Hello!

[Peppy&Herby'sMa]

Hi there:

I have been in and out of this forum for a couple of days now, getting ideas for building a good cage, and learning how to interpret what my two GPs are telling me. I am brand new to this world of cavies but am doing my best to learn everything I can so my two boys will be healthy in mind and body.

My first guinea pig came into my life when a friend of my younger brother had to move house, and the place he was moving to didn't accept any kind of pet. He was going to take him to the humane society but I stuck my hand up in the air and said I would take him. He was called Elvis but I have renamed him Peppy (as in the cartoon character "Peppi la Pew" - not that he smells! He's lovely), as his coloring resembles that of a skunk. His coat is a handsome black and white pattern with rosettes. He responds to his new name very enthusiastically already! He is one year old.

My second guinea pig came into my life when I came to realize how badly GPs need company. Poor Peppy would go nuts when he saw either myself or my husband, screaming laps around his (then!) tiny cage trying to get us to chat with him, or just BE there, and it broke my heart to see him so bored all the time. I have horses in training, so cannot dedicate the hours a lone gp needs from his owner. So I went to the humane society and brought home the only single male guinea pig they had (there were lots of females and/or fixed males in a pair that they wanted to place together), by the name of Herman. The name didn't last long, but "Herby" (as in "the love bug") is now here to stay. He's 2 years old, "intact" (oh boy do I have a question I'd like to post!), with a super smooth tri-color (orange, black and white) coat. He has one black and one white front paw. This boy is such a character! He is the PopCorning King!

Herby story was that he was abandoned by his family when they moved, and the housing company found him loose in the apartment after they were long gone. Peppy on the other hand was originally a petstore pup, who has spent the first year of his life in one of those tiny petstore-sized cages with barely ANY intereation from even people. So they are like chalk and cheese at the moment; one is used to the idea of having the run of an entire apartment and the other is too scared to move from the spot you put him down on to excercise outside his cage, except to hide under a ledge or something.

Since snooping my way around this site I have built my very own 2 by 4 grid cavie cage, introduced a wider variety of fruits and veges into my boys lives, and learnt to appreciate more of the subtlys of gp communication.

So thank-you all of you already!!

Peppy&Herby'sMa,
Alberta, Canada

FYI - I got my "coroplast" through my husband who works on home construction sites. He was able to get a "scrap" sheet that was more than enough to build a 2 by 4 grid container with 6 inch sides. What a clever guy

[Lydia]

Wow! Sounds like you're off to a fantastic start! Welcome to the boards, from another western Canadian! Sounds like your boys have hit the jackpot with you and your home... can't wait to see pigtures and to get to know you better!

[Peppy&Herby'sMa]

"Pigtures"! That's gorgeous!

I most certainly will have to get onto the picture taking task; thank-you for the kind welcome Lydia

[piggly wiggly]

Wow what lucky pigs to have found you. Welcome

[piggy-lover]

That's quite a story! I hope their enjoying their new home.

[Peppy&Herby'sMa]

Back again after a long time - admittedly due to some embarrassment. I have joined the (if there is one?!) "Mis-sexed" Guinea Pig club"! Peppy, it turns out, is not a male as I was told! So the fact I went to so much trouble to get "another" male GP is just incredible now, and I have had a horrifying and expensive flurry of vet visits. Thank goodness "Peppy" is a gender-neutral name!

Herby has now been neutered, Peppy has had an ultrasound (miraculously NOT pregnant, and apparently also free of ovarian cists - good to know) - shaved tummy and all, and my husband is officially very anti-pigs after seeing the cost of the vet bill. What can you do but live and learn right? So now both piggies are satisfyingly incapable of reproducing and after 3 weeks separation "just to be sure", they are back living together and becoming great friends, with daily rousing games of follow-the-leader and food-tug-of-war happening. The only left over from "pre-neutering" is that Herby is still a chronic rumble-strutter, but thankfully Peppy knows that he is just all talk and doesn't take him at all seriously when he is in a showing-off kind of mood. Herby is getting better about just having civilized conversations with her - I'm sure it will be all grunts and cheeping, rather than rumbling, in say, oh a year?!

Oh and I am all fleece now. I have a layer of newspaper, and layer of Yesterdays News, another layer of paper (to protect the fabric from the wet paper pellets), and couple of towels, and a finally a couple of fleece blankets to top it off. It is working really well. I have a container of Yesterday's News in the cage as well, and Herby is being wonderful about using that for "Number Ones". And that's about all I have to say about that today!

[nonamian_girl]

Woa, that's a close call!! Good job on finding out and taking preventative measures. Now when do we get to see these super cute-counding buggers?