April Updates

I've been a little CRAZY busy lately, and this poor blog has been neglected in favour of my facebook page because of it. So even though it's nearly midnight, I thought I'd share some random photos I snapped over the course of today.

Above is my 14month old chewing on a branch (!?) while Galaxy looks on from the safety of the yellow rocker!



And I couldn't resist this shot - Pollyanna after munching down on a celery stalk while I felt her babies move! (yes, I can confirm she is pregnant to Liam, due approx 6/5/12). I turned her around to look at her little face and found bright green celery juice dripping in a puddle at her feet! She made a right mess of my table! But how cute is that pose - foot on the stalk like she's making sure I know it's hers!




And this is what became of the rest of the celery! lol





This was Ruby at her weigh in. She is the first female pig I've had pass the 1.5kg mark! Granted she is in the last week/s of her pregnancy... but still, this is one BIG girl!


And lastly, the exploring trio - Cherub, Pollyanna again and Crumble. The girls never used to venture as far as the patio, but now that the tower cage is there they're constantly walking over to say hello! So cute. And so brave!

Yeti

Yeti is by far my most unusual guinea pig. And by far the most challenging to photograph! Especially as she is not just black. She has that tiny bit of white on her nose, and a hint of chocolate by her ear... just enough to throw off my camera!

She is packing on the weight at the moment too which is awesome to see. And I think the illusion of her size is increased due to all that fur! It just explodes in every direction with cottony-wooly-puffy goodness.





She's a bit of a loner personality-wise though. She tends to be found having a snooze on her own in one of the igloos, perhaps avoiding confrontation with the bigger girls? But she handles being caught and cuddled a lot better than some of the others (the worst at this is probably Ginger! She has a wiggle technique that makes it ridiculously hard to hold onto her!). She has an appetite to rival that of the bigger girls too. She's always right there at dinner time, right in the middle of the food. Usually sitting on something someone else wants to eat!



I was showing some of the pigs to my hubby and bubby Byron this afternoon while they had tummy time on the trampoline. He was blown away by her crazy hair too. (He doesn't see them every day like I do). Byron was only mildly interested in the little black ball of fluff. I handed the heavily pregnant Crumble to hubby to hold while I took Byron for a moment. He was amazed to feel the babies moving around in there. And not the least bit worried about it. Yet, when I was pregnant it freaked him out to feel the kicks and rolls! Go figure hey. Pregnant guinea pig = OK. Pregnant wife = freaky!

Monday

What a huge day! I am exhausted. Monday's are clean out day, and with the relatively new addition of the fleece bedding for the mansion pigs, this becomes a huge task. Today was extra busy as Sprout needed a visit to the vet (he's not eating and has a number of cyst-like lumps under his neck), and Chelsea wasn't very well either!

Monday 11/7/2011

(2am feed for Byron)
Wake at 5:45am - feed byron, dress byron, shower, make breakfast
7:00am - Byron back to bed, put a load of washing on, check emails
7:45 - Byron and chelsea awake. Chelsea has nasty cough. Make bottle and breakfast for chelsea. Ring vet for appt for Sprout. Take out washing, put on another load. Google cough syrup for 2 year olds.
8:45 - Byron getting grumpy, attempt to put him back to bed.
9:15 - Byron still crying. get him out of bed. put him, chels and sprout in car. Drive to shops.
9:20 - Pop into pet store. enquire about 20kg bad of guinea pig mix. Still not in despite telling me it would be in last week.
9:30 - Buy cough syrup at chemist
9:40 - Buy lunch/dinner provisions at coles.
9:45 - Bundle kids back in car, drive to vet
9:50 - Bundle kids out of car and into pram, balance sprout in box and push everyone up the ramp to the vet
9:55 - Sprout is examined by vet. definatly emaciated. Lumps on neck are apparently enlarged glands. Might have infection in this throat. Given antibiotics and energy paste.
10:15 - Bundle everyone back to car after paying $70 for third vet visit in a month.
10:25 - Back home. Quickly feed an exhausted byron. Put him to bed. Give sprout some energy paste.
10:45 - Take two washed loads of clothes to clothesline. Re-position grass run for girl pigs. Weigh 11 girls and put them in grass run. Start cleaning cage (remove dirty fleece, pull up soggy towels and bin used newspaper. clean out hidey houses/ cuddle sacks). Hose down dirty towels and fleece. Soak dirty cuddle sacks. All the while managing chelsea as she follows me around winging.


12:00pm - Go inside for lunch. Give Chelsea some cough medicine.
12:30- put Chelsea down for a sleep, Byron wakes. feed Byron - milk and solids. Put on another load of washing. Play with Byron. Change two of his pooey nappies.



1:30 - Put out load of washing. Start putting new fleece back in cage. Chelsea wakes. Play on the trampolene with both kids for 5mins, until chelsea's bouncing gets too rough. Relocate Byron to his chair. Continue setting the mansion back up. Sort through more hay to remove prickles. Head around side of house. Clean out Liam's House and Sprouts House. Weigh Liam, Crumble and Sheba. Fill side hutches with sorted hay and veg. Pacify Chelsea as she follows me around with a bottle of poster paint and a paint brush. Put Liam and girls back. Feed Sprout some more energy syrup and antibiotics. Put him and Kobe back. Put side gate back on its hinge after chelsea slammed it a bit hard. Lock side gate.




3:00 - Put Byron to bed. Change chelsea's pooey nappy. Put on her painting smock. Set her up with paints and paper. Put girls back while she paints. Take some photos of newly cleaned cage to have something to show for the day's efforts. Take dry clothes off the line. Put forth load washing on.






4:00- Byron awake. Put out last load of washing. Close up girls for the night. Feed the dog. Pack up painting stuff. Take photo of art work for future reference. Give chelsea a snack. Sit down to reflect on the craziness of the day. Decide to document it in this blog post.



4:30 - Mark comes home. Mediate fighting between Chelsea and Byron as they both try to sit in my lap at once.
4:45 - Byron back to bed. Mark heads back out to buy some juice and a chap stick for my extremely dry lips. I start cooking dinner. Chelsea does her best to make cooking dinner impossible.
5:15 - Cut thumb while making dinner. Mark gets home again. Put band-aid on bleeding thumb.
5:20 - Eat dinner. Feed Chelsea. Try to minimise amount of Chelsea's dinner that ends up on the floor.
5:30 - Shower Chelsea. Dress Chelsea in her PJs, try not to bleed all over her clean clothes.
5:45 - Byron wakes. Feed Byron - milk and solids. Change another pooey nappy. Shower him. Dress him in his PJs (again avoiding the blood!). Put away washed clothes. Mark makes Chelsea a bottle.
6:30 - Make Byron a bottle. Put Chelsea to bed. Feed Byron his bottle.
7:00 - Put Byron to bed. Eat LOTS of chocolate! Inspect hands that are so dry and cracked they feel like sandpaper. Thumb has finally stopped bleeding. Decide not to do washing up as thumb will definitely start gushing again. Upload today's photos to computer. Finish blog post. Breathe.




And lastly, the rather unimpressive weigh in:

Sprout is 510g (lost 60g) - 13wks
Sparrow is 630g (lost 5g) - 13wks
Liam is 640g (gained 35g) - 14wks
Ruby is 755g (gained 25g) - 16wks
Ginger is 750g (gained 10g) - 16wks
Kobe is 710g (lost 5g) - 19wks
Alice is 650g (lost 30g) - 21wks
Beeno is 685g (stayed same) - 19wks
Alba is 665g (lost 55g) - 19wks
Custard is 925g (lost 60g) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1.030kg (gained 15g) - 2yrs
Bonnie is 495g (stayed same) - 6wks
Galaxy is 720g (lost 5g) - 28wks
Sheba is 665g (gained 30g) - 24wks
Crumble is 940g (gained 30g) - 32wks
Yeti is 255g (gained 30g) - 6wks


Total piggy weight 11.025kg (total weekly gain of 5g across all 16 guinea pigs!)

Well, we had a crappy week this week! I wonder what went wrong. I've felt everyone else's necks for lumps like Sprout, but he's the only one with them. He's also the only one that has the emaciated feel and the generally unwell look. Hopefully this isn't something contagious that is just starting to hit them all... I'll keep you all updated as the week progresses. Finger's crossed it was just a one-off bad week.

Byron meets the girls

I thought Byron (my 4month old) might like to hang with the girls on the grass this afternoon. They thought he was very curious indeed...



... but I think having ten of them surround him was a bit much! :p Well they are such scary things :P