We have a surprise parcel!

" Look guys!" calls Otto Piggyfriend. " The postman has brought this parcel and it is addressed to us!"

"See! It has our name on it. I wonder what is inside?" asks Otto as the Piggyfriends gather round to inspect the parcel.

"Let's open it" says Niamh. " I have the scissors." " Be careful with those Niamh," cautions Otto. "They are the ones that Slave uses to cut my hair and they are very sharp."

The Piggyfriends look on in amazement at all the goodies inside. "There is a letter from a nice man called Kirk, who works at Westland Horticultural." reads Niamh. " I've seen Slave using their compost. They are making food for small animals too now and this is a press release telling people all about their new products."

"There are boxes of treats with fruits, veggies and flowers." says Niamh. " We will all try these out and see which ones we like."

Niamh studies a care booklet that came in the package. " I am so pleased that they recommend that we eat grass and hay as those are our favourites. That is a nice photo of a piggy eating parsley." says Niamh.

" Let us try this bag of food first." suggests Niamh. " Go and round up some dishes and I will put some in each for us all to taste. Thank you Kirk."

The Piggyfriends will tell you about their taste testing in their next post.

Note to our readers. If you would like to know more about these foods, go to www.naturesfeast.co.uk, where you can read all about them.

Piggy A-Z: E for Eyes

 I don't know about other guinea pig owners, but we had multiple piggies injuring their eyes, by for example running into a pile of hay with their eyes wide open... emerging with a bit of hay sticking out of the eye

Our Roos was one of the best at getting eye injuries, especially on days when the vets are closed, like new year's day. In the picture below she had scraped the surface of her eye. The vet was a bit afraid it might not heal, but after a week (or two) her eye was completely back to normal.

The vet had not seen eye damages like this before so he took this picture:

Luckily, most of the times it is not too hard for piggy eyes to heal. What our vets have always done is apply this coloured fluid onto the eye. They would then flush the eye clean with a bit of water, the yellow colour that remains on the eye shows where the eye is damaged. As you can see in the pigture Roos pretty much scraped the whole surface of her eye...
Depending on how deep/severe the damage is an eye cream containing vitamin A and with or without antibiotic properties is given. We then needed to apply drops of the cream on the eye, and it seems really miraculous, but so far the eyes have always healed real quickly.

Have your piggies ever damaged their eyes? Do your vets treat it the same way?
Slave Mikey

(Friday) Video: New boar also running

Is it still Friday somewhere in the world? It isn't here in the Netherlands, but we didn't want to deprive you of this video.

I guess we mentioned it before that sadly our boar Bérke had to leave us... 😭😢
Last weekend we got to date with a new boar, so have a look at the handsome boar, named Binky (for now), that we took home with us!
He also enjoys running around the cage (do turn on the sound as you watch, he's a bit heavier thus louder). It's best when we run around the cage with the three of us, but so far we didn't allow slave to catch that on camera...

Our newest addition addition Binky, likes to run just as the girls do #guineapig #running

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Jul 27, 2017 at 12:47pm PDT

Friday video: Guinygirlz running together

Since Bérke had to leave the guinygirlz behind, Raani and Cookie have taken up a new hobby of zooming through the cage together.
Whee hope this is a nice start for your weekend!

We have a visitor.

It is far too hot for us to go out and send in reports so we are going to tell you about our visitor.

She is called Torty and she comes to stay with us when her human goes away on holiday. Unlike us, she is safe to be out in the hot weather and she is staying in a little pen on our lawn. Long time readers may have seen her before as she has been coming for many years. She is very old, even older than our Slave. We are somewhat concerned that she is eating OUR veggies but she is very slow and does not seem to need as much food as us piggies plus she does not eat grass so our favourite food is safe.

Here she is again enjoying some tomato. We could eat a whole one in the time it takes her to munch through this little piece but we do not need to worry about a tomato famine as there are lots more ripening in the greenhouse.

We do hope that normal summer weather will return soon as we would like to go out and pick our own grass but Slave takes her shears to work and brings us home lots of good stuff.

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???

Piggy A-Z: E for eggplant (shaped)

Guess who's the vegetable and who is the piggy?

We think eggplant, or aubergine as we call it, is not suitable for piggies, but a healthy piggy should be eggplant shaped ;)

P.s. Doesn't Raani have the cutest bum? Signed slave to the Guinygirlz, Mikey

Our Pigpenpals have sent us some photos.

We have been sent some photos by our Pigpenpals, Rin, Maki and Nico, who live in Connecticut. As it has been too hot to go out on missions or even into the garden to send in reports, we thought that we would share the photos with our readers.

They were all weighed the other day and above is mama Rin on the scale. She is growing nicely after being rescued.

And here is her daughter, Maki.

And above is her sister, Nico, trying to escape the scale. They are growing up fast and are very fluffy so it is hard to tell which end is which.

And below they all are exploring their home. That is Maki sitting on top of one of their houses.

We love hearing from our Pigpenpals. We hope to send in some reports when it is safe to go outside again. For now we are going back to napping as close to our fans as possible.

It is too HOT!!!

We have a heatwave here at Piggyfriends. The weatherman said that it is hot all over England as this horrible weather has come up from Europe. We should be out on the lawn picnicking on the yummy grass but it is too dangerous for piggies to be out in the heat.

"I am not going out on any missions today, " says Agent Diva aka Mimi. " It is far too hot to do anything except nap in this corner near one of Slave's fans."

" Come and hide under this house Cosmo," says Casper Dangermouse. " Tyrion might see you and send us out."

" There is no danger of anyone being sent out today," say Magnus and Ivan Fluffypig. " Tyrion is fast asleep in the other house. Let us all nap until this horrible heat goes away."

A Piggy A-Z. E is for Escaping!

When we go on missions for Undercover Piggies, we need a strategy so that our Slave does not realise that we have gone out. Here are two examples of how we escape.......

 

 "Tyrion has asked me to go out on a mission when we have finished our grass, Niamh." says Otto. "Can you cover for me whilst I am gone? When people were on lookout, they used to say that they were "keeping cave" and it was pronounced cavy. I think that it might have been Latin." " That's alright Otto, " says Niamh. " I can keep on being a cavy whilst you go out. What disguise do we have?" " I will get Slave's beret. It is hot outside so she will not be wanting it." says Otto.

" No one will notice that this is not Agent Mystery sitting beside me," says Niamh," and I have eaten all the grass. I can keep on being a cavy for as long as he needs. I am not sure that I understood that but Otto is much cleverer than me. That is why I am not an Agent."

" Isn't it exciting, Lulu?" says Mimi. " Tyrion is allowing us to go out on a mission on our own. I am not sure that he really trusts us to behave but we will show him that we are not always Divas."
" Speak for yourself  Mimi," says Lulu. " We will need to find stand ins when we have eaten our grass."

" I think that these two fit the bill nicely," says Mimi. " Do you think that Slave will be fooled?" " She may be surprised that they do not eat that grass, " replies Lulu, " but Slaves cannot be that bright or they would not spend all that time looking after us when they could be eating."

So Agents Mystery and Diva 1 and Diva 2 escape from Piggyfriends to bring back reports from the outside world.

Happy Mother's Day.

In the UK, we celebrate Mother's Day in March and I do not know when it is celebrated elsewhere but I know that today is Mother's Day in the US. I do not have any mama piggies at Piggyfriends at the moment, in fact the majority of our current residents are boars but Junior Slave, who emigrated to the US, has emailed me to tell me about adopting a family of piggies, thus carrying on the Piggyfriends tradition.

Here they are........

........enjoying some dandelion leaves from the garden. The mama piggy has been named Rin, and her daughters are Maki and Nico after Japanese Anime characters. When they were watching them the other day, I am told that Rin actually squeezed through the little window in the Kaytee house. She is obviously more fluff than pig and must have been very young when she had her litter.

Here is their new home.

I wish that I could meet them in person but the Piggyfriends now have three "pigpen pals".

Rin will enjoy a Happy Mother's Day in her new home and I hope that any mamas in the US do too.

From Penny, Slave to the Piggyfriend.

Friday video: Cookie having a run

I don't think we have introduced her yet, about a week after we had to say goodbye to our dear Tijger (this was in January), daddy came home with this cream coloured Cookie monster.
She seems to enjoy herself here, and loves running around and wheek loudly.
Very belated welcome to agent-in-training Cookie!

The guinygirlz Raani, Cookie and boar Bérke

Cookie running around the cage. Bérke patiently awaiting food. Raani munching hay. #cookie #guineapigs @winkyteam @jolepsi @CaviaBendeAlmer @blogparty

A post shared by Mieke (@pandameisje) on Apr 14, 2017 at 10:05am PDT

Happy Easter to all of our Readers!

The Easter Bunny is not welcome at Piggyfriends as his relatives come into our garden and eat our veggies so the Easter Piggy comes instead. Here he is...

All the Piggyfriends wanted to be Easter Piggies too but they decided to let our senior piggies play the part. Here is Louis....

And Angelina.....

And our oldest resident, Otto......

Otto says that he does not mind if we show you this outtake as it shows why we call him Agent Mystery.....

Happy Easter everyone!

Candlelighting in Mexico

Hello readers, Niamh Piggyfriend here.

You will have seen the photos of me lighting our candle on 9th. March. Our Slave was on holiday in Mexico and could not post her candle photo but she is home now and I can share it with you.

As none of us were able to be with her, she was helped by a coati from the hotel gift shop and a piggy ( real piggy not guinea ) who was made from a coconut shell at a Mayan craft shop in Xcaret. There were many coatis living in the hotel grounds so she brought one home as a memento. I am extremely envious of their very long tails.

I think they made excellent substitutes don't you?

If you took a photo of your candle lighting, why not share it with us? The GPDD readers are sending their photos to Audrey and we will all be able to see them soon. If you would like to send one to us, follow the guidelines on the Contribute button at the top of our page. It is really easy and we would love to hear from you.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

CANDLELIGHTING

Hello readers. This is Niamh Piggyfriend reporting. Our Slave is away on holiday so our pigsitter, her son, Sean, helped with our candlelighting ceremony this year and he took these photos of yours truly.

Here you can see me with the candle that Slave left for me to light. Actually she asked Sean to help me in case I set fire to my whiskers. Slave also lit a candle in Mexico in her own time zone but we must wait for her to get home as she has no way of getting her photo off her camera until then. We will post that one later on.

We hope that you all joined in our ceremony to remember dear absent friends.

9 march Peter Gurney memorial: light your candle at 8PM (in your timezone)

For some of you it is already past 8 in the evening, but here's a reminder to light your candle at 20:00 ( in your time zone) to remember Peter Gurney and your beloved late guinea pigs or other loved ones. Ralphy wrote this on 8 March,  but be sure to light your candle on today (the 9th)!

'Ralphy Lauren, the GP, here to remind everyone that March 9th is
almost here!  In fact, in some places it might already be here!  So
get those candles ready and be sure to light a candle or candles on
March 9th, at or around 8:00 pm, in your time zone.  This is our 12th
Memorial honoring all of our friends, both 2- and 4- footed who are at
the Rainbow Bridge looking after us, to let them know that we are
honoring them on this special day (which was Peter Gurney's Birthday)
by lighting our candles.  As candles are lit in each time zone, the
light will move around the world for all to see.

This is my third PG Memorial (I am 2)! Afterwards, just send a post
with your location to the GPDD or to PG_Memorial@gpdd.org.  Either one
is fine, and we will keep a listing and post all the locations where
our candles were lit.  Also, if you could take a photo of your candle,
or of you with your candle, or with your slave, we will include that
too.  Last year my friend Audrey took a photo of me with my candle and
it was put on the GPDD webpage!  My Mama Rickie was so proud!

So be part of this great tradition and tell others to light a candle
too, but get their location!

Sincerely, Ralphy Lauren (the GP)'

A Piggy A-Z. E is for Endive

We have to confess that we, the Piggyfriends, have never been given this vegetable but it was suggested by our fellow bloggers so here is a photo of it courtesy of the Guinygirlz and Berke ( whose name should have an accent but we haven't got one on our laptop ).

Who's that little one?

We thought that it looked a bit like frisee lettuce, which we sometimes have so the Guinygirlz have tried  to describe what the difference is. They say that frisee is a lot more crunchy (like lettuce should be) and Endive leaves are bigger (about 20 cm long) getting smaller in the middle of the Endive. Frisee is frilly all over, Endive is just frilly at the end (green part) of the leaves.

We Googled Endive and some of the images shown were of chicory ( which we love ) so we were confused.

The Guinygirlz and Berke like Endive, though it can be a bit bitter, so there definitely is a link with chicory somewhere. They get their humans to rinse the sand off the leaves, the sand being mostly in between the outer leaves.

Their humans eat it too, mostly in summer, in a mash (of potatoes) with raw Endive because if you cook it it becomes really bitter. In their quest to find the difference, the Guinygirlz found on a dutch website that Frisee is just curly Endive, making us all more confused...

If any of you readers like Endive do post in our comments section and let us know. We'd love to hear from you.

Piggyfriend Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. We are sorry that we are a bit late with our post but here are our two elderly Valentines, Otto and Angelina.

Otto has given Angelina two roses and a box of grass, which they are sharing.

"I think that there might be a bit more grass in this box, Otto." says Angelina.

We hope that you all got lots of treats and that your humans were given flowers and chocolates.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from Apollo, Dante Wigglebottom, and Dmitri!

Silly pigture

Hi there everypig,

Our Slave brings home boxes from the supermarket for us to use as houses. Look at the label on this new one!

She says that Pignoletto is the name of a grape from which an Italian sparkling wine is made but we know better, don't we? It looks like "little pig" to us and Louis says that it is a nice roomy box for his morning nap.

A Piggy A-Z. E is for Eddie

We are now starting E in our Piggy A-Z with our friend Eddie. Here is his pigture.

And here is his story..........

Hi, I am Eddie, AKA Agent Confetti, helping represent "E." I like the letter "E" because it was the first letter of my first brother's name, Ethan (RIP), who was also known as Agent Peruke or Agent Sheep.

I hope you like my photo. In it I am being mysterious, but I am also trying to show my crest. I am a tricolor crested guinea pig and am just more than four years old. My mom and dad adopted me when I was a baby. They took Ethan to a rescue a couple of hours away, and Ethan met five piggies and chose me! We were great brothers and friends for three years.

Now I live with my brother Nugget, whose adoption day is Groundhog Day, Feb. 2. He and I met a year ago.

Recently I had bladder-stone surgery. Bladder stones are not nice and do not belong in piggies. My mom does her best with my diet, and Nugget and I drink bottled water, but she has a theory that crested piggies are prone to stones. Since the surgery, I am back to my favorite pastimes, such as watching weather radar and waving shredded newspaper (part of my bedding) to get attention for food. I believe that an agent should be aware of the world (hence my interest in the weather) and should be versatile (hence my using bedding as a semaphore).

Nugget and I share a very big cage (or house) made of C & C cubes, and in it we have lots of cozies, a "sofa," a PVC tube, and an "A-frame" that my dad made out of wood. In the spring and summer, the A-frame is one of my favorite places to be. We also use our carrier and a wooden house when we have floortime. My mom says I am smart because when we have floortime and I want to return to my house, I chase her around.

As for food, it is very important. I love hay, of course, and cucumbers are one of my favorite veggies. I also like to angle my pellet bowl at 45 degrees to make for easier access to it. This dumps some of the pellets out, and my mom has to return them to the bowl. It is important to make your humans do things for you.

I also trained my mom to transport me via the PVC tube, although she thinks she trained me to use it. Nugget now uses the tube as well. As you know, an agent has to be adept at psychology.

Thank you for reading about me. I am proud to be Agent Confetti and a proponent of "E."