Monday, October 27, 2014

Chaos at the Piggyfriends: Episode 8. Piggy of the Month

Florence Piggyfriend here.


I was so pleased to be piggy of the month in the Calendar. I can't believe that it is nearly Halloween again as so much has been happening here at Piggyfriends. If you have been following our Chaos story, you will know that our pigroom, which is also Slave's conservatory, had to be rebuilt as it was subsiding. We could not post an episode whilst Slave was away on her holiday as she took her camera with her. Then she brought it back and her computer died. Luckily the repair guys were able to resuscitate it and here we are again.


Slave has been painting our new wall green.
This colour is called Angel's Palace.
I think that it should be called Piggies' Palace.

One of our homes has been moved into the new room.
Who lives here?
"We do. This is our home and it is back where it should be!"
say Bosworth and Rafferty.

" This is my home. Please lift me in
so that I can eat that grass." says Susie
" Our home is ready for us to move back in.
Come on Otto!." say Lotte and Lola.


" Here I am." says Otto. " There is grass to share."
" My friend Angelina is being taken to our home by our pigsitter,
who is helping put our room back in order.
She is not scared now." says Florence.

"And here is Slave carrying her plants back in from the garage!
I'll show you more of our new room soon.
We don't all live in here as some of us stay in the dining room."

Friday, October 24, 2014

Friday Video: Teddy Bear the Porcupine's Halloween Feast

And he's having pumpkin! How adorable is he?


We did some searching on the web after seeing this video, and found out that he helps to educate people, and that he did the voice of Sebastian the hedgehog in The Hobbit; an Unexpected Journey.


Hope you have a nice Wheekend!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Repost: Different piggie breed pigtures wanted for the 2015 Undercover Guinea Pigs Calendar!

Hey all,

So I want to try to gather pigtures of your piggies of different breeds, so we can make a calendar for 2015 with a different breed every month.

This year's Desktop calendar
As always I need your help! So please send me pigtures of your piggies. Pictures that show us how they look (or differ from other breeds) are most useful of course. Any breeds will do, please let us know what breed your piggie is, and if you have pigtures of late piggies in a particular breed, feel free to send them in too!

Every month in 2015 I would like to make a post about that month's particular breed. If you have any explanation about the breed (i.e. Rexes have curled wiskers, US teddies straight), know about special traits they have (for example of rexes it is often said they are bigger then other breeds). Maybe how they came in to existence (a mix of two other breeds) anything that is interesting for us to know, let us know.

Check on the contribute tab for our email address and send us your pigtures!
Please also send me their (agent) names and breed.

Thanks, I hope we can make another gorgeous Calendar for the upcoming year, and of course make a little profit we can donate to a shelter...

You can see most of our previous calendar piggies here. or click on the labels on the right side with Calendar 2014, 2013 or 2012.

Mieke,
and the rest of the blogging trinity (Janneke and M)


The 2012 Wall calendar

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Friday Video: for the Birds

Hi all,

We weren't up to writing a Friday Video post so soon after Coco's passing. But we wouldn't want to deprive you of a Friday Video for too long, so here it is. Al least it cheered us up ;-)


Have a nice Wheekend!

Friday, October 17, 2014

Agent Chanel checking out

Coco smiling prettily for Mister R.
We're sorry to bring you bad news again. Our Coco left for the rainbow bridge today. She had been suffering from kidney failure for a while now, but today she was feeling so bad that we went to the vet and helped her make the final journey.

We might write more about the kidney failure and the diagnosis another day, but for today we would like to remember our little diva as she was (and we do mean 'diva' in the sweetest way possible. Every member of our household loved Coco and her antics, even Bo when nobody was looking).

This morning, while Coco, Bo and Ties were waiting for their cage to be cleaned, Coco was lying comfortably on a soft towel. Since she was obviously not feeling well, J wanted to make the cage as comfortable as possible for her. So she made her a nest of hay. In the other corner of the cage she put a wooden house, to make sure that Bo and Ties would leave her be and play with the house.
Huh? Where's Coco?
Coco was lowered into the nest and immediately started looking very annoyed. Next thing we knew, she was dragging her tiny body to the other side of the cage and then sat in front of the house. Every once in a while throwing J a dirty look.

Come on! I'm waiting..
Finally J caved, put a towel in the house, and little miss diva made herself comfortable. Needless to say, no cage mate was admitted into the house. Weak as she was, her pigsonality made up for that (she even got herself a tall, handsome bodyguard)
(Ties) nothing to see here, people. Please move along..
Coco sweetie, we'll miss you. Try to go easy on the other pigs at the rainbow bridge, there's plenty of chicory for everyone

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Big Pigs.

When I go on holiday, I always miss my herd of Piggyfriends, so I was delighted to find a few of their big relatives, some lovely capybaras, in Dartmoor Zoo in Devon, England. I am always wary of zoos and am the first to complain if the animals' quarters are not up to scratch but these lovely capybaras had a huge enclosure, which they shared with two nice tapirs and some rheas.

When we arrived, it was a hot day and the first animals that we met were these capybaras, basking in the sun beside their pool.

 






And as you can never have enough capybaras, here are some more. The one beside the tree was obviously having a nice dream as he kept waving his paws around!



Here are their friends, the two tapirs, who were also fast asleep when we arrived and were snoring very loudly. Sorry about the wire but I could not climb in to take a better shot.



Later in the day it rained and the capybaras all woke up and went in search of lunch. Just like our piggies, they love their fresh grass.



When we were leaving, the capybaras were walking in a line like a piggy train to go to their big wooden shelter where they had lots of hay but, unfortunately, there was too much wire in the way for me to take a good pigture so here is one of the tapirs, one of whom was in the pool that they share with the capybaras.


I wish that I had room at home for a capy but their pool was bigger than my garden.

 

Friday, October 10, 2014

Daisy had a bladder stone part 2

I wrote this part last Sunday, when I did not know yet how she would be doing on Monday... 

So after we took Daisy home on friday we force fed her some science recovery and she seemed to be doing pretty well. Our vet was saying we had a really strong piggie, as she thought earlier that day that she would not make it.
I forgot to mention they also removed a polyp from her bladder.

On saturday, we kept a hawk's eye on her most of the day and she ate some chicory (see the video), drank a little and nibbled some hay. Of course we kept up with the force feeding and medicine, and she started to object quite violently. Which of course did not make it easier for us, but I was glad she was this feisty as it meant she was feeling better.

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Look Daisy is eating chicory! #guineapig #eating


Today, sunday, she is still hanging in there, but she seems a bit less than the day before... It does get faster to hand feed her though but she does not want to eat by herself. Though I do think she ate a little parsley on her own. As we put in quite some food the day before, but did not see her dump any of it on the back side, I tried to separate her from the rest. I put up some C&C grids, gave her hay, a drinking bottle and pellets, put her in to see if she did poop. Within 5 minutes however she escaped, and to my surprise she left at least one poop. I felt like she was saying. "Hey mom, I did a poop, i'll let myself out now, okay?'
A bit later that day she seemed a bit more perky and that was when I think she ate the parsley. Also hand feeding her went a lot smoother. I did notice her tummy seems really swollen, also when she walks she sound like something inside is really sloshing... Anyone have a clue what is happening there?

We are keeping up the force feeding, she had less at this time of day, then she had yesterday. She has antibiotics (novadox: which is doxycycline), Carprofen as painkiller (this is rymadil I think) and cysaral for getting her gut to keep moving (it is cisapride). Today I also syringed her some water inbetween the force feeding, and some oil in case she was so swollen because of gas.

Right now she seems okay-ish, and I really hope she gets through another night, so we can talk and maybe take her to the vet again tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted and hope you will keep your fingers and paws crossed for her. She fought so hard to stay around, so she really deserves to get better soon!

On a happier note: Berke turned 3 yesterday, and he plus the others were happy to see Daisy back. They are sweet to her, and keep her company some times.

Hugs to all your Piggies,
Mieke of the Guinygirlz: Woopy, Daisy, Roos and Berke