Piggie snap: call for more pigtures!

Hi all,

As you probably know we have done some piggy snaps before, and would love to share more piggie colours and types with you.
So far we have done:
Black and white boys
Black and white girls
Tort and white tricolour piggies
Lemon agouti piggies
Silver agouti piggies and
Blond and white piggies...

We are looking for more colours,for example:
red-brownish and white (for the people who remember Lotje, that rusty red colour!)
tricolours (white, brown and black or white, ginger and chocolate, or any other mix of 3 colours)
Maybe even piggies that have four colours?
Also piggies in one (smooth) gorgeous colour known as self colours, like black, white, brown, buff, cream, chocolate and so on...

We'd also like different hair types, for example:
sheltie, coronet, rexes, US teddies, Texels, alpaca, abbysinian
and any other special types of hair... Maybe satin, or no hair skinny or baldwin?

Maybe other types of guinea pigs would be nice too, like baby piggies, or LAPS or SCAMPS piggies?


So if you would like to add to the piggy snap game send an email with your pigtures, name and some info, like weight, favorite food, pasttime, toy... any thing you want to share. (details under the heading contribute on home page)


We hope to be able to show you lots more beautiful piggy colours that match (snap) with you and your friends.

The Guinygirlz, Agents Valentino and Ghost

Memorial: Interviewing Caplin Rous (part two)

Most of you have heard by now that our Special friend Caplin Rous, a famous Capybara, died unexpectedly...
Caplin's owner has written a memorial for him on his blog

His owner Melanie still sells Capycoppys (stuffed capabaras) and Caplin calendars. With that she hopes to pay for the medical expenses she had for Caplin. So If you want one of these capycoppys or a calendar, get one here.
When all medical expenses are covered she intends to set up a charity fund, all profit made will go to this charity fund.

We didn't want to deprive you of the below questions and answers as part of our twitter interview with Caplin.
We have asked Caplin some more questions, which we haven't shared with you yet:

' I've seen Caplin Rous' blog and pigtures and he is adorable!
Wish I could have a cappy of my own.? :-(? But I think the condo association would not allow it.
So, Caplin, Shakira has only one question (of course - eye roll).? What is your favorite FOOD???

PS - How nice to have the GPDD back!

Wheeks,

Rayna and Shakira
Taffy, Sundae, Tosca and Carmen in our hearts'
We @guinygirlz asked Caplin on behalf of Shakira what his favorite food was.

@Guinygirlz My favorite food is grass. After that it's either yogurt or popsicles, depending on my mood.



- Hello pineapple (HP) is the guinea pig who lived with Caplin. -

@caplinrous We were wondering, do you and HP get along well? What are the pro and cons of living with a guinea pig?


 
@Guinygirlz Guinea pigs and capybaras speak the same language, that is nice. We "get" each other. But gpigs don't swim.

@Guinygirlz I don't get to spend time alone with Hello Pineapple because I might accidentally step on her. That's sad.

@Guinygirlz I'm a little jealous of gpigs because of how cute and soft they are and people can pick them up.

Introducing 2 new Agents: 'little' Guinygirlz reached agent weight!

We were weighed last friday and are happy to announce we have reached Agent weight in less than 8 months!
We will be eight months old on the 12 and 13 of January, and now weigh 1060 grammes (about 2.33 lbs)

Cause slaves loves to share baby pigtures with you here are some pigtures of us, one of baby size, one of current size of both of us...

Lily a few weeks old

Lily now, next to Lil'Woop

Daisy a few weeks old

Daisy now with agent Valentino

Love,
New Agents Lily'Explorer

and Agent Wheeker

My Crib; Surrey Squeakers Winter Home

Stella would like to show you the Winter quarters of the Surrey Squeakers.

Here are two pictures of our shed. One shows the left hand side and the other shows the right. Slave wanted to stand further back and get it all in one photo, but there's a big tree in the way. It is an 8 foot by 6 foot wooden shed, with a window. You can see that there is some wire mesh in the doorway to stop us escaping when Slave opens the door. Hanging from the ceiling is our luxury heater. It has a fan which is on all the time, circulating the air nicely, and a heating element which comes on when necessary, to keep the shed at the chosen temperature. Slave usually chooses to set the thermostat at about 12 or 13 degrees, which we find very comfortable, and it's not too great a shock if we are suddenly brought out and placed in the outdoor pens! On the floor we have layers of newspaper, then a layer of towels, then lots of lovely hay. We also get extra hay in all our little houses and also in our new hay rack. (Thank you Secret Santas - Woopy, Chico, Lily and Daisy!). The shed is big enough for us to get up some speed when we are feeling energetic and we love being in it when it's cold, snowy or wet outside. As you can see in the pictures, breakfast veggies had just arrived, but Slave standing at the door with a camera was putting us off!

My crib: Where the Misfits live

We got an email from Jean, slave to the Misfits, this will be a photo report!
The cribs are mostly built by Andy, we hope to get a report later about how to build these misfits Cribs...

The nine  4 by 2 cages that Andy built.

Ned is in his condo cage

The middle section of the big condo cages that andy built is the top cage of adeline and amanda.

Lazarus lives in the bottom of the middle section of the big condo cages

Biff who lives next to Charles.

Charles in his cage.

A closer look at the middle section of the condo cages.

Notice that the middle cage has a red ribbon that Ringer won for the second biggest eyes at the Chicago piggie open house that He shows off on his water bottle! That is his cage! This will give you an idea of their housing. They have soft fleece that is changed every two days. (yes a lot of laundry) they get oxbow food and lots of Timothy hay. Each has a hut and clean water daily :) and they get a vitamin c tablet daily, as well as a veg plate in morning and a snack at nite at 9pm! Yes, they are spoiled. we have a kids plastic swimming pool for floor time as well. easy to clean out and they love it!

My Crib; Where the Piggyfriends Live

My Crib: Agent Minty gives a tour of Piggyfriends.


Here I am, Agent Minty, in my pen. This is typical of the pens at Piggyfriends, which have been made by our Slave. You can see that it is made out of wire panels and this is how it is set up. First of all, Slave puts a double piece of heavy gauge plastic on the floor to protect her carpets. She buys this from a garden centre and uses a lot of it in her work. It comes on a big roll and can be cut to shape with scissors.

On top of the plastic, she places rows of thick newspapers. These extend beyond the space that the pen will occupy so that we piggies cannot nibble the plastic. On top of this goes our pen. The pens are made from galvanised wire panels, one yard square, that she bought from the garden centre years ago. These last forever and can be cut to size with secateurs to fit the available space. The one that I share with my friend Copper is half the height of the original panel and this way Slave made two pens out of four wire panels.

When she has placed the pen on top of the newspapers, she puts another set of paper on top. This is for us to mess up and is changed daily but the underneath paper lasts a long time before the whole set up needs to be cleaned. The pen can then be folded and taken outside for a good brush.



You can see in the pigture how the panels are "sewn" together at the corners. Slave uses soft garden wire, which she threads through the corner squares from bottom to top. The wire ends are folded over and tucked in so that they are not sharp. It is easy for her to undo if she needs to extend a pen or change its shape.

Slave puts cardboard boxes in the pens. She gets these big ones from her farmer friend and, lined with more paper and hay, they last quite a long time before we tear them up too much. Then Slave finishes the tearing and they go in the garden compost bins with our considerable piles of poos to make new compost for growing even more veggies. Us piggies enjoy recycling boxes for such a good cause.



Here you can see Copper and me in our sleeping box. Slave asked us not to mess up our cage while she went to get new batteries for her camera but she was too slow.

You can see another pen next door. There are pens all around two rooms and we all have neighbours with whom to chat. You might notice the extra high panel between our pen and the right hand one. This is because sows live in that one and Slave thinks that we might jump over. Chance would be a fine thing. Have you seen the size of us? Jumping is the last thing on our minds.




Here is another view of the Piggyfriends' pens. The one next to us ( you can just see us in our box ) is really a poultry crate. Slave used to put it on her table when she did the RSPCA Pet Days as it has a secure lid and kept prying hands from grabbing piggies but it makes a lovely crib too. The lid is folded back and is set up just like our other pens.



We all love our cardboard boxes and here is another demonstration of their use from Agent Thorntons and Agent Venezia. They will soon need a new one.



Now we are in the second piggy room, which is really Slave's dining room but, as it is a big L shaped room, piggies have taken over half the space. Two of the pens in here are made with wooden frames to the wire panels. These are bigger pens with hinged sides and can be folded flat for taking outside in the summer as exercise pens. They have folding lids but these are only used outside to keep the sun off. They are set up in exactly the same way. Slave has just cleaned them out and the black pipes are still on the carpet waiting to put back for piggies to run through. We also enjoy tearing up the cardboard middles of kitchen rolls. Slave puts hay in these just like we have seen chez Ghost and the Hamster.

You can see our carriers stacked up in the background.




This pigture shows a freshly cleaned out pen. That's Agent Big Red having a nap in a box. Slave collects wine and spirit boxes from the supermarket and these make excellent places for sleeping, jumping on and tearing up. She follows the person putting out wine bottles on the shelves and begs for the empty boxes. They know that she is eccentric. This pen also has one of our plastic stools for hiding in. We like these as they have four holes to run through.



And here is the same pen full of hungry piggies.



Some of us have pigloos. Here is Elliott in his.



We also have a smaller home. This cage is too small as a piggy home. It was given to Slave by a client and she keeps it as a quarantine cage for a newcomer or if one of us is ill and needs to be kept in another room. Dorian is demonstrating it and has a little stool as a hidey.

What views do we have? We can all see the piggies on either side of us and those across the rooms. My room has a view of the garden where we can see the Piggyfriends' flag and the greenhouses where Copper's and my favourite tomatoes grow. We can also see the kitchen where the veggies are washed. The piggies in the dining room get the first view of Slave in the morning so can start the wheeking before us. Their windows face the road so they can see Slave's car pulling up.

I hope that you have enjoyed this tour of Piggyfrends. From Agent Minty on behalf of the Piggyfriends herd.

Happy New Year from Agents Butterloaf, Rudder Rump, and Cannonball

Happy New Year to all people and peegies! Cheers!