile of fresh grass but I suppose it will have to do" says Saoirse Piggyfriend in between mouthfuls.

Carter grabs a piece of leaf and rushes to eat it in the privacy of a box before his friends can steal it. "I love cauli," says Carter, " and I am so glad that our friend, Roly, grows lots of it on his farm."

"Well, I suppose there is nothing for it but to join my friends, " says Aoife, " before they have cleared up the lot."

"Don't worry piggies, " says Slave. " I have a whole bagful of leaves for you and maybe the grass will have thawed tomorrow."

Happy Birthday Louis Piggyfriend!

Hello Readers! Louis Piggyfriend here. It is my 6th. birthday today and Slave has given me my very favourite veggie. Sow thistle.

Do you like sow thistle? Slave grows it for us in her veggie garden but it finishes when the warm weather comes to an end. She kept this one growing under a cloche just for my birthday. Wasn't that kind of her?

It is so lovely and juicy that it deserves another photo.

After all that good food, I needed a nap.

"Happy Birthday Louis!" say the Piggyfriend herd.

Friday video: how to train your guinea pig

To do a spin! Hope you are not getting fed up with all our spinning piggies videos. We are now trying to teach our boar Binky to spin as well. In this video we show you how to do it.

How to train your Guinea pig: Do a spin. Raani knows how to spin, and demonstrates that first, though Binky is standing in the way a bit. Then we show how Binky will follow the veg. This is how you teach them to spin, at some point it will click and just saying 'Do a spin' will make your piggy do a spin. #guineapigs #training #doaspin #spin #trick

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Nov 29, 2017 at 1:04pm PST

At first we thought Binky would not follow the vegetable at all. Raani and Cookie both spin clockwise. Binky would not do that. Then Piggy dad tried to make him follow the vegetable anti clockwise, as you can see in the video Binky can do that pretty well. Now I wonder does he not see the veg well when we try to make him spin clockwise, or does he just like to turn anti clockwise?

A Piggy A - Z. F for Fernando

A few of the Piggyfriends are not keen on having their photos taken. I am one of them. Slave tried to creep up on me and catch me unawares but I saw her coming and ran to hide in our wooden house. So she took our house and tunnel away.

Having nowhere to hide, I ran into the corner of our pen and sat with my brother, Martin, so you can see me, Fernando, on the right of this photo.

Here we are again so that you can see my other side. You saw me in the photos when we did the Taste Tests but I was more interested in investigating the new foods that day than watching sneaky photographers.

Friday video: more spinning...

Pig dad is trying to teach us the spin synchronized, he hasn't had much luck with us, though he does claim we can do it synchronized of camera...

Okay, still working on that synchronized spinning... #guineapigs #trick #spin #doaspin

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Nov 15, 2017 at 12:44pm PST

Have a great wheekend!
Spinners Raani and Cookie
And boar Binky

I had to go to the vet.

Niamh Piggyfriend here. A while ago I was not eating very well and Slave could see that my incisors were growing diagonally. A sure sign that there was a problem with my molars. She took me to see our Rodentologist, Lynn from Palace Piggies, and she trimmed my teeth but said that she thought that I might have a tooth root abscess. Eeek!!! Our retired Rodentologist was an expert with abscesses and could have dealt with this himself but Lynn said that I should go and see our vet.

While she waited for the abscess to appear, Slave had to syringe feed me. I was very good and did not mind this but eventually the day came when the trip to the vet was necessary.

I had to have an Xray. Our vet put sandbags all around me so that I would not move and spoil the image.You can see it above. It is not a very clear picture but it is the best of several that Slave took. Our vet said that it shows that I have Osteomyelitis, which causes my teeth to grow wrongly into my jaw and this could have caused the abscess, which is visible in the full size Xray but not in this little photo. This does not look much like me does it? Where is my coat?

This is what I really look like. Here I am being weighed. I only just fit on the vet's little scale but the only other one that he has is for dogs and cats and does not register very well with a little guinea on it. I do not think that any of our big boars would fit on this little one.



The vet lanced my abscess and drained a lot of horrible pus out of it. Then he flushed out the cavity with antiseptic and saline. There is no photo of this event as Slave was holding me still whilst the vet performed the procedure. You would not want to see it anyway as it was nasty and smelly. I made a lot of noise about it but then I started making a noise before he put the scalpel in. The people in the waiting room could hear me.
 

We came home with Marbocyl antibiotics, a bag of saline and a lot of syringes. Slave had to flush out the abscess with the saline every day using the little hole that the vet had made and every week we went back to the vet for him to do it better. I started eating once the abscess had been lanced and Slave was very relieved about that. So was I.

After the abscess had gone flat, I thought that I was OK but then another one came up and we had to go back to the vet and start over. Here you can see our lovely vet examining me. His name is Etienne and he comes from Belgium. He has been the Piggyfriends' vet for nearly 20 years.

Finally the day came when Etienne said that I was all mended! Hooray! There is a possibility that I might get another one so paws crossed that this does not happen. I like going to see the vet but do not want another abscess.

Friday video: we've got another spinner

Hope you are not getting fed up with me sharing all these videos of spinning piggies, but Erwin managed to teach Cookie to spin as well

We thought Cookie didn't get how to do a spin, but she does get it. It just is she doesn't respond to the words 'do a spin' but she responds to the waving of the veggies in a circle above her head! #guineapig #spin #trick

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Nov 8, 2017 at 5:52am PST

Look what our Slave was given for her Birthday

It was our Slave's birthday on October 29th. and look what she received. "A Guinea Pig Romeo and Juliet".

This is the fourth in a series of real stories rewritten with guinea pigs as the characters. Slave already has the Guinea Pig Nativity, Pride and Prejudice, Oliver Twist and now she has this one, Romeo and Juliet.

The books are full of wonderful photos of guinea pigs dressed up as the "people" in the stories with guinea pig sized props too.

She was also given this little plush piggy for her ever growing collection. This one is made by a company called Living Nature and best of all, when she squeezes him, he actually squeaks just like we do.

Isn't he sweet?

Here he is reading the lovely book. You can see one of the gorgeous piggy pigtures inside.

We hope that the publishers of the book do not mind us taking photos. We did the same when Slave had their other books and no one complained!

A word of warning. This well known tale does not have a happy ending but it is only a story after all and the piggy actors were all safe.

If any piggy person you know has a birthday coming up, they would love this book. Or it would make a perfect little Christmas gift.

Happy Hallowe'en Everyone!

Slave could not decide which of us would pose for our Hallowe'en pigture and Magnus, Agent Fluffypig, drew the short carrot.

" Slave picked me because I am orange, " says Magnus, " and she thinks that I look like a pumpkin! She could be right. "

Happy Hallowe'en to all of our readers. Stay safe.

Happy Seventh Birthday dear Otto.

Today is a very special day at Piggyfriends because our dear Otto is celebrating his seventh birthday and we have made his name out of veggies.

Our Slave was very lucky to be able to give him a home all those years ago. GPDD readers may have read his story before but it bears repeating as it enabled him to come to Piggyfriends. A colleague of her son's at the animal rescue where they worked sent her prize winning white Peruvian sow, at great expense, to a stud boar expecting for her to have a litter of white Peruvians. What she got were three little boars, of whom Otto was the whitest by far but he was born with a head tilt. None of them were suitable for showing so she had them all neutered and sent them to a piggy rescue.

Had she heard this story earlier our Slave would have taken all three home straight away and none of them would have had to be neutered. She found out where they had been sent and, very fortunately, our Rodentologists knew the lady who runs this piggy rescue and called her to say that a home was waiting for them. By this time, only Otto was left as his brothers had already been rehomed.

The piggy rescue lady brought Otto with her when she visited the Rodentologists herself and our Slave went to fetch him home
.
So after a roundabout journey, Otto came home.

He found a home with Portia, who had sadly lost her companion and over the years, he has been a kind and gentle friend to many sows who have come our way. When Undercover Piggies was started he became Agent Mystery as, when his coat needs a trim, it is hard to tell which way round he is and Slave has been known to put his veggies at the wrong end even now. He had a haircut before she took these photos so that you can see him properly.

"Happy Birthday dear Otto," says Slave. " You are my little star!"

" Thank you." says Otto," I know that it is your birthday too tomorrow so would you like to share my grass?"

Please join us in saying "Happy Birthday" to our dear friend Otto. We all love you very much.

Friday video: Raani learned to spin

Synchronized standing on hind legs, and Raani learned to do a spin! @blogparty @jstaaks @hyungjacketti @mfug22

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Oct 19, 2017 at 12:31pm PDT

Friday(?) Video: guinygirlz and Binky, with Raani washing herself

Mom was busy filming us again. Here you can see us, with Raani grooming and washing herself. Turn on the sound to hear Cookie making noises....

Raani (washing herself) and Cookie and Binky

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Oct 14, 2017 at 6:26am PDT

Hope you have a good weekend,
Guinygirlz Raani, Cookie and boar Binky

A Piggy A-Z. F is for Friends and Family

Everyone reading our blog will know that guinea pigs love company and we should always be kept in pairs or more.We have several pairs of brothers and sisters here at Piggyfriends but today we received some photos from our Pigpenpals in Connecticut so we thought that we would share one with you.

Above you can see Mama Rin with her daughters, Nico and Maki. There are more photos of this family that we will show you in future A-Z posts and we are promised a video too.

We are sorry that we have been remiss in posting since we did the Taste Tests but Slave has been sick and Niamh has needed a lot of attention with an abscess ( clearing up now - all paws crossed ) and we could not reach the drawer in Slave's desk where her camera lives.

If you have any photos of your piggies with their friends or family, we would love to see them. Use the Contribute tab at the top of our page and use the title A Piggy A-Z etc. the same as we have typed at the top of this post.

Friday video: Syringe feeding and Cookie update

Wanted to show you how Cookie grabs the syringe, but when I filmed it she didn't want to do that. She seems to be doing okay, the wound looks good. We would only want her to eat a bit more, that is why we force feed her a bit of soaked pellets. When I am not filming she grabs the syringe herself. #guineapig #postop btw, isn't she adorable?

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Sep 16, 2017 at 1:23am PDT

Yesterday we heard from our vet about the culture that was made from Cookie's lumps. She had a staphylococcus, we have her the right anti biotic to battle that, which means it should no longer be present after a full week of antibiotics! Cookie has joined her cage mates Binky and Raani again, there was a lot of rumbling...
We still syringe feed Cookie because she seems to not eat enough on her own. The vet thinks the painkiller and antibiotic have upset her tummy. We were allowed to stop that now, so hopefully her appetite will improve! She still gets a probiotic and loads of TLC (doctor's order). P.s. sorry for us not being that active on the blog lately. One of us just got married, and the other two are busy syringe feeding piggies with (former) abcesses.

The last of the taste tests.

We have come to the last of the taste test " treats". This one is called "Fruit Garden" and it contains Apple, Banana and Rosehip. Now we did not expect this to go down too well as none of us like banana. Slave can only remember five Piggyfriends ever liking banana in the very many years that she has been taking in piggies.

Tyrion filled the dish ready for us to try. Here is a photo of it. The dark bits that you can see must be dried rosehips. We are not sure why they are there but fresh rosehips do contain vitamin C, which we get from the many fresh veggies that we eat.

Unsurprisingly Carter dived into the bowl. He chucked out all the banana and tried a few apple pieces.

Saoirse joined him, sniffed at the dish and left.

The Dangermice were undecided about this. Cosmo nibbled a little bit of the apple.....

......but Casper retreated into his pig cave and would have nothing to do with it.

This is as close as Fernando would get to the dish and Martin ran away.

" No thank you." says Otto as Slave tried to tempt him with some of the dried apple.

As no pig was enjoying this box of treats, Slave took pity on us and went and picked some apples from the garden. Here is Louis munching a piece of real fresh apple. "Yum yum".

We all want to thank Nature's Feast for sending us all this food to try out and we are sorry that we did not like the Treats but the bag of food was good. We think that the treat boxes may be more suited to hamsters. We are going to email Nature's Feast and tell them about our test in case they are not reading our blog.

Tyrion, Ivan and Magnus all say " This is the food that we love the best. GRASS!"

Trying out the treats continued.......

Next we tried the "Vegetable Patch" box. This contained dried carrot, parsnip and flaked peas. We all love flaked peas, which our Slave buys loose from the pet shop and sprinkles on our dishes of nibble.

As we were filling the dish, Slave noticed a sunflower seed in the mix and quickly whisked it out. It is said that seeds present a choking hazard for piggies. We never have them but better safe than sorry.

Louis tried it first as carrots are his absolute favourite veggie. You can see in this pigture how it looked from the start.

He ate some of the carrot flakes and started on the flaked peas. As we all wanted to try this treat, we moved the dish on to the next pen where Fernando had a few pieces but his brother, Martin, was not interested.

Next we gave the dish to Carter, Aoife and Saoirse.

Needless to say, Carter rushed over and had some of this treat and Aoife joined him. Carter says to please forgive the state of their pen but the housekeeper has not been round yet.

Some of us are not fond of carrot so not all the Piggyfriends joined in this taste test but Casper Dangermouse ( below ) had some.

Magnus was not sure about this although he likes carrots and his brother Ivan would not try it so he  is not in this pigture. ( below ).

By the time the dish had gone the rounds, not surprisingly all the flaked peas had gone. No pig wanted to eat the dried parsnip, which was very hard and we never eat parsnip anyway. We could not see the point in having dried carrot and much prefer having a nice fresh carrot pulled from Slave's vegetable garden.

All in all, this "treat" was better than the "Flower Garden" one but we would rather just have our usual flaked peas and fresh carrot.

We might give this 3 stars as some piggies, who are not so fortunate as to have a never ending supply of fresh carrots might like it.

The last treat box is called  "Fruit Garden" and we will be testing this soon so look out for our post.

Testing the new food......continued.

We have heard from a Slave on the GPDD called Chris, who has been trying out the new food and her four girls love it.

Today we have been trying out the "Nature's Feast Snack Selection", which has three different contents. First of all we opened the box called "Flower Garden". The next photo shows you what it looks like.

This is a mix of dried flowers, namely Marigold, Rose, Cornflower and Sunflower. Now, we eat flowers in our daily forage but Slave picks Vetch in season and that is our favourite. We also like Dandelion and Sow Thistle flowers but we always have them fresh. The instructions on the packet are to give out one teaspoon of snack per day but, as there are a lot of us, we decided to pass the dish around from pen to pen.

Now Carter will have a go at any new food and he rushed over to see what was in the dish. He sniffed at it and retreated. His girls did not get any nearer than you can see in this photo.

Fernando also came over to have a look. He did pick up a couple of flowers but dropped them back into the dish and went back to his cucumber.

The instructions on the packet suggest " Hand feeding snacks helps you bond with your pet." Now we could not be more bonded with our Slave but even this could not tempt us to eat these flowers.

"Sorry, Slave." says Niamh. " Even hand feeding will not tempt me to eat this. I am going to hide in this house."

" No thanks," says Otto, " but if you have any Vetch, that would go down a treat."

No pig was interested in this box but the label does say that it is for Rabbits and Hamsters too so maybe they would enjoy it. Sorry but we can't give this any stars. Tomorrow we are going to try another box and that may be more to our liking.

Slave tipped the dried flowers onto her basket of pot pourri.

Raani's eye, a follow up post on eye injuries...

As you know, I posted about eyes a little while ago. It feels like I jinxed it, because just as I posted that, I picked up Raani and her eye was white blueish... Looked like she had something in her eye that damaged it, but as far as I know the blue white color meant it was healing. Of course that meant we had to see our vet and I had to make this follow up post... Since (unfortunately) Raani had so obligingly agreed to demonstrate eye injuries for us ...

Raani eye damage at the vet 

 So, we went to the vet with Raani. I found out about it Wednesday, but it did not look like anything was left in her eye and the vet was really busy. So we had an early morning appointment on Thursday, because we had a wedding in the afternoon where Erwin was best man and I was the person who makes everything go well that day (sort of like a wedding planner). Turned out there was still a bit of hay in her eye (poor girl!)! Our vet tried to get it out, but (of course) it was painful so she tried to sedate the eye with an eye drop. That didn't work and Raani would try to jump up (even though Erwin was pinning her to the table), so the vet obviously did not want to put a pincer near her eye to get the culprit out. So the vet suggested she would give her a bit of gas narcosis to get the thing out safely. So Raani had to stay there. We also took Binky along so he could get used to a trip to the vet, so Binky stayed with her as well. Poor Cookie hates being alone but 3 piggies in a cat carrier seemed a bit much, even if it was for only half an hour. We were optimistic when we went to the vet... 
The vet was also really busy and had a cat that was not doing well at all who needed her attention, so we were getting a bit anxious, because we could not say to the bride and groom that we would be there later... our roles were pretty essential.

Luckily all went well and we could pick up Raani and Binky in time for the wedding. 

 

This was stuck on top of Raani's eye. It was about 7,5 millimeter or 3/4 of a centimetre long.

This is how her eye looked after just a few days of applying the eye salve pictured below. Looks good, huh? I am always amazed at how well piggy eyes heal!

On the package it says it is an antibiotic eye salve with added vitamin A. We had to put a drop of it on her eye 2 to 3 times a day for at least 5 days.

I am glad Raani's eye is looking good again, and hope she or any of my other piggies will not be so willing to demonstrate an injury or ailment again when we write about another in our piggy A-Z.
Mikey, slave to the guinygirlz Raani and Cookie and boar Binky.