Introducing my kids: Harry and Chopper

[TX_2_Pigs]

I was on this site back in March just before I got my furbabies. They were coming from my sister-in-law whose mom had gotten her daughter a guinea pig from a pet store. Turns out it was pregnant when she bought it and asked if I wanted one for each of my kids.

Since I had piggies when I was young and again as a young adult, I quickly said yes and awaited the birth and weaning of the babies. The mother had 3 babies. 2 boys and a girl. Since I didn't want to be in that same situation, I took the 2 boys.

I decided to build a C&C cage. Unfortunately I wasn't able to build one the size they really need. The only place I had to put it is in the children's room which is very small. It is 2x4, but on it's side (2 story-1wide, 4 long). The lower level is where the bedding and hidey-blankey is and the top level is where the food, water and hay is. I know this isn't really big enough but I knew we were planning on moving and would be able to redesign the cage once we did.

We should be moving next weekend and once we do the kids (piggies) and the children will all get bigger rooms!

I look forward to chatting about my piggies.

[JarBax]

Welcome back!

What are the boys names? Good luck with the move! Once you've settled in, it would be great to see pigtures - piggy and cagey! (If you take 'before' shots, you can compare the old with the new!)

[wickedrodent]

Welcome

Im in Texas too! Is that one of your boys in the picture?

[TX_2_Pigs]

Yes, that is Chopper. The other one is Harry. I didn't have a good picture of both of the boys. I do have pictures of the cage as it is now. Just haven't had time to figure out how to post them.

I am going over different options about rebuilding. I am thinking of actually building 2 cages, one for each child's room. We only have his daughter every other week so they could live in her room while she is there and my son's room when she isn't. I have enough panels to build 2 cages, I bought 2 boxes. I would just need to get some more coroplast, but that is no biggie. The place where I got it last time is just down the street from where I work. I won't have a final design until we actually get into the new house and I can figure out how much room I have. But I don't actually think that will be a problem because those bedrooms are HUGE.

Is it the 15th yet?

[TX_2_Pigs]

I finally took the time to figure out how to post the pictures of my boys.

The first one is Chopper. He got his name because he liked to nibble on us when we first got him. My son wanted to name him Chomper but I just didn't like the sound of it so I changed it to Chopper. Chopper is the boss. I usually give them their veggies as we are getting the kids settled down for bed (9:00) and Chopper is the one who wheeks and whistles if I am not giving them their veggies on time.

Harry got his name because he liked to bury himself in my step-daughter's hair. She has very long and thick hair. I was kind of going between whether to spell it Hairy or Harry. Finally went with Harry. Harry is our chatterbox. He is almost always chattering.

These pictures were taken right after we got them so they are 3 weeks old. (They were born on Feb 28th.) They are now 10 months old.

[TX_2_Pigs]

I just wanted to let everyone know I have finally gotten my rebuild done and have posted pictures of it. I also posted pictures of the transtional cage I used. Of course, as with anything, I have already had to make some modifications to it. They didn't use the ramp by the kitchen so I took it out and blocked off that section until this weekend when I do the complete cleaning and then I will fill in that space and just have the one ramp on the left.
This also helped open up the kitchen. I noticed that they were practically having to belly crawl to get in and with the brick there, their little back feet were starting to get raw. Now that they don't have to squeeze in, the feetsies are back to normal.
I still don't like my ramp. That will also be redone when I do the cleaning. Still kicking around ideas for that and will post the pictures of what I finally decide on. I did have to add supports for the second floor, but they are just a stick and they come out really easily.
Let me know what y'all think.

[TX_2_Pigs]

Well I went ahead and broke down and brought home 2 more boys.


I picked them up from Lisa yesterday morning. As I understand it, Wickedrodent has the brown/white one's dad and TwoOfaKind has his 2 sisters. She said she got the grey/white one from a pet store that someone had dropped him off at.

It was a 2 hour drive to meet up with her. They had been calling the grey/white one Tyler. I had pretty much already decided that I was going to call him Dodger. I thought he looked like he had been rolling around in soot and the story of Oliver Twist came to mind. I wasn't keen on Oliver and since he was also known as the artful dodger I decided to go with Dodger. It seemed to fit even just looking at the pictures.


That little spot on his hindquarter is a squishy lump about the size of a shooter marble. It doesn't seem to bother him but we have an appointment the day after Christmas to have it looked at. And his nails desperately need clipping. I was going to do it yesterday after I got the quarantine cage built but I decided since we were going to the vet and they were so long, I would get them to do it. He is very inquisitive and dives right in to anything I put in the cage. He does have one other issue that I hope won't take long to break him of, he bites. Not super hard and really just nibbling, but he did leave a couple of little marks on my arm. He does seem to talk a lot.


The brown/white one was a little harder. It wasn't until I held him for a few minutes that his name came to me. And you should be able to guess where his name came from: Mr. Wiggles. He is pretty good about not running if you try to pet him in the cage, but the minute you pick him up, he is all over the place.


I got those little stacking bins at the Dollar Tree and the seem to like them. I also got a step stool at Dollar General that they like too.

I built them a 2x4 quarantine cage and put it in my son's room upstairs. It fit almost perfectly on top of his air hockey table. He doesn't use it much and isn't even home right now, so it was convenient.


I was a little worried about their poo at first. It was a very light brown. But today I have been noticing more black ones. Some are even marbled.

Well I can't wait for introductions in 3 weeks. I will let everyone know about the vet visit Wednesday.

[wickedrodent]

Aw, they are too adorable! Dudley says hi to his son.

I would go ahead and feed them a little extra vit-C veggies (bell pepper and cilantro), when the vet checked out Dudley he told me that he had probably not been recieving enough, and I needed to add a bit extra to his diet for a week or so. Im not sure if Lisa was feeding them the correct veggies or not. How are they weight-wise? Im still having a hard time getting Dudley to gain weight.

Love the names!

[TX_2_Pigs]

Dodger weighs 1168 grams and Mr. Wiggles weighs 975 grams. I don't remember what brand the pellets were, but she offered me what she had left. I declined.

I forgot to mention that I treated all 4 with ivermectin today. I think that may be one of the reasons why Dodger makes the noises he makes when you hold him and it certainly can be another reason that Mr. Wiggles won't hold still. Of course she said they didn't handle Mr. Wiggles much so he mostly isn't used to it. I wish they were downstairs where I could watch them more, but I guess I just have to keep running up the stairs to see how they are getting on.

[wickedrodent]

Wow, Dudley only weighs 1.5lbs -sigh- I might have to make another vet appt.

Yeah, I didn't get to even see where Dudley had been living. She met me outside because I was late picking him up and she had somewhere else to be.

I would love to see more pictures!

[TX_2_Pigs]

I didn't get to see it either. I met her at 362 and 290. I was a little surprised to see how long their nails were.

Did you see the slideshow?


You should be able to see all the pictures here. For some reason they got all jumbled up.

[pigsforlife]

Gosh Dudley is tiny - 680 grams. He weighs less then my 4 month old.

Congratulations on your new additions TX_2_Pigs. Their nails do look very long - poor pigs - at least they are in good hands now. Have you checked out the lump page on GL?

I wonder if they were fed poorly when they were with Lisa thus the colour of their poops?

[babybunny]

Congrats! They are so adorable! Merry Christmas for you all.

[PiggieMamaKelly]

Ooh they are cute! I also love your cage- the fleece looks great with the red coro! Best wishes with intros in a few weeks.

[TX_2_Pigs]

We just got back from the vet. Dodger has a tumor that will need to be removed soon before it gets too big. She said it is benign and is the type that doesn't spread and metastasize. Other wise she said he seems in good health. His eyes, ears and nose were all clear and looked good and his breathing and heart all sounded good. She said his poos looked healthy and his feet looked good with the only problem being the nails needed clipping, which they did but I will have to keep clipping tiny bits at a time to get them the right length. Mr. Wiggles looked the same and she said it looked like I got a good pair. Mr. Wiggles also got his nails clipped. His weren't as bad as Dodger's.

So now we have to schedule the surgery, but it will have to wait until after the holidays. But it will be soon.

[TwoOfaKind]

How are things going? Daisy and Delilah say hello ! It took a while to get Daisy and Delilah up and running. Had to feel Delilah with Ensure for supplimental nutrition for a while, but now they are both happy healthy piggies