Water Bottles

So it appears that Clemmy and Piper are still a little too shy to write anything other than "hello." I tried to offer them the keyboard, but they ran away. We'll probably need to wait another week or two before they're ready.

Aside from that, I discovered a cleaning method for those tricky water bottles! Much thanks to the Guinea Lynx Forums for this wonderful tip!

How to Clean the Water Bottle and Spout

* It should first be mentioned that water bottles must be cleaned out daily in order to prevent algae and other muck from contaminating your guinea pig's water. They need fresh water at all times and providing a clean water bottle is just part of it. While you may not need to repeat this particular method everyday, it should be done at least once or twice each week.

1. Start by emptying any leftover water from the bottle. Rinse with hot water once (fill halfway with hot water, cover, and shake for 20 seconds).
2. Pour one (1) tablespoon of dry, uncooked rice into the bottle. DO NOT use minute rice; it'll get mushy.
3. Pour one (1) teaspoon of plain tablesalt into the bottle.
4. Pour two (2) tablespoons of hot water into the bottle.
5. Cover the opening with hands/fingers and SHAKE VIGOROUSLY! for one to two minutes. Be sure to swirl and create small vortexes in the water so that the rice swishes throughout the entire bottle.
6. Empty contents.
7. Rinse bottle with hot water three (3) times and allow to air dry.
**(this may be repeated for very dirty bottles)**
8. Rinse spout with hot water and remove the rubber insert.
9. Wipe outer and interior areas with a hot cloth (soap optional). Any areas that cannot be reached can be wiped with a Q-Tip.
10. Rinse three (3) times, making sure any soap is completely removed. Allow to air dry.

The whole process takes about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how thorough and/or dirty the bottles are. My girls are pretty messy, so I would need to repeat this process about two times each week. For daily cleanings, I would only need to do step one.

Hope this helps anyone that needs it!

A Visit to APPR

Hello again, world! Mom went out for a bit, so we're here to update you on our weekend.

Mom and Dad left us on Sunday to make a quick visit to the Arizona Piggie Poo Rescue. They dropped off the carriers they used to bring Piper and Clementine home and got some pellets as well. While there (at the East Valley location), they got to take a look at some of the most recent intakes.

The previous week, APPR seized about 100 fellow cavies from a backyard breeder (or in this case, a garage breeder). Their particular lot were being sold to Rainbow Exotics and were subjected to horrible conditions. Luckily, APPR were able to save them and have already started fostering/adopting out quite a few cavies. Mom shared some pictures with us of some 20 young boars. Thankfully, many of the babies were quite healthy, though not well-socialized. The adults were another story :( One of the adult females had to be euthanized due to a horrid infection in her uterus and bowels from several week-dead pups that weren't extracted from her. It made us quite sad to hear about this!

Here are some of the photos Mom shared with us. It makes us so thankful we have a safe, loving home with lots of food! These pigs are currently located at the rescue.

Some of the young boars. There's so many of them! They look happy now that they're being treated properly.
Mom also got a few photos of piggies that are patiently waiting for their own forever home. These gentlemen seemed quite charming and fluffy!



Well, that's all for now. Clemmy and Piper have been patiently waiting for their turn to write, so they'll be writing the next entry.

Home Again

Mom here. So sorry about leaving you all in the dark for the past couple weeks. We haven't had internet until today! Anyway, the girls are very excited to share their story with you, so here they are!

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Well, our lovely trio has grown into a quintet (excluding Dad)! It was supposed to be just Maggie and I coming home, but at the last minute Mom decided to adopt two other sows, Clementine and Piper, completely messing up her original cavy house.

We met our new cagemates the week before during a brief stint in the grass, but Mom thought it was best that we just "visited" through the seperate cages and grids for the first week home. Later that week (the 27th), Mom decided it was time for us to meet again.

Things started off ok. She placed Maggie and Piper in the play area, then Ginny, and finally Clementine. We formed a little pig train for Mom, which sent her into fits of giggles over the overwhelming cuteness. Then, moments later, baby Piper decided that she would be the boss pig and went chasing after Ginny. Rumblestrutting and headbutting soon followed. Maggie and Clementine decided to join in the fun, and soon we became a group of loud, grumpy cavies. Even the bonded Maggie and Ginny were testy with each other! Mom had to throw towels over us a few times, to prevent any blood :-O

Then, she finally came to her senses and threw in some veggies! We calmed down a bit, ate, and fell asleep. However, once Piper started chasing Ginny around again, Mom decided that play time was over.

The following day Dad decided it was time for us to live together.
"What?! After the fighting yesterday?"
"Well, they need to learn to live together sooner or later!"

After those words were uttered from his mouth, the humans (or rather, Mom) spent the day creating a new mansion! It's so beautiful! She created a 2.5x6 cage, with a 2x2 hay loft. We have plenty of room to run, sleep, and eat.

That first week was difficult, since we all were trying to get acquainted and establish class systems (which Mom found to be unfair, but we couldn't help it). Ginny faced the brunt of this, with both Clementine and Piper picking on her at every possible opportunity. Her first couple days were spent in the hayloft, but things eventually settled down after a couple more days. At least Maggie (who got along well with the new girls) was there to protect her! Mom called her "Ginny's little thug," since her size outweighed the others and at every wheek she ran to defend Ginny. We suspect Mom gave her more laptime because of this.

Well, after a few more days the drama began dying down and Mom didn't have to come running at every sound that came from the house! At this point no one is actually the "head pig" and we're getting along really well!

We sleep together.

And eat together!

One thing we did notice, however, was how little vegetables Clementine and Piper ate the first two weeks they lived with us. Can you believe they didn't want to eat bell peppers?! Maggie and I gobbled whatever they didn't, but they eventually caught on that all veggies are delicious! There's nothing we won't eat now! Or is there?

Hopefully you enjoyed our little update. Stay tuned for the next addition: the Strange Case of the Mysterious Asparagus and the New Neighbors!