Slave has been very busy at work and has not had the time to take up to date pigtures of the Piggyfriends in the garden but I found these in her photo album and have scanned them for you to see. She has hundreds of indoor pigtures but not many outdoor ones.
Four pigtures show the big sow pen - a big pen for sows rather than a pen for big sows ( although they are big aren't they? ). The pen is 12 ft by 12 ft and has an old garden hammock frame inside it. Slave attaches sheets to this frame to make a tent like shelter so that we are not in the sun. There is also an old oak tree to shelter us. Slave has lots old hutches, which have been given to her over the years by people handing over their piggies. Nobody lives in a hutch but they are useful as shelters when we are in the garden. Sometimes she uses boxes for us to hide in if she does not have the time to get the hutches out of the garage but then the girls drag the hay out and make a mess.
The boars have their own pens in the garden. Here is a pigture of one of them. They are folding pens, which can be put away when not in use and have a folding lid too, one side is wire and the other has a solid top to keep off the sun and to stop birds stealing from our dishes.
I will nag her to take some new pigtures before winter comes.
I want to share another video with you. This is agent Thunderbear, together with Lotje and Guiny. It looks like Lotje is being mean nipping agent Thunderbear. But have a good look at what she is doing exactly and then realize that Lotje adored her food...
We had a weigh-in tonight. Auntie Janneke took some pictures when we were staying over and slaves were on holiday, they are too cute to not share. But of course we have grown since then!
Daisy: 540 grammes, 3 months old lowest weight: 320 grammes, she was a little over a month old
Lily: 640 grammes, 3 months old lowest weight: 290 grammes, also a little over a month old
Woopy: 960 grammes, 2 years old lowest weight: 107 grammes (wet) when born on 16 - 04 - 2008, Highest weight: 1020 grammes, July this year
Chico: 1280 grammes. 3 years old on the 6th of September, 2010 lowest weight: 1160 grammes, in october 2008, he was then a little over 2 years old coming to live with us from the shelter Highest Weight: 1360 grammes (LAPS!) April to June 2009, almost 2 years old!
Our slaves keep a spreadsheet in Excel with graphs and our weights and ages in days, weeks, years and so on.. Do you also have those geeky scientific slaves?
Well as promised Agent Incognito has managed to get the sheep to stay still for a photo.
He appears to have red eyes like me, but mine are a much darker red, of course it could just be the silly camera changing eye colour, we will wait for Incognito to advise us.
We want to tell you something about the importance of floor time...
First of all, what is floor time? Floor time enables us to see a different part of the house we live in, and is ideal when our slaves need to change the bedding in our cages.
Floor time is also a good way for us to get some exercise, and if we get exercise we will be healthier and probably happier. Our slave Mikey makes sure we always get at least one bowl of pellets (we got three in our cage), some hay and a water bottle when we are out. Ghost has a ramp from his cage to the floor area so he can decide when to come out and when to stay in and eat or drink.
Our slave Mikey likes to give us obstacles and challenges, in the video below our slave made a little maze with fences and in the middle was a house upside down filled with hay!
Plus floor time can be so much fun!! Here you can see lily'Explorer, Lil'wheeker and not-so-lil'Woop in action, Valentino was hiding somewhere out of view:
Getting used to your slave Floor time is also a good way for our slave(s) and us to get used to each other. Slave can sit in our play area and not move to much at first, maybe talk softly to us. After a couple of times (or maybe even from the start) he or she can try to get our attention by calling our names, or just the name she used for all of us, like little monsters or guinea piggies. And if we come to her or him, maybe tempted by the sound of a plastic bag or veggies tearing, we get to have a piece. Our slave Mikey always gives us a house or something to hide in. We also have one of our travelling cages lined with newspapers in the kitchen (our floor time area) available in case we need to go... but we don't always use it ;) Ghost likes to sit under the ramp on the floor area and have a poop, his humans would rather he used the ramp to go back into cage and have a poop, silly humans...
Floor time outside? What is also nice is piggies having floor time outside. We loooove eating the grass or other yummies, but if we have never had grass before (remember agent ghost and his early tummy upset) make sure we get used to it slowly! Your human can cut you a handful of grass with the scissors and add it to your food bowl before you actually get to go out and mow the lawn. Remember humans are lazy and if we don't mow the lawn they have to mow it themselves and they don't like that.
Be sure we cannot reach any poisonous plants, animal droppings or other things we cannot have...
Always make sure we are safe, we don't want any other animals getting in our play area.
Best is to use a pen or run and cover the top. Covering the top also gives us some shade when it is very sunny outside. Some boxes or houses to hide in would be nice too...
Ow yes don't put us indoor piggies outside when it's raining or cold and windy, we might get ill. And don't put us on grass that has recently been mown. But I am sure we don't have to tell you that!!
Here you can see our late leader Agent F and Agent ghost having 'floor time' in the grass
Now its your turn, we want your floor time stories, pigtures and videos, get working!!
