A Piggy A-Z. M is for May Day......or maybe not.

 Hello readers. Picchu Piggyfriend here.

We were going to make a May Day post. Our girls were competing for the right to be May Queen and have a crown of mayflowers. We have a hedge of hawthorn ( may ) along the side of our garden.

I think that Bella would have won by virtue of her mere weight although Caoimhe is growing to be a big girl too.

Unfortunately, our spring has been unseasonably cold this year and there was not a single blossom to be picked so the girls will have to wait until next year. We cannot have a May Queen without any May.

A Piggy A-Z. L is for Lots of Lovely Leaves.

 This is part of the farm where Slave goes to collect Lots of Lovely Leaves for us.

In the foreground there are Broccoli plants and behind those are Cabbages and Cauliflowers. Right at the back, in front of the farm building, there are rows of winter Lettuce. Slave's friend, who owns the farm, lets her pick anything that she likes for us.

Around the edges of the field there are lots of tasty weeds, shepherd's purse, groundsel and chickweed and she forages for whatever she can reach. Sometimes we get sow thistles and dandelions too but Slave has to watch out for nasty nettles.

 

 

Here are some of the cabbage plants. When they have been harvested, Slave will be able to get to the cauliflowers. They are our favourite.

On the other side of the road are the fields where she cuts boxes of grass for us.

"You two start at one end and I will start at the other," says Carter to Saoirse and Aoife. "We will meet in the middle."

"Quick Saffron," says Bounty, " let's eat this leaf before Ebony wakes up from her nap." " I think that it might be a bit too much for just us two," replies Saffron.

"Move up Miss Marple," say Mama Bonbon and Bella, " there is plenty for us all."

This post was inspired by the lovely leaves that the Surrey Squeakers were enjoying on their blog.

A Piggy A-Z. L is for Love. Piggy Love!!

 We all love our piggies and our piggies love their piggies......

Here is Carter Piggyfriend on the right. He Loves his Little Ladies, Aoife and Saoirse. They have all snuggled into a box of hay for a well deserved nap after demolishing their breakfasts.

A Piggy A-Z. L is for Ladies who Lunch.

 

Here are Miss Marple, Bella and Mama Bonbon, the Ladies who Lunch and breakfast and dine and have afternoon snacks and lunch and lunch and lunch........................

Life is one long meal for the Piggyfriends.
 

The Piggyfriends are back with L is for Lettuce.

Hello Readers! Picchu Piggyfriend here. We are sorry that we have been unable to post anything for a while but Slave's camera broke down. The lens cover would not open and, due to the nasty virus that is chasing after humans in the outside world, all the non-essential shops have been closed since March. Luckily for us, that did not include food shops and we have been amply supplied with veggies.

Slave was unable to take her camera to the repair shop. Now some shops have been allowed to reopen and we are in business again. We are starting up our Piggy A-Z again with L is for Lettuce.

You may remember our lettuce seedlings growing in our conservatory earlier in the year. Now they are growing outside and you can see some of them here.

Our garden suffers from rabbits, who sneak in and eat Slave's produce so she is growing our lettuces in boxes on shelves that are out of reach of nasty thieves.

These lettuces are called Salad Bowl and Slave can pick some leaves every day for us and new leaves grow in their place. What a good idea.

Our parsley, that you saw in our earlier post, is thriving outside in big pots and continues to keep us in tasty treats.

A Piggy A-Z. K is for Kale.

We love Kale but it can be gassy for piggies that are so affected so Slave feeds us this in moderation. It is useful in the winter when it is not so easy for Slave to get our grass.

Here it is growing in pots ready for planting out in the garden. It has to be protected from the nasty rabbits that come into our garden and steal our food and also from some butterflies. We thought that butterflies were pretty things but apparently there are some horrible white ones, who lay their eggs on brassicas ( that is the cabbage family ) and the caterpillars that hatch out eat the leaves.

Nothing is safe from pests. Slave has special butterfly netting to put over our kale. This has small holes that the butterflies cannot pass through, The lengths that Slave goes to to make sure that we get our favourite veggies.

We like the second picture as there is a pot of chickweed at the front. Chickweed is one of our favourite weeds and it prefers to grow wild but Slave is trying to grow it in pots for us. We do not think that this will go very far.

A Piggy A-Z. K is for Kindness and Keeping Close

We have been sent a photo and a story from our friend Ann, Slave to the the Piggyville Girls.

The Piggyville girls each have their own cozy to sleep in. Tilley loves
to sleep either on top of Honeydew's house or inside it. Honeydew acts
like Tilley is her baby, though they are not related. Squirly is too big
to share with anyone. This picture reminds me that no matter how close
or far away our friends or family members may be we carry their love in
our hearts and cherish their memories.  Sometimes with our busy lives we
forget to tell our friends and family members how much they mean to us.
So reach out and connect with someone you love. Ask your parents what
life was like when they were youngsters. Take some extra time to listen
to your child or spouse tell you about their day. Call your friend that
lives across the pond just to say hi. There is no better time than now.

Honeydew is willing to share her home with Tilley as long as she sleeps on the roof.
Squirly is snug as a bug in her tunnel. They are taking a nap after
enjoying their tea time treats. Their bellies are full from eating red
bell peppers, carrots and Broccolini which is a hybrid of broccoli and
Chinese kale.

A Piggy A-Z. K is for Kiwi.

Hello readers. This is me, Kiwi Piggyfriend. My brother, Machu Picchu and I were the last piggies to come from Palace Piggies before they relocated many miles away.

On behalf of all the Piggyfriends, I hope that all of our readers are OK and getting by during the frightening pandemic that is affecting humans all over the world.

I have to admit that we do not write this blog on our own and need our Slave's help sometimes but she has had to spend a lot of time queueing at the store to get our veggies. She has to drive to a town and then stands in line outside the store for an hour before she can get inside. Later in the year she grows lots of our food in the garden but it is too early to be picking much at the moment.

For the first few weeks, the store was rationing everything so that she could only get three of each veggie. You can imagine that three cucumbers do not go far between a herd of hungry piggies. She has not been able to get any romaine lettuce at all but recently the store have allowed more than three of each item so last week she tried her luck and put eight cucumbers in her cart along with other veggies and the checkout lady did not take them away, What a relief. She also stocked up on carrots, celery, and chicory but some veggies do not keep for a whole week.

Our little local shop where she could top up on celery and cucumbers without having to go to the nearest town has been shut as have most other shops.

She is not even allowed to go to visit her friend Roly's farm, where she cuts our grass and forages amongst the crops for tasty weeds and leaves. So she has set up what we call our Parsley Farm.

This is in our pig room and you can just see a corner of a pen in the pigture.

Here is some more of it.

You can just see a piggy in the left hand pen. I think that is Saffron, who lives with her family next door to me, under the little stool. Slave has started lettuces in that tray at the front and has to move it all to get to our pens to feed us and to clean. She has tomato plants on the table and, if the weather improves, they will be going out to the greenhouse but it takes a long time before they produce a fruit.

Grass is growing much better now that spring is here so we are not starving but we would like to have all of our veggies available again. Slave would like the little shop to be allowed to open and to visit Roly again. She has plenty of food for herself in her larder but never imagined how difficult it would be to feed a herd of piggies.

Let us know how you are all getting on. We would love to hear from you.

A Piggy A-Z. I is for Ivermectin and Isoflurane.

We thought that it was about time that we got back to the Piggy A-Z so here we go with I.

I is for Ivermectin, a wonderful medicine that kills mites, the bane of all piggies.

Our Slave buys this from our Rodentologists and it comes in the little dropper bottle, pictured above, which gives out a measured dose. We all get two drops of this every three months and it keeps mites away.

Sometimes piggies have come to Piggyfriends already suffering from mites and they have been given the two drops of Ivermectin followed by a second dose a fortnight later to kill off any eggs that might have hatched since the first dose. In very rare cases, a third dose can be given after another fortnight.

Slave keeps a chart with all of our names on it and she puts the dates when we are "Ivomeced" so that no pig is ever missed. We are all given a dose of Panacur at the same time and we will cover this when we get to P. We always get a treat afterwards especially if we are good piggies.

I is also for Isoflurane, the only safe anaesthetic for piggies but we do not have a photo of this. If anypig ever has to be given an anaesthetic, make sure that this is the one used by your vet.

Do any of our piggy readers have a name beginning with I? If so, we would love to see your pigture.

A Piggy A-Z. H is for Honeydew

 Hi my name is Honeydew. I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North
Carolina. My slave also calls me Honey-do-do because I love to leave
lots of do dos in my bed and on her lap.

This is my pink piggy bed that my Grandma Colette sent me for my
birthday. It is my favorite bed but it has many uses.  My slave carries
me around in it. She makes me feel like I am the Queen of Sheba. My bed
is also a piggy hide-a-way. Whenever a rabbit or turkey walks by I just
jump in and become invisible. It is like a piggy Tardis. My slave thinks
it is a Piggy mobile. She lets me drive it around on the kitchen floor.
Wheee!!! Sometimes I even nap on top of my bed. But I would not let my
slave take a picture of me napping. I think my slave enjoys this pink
piggy bed as much as I do. Stay tuned for more adventures of Honeydew
and Squirly in Piggyville.

A Piggy A-Z. H is for Hazel ( and Bonny too ).

Hello readers. It has been a long time since the Piggyfriends posted. Slave has not been able to help us with our typing for a while but now we want to tell you all about some new Piggyfriends.

A dear friend, who shows piggies, asked us if we would like to give a home to some of his "retired" piggies. We did not know that piggies stop going to shows when they are 2 years old. Slave did not know anything about showing piggies but we learn something new every day.

Of course, Slave jumped at the chance to bring some more piggies home so, without further ado, let us introduce Hazel.

Here she is in the carrier that Slave took to bring our new friends home. Hazel is on the right and her sister, Bonny, is under the hay.

They were understandably nervous after their journey but Slave took some quick photos before putting them into their new pen. She put them both in an upturned wooden house so that they did not scuttle away under the furniture. This is a photo of Bonny.

And this is Hazel. It is not the best photo in the world but as it is her first proper photo we thought that you would like to see it anyway.

Here they are enjoying a pile of grass. Bonny is on the left and Hazel on the right. They are what we call Shelties in England but Slave thinks that they are called Silkies in the US and is not sure about other countries. They are like Peruvians but their coats grow back away from their faces.

When they are shown, they have to have their coats intact but our friend gave them both a haircut and a shampoo before they became Piggyfriends. Bonny is at the front and Hazel is behind her. They have settled in well and it was not long before Bonny was at the front of the pen begging Slave for veggies.

Please welcome our new little friends. We will tell you about some more new friends in another post.

G is for Grapes. A Piggy A-Z.

Many of the Piggyfriends enjoy a grape or two. Slave always cuts them in half lengthways as otherwise they roll away.

Here is Cosmo Dangermouse taking his grape. He has a green one but we all like the red ones too.

" I like grapes too," says Martin.

Do any of our readers like grapes? Our Slave loves them so we all have to share.

A Piggy A - Z. G is for Guinea Pigs!

After that one wet day, the heatwave returned and it goes on and on although the weatherman has just said that we might be getting some rain in a few days time. We cannot go outside as it is so hot but we thought that it was about time we made a post and decided to move on to G in our alphabet.

What else could we possibly start with other than the most important G of all - GUINEA PIGS of course.

It being too hot to do anything that required exercise, we had a look through the Piggyfriend archives and found these photos, which were for a little friendly competition about who could make the longest line of piggies.

Our senior piggy Otto, on the right, remembers this photoshoot from his younger days. He says that Slave made a line of celery both to keep all the piggies in order and also to stop them from falling off the sofa whilst she took the photos.

Then she took the celery away and, very quickly, took this photo. Otto says that he was replaced by Fennel for this pigture.

This was the longest line of piggies that Slave was able to make as they filled up the sofa.

Otto remembers that were a lot of outtakes during this photoshoot. Here is one....

Not all of the piggies would stay in line.....

Anyone reading this will know all about Guinea Pigs so we do not need to tell you any more but we would love to see any photos that you might have. Use the Contribute button at the top of our page.

The above pigture shows some of the Piggyfriends waiting to be lined up. As you can see, we come in many different shapes, sizes, hairstyles and colours.

Now we are waiting in earnest for that rain to come so that we can show you some photos of G for Grass.

A Piggy A - Z. F is for Friend

We have not been able to take any pigtures for the blog until today as Slave has been out and about and she took her camera with her but today she is at work again so we have pigtures to share.

Us piggies are social animals and, much as we appreciate the love of a kind Slave, nothing beats the friendship of another piggy.

Someone with whom to share a pile of grass.

Fernando and Martin on the left.









And after eating, a post prandial nap with our best friend.

Here, on the right, are Otto and Niamh fast asleep.









As always, we would love to see your pigtures. Follow the instructions on our Contribute button at the top of our page. It is very easy.

A Piggy A-Z. F is for Fans

We hate the winter, when the grass struggles to grow and we have to be indoors all the time because it is too wet and cold so we are reminiscing today.

It does not get hot very often in England but we do have a few days when it is too warm for us ( and for Slave ) so we have lots of fans around the house to keep us all cool.

In the pig room ( Slave calls it her conservatory but there are nearly as many piggies in it as plants ) we have a ceiling fan as the roof is glass and it lets in too much heat. Here it is.

It is nice and quiet and is also our light at night.

We also have several floor fans and you can see one of them below.

The towels stop us being in a draught but the cool air can circulate. That is me, Louis Piggyfriend, eating from my bowl. Otto and Niamh live next door to me but they are behind the towel and you cannot see them.

Slave tells us that, on milder days, the grass is beginning to grow but that it is very muddy in the garden after the snow has melted and we have had a lot rain today but we all look forward to going out to pick our own grass in the summer.

A Piggy A-Z. F is for Frozen!

"Come and look out of the window," calls Niamh Piggyfriend. "Everything is frozen!"

"Where has our grass gone?" ask the rest of the Piggyfriends. " We cannot see it at all."

"Don't worry," replies Otto.  "That white stuff is called snow. It is just frozen rain. It does not happen very often here but I can remember seeing it when I was a piglet."

" When it gets warmer, it will all melt and we will be able to see our garden again. In the meantime, Slave has bought us bags of veggies to eat."


We expect that lots of readers are used to snow in winter but it is a novelty to us in SE England. We know that Aunty Pat's Prairie Piggies have loads of snow in winter.

A Piggy A-Z. F is for Freaking out in the bath.

Slave decided that it was time for me, Carter Piggyfriend and my friends, Saoirse and Aoife to have a shampoo. Some of us enjoy this and some do not as you will see from the following photos.

This is me ( above ). I love a shampoo and you can see me relaxing in the bath whilst the lather from the shampoo does its stuff.

On the other hand, some pigs "F for Freak out" when it is bath time and above you can see my friends who, after several laps of the bath that Slave calls the "Wall of Death" have tried to hide in a rolled up rubber bath mat. You might think that sows would take a pride in their appearance and appreciate a spa treatment but not these two.

Afterwards we were all bundled up in soft towels to dry off. You can only just see me but my girls have buried themselves in the towels and you will have to take my word for it that they are there. Instead of them, here is a plug for our F for Favourite shampoo. Wonderful for piggies and all pets.

And here I am, back in my pen, nice and clean and F for Fluffy. I think that I will tear a bit more from my box. I do enjoy some F for Fun.

Here is Saoirse recovering from the shock of that bath.

And here is Aoife. They enjoy tearing up the boxes too as you can see.Luckily there seems to be an infinite supply of new ones. I wonder where they come from?

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.

A Piggy A-Z. E is for Edvard Munch

Hi!  I'm Edvard Munch, and I live with the Prairie Pigs in Western Canada.  I'm named after a famous Norwegian painter. I'm not very artistic, but I am excellent at munching, so I think that might be why Slave thought that was a good name for a piggy.

Here I am, admiring the most famous painting by that other Edvard Munch, the human one.  It's called The Scream: that's how I feel when the snacks are late!

Speaking of snacks and munching, here I am enjoying my favourite treat: yellow pepper.  Yum!

And here I am with my pal Guinness.  We live next door to each other and share a hay rack.  Guinness is a very calm and thoughtful older piggy who is happy to share his boarly wisdom with me while we are munching away on either side of the hay rack.  His eyes really are that colour!

Now that you've heard from one Prairie Pig, stay tuned for some of my friends who will be reporting in soon when the piggy alphabet project gets to their letter of the alphabet.  Faith and Guinness are already working on their own stories!

In the meantime, are there any other "E" piggies out there?  Esmeralda or Ezekiel possibly?  Check the "Contribute" button at the top of this page --- it's easy and fun to post your own story.  Every piggy deserves their moment in the sun, and who doesn't love looking at pigtures of other people's piggies???