Adventures outside the cage!

I thought I'd see if the girls wanted to venture outside of their cage yesterday morning. The grass between the cage and the perimeter fence is getting a little long. The thinking when we set up the cage was to let them eat it down when it got too long, cause getting a mower in there would be rather tricky!

However they weren't interested at all when I first opened the door!

After a while Custard led the way and half of them followed her.



They all went back inside and snuggled in the straw during snooze-time (middle of the day), so I shut the door again. (How cute does Ginger look in her little nest!)



Once the afternoon shadows had spread over the backyard, the girls were active again. This time ALL of them came out within minutes. It's almost like the ones that went out that morning had been bragging about how yummy the grass was!!:P





And yet again, it only took one day for them to cotton on to this new routine. Now all I have to do is open the door and stand back, and they all come running!

Monday weigh in

Today is monday, and in our house that means... 'weigh in day!'. So all the piggies get bundled up and brought inside to see how much they've gained over the last week of gorging themselves on hay, pellets and endless supplies of veggies!

This is today's run down, with the weigh gained since last week in (brackets):

Sprout is 170g (gained 35g) - 3wks
Sparrow is 210g (gained 65g) - 3wks
Liam is 250g (gained 35g) - 4wks
Ruby is 340g (gained 45g) - 6wks
Ginger is 355g (gained 40g) - 6wks
Kobe is 380g (gained 55g) - 9wks
Alice is 375g (gained 35g) - 11wks
Beeno is 410g (gained 60g) - 9wks
Alba is 415g (gained 30g) - 9wks
Custard is 910g (gained 10g) - 4yrs
and Subi is 1105g (gained 35g) - 1-2yrs

Total piggy weight 4.920 kg! (total gained 445g!!)

Our porkers for the week are Sparrow and Beeno! And a special mention needs to go out to Subi, who really doesn't need to get any bigger... but did! :P

Breakfast time!

My girls coming down the rather high ramp in their cage to have some breakfast. They'd only be in the cage for just over a week when I took this, and already they've figured out how to get up and down with ease. They even take themselves upstairs at night without us having to chase them up there. Guinea pigs really are a lot smarter than people give them credit for. Show them a routine for a few days and they quickly pick it up!

Liam, one week on

We've had little Liam for one week now, and he's already changed! His hair is at the point that it's long enough to start parting down the centre of his back! It's so thick and lush and beautiful.



Little Sprout, who originally looked as though he might have tighter curls than Liam, is actually growing more of a fuzzy coat. A little like zig-zag fur!

Liam is also one of my more vocal pigs. This is just a little of his complaining this morning when I took him out the back for a hair growth progress photo!

Happy piggys

Yesterday was miserable and wet, but the guinea pigs seemed quite happy! The cage has held up really well for it's first rain soaking. Even the open area downstairs stays quite dry. Which is good, or it would have turned to mud, and the pigs would have been confined upstairs!

These are just a few shots I took of them enjoying their greens. They're still a bit timid of people, but they are getting better. All of the individual personalities are really starting to shine now too.



Custard is the bravest, and tends to lead the way most of the time. That might have something to do with her many years of free-range life with us at our last house too.

Subi is bossy, grumpy, and a likes her space. She tends to avoid hanging out in the open when we're around as well, preferring her little igloo house. But will let us pick her up without any fuss.



Alice is a little firecracker. She's the only one who runs up and down the ramp at lightning speed all day. The rest either stay up or down!

Beeno is the most reluctant ramp climber. All the others file out and down the ramp in the morning, while she sits at the top looking out, but inevitably retreats back inside.

Sparrow is a funny little thing. She is half the size of the next smallest pig, but gets up and down the ramp without a worry. She's always tucked up next to one of the bigger girls.



Ginger is the sweetheart of the group. She's never in anyone's way, and will let me pick her up without a fuss.

Ruby is still really timid and scared. She and Beeno have taken to staying up the top while the others go downstairs. It's kind of like their hideout!



Alba and Kobe are yet to really let me see their personalities though. Kobe is a lot less timid now (Ruby's taken over that role!). And Alba is just Alba. A little stubborn I will admit. She was the last one to go upstairs last night, which meant I had to 'help' her up the ramp so I could close them in for the night. Oliver (our Beagle) got very excited when she was running around avoiding capture!

Ruby Ruby

I did my same old trick again this morning. I browsed through the 'guinea pigs for sale' listings online and found an ad for a 'texel female' only 10mins drive from my place.

I HAD to have her.

The owner was fantastic, and we organised for me to view her within the hour. I bundled up Chelsea (left Byron with Mark) and went to check her out. The property was amazing, and I have never seen so many guinea pig cages in one backyard before! The little texel girl was very sweet, so I agreed to take her. Apparently her mother was an expensive pedigree, but the lady who bred her never handed over the papers.

I decided to call her Ruby. Mark's not keen on the name, but I think it's perfect. Her hair is kind of like a cross between a rex and a texel in my opinion. Liam's is thick, and lush and soft - like I expect a texel's should be. Ruby's is more of a wiry fur, not quite as thick, and no where near as long. So it will be interesting to see how she grows.

I also decided to weigh all of the pigs today. It will allow me to keep an eye on their health, especially as most of them are still bubs themselves.

Sprout was 135g (maybe 2wks)
Sparrow was 145g (maybe 2 wks)
Liam was 215g (3wks)
Ruby was 295g (5wks)
Ginger was 315g (5wks)
Kobe was 325g (8wks)
Alice was 345g (10wks)
Beeno was 350g (8 wks
Alba was 385g (8 wks)
Custard was 900g (4yrs)
and Subi was 1070g (1-2yrs)

A total of 4.475kg of piggy goodness!

(this is probably really boring for you, but will be a great record keeping device for me! :P)

Video of Sprout and Sparrow

Thought you guys might like to see a quick video of Sprout and Sparrow having a little supplemental milk. I just love watching piggys eat, but watching babies drink from a spoon is infinitely cuter!




You can also watch them running around with Ginger as the babysitter in this video. Isn't all this new-fangled technology wonderful!