It worked: Endive feast!!

Hi there,

The recipe for endive our aunts Yaya and Janneke posted worked!
Daddy slave didn't want to eat endive for another day,
so we got the leftovers:

Yummie!

P.S. Can you see how big Lily'explorer (top right) and Lil'wheeker (top left) have gotten?

Interviewing Caplin Rous using Twitter

Hi All,

We asked Caplin Rous the Capybara the first questions that were asked on the blog.

Below a copy of our Questions and Caplin's answers send using twitter.

We are @Guinygirlz (it means caplin said something to us), and @caplinrous (is us talking to caplin) is our friend Caplin.

We, Guinygirlz, said:
@caplinrous Okay first questions for the interview came in on our blog. http://bit.ly/b235ip
@caplinrous The piggyfriends, little piggy sanctuary in the UK, say they love you and wish they had a capybara friend! 9:44 AM Oct 11th via Echofon  
@caplinrous The piggyfriends adore the video that shows your cousins being tickled and falling over. (Do we have link of that?) 9:45 AM Oct 11th via Echofon

Caplin answers:
@Guinygirlz Here's the link to best capybara video EVER: http://youtu.be/3A2s70Z_LTg


Guinygirlz:
@caplinrous First question from Ghost, a piggy living with the Hamster in UK: What is the weirdest website you have found about capybaras? 9:46 AM Oct 11th via Echofon

Caplin:
@Guinygirlz: Gosh, I don't think I've ever found a weird capybara website! There aren't that many of them.
 

Guinygirlz:
@caplinrous Surrey squeakers, UK, think they eat a lot, they want to know what sort of quantity of food you munch your way through in a day? 9:48 AM Oct 11th via Echofon

Caplin:
@Guinygirlz I don't know how much I eat since mostly graze. Reports say 5 lbs of grass per day but I don't know. Plus 4 popsicles, 4 yogurts

Guinygirlz:
@caplinrous Last one now, Ghost again: Mummy is making us new bedding tomorrow so we would like to know what sort of bedding a capybara has? 9:49 AM Oct 11th via Echofon

Caplin:
@Guinygirlz I don't use bedding. I have dog beds around the house and on the porches. I urinate/defecate in a bowl of water in the bathroom 





If you have more questions for Caplin, please comment here.

Endive; the Recipe

Hi all,

Since the veggie of the week is endive, I thought I'd write down a recipe for endive, so here we go:

Ingredients:

- (Broad-leafed) Endive

Directions

As soon as the endive is dropped into your cage, it is important to start slicing and dicing right away since endive is at it's best while it is still crunchy. Endive is always a tasty veggie, but at it's best when fresh.
Eat whatever is left after you're done slicing and dicing.

Enjoy!
Yaya

The Leftovers

A crop of endive is kinda big, so it is okay to share a bit with your humans for the following traditional Dutch recipe:

Andijvie Stamppot
(endive 'mash pot')

Ingredients (serves 4 humans)
- 400 gr. broad-leafed endive
- 1200 gr. potatoes (preferably floury)
- 80 gr. butter
- 4 cups of water (500 ml)
- pepper, salt and nutmeg
- warm milk
- Rookworst (Dutch smoked sausage)
- mustard
Variation tip: stir little pieces of bacon and Dutch cheese into the stamppot. My human likes old dutch cheese, but it has a strong taste so if you're not sure a young dutch cheese might be better.

Directions
Put the potatoes into the water and boil them until they are soft (about 30 minutes). Cut up the endive into small strips. Boil the rookworst. Drain the water from the potatoes. Mash the potatoes with a bit of warm milk, butter, a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir in the raw endive and serve with the rookworst and a bit of mustard.

For the non-dutchies: rookworst and dutch cheese (e.g. Old Amsterdam)

Christmas Fayre at Raystede Rescue

Piggyfriends agents Thorntons, Firenze and Venezia reporting.

 

On Sunday 5th. December from 12 until 3 there is going to be a Christmas Fayre at Raystede. This is the rescue from which we three came, as well as several other current Piggyfriends. It featured in Algernon Rat's travels when he was staying with us in April and can be seen on the Remembering Alge blog for that month.

 

http://rememberingalge.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

 

We hope that somepig reading this will be able to persuade his/her slave to go along and support the cause. They need all the help that they can get so that they can care for even more animals.

 

Here is their website.........

 

http://www.raystede.org/

 

Slave will be there, desperately trying to avoid the cavy house as we do not have any room for more piggies right now.

Her son, Kevin, who is shown in the blog, will be manning the car park as he does not want to get roped in to sing in the choir. Slave is a show off and will sing anywhere. Sigh............

 

 

 

 

 

Veggie of the Week Endive

Here are Agent Dinosaur and Agent Bumble Bee eating a leaf of Endive:) they love it!

GPDD got problems again

As most of the GPDD readers probably noticed we haven't received the Guinea Pig Daily Digest for a few days now.
M and me were discussing whether GPDD had spam problems again, or that no one hadn't posted for a few days now.
As I wanted to know what was going on, I wrote an email to the GPDD and also to Tex.
---
Hi there,

I haven't received the GPDD again for a few days now.
I also don't see any new posts in the archives,
so i'm wondering if the GPDD got problems again,
or that just no one posted lately...

Wheeks,
Slave Mikey and piggies:
Guinygirlz: Woopy, Lily and Daisy (almost same weight as 2 year old Woopy,
and they're only 6 months!)
and Valentine Chico

---
Hi!

Yes, the same problem that happened a week ago seems to be happening again. We have a ticket in on it, and hopefully it will be resolved soon.

Tex
--

Well, let's keep our fingers crossed, they fix it soon!

Grtz,
Mieke

Veggie of the Wheek: Endive

This weeks' veggie will be Endive. Slave says this is a winter veggie, which can be bought here mostly in autumn and winter period.
As you can see, the Endive looks like a big crop of Salad, the taste is quite bitter,
and we get to have a whole leaf per guinea pig!
According to the Guinea lynx vegetable chart below, it's also known as Escarole.

Here is a table with it's nutritional values:

Guinea Lynx' VEGETABLE CHART 100 gram portions	Percent Water	Energy (Kcal)	Protein (g)	Ascorbic Acid (C)	Calcium (mg)	Phosph. (mg)	Ca:P Ratio
Endive (Escarole)	93.79	17	1.25	6.5	52	28	1.9:1

Source: http://www.guinealynx.info/diet_vegs.html

We also read it's high in fibe, vitamin A and K

Oh, wow, this is was wikipedia says about Endive: 'Endive (pronounced /ˈɛndɪv/[1] or /ˈɛndaɪv/), Cichorium endivia is a leaf vegetable belonging to the daisy family.' Wow, there is something like a Daisy family? I have got to be a part of that! Ow, it's a plant family? that is too bad...
Here you see me and Woopy sharing a leaf. Can you see, it's as big as me!

Slave says Endive is also very nice for people te eat, she likes in raw, mixed with mashed patatoes, and a sausage. What makes it really yummy is adding small chunks of Cheese (she's Dutch, huh?) and a little ketjap (soy sauce)...
Okay, those humans are weird, we just eat it raw.
Please send in your pigtures or stories about how you eat Endive!
Also i'd like to know if it's available in for example the US. It seems like a very Dutch veggie to us...

Green Wheeks,
Lil'Wheeker (aka Daisy)

Btw, Because of the Great Piggyfriend Slave Penny tips, our slave is now growing Endive and carrots inside (as it's cold outside)! We hope it will work, one of the seeds sprouted, but as slave planted both in one pot, we've no idea wether it will be carrot or Endive...

Piggy Snap; Tort and White Tricolours

Agent Vroom



Agent Lettuce

This is me with my little sister Snuggles (I'm on the right) we are both Tricolour or Tort and White piggies. Plz to note I am not named for the hoomin singer but after the queen of Carthage-I'm a regal peeg. Home is my pod in my Aunty Loosy's house, Snuggs lives next door with her hoomin. I enjoy long cuddles, using Twitter to talk to other peegz around the world, floortime (especially for chewing on Aunty Loosy's shoes) and being told how lovely I am. Sometimes I miss my big sisty, Irene, who died in the summer.
Veggie of the week is one of my fav things cause it has broadened my nomming horizons, Endive is now a favourite nom, still think carrot is a bit rubbish though.
Dido out




Mystery Agent Watercress

Hi Agent Ghost. I would very much like to become an agent and to play Piggy Snap for the Tort and Whites team! I have chosen the name Agent Watercress, because I was named after the long-haired girl in a famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. A near translation of her name from German to English is "Watercress". I love having my hair trimmed (and it can get a bit knotty at the back) but the comb - oh no no no. I think my performance was once nominated for an Oscar.

Agent Watercress has given you the best clues to her real name so get guessing...



Mystery Agent Cox's Orange

Hi from me Agent Ghost. I'd like to play Piggy Snap for the same team. I have chosen the name Agent Cox's Orange, after England's most famous apple variety. I am very bold, friendly and inquisitive. I have a pointy nose and I like to stick it into everything! Whenever the slave comes into view, I march straight up to her to see what she's got for me.

Agent Cox's Orange real name is also a popular variety of apples as well as the name of a hobbit get guessing.

Eating Tomatoes

Agent Minty reporting.

 

Here are pigtures of myself and my friend, Copper, eating tomatoes. We just love them. I wanted our pigtures taken outdoors so that my eyes would look the proper colour but it was raining and windy and I decided that I would make do with Slave's useless camerawork and she took these in the playpen. Copper didn't mind as his eyes are red anyway.

 

These are tiny cherry tomatoes so Slave only cut them into halves. As winter is coming the tomato plants in the greenhouse will not produce many more fruits so Slave will have to buy them from the supermarket. They do not taste as good as the home grown ones but we will eat them all up.

 

Yum yum.

Veggie of the Wheek: tomato

The veggie of the wheek is the tomato. Tomatoes come in many different shapes, small, big, sweet or less sweet. Above you can see a tomato cut in half. As there are four of us, we all get a quarter of the tomato.
We like tomatoes but our late friend Lotje used to adore tomatoes, watching her eat tomatoes was hilarious according to our slave. She would take a bite then her face get a disgusted look. But then she did like the taste and took another bite, get another disgusted look on her face and take another bite...

<><>

Guinea Lynx' VEGETABLE CHART 100 gram portions	Percent Water	Energy (Kcal)	Protein (g)	Ascorbic Acid (C)	Calcium (mg)	Phosph. (mg)	Ca:P Ratio
Tomato	93.76	21	0.85	19.1	5	24	0.2:1

Source: http://www.guinealynx.info/diet_vegs.html

We don't get tomatoes often, but we do like them. Here you can see Chico enjoying a piece of tomato.

Here's some points to take notice of when feeding tomatoes:
1) Be sure to remove the green tomato plant tops, tomato plants are poisonous!
2) We just read that if you have big tomatoes you should remove the seeds. We never did that, but also don't get big tomatoes...
3) We are doubting whether tomatoes can be a bit acidic like apples, which are not nice to eat when you have a mouth sore.... and can even be the cause of mouth sores when given in large quantities!
4) We don't advise the really small very sweet tomatoes (also called snack tomatoes in the Netherlands) for your piggy, or at least in very small amounts, cause since they are so sweet they must be high in sugar! Which is not very good for piggies...

Okay, well I hope you enjoy tomatoes, do let us know how you eat them, and feel free to send in pictures or videos of you eating tomatoes (see the contribute tab on top of the page).

Halloween Pigture Report

Agent Butterloaf here - I was carefully watching from my pigloo of a setup that I overheard was for "a Halloween photo shoot." I remember from last year that meant I got to eat lots of parsley so I was excited. After a lot of setup outside of my house, I was picked up (I always squeak a lot so people know to be careful with my chubby self) and placed on a blanket with lots of parsley! My piggy buddy Flashbang Fatbottom got to join me too, he hung out in a cool box. We both ate a lot of parsley and when we were done we went back to our pigloos. I got to wear a fancy chapeau, too!

Agent Cannonball - Me was put into a box and couldn't find a treat at first. Me sat quietly but still no treat. So me ran around and bulldozed the entire set to find it, but me still couldn't find the treat! Then me was put back into my pigloo. Then me received treats! Finally!!

Halloween Pigtures

Agent Momma with her babies Ariel on the left and Agatha in the Pumpkin

Haven't the babies got big, we wonder how much they weigh now?


Agent Bumblebee in the Pumpkin and Agent Dinosaur in Front

They look like they enjoy halloween but do they like pumpkin?

Ghost

Halloween Report

Agent Big Red reporting.

 

Here is a Halloween pigture from the Piggyfriends. This piggy's name is Halloween as that was the day, in 2006, upon which our Slave went to collect him and his friend Hope. He is a Harlequin piggy.

 

You may notice that this is not a real pumpkin ( it would be hard NOT to notice ). Slave made this pumpkin in her pottery class many years ago. They were supposed to be making plain coiled pots but Slave improvised. She left it to dry, intending to glaze it the next week but the class was cancelled due to severe weather. When classes resumed, she found that the pottery teacher had "helped" by glazing everybody's work but she had used brown glaze instead of orange.

 

Slave didn't really mind as it meant that her pumpkin was ready to be lit and placed on our garden wall on October 31st. and the colour doesn't notice in the dark.

 

Slave first tasted pumpkin on a visit to the US and never wanted to repeat the experience ( no offence intended to you pumpkin lovers out there ) so we don't have pumpkin to eat.

 

When Slave was little, her granny always made a Halloween lantern out of a swede or turnip from the garden and Slave carries on this tradition. She celebrates this day as Samhain ( pronounced sowain ) which is the Celtic festival to mark the end of summer. Samhain means "summer's end" in Gaelic. It represents the death of the summer sun god, Lugh. Slave gets miserable at this time of year as she hates the cold and dark English winter. We don't like it either as there is less grass for us to eat and our favourite tasty weeds are killed off by the frost but we don't think that pumpkin will be on the menu any time soon.

 

Pumpkins do appear in the shops in the UK these days but some people grow them to enter "heaviest pumpkin" competitions, for which there are prizes. The world record for a pumpkin is held by a grower in the US but, considering our short growing season, some very large ones have been grown here.

 

On behalf of the Piggyfriends, Happy Halloween everyone!!

Piggy Snap Lemon Agouti

Hurray we have another Lemon Agouti piggy snap lets meet agent DJ.........



Agent DJ



Greetings Agent Ghost! I would like to become Agent DJ. I just found out today that I'm a Lemon Agouti after seeing all the pretty pictures of the lovely sows on your web site. The humans who we share our home with did not know what I was, besides adorable, until today. They named me after another beloved piggie, who was also a Lemon Agouti.

I enjoy eating hay and carrots and fighting with my roommate Chakalaka. Sometimes the humans separate us when we fight, but we get very upset when we are apart. Chakalaka would make a good agent too, but he's not an agouti. I think he is a dust mop.

The human has attached a recent photo of me. Maybe if I can be an Agent, they will stop calling me Baby DJ, and I can be Agent DJ instead. That would be great. I am not a baby. I am eight months old now and weigh 2.86 pounds. I am trying to gain more weight so I can weigh more than Chakalaka some day. He's more than three pounds, but I think that most of that is fur.

Please let me know if I can join your group. Even though I had a heart problem when I was younger, I'm sure that I can be a great agent.

Best Wishes,

Agent? DJ

Welcome Agent DJ we are glad to have you on board maybe you could write and tell us about your heart problem we love sharing medical advice here to help other piggies.

Now everypig else your clues to DJ's real name.... its a welsh name meaning from the ocean and is also the surname of a very famous american singer song writer whose first name was Bob.

Get Guessing

Ghost

Piggy snap: Lemon agouti's

Lets meet the lemon agoutis......

Agent Not So Lil Woop

Agent A for Agouti



Mystery Agent Avatar

Lets meet the new mystery agent......

I am going to pick the agent name of Avatar.

I picked this because Slave enjoyed the film of that name ( and there is a link between it and my real name ). They wouldn't let guinea pigs into the cinema so we will have to wait until it comes on the television.

My favourite food is fresh grass with cucumber a close second.

I love playing with the girls in my group.

I am a nurse piggy when we have virtual adventures

Agent Avatar is a female piggy living in a mixed herd in the UK her real name is the same as a very famous box in Greek mythology and also the planet in a recent 3D film she has given you that clue already in her choice of agent name.

So get guessing

Tribute to the Apple

Hi All!

Miss Yaya here, aka the Guinean Queen, aka Agent Piggy Galore. Apples are absolutely AWSOME!! I love Apples soooo much! No other veggie tastes as great as an Apple; that perfect balance between sweet and sour.. ow and don't get me started om the crunchyness or the different textures while you chew through an Apple *swoon*. I do not know what I like more, the skin with it's sour aftertaste, the flesh or the crunchy bits of the core. But anyhew... I LOOOOVEE APPLES!!!

*hemhem*

Apple dearest...

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade*,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

*that is.. until I devourst thy

Slave tends to forget I like apples, she buys them far too little and when she does, she often forgets to feed them to me. She sits on the couch and chews happily away. Whenever that happens I wheek up a storm and make her feel VERY guilty (well, she should anyway... The ladybug-Apple in the pigture is  Slave+Apple+Guilttrip ;-) )

Lots of Wheeks! And may ye have bountiful of apples (or something like that anyways.. ;-) )

Miss Yaya

Vote for the christmas mouse

Sorry, It's no longer possible to vote
----
Hi all,

On twitter we follow Puppy the Guinea pig.
He is a special pig who is the CEO of Puppy love jewelry, and also has a webcam channel like us... He also has his own harem of sows as he's an international superstar... the PIHAS: Puppy's International Harem of Attractive Sows.
Every year his slave, who makes the jewelry, will hold the Christmas Mouse competition. As our slaves always called us Mice, inspired on how our aunts Guiny and Lotje looked when they were still pups, we like this christmas mouse competition! Slave says the pigtures are adorable.
See them and vote for your favorite here

The Guinygirlz,
Pihas Members...

Veggie of the week - Apple

Agent Silver Streak reporting in.

 

Slave took some pigtures at the weekend of those of us who had grown since the last photoshoot. She said that these were the last days of summer and she wanted to take outdoor pigtures so that our eyes did not look red with the camera flash.

 

Silly Slave. Elliot has red eyes anyway.

 

She used pieces of apple and cucumber to bribe the subjects to sit still on a garden chair and had her son nearby in case any of us made a bid for freedom.

 

Here is my best friend Elliot with his apple. He cleared it up as soon as the pigtures had been taken.

Caplin rous chillin out

Dear all,

We have a friend on twitter it's the biggest rodent we know!
He is a capybara, and he agreed to answer some of our questions.
So what do you want to know about Capabara's?
Post your questions here, we will ask him on twitter, so please make you messages no longer than 140 characters... So we can easily tweet your questions to him.

You can follow him on twitter, read his website Giant Hamster
and there even is a Capybara soft cuddly toy and a book for sale!
He's also on Facebook as Caplin Rous and his FB fan page is Caplin Rous, the World's Most Famous Capybara!

The pigture above is Caplin Rous (=rodent of unusual size) relaxing,
see how he puts his paws in front of himself too!
so it's not just a guinea pig thing, maybe all rodents do it?

Report by @guinygirlz : Lily'explorer, lil'wheeker, lil'woop (compared to Caplin!) and Agent Valentino

Fatty Eye

Agent Silver Streak reporting on a Guinea Pig Health Issue.

If you look at my pigture, you will see that the lower part of my eyelid looks strange. This is a condition called Fatty Eye and I believe that in the US they call it Pea Eye as well. It is not caused by me being a fat piggy as I am one of the smallest of the boars at Piggyfriends. I run around a lot and am definitely not fat.

It is just a bulge in the lower eye muscle and is nothing for Slaves to worry themselves about. It doesn't bother me one bit but our Rodentologists have said that surgery is possible if it affects the vision.

I have read that this may be hereditary but my mother and siblings do not have it so that may not be true.



For those of you waiting to find out Agent Silver Streak is also known as Dorian Piggyfriend

Thanks for your report Silver Streak

Ghost