My Pigs and I - By the way, this site is great!

Hello! First off, I would like to say that this website is wonderful. I found the sexing part quite helpful. (Yes... I did have babies - all went well, however.) Also, I liked how you supported adopting piggies, for you have me totally convinced to adopt a pig, rather than buy another or bear more of my own.

Secondly, while I am in my own right fairly ametuer, I have a bit of advice to give, and would love some in return. (On pets, pigs and other.)

I am an animal lover. I'm a sucker for them. At my house, I currently have 3 dogs, 3 cats, 7 piggies, 1 hamster, 2 turtles, 4 fish, 3 tadpoles, and 4 snails. Now before anyone jumps the gun and says these animals probably don't have enough time for attention and love, your wrong. I walk my dogs (Jet, a f. black lab, Leena, a f. yellow lab, and Sammie a m. beagle mix we got at a shelter) every morning and every night. They have a room where we keep them (our family room) where they stay and get more attention during the day and night. Jet sleeps with me. My cats have the run of the house to do as they please. All are friendly in nature and one actually acts like a dog. Pika, a med. hair black and white male, is the boss, and Bell, a long haired black with white bow tie female is (in pretend) his sister. Both we got at a shelter. Otaku (m.) we actually found him as a kitten on vacation of all places and he was sick and malnourished. Against the rules, we took him in our motel room and took care of him. He's a doll and you can tell he is thankful. The turtles are friendly and watch you from their tank which is actually kept in the kitchen, so they can watch people make food. (They seemed to like that place best.) Fish keep the tank clean and the other fish and aquatic animals are in a pond in our yard. The hamster is my brothers and he plays with her a lot. She is a black bear one and is very nice. She is 3 but has never bitten. Yep, so there is the background info... on to my pigs.

I have four adults. Two are female, two are male. Normally I keep them in 3 different cages, but right now they are in 4. The males are each in ther own cage. Phil, a cream, white, and brown silky is very friendly to all pigs, but his older brother, Tidus, a cream and white silky doesn't like boys, so they stay seperate. The two females are great buddies and are usually in one big cage I have, but Yuna, a black and white and amber female recently had babies and has been in her own cage with 1 week old babies. The other female, Sae, a brown (the type with rosettes... I am drawing a blank...) looks to small to have babies, so I won't take the chance. Having so many piggies makes for a lot of work, but I don't mind. My boyfriend and I share the responsibilties. We clean the cages every 5 days, and clean out any messes inbetween. The piggies get fresh water everyday and sometimes get Tang. (Yuna had two bottles during pregnancy - one with water, one with Tang to help with her Calcium. She also got her bedding changed more often and snacked on orange drops, which are her favorite snacks.) They have vitamin ravioli things and orange drops for snacks and get fresh guinea pig food (the fairly expensive kind) and fresh timothy hay everyday. Timothy hay seems to be the kind they prefer - even over the other varietes every once in a while. The cages sit next to each other and the pigs can chat with eachother. Tidus is very vocal and talks to Yuna a lot and kisses her through the bars. Sae likes Phil and vice versa, but I told her she is just too little. Remarkably, both females pay attention to only one male. Tidus and Yuna, and Sae and Phil. Yuna is a big girl and very healthy and the doctor said so. She had three babies (no more after that) and all are doing great. I'm pretty sure that one is a girl and looks like her daddy a lot, but the other two are hard. They are only a week old. Yuna is doing wonderful, there have been no problems and she has been given a clean bill of health. She is also a wonderful mother. If anyone has any tips, they would be much appreciated, as I am only 16 and new to this.

Thanks!
Digi
AmethystFaerie@animevortex.org

Also, I'd like to add that my babies (there are three) all have homes. One my brother is taking one, and my friend is taking one - both have been handling my pigs for some time, and I have a cage all ready for the next one if it is male and won't get along with Phil, who loves boy and girl piggies.

My next new piggies will be from a rescue shelter, though.

Digi

[CavySpirit]

Hi Digi,

I'm glad you realize you shouldn't be breeding. One glaring thing is to lose the tang. Straight water. Not sure what you mean by "fresh guinea pig food, the expensive kind."

Your pigs should be getting high quality, fresh greens and veggies twice a day. A little piece of fruit once a day or every other day. If you have a pregnant sow or babies, they should be getting plenty of Alfalfa hay in addition to Timothy for calcium---not Tang.

If the orange drops are those sugar things, I would not give them those either. Don't know about the vitamin ravoli things. It's really best to stick with what they are supposed to get, hay, pellets, greens and veggies. Special greens and veggies for treats.

Also, you didn't mention what kind of cages. Hopefully they are in big enough cages. Check the Cavy Cages site www.cavycages.com for more on that.

Good luck with your piggers. Sounds like they will be doing fine.

[kavykritter]

it sounds like you have done a great job of taking care of all of your animals, so i am not saying that you aren't, can't, won't, whatever, but you might want to check the laws in your area, alot of places have laws regulating how many and animals you can have legally, just telling ya.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

And what about hay? They're plain pellets, right? No seeds or nuts?

Tang is just sugar, no Vit c in it.