Slave took us outside today to mow the lawn and there was a photo opportunity as the sun was shining..
Here is a pigture of our friend Peony demonstrating the art of eating chicory. She is not an agent but Slave thought that this was a good pigture for me to submit. Usually the chicons are broken into pieces but today she used whole ones to bribe us to keep still for the photos. It worked.
Hello, I finally managed to get my Aunty Loosy to buy some new scales and check it I was weighed. My weight is 2lb 6, 1/4oz (don't forget that 1/4 oz), I'm sad not to be able to join LAPS yet but have a strict eating regime planned over the winter. We also weighed my little sisters, Agent Beefy (2lb 4,1/8 oz) and Agent Marshmallow (2lb 3, 1/8 oz).
This is Agent Not-so-lil'Woop. Our all time favorite veggie is chicory! Here we will tell you more about this vegetable, because we understand many piggies outside the Netherlands have never had this! What a shame, we loooooooooove it. Some slaves eat it, it's pretty bitter, but it's supposed to be nice with ham and cheese out of the oven.. Yeah right!
According to Guinealynx this is the nutritous value of Chicory per 100 grammes: Guinea Lynx' VEGETABLE CHART Endive, Belgian 100 gram portions (Witloof Chicory) PercentWater 94.52 Energy(Kcal) 17 Protein(g) 0.9 Ascorbic Acid (C) 2.8 Calcium(mg) 19 Phosph.(mg) 26 Ca:P Ratio 0.7:1
How do we eat Chicory? First all gather around the edge of the cage where the veggies are distributed. Then after you get a piece there are several options: You either just eat it in the corner where you got it, this is for confident piggies like me! Or you hide in the house, and this is important(!), put your butt in the door opening so others cannot get in to take your chicory. And be sure to stretch for those veggies, like Daisy is showing us here Do feel free to play a little tug-of-war, and steal your cagemates piece! And don't forget to have a sip of water after if thirsty, see Chico's demonstration.
And as an extra, for you confident piggies: Eat the chicory out of your slaves hand! I am the only one who dares to do this at Guinygirlz Mansion.
Please let us know if you ever get Chicory and show us how you eat it!
Well you have seen the Squeakers having floor time in the shed, now you can see them having floor time in their purpose built outdoor housing.
There are 2 pens one is 8 foot by 8 foot and the other is 8 foot by 10 foot, they are fox and rat proof, little mice can get in but I dont mind little mice they are kind of cute.
This is Agent Cannonball and me has been trying very hard to pack on the ounces. Me finally achieved my goal of 3 lbs (1360 grams) and am now able to join LAPS! Here I am being weighed (me overheard that me barely fit on the scale, me is proud) and discussing secret piggy plans.
> Hello Supa Sekrit Agent Peegz, is me, Agent Lettuce. > The last few weeks have been a wee bit traumatic at Peeg palace, mah > big sisty, Irene, went off to the GP Palace in the sky. Our hoomin, > Aunty Loosy was veh sad but seems to be ok now. This means the pod > is aaaaall mine now and there is nobody to pee at me or steal my noms! > Then there was a horrwid surprise, my little sistyz, Snuggles and > Tufty came to stay. FOR A FORTNIGHT! I suppose it was quite nice to > see them and have some company but I quite like being the only Peeg > in the house. Snuggs kept trying to hide under my tummy, what is > that all about? Tufty is a bit of a biter, she bites the hoomins > sometimes but seems to be calmer. We did lots of floortime and some > grass hoovering, they are making good agents-in-training. Aunty > Loosy is sending me to stay with them for a week soon, I hope they > are less annoying than they were this visit. > > Agent Lettuce out. >
All of the Agents at Piggyfriends were weighed this afternoon. Slave is tired after all that heavy lifting so Agent Minty is typing this message. Slave apologises for the lateness of my report.
Agent Big Red 2 years 1 month 3lb. 10oz. ( 1K 640 )
Agent 101 2 years 2 months 3lb. 1oz. ( 1K 400 )
Agent Carrot Age unknown 2lb. 12 oz. ( 1K 250 )
Agent Minty 1 year 9 months 2lb. 9oz, ( 1K 280 )
Agent Thorntons has been on an exercise regime and has lost 3 ounces. He looks the same size to me. From these weights it seems to me that Agent Big Red needs to run around a bit more.
Slave did the conversions from our familiar pounds and ounces to metric so if they are wrong please blame her. She can't do metric and used the GuineaLynx chart.
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!!
What is your special agent name and why did you chose it? I am Agent 7 cause 7 is a lucky number
Where do you live, which state? I live in Oregon USA
Who do you live with? I live with me mommy slave Sandy
What is your favourite food? Romaine! Romaine! Romaine! organic and dripping wet and crisp
What is your favourite toy? I luv driving my piggloo aroun, I can put it over my food dish when its too cold out.
What is the best thing about being you? I am a pirate and I was a good bruder to da late Manny da Boar, and da very Best is I luv my fiance Jodie Da Pig, she is soft an cuddly she make me happy
Any other comments you would like to add? I like to go each spring on secret agent trips to guard da swimming leatherback turtles and I belong to a group dat guards da nest of turtle eggs and den wee keep away da birds so dey can get to da ocean when dey hatch. Last year da oder secret agent pigs went wit me but I cant say who cause it's a secret.
Agent 7 is the least Secret of all the secret agents having already revealed his identity several times tsk tsk.
Your clues are he is a lone pig who lives in Oregon with his Mummy, his real name is alliterative and double barrelled (who says piggy's dont know big words)
I, Agent Incognito, would like to announce that I now have a little brother! His name is Ethan, and on Sunday he celebrated his three-week anniversary with us. He came to us from a rescue after his family surrendered him at two days old.
You know how Hector is really a hamster? Well, Ethan is a little sheep, I think, although the rescue lady said he is a Texel. He has gray "pants" and a bit of a gray "mask" around his eyes and is white in the middle. In his coloration, he kind of reminds me of my older brother, Tumbleweed AKA Master of Disguise (RIP).
This little sheep is a great friend to me, but, wow, is he active. He runs all over the cage, popcorning and throwing himself into cozies, under cardboard "roofs," and into our wooden A-frame. Will send a photo when I can. He is so fast he is hard to photograph!
Agent Incognito
Welcome Ethan, with all these new mini (pigs??) around we will sooon have more agents in training than actual agents (rolls on the floor laughing)
Greetings fellow supa sekrit agent peegz! My name is Irene, a character in the hoomins fav Handel oratorio. Sistys name is Dido, she is named after an opera character too! We iz veh cultured peegz. My sekrit agent name is Thumper cause I am a bit naughty sometimes and thump my sisty. My sisters is Lettuce cause she likes to nom lettuce. We live in Northumbria with our hoomin, her flatmate and a number of gerbils. The hoomin and the flatmate are both scientists. We used to live in Scotland and have a Scottish tint to our wheeks. Our fav dry food is Gertie and our fav greens are parsley, spinach and lettuce. Carrot iz teh sux. My fav hobby is projectile peeing at my sisty but our hoomin gets cross with me. Dido likes to go for runs. We also enjoy chewing everything and going to visit our aunties what live with our hoomins twin. Our fav toy is our Chewube, though when we were little we ran in from opposite ends at the same time and got stuck once.
Irene
Dido
Us with our baby sisters who live with a little hoomin next to our house.
Welcome Thumper and Lettuce to the world of secret agent piggies we look forward to more reports from you
Fugly the chinchill was named after our beloved Agent F and so it is only right that he join us as an honourary member of the Undercover Guinea Pig Society.