Toys for your piggie!

Hello, this is Rainy here. I would like to tell you guys about how much fun a sheet of newspaper can bring to us guinea pigs!

Our owner made us a newspaper tunnel. All you needed was a sheet of newspaper and a piece of tape.

1) Unfold the newspaper. It should resemble a valley.

2) Flip the newspaper over so it looks like a mountain.

3) Fold it upwards so it looks like a valley. With two cliffs on the side.

4)Bring the two ends together, one side overlapping the other.

5) Tape the two ends of the newspaper together.  Don't just tape the center!

6) Ta-da! You now have your very own newspaper tunnel!

My guinea pig seems bored. What can I do to help him?

Someone recently emailed me a question to put here on my blog. In case anyone is interested, my email is thepuzzledguineapig@gmail.com The person wishes to stay anonymous.

Here's the email:

Hello, Rainy and Cinnamon. I love reading your blog. You guys are adorable little furballs that inspire me to take better care of my own guinea pig. Your entries are wonderful, and I must say, they've helped me make my guinea pig's life better.

But lately, my guinea pig seems depressed. He's been chewing on the cage bars and hasn't been doing anything. He just sleeps all day and doesn't seem as active as he used to be. He's not that old either, he's two.

Any help is appreciated.




 Cinnamon here. So this person has a guinea pig that is bored. Chewing on the cage bars and lack of activity are two flashing light signals that indicate that your pig is bored.

The best option would be to get him a buddy. Here's the link I (or Rainy) wrote about companions. http://thepuzzledguineapig.blogspot.com/2015/06/companions.html But if you don't want to click on it, I'll just restate it here.

In the wild, guinea pigs live in herds. They are social animals and need a friend. It is cruel to keep a guinea pig alone. Did you know that in Switzerland, it is ILLEGAL to keep a guinea pig alone? Let me just say that I am so lucky to have Rainy. We squabble, and quabble, and bicker, and whine at each other, but I truly do love Rainy.

The best food is always in the other pig's mouth. If one pig is willing to try it, chances are that the other pig will want to try it to.


http://www.kappit.com/img/209121/doesnt-like-carrot-steals-carrot-from-others/

And to be honest, truth is, as much as you want and try to be, you're not there for your guinea pig all the time. It is just impossible. You have to juggle work, school, and everything else. You can't be there to play with your guinea pig the whole day. But a buddy will. This guinea pig will encourage your guinea pig to play, and just be happy.

So if I helped you decide to get a same sex or neutered buddy for your pig, I am happy I helped you. If you are going to neuter or spay, neuter. I am NOT saying that because I am a sexist pig (no pun intended), but rather, spaying is more invasive than neutering.

Remember to quarantine your new pig for 3 weeks, and introduce them properly!

For how to quarantine, visit this site: http://www.guinealynx.info/quarantine.html
For how to introduce guinea pigs, visit this site: http://guinea-pigs.livejournal.com/3002707.html

We might get a C&C Cage!

Hello! Cinnamon here.In some of Rainy and my older posts, we mentioned how much we'd like a C&C cage. Well, the time has come where we might get a C&C cage! We want a 2x4 with a 2x2 loft. The 2x2 loft will be an offset loft, so it is easier to clean under.

But to convince our owner's parents to let us have a C&C cage, we need to write an essay explaining why we should get one.

So here it is:

C&C cages are affordable, durable,quality cages. They provide a great amount of space for us to run around in. C&C cages are funner for us, easier to clean, and much better quality.

Every week when my owner cleans the cage, it is hard to do. The canvas has lots of cracks and it is hard to clean. The canvas bottom has many folds, which traps gross bedding in between it. She needs to undo all the Velcro straps from the cage and when she is done cleaning afterwards, she has to  reattach them. Then she needs to spray it with vinegar and water. But with a C&C cage,  

The C&C cage is by far more durable. The Midwest cage we are in right now is very flimsy. When my owner's two year old brother leans against the cage, it folds in on itself and we think the cage is going to break!

My owner, she loves expanding and reorganizing our cage. It is so much easier to do with a C&C cage! Take the grids apart, take the tape apart, tape more stuff together, and redo the cage!!! 

Plus, we'll have lots of fun running up and down the ramp. 

A C&C cage will be good for us. We'll get more exercise (RAINY IS NOT FAT) and it'll be a lot better for our long term health. 

What are we going to do with the old cage? Use it as a playpen. We can use it as a playpen. There's a lot of space, about 8 square feet, plus we'll add some grids onto it to make it even bigger!!!

The C&C cage isn't expensive. It's about $15 for the 4' by 8' sheet of coroplast, and $20 for the box of grids. But I want another box of grids so my owner can make us toys, so that's another $20. But that will come out of our vet fund. So it's about $35. But with the extra box of grids, that's $55. If we buy it on guineapigcagesstore.com, it's $131.00! That's not including shipping. So either way, we save AT LEAST $80.

So, who's up for a C&C cage?

Guinea pig cookies!

Hello. It's Rainy here. My owner recently made us some cookies. They're perfect for a hot day, but we ate it here during winter.

What my owner did was:

1) Gather  three or four strawberries, a small handful of blueberries, half an orange, and a little bit of banana. The banana chunk was no bigger than her thumb. 

2) She blended it all up until it was a puree. 

3) Then she froze it for 24 hours or until it was hard.

4) Then she gave it to us! We forgot how it tastes like so she's going to make the cookies. We'll be back soon with a rating.

Bashing yogurt drops

http://www.petmountain.com/product/guinea-pig-treats/11442-517395/vitakraft-yogurt-drops-for-guinea-pigs.html 

Yogurt drops. Disgusting. I hate them. But you know what? I've never tasted them. Know why? Because they're not good for me!!! Guinea pigs are lactose intolerant, which means we can't have milk. Guinea pigs are herbivores, and therefore their bodies don't handle milk. 

And since we are prone to diabetes, these sugary things aren't good for us. We can develop diabetes easily, so unless you want us to get diabetes, don't feed this to us. 

This is also too high in calcium. Guinea pigs develop bladder and kidney stones easily. This, which contains milk, contains an excess of calcium, which means that we will develop bladder stones or sludge.

So don't buy these for your guinea pig!!! These are bad for them!

Vacation is fun for us, too

So you know how my owner went up to Portland to visit her aunt and uncle? Well, during that time, we were at her friend's house, who was pig sitting us. It was pretty sweet. We got to meet Abby and Nutmeg. Although we never truly met, we were able to talk through the bars. Nutmeg seemed like a nice sow.

But the pigs were oldies. They were very old, about seven years old. Abby looked like she was about to keel over any second, and Nutmeg seemed really light. She may or may not be suffering from a bad case of diabetes.

Nutmeg yelled at Piggie. XD Piggie was squeaking for food, because my owner's friend apparently has a different feeding schedule than us. We normally get fed in the morning. So we were squeaking for food in the morning. Nutmeg was trying to take a nap, and she yelled at Piggie for making such a racket when she was trying to sleep.

Piggie was sad afterwards. I chimed in that I was making some of the racket, too. But Nutmeg likes me. She likes Piggie sometimes, but other times she doesn't. Old lady mood swings. :) Abby was pretty quiet.

My owner says that she had a nice trip. We did, too.