Halloween Competition

Agent Minty reporting in.

 

These pigtures are of a venerable old gentlepig here at Piggyfriends. He is my next door neighbour and his name actually is Halloween, as it was on that day, 6 years ago, that our Slave brought him home. He was an adult piggy then so we have no idea how old he really is.

 

As the weather was warm last weekend, Slave took him out into the garden for a photoshoot. She only some wanted pigtures to commemorate the day, before the weather turned, to share with the GPDD readers so they are not of competition quality but as you announced the competition, I thought that I would share them with you anyway.

 

Halloween is much to old to be an agent or to be dressed up in a Halloween costume but, in between lengthy naps, he posed for these pigtures. Slave made the jack-o-lantern in her pottery class many years ago. When she was due to glaze it, the class was cancelled that week due to snow and the tutor, thinking to do the class a favour, glazed everyone's work for them. Shame about the colour but it was too late to do anything about it!

 

Happy Halloween every one!

Guinea Pigs row tiny boat

This is a cute video, if you ignore the fact the cage is a hamster cage complete with wheel and a few other details.

If Mummy thinks we will do this she can think again!!

Igor's PLAY: vegetable Hide-and-Seek

This wheek I am meeting with Lady Guinyvere. A beautiful and mature lady, who promised to share her experiences with her invention Veggie Hide-and-Seek.

Although our conversation takes place through the cage bars (Slaves thought it couldn't be done *tssk* Apparently, auntie Guiny is a spunky little lady), she soons whispers it is okay for me to call her auntie Guiny. Lucky for me, she isn't as bad as our slaves made her out to be. Next to being spunky, Auntie Guiny also has a reputation of being very intellingent. To illustrate, she understands the concept of 'opening a door'. When she sees a door, she will think first, and then she decides whether she should push or pull. That's pretty smart, I think.

(Igor:) Dear aunt Guiny, what is Veggie Hide-and-Seek?
(Guiny:) Veggie Hide-And-Seek is a hunt for hidden veggies. The special thing about my version of Veggie Hide-And-Seek is that I make my slave use small cups in which she has to hide the veggies. With these cups, Slaves can upgrade the difficulty level. I really need intellectual stimulation (your should hear the mindless chatter in the cage.. *sigh*) so this is one of my favorite games. Also, the game complies perfectly with my natural need to rummage for food.

 (Igor:) What materials can you use?:

(Guiny:) In theory, you don't really need the cups. But once you are used to them, the cups enable you to increase the difficulty level and it becomes more challenging than just gobbling down those veggies. Send your slave to the attic and let her check between the children's toys and kitchenware. You can also send your slave to a rummage sale, a cheap household store etc. 

You also need veggies. Preferably different kinds and small amounts. One piece a cup is enough. Otherwise it is very likely that you pigs out there will lie down after one cup to let the food digest comfortably in your tummy. If you play it like this, it is not much of a game.
As for the veggies, I prefer a bit of cucumber, paprika (bell pepper) and chicory, but that is personal of course.
You also need a large space in which you are allowed to run around. Your slave might need to use a fence or newspaper/blankets in order to protect the floor and furniture.

(Igor:) How should guinea pigs from all over the world apply this?

(Guiny:) I'm happy you ask that question, dear Igor. When you start playing this game, it's best that you start on a low level. This can be achieved by placing the cups in such a way that they are easy to find. Your slave should put them in a position so that you can easily see and reach the veggies.

Once you have mastered this, you go on to the second level. Now your slave can then put them in harder to find places, so you have to try harder to find them. On the third level your slave can start to vary the positions of the cups. For example, when these are upside down, you cannot smell the veggies as easily and you will have to find out for yourself if something tasty is in there. You will also have to find out how to turn the cup in order to get out the veggie. Another difficult position is a cup which is placed just upright. With our cups it is kinda hard to put our noses inside. The final level is a combination of difficult positions and locations. I faced some challenges with cups that were on top of houses, or almost buried underneath a pillow. Needless to say, I conquered them all.

(Igor:) What about the Do-it-yourself-Factor?:
(Guiny:) Veggie Hide-And-Seek is not for sale in pet shops and your slave has to make it herself.

 (Igor:) Lady Guiny, does this game have different versions?:

(Guiny:) Well, as I already explained, there are several difficulty levels. Your slave can also use toilet paper rolls instead of the plastic cups, for an old fashioned game of shred-the-cardboard-to-pieces after you're done eating the veggies. By the way, this game is at its best when you do this with your cage mates. You can do a match, and whoever finds the most veggies, wins (and she who wins gets to eat them as an award *giggle*).

(Igor:) Who is the target audience??:(Guiny:) Well look, Igor, I myself am an intellectual cavy. I don't know if you have ever considered this target audience, but stimulation is very important for my type of guinea pig. We become very bored without it. Playing games like this really cheers us up. Another target audience that will definitely appreciate this, is of course the food oriented cavy.

 (Igor:) Is this dangerous?:

(Guiny:) Slaves have to pay attention to the safety of the cups (Sharp edges, edibility etc.) For this game you will always need a supervising slave, in the case we get stuck. By the way, our own slaves really enjoy watching us play this game...

Professor Igors experiences:
(Igor:) I have to say, I am excited about this game. I have played this game about five times with Suus and Yaya. Especially Yaya is very good at playing, usually I will just trail behind her and hope that there is more than one piece in her cup. We are currently playing this game at level 3. I do find it a bit scary, but it is definitely very exciting.

Dear auntie Guiny, thank you very much for this interview and hopefully I will seen you soon!

Professor Igor

Foodball

Bo has a new hobby, she likes foodball! She likes it so much, she doesn't even eat the treats that fall out..
(the black things on the floor are treats, not poop)

Igor's PLAY - Houses

This wheek it is time for evaluating houses. Because there are so many different kinds of houses, I'll do this a bit differently. After an evaluation of houses in general, I will discuss the houses we have and award them with a rating expressed in golden guinea pig poos (1 bean for a really bad house, 10 beans for an absolutely awesome house).

What is it?
        Concept: Well what can I say… a house. A roof, walls and holes in it...
        Material: This can be practically anything. The houses I evaluated were made from wood, cardboard, plastic and grass. Auntie Guiny and her herd even have a little tent, which is made out of fabric.
        Application: This is very simple. Your slave places the house in your cage, you walk in and lo and behold!
        Do it yourself-factor?: This is pretty high, depending on the material you use. With a cardboard box even the little or the clumsy slaves can build you a cool house. Slaves that are a bit more skilful, can build a house out of wood. Do pay attention that you use materials that do not splinter and do not contain any harmful substances. Us guinea pigs like a house that can be ehm...altered.

Target audience?

Great for the relax cavy. Go inside and plant your furry behind in front of the entrance and you can lounge in complete privacy (also a good tip for the foodfocused guinea pig) If the house happens to have a flat roof, it is also very entertaining for the climber cavy. Climb on top and enjoy the view while wheeking your slave out of bed (or the couch..) Stressed cavies also appreciate a nice and safe house. It will offer a safe place in your cage from out of which you can observe the surroundings and build up confidence to go exploring later.

Dangerous?:

This depends on the house. Tell your slave not to buy or make a house that, when being gnawed on (and you know we cannot resist), are harmful to us. Also remove pointy ends sticking out. Your slave always needs to consider your safety when she buys you toys, because some piggy toy designers are just not the shiniest poos in the pigloo. Your slave should also pay attention to the holes in the house, they ought to be big enough. Most of us aspire to become a LAPS Pig one day, and getting stuck in the door opening or window is not very convenient. With cardboard this is not really an issue. Here, I actually prefer it when my slave makes the holes slightly too small because then I like it to decide (and alter) what the size of the window should be. Your slave should also remove tape and staples, especially around the edges.

Golden Poos?

        House 1: (Suus:) House number 1 is a bit small, but secretly aunt Guiny and auntie Lotje like it to be stuffed in the house together. (We call this position the Double PigMac... *snigger*). Jan the boar loved to sit on the roof of this house, he said it made him feel like he was the king of the cage.
Score: (Igor:) 7 Golden guinea pig poos
        House 2: (Yaya:) House number 2 is comfurrtably big, which is absolutly great when you are lying in it. The only downside is that when you are not allowed inside, there is so little cage space left. The roof also offers no climbing uses, but the window deserves points in favour. It is really nice to rest your little head when you are studying for your master's degree in piggin out (yes, very hard work indeed).
Score: (Igor:) 7,5 Golden guinea pig poos
        Houses 3, 4 and 8: (Suus:) These are made by Granny's boyfriend. He added a little bit of extra lovin' to these houses, which makes them extra special. They are all very tasty and have two exits. This comes in very handy when auntie Guiny snaps at you because she wants to lie in the house. With an extra door, there is always a way out...
Score: (Igor:) 7 Golden guinea pig poos
        House 5: (Igor:) This house looks really nice but looking back, this wasn't such a good design. Colored cardboard can be hard on the stomach. The size was nice though.
Score: (Igor:) 5 Golden guinea pig poos
        House 6: (Suus:) Wheeeeek, this was an excellent house! It had a big door (I'm a LAPS girl after all) and I could easily climb on the roof and spy on my slave. It had very edible, yummy cardboard.
Score: (Igor:) 8 Golden guinea pig poos
        House 7: (Yaya:) On the pigture you can see Granny's handsome boar Robbie peeking out of a pigloo. This is not an actual house, but us guinea pigs don't really understand the difference between a house and a toilet. (Just take a look inside our cage *evil grin*). Aunt Guiny refers to this house as The Blue Carriage. After an evening of running around in the living room, our slave had to very kindly beg our Lady Guinyvere (as she likes to call herself..) to proceed into The Blue Carriage. After which she was comfortably transported towards the cage (whereas us plain guinea pigs just had to climb into the cage ourselves). This is an advantage of the Pigloo, because it has a bottom, which makes it perfect for carrying around a guinea pig (be careful to cover the opening though. We are not really built for extreme sports liked base jumping.) I myself think the house is very tasty, but my slave won't allow me to eat it and has removed it from our cage. I guess she is right.. it was a bit hard on my belly.
Score: (Igor:) 5,5 Golden guinea pig poos
        House 9: (Guiny:) This tent is nice and big, it easily fits two of us, and we can even squeeze Woopy in there with us as a third. The bottom of the tent is very comfy, it's made of some kind of wooly stuff that is nice and soft. It can also be taken out (it's attached to the tentbottom with velcro, so your slave can easily take it out and wash it), which is very convenient for the slaves to clean it. The only problem with this tent is that it's made of fabric, which we can chew. I know who made the holes in our tent (right, Igor? *chatter*)..
Score: (Igor:) 6 Golden guinea pig poos
        Bahama shack: (Igor:) Yummy, greawft!... Vwery tastyf. Thoshe dfoorsf ougfwt to be a little biw biggerwsf...*chewchew*...*swallow*.
Score: (Igor:) 8 Golden guinea pig poos

Cheers!
Professor Igor

World Animals' day: present Winkyteam style

Our mom was inspired by auntie Janneke's post with Coco and Bo in it,
and decided to make us a box of veggies, hay and pellets (in our case).
She used mainly the same concept as Auntie Janneke, cut the holes in the box,
filled the box with hay, chicory in small strips, freshly grown herbs (did we mention slave is starting our (ehm her?) own veggie garden?) and also added some of our appreciated pellets.
That is the kind we don't have in our cage at the moment, as mom says those pellets are not very good for us, but we love them anyway!

Here you can see a video of us investigating the box:

(if this doesn't work, you should be able to watch the video here: http://ustre.am/:1cbs4)
Be sure to watch the highlighted part where Daisy really gets into our present!

Here are some pigtures of us investigating as well....

What is this box?!?

Yum yum

Daisy getting into the box..

Daisy in the box, first picxk at the veggies.
The rest now eating from side bottom, as hay was sticking out there now...

Content wheeks,
The Guinygirlz: Agents wheeker, lily'explorer and lil'woop and Agent Valentino

World Animal Day; the Presents

Hi all!

Nomnomnom

We got a veggie surprise box for World Animal day! Below you can see how the box was made by our J.

First, cut a hole in a cardboard box

Next, fill up the box with hay and veggies.
J did this lasagna-style;
hay with layers of parsley and shredded carrot

Close the box (don't use tape or staples!)

Happy World Animal Day!

Go away! Guinea pig @ work

Wheekz!
Coco and Bo, the shredding, chewing and nomming piggies