Bele & Lokai

[TrekkiePiggies]

Hello everyone,

First off, I want to let you know that I am ashamed of the fact that I got my pigs at an auction. At the time, it somehow never occurred to me that there would be guinea pig rescues, especially ones right near by me. I thought I was doing the right thing by not buying from a pet store. I used to work at a Petco and I know exactly what kind of treatment the pigs there get. I thought getting vet-checked pigs from an auction was better (cheaper, too), but now I know it was the wrong choice. Ignorance is a poor excuse, but it's the only one I've got. Hopefully I will be able to adopt in the future, but for now I have two little girls and I need to do the best I can for them. I may expand their cage and adopt them another friend, but I need to give it a few months with just these two to make sure I really do have the time and energy for an additional pig.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, let me introduce Bele and Lokai. They are broken-color black-and-white Peruvian sows, four months old or less.


http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2.../LokaiRamp.jpg
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2.../BeleHidey.jpg

Lokai is above, hoarding some corn husks. Bele is below, getting comfy on the cuddle cup I made for them. They are named for two characters from a famous Star Trek (original series) episode, because Bele is black on the right side, and Lokai is black on the left side. If you're not a Trekkie, here's a link on the episode: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki . They got Trekkie names because a) they look like tribbles! And b) my old piggy, Fudge Cream, used to love watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. She'd actually run up to the TV and put her little piggy paws up on the screen.

Here is their C & C cage (otherwise known as Wheek Space 9) :

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...hy/Pigfort.jpg

The blue skirt hides the cube base and all their supplies neatly. They seem to adore their new fleece bedding--I've been seeing little popcorns all throughout the day!

The girls are eating Oxbow Cavy Performance pellets, Oxbow Western Timothy Hay, Oxbow Hay Cakes, and a big handful of fresh veggies from the wonderful list on this equally wonderful site twice daily.

A little bit about me:

I'm originally from Alaska, now attending college in Northern California. I got my first piggie, a black-and-white Dutch Teddy boar, when I was 5. Since I was incredibly imaginative, I named him Teddy. A year later, we decided to get him some company. We neutered him, since back then the wisdom was you couldn't keep two boars together, and got Fudge Cream, the original Trekkie Piggie, a black American White Crested sow. We got them both from the same breeder. This breeder told us that you had to breed a sow before she was 6 months old or her hips would fuse and she would die if she ever accidentally became pregnant. So we bred Fudgie to one of the breeder's boars, and ended up keeping a TSW American White Crested sow from the litter and gave the rest to a pet shop (you may begin throwing rotten tomatoes now. Trust me, I deserve it. It gets worse). Cookie, the tortie, "had" to be bred, too, and she had a litter of five with one small, sickly pup named Cocoa who did not survive. She died in my hands as we were rushing her to the vet. Later two more sows followed, a Golden Agouti Teddy with a white chin named Pepper. We bred her, and we bred her daughter Cinnamon, too. Fudgie had a few more litters because we thought it was "fun." I once made a family tree of my pigs and their color/coat gene inheritance for a science class project. There were an awful lot of pigs. I know not all of them ended up in good homes, and that I am directly responsible.

They all lived in 2X3 or 1X2 foot cages on pine shavings, ate alfalfa hay all their lives, got vitamin C in their water, and were given whichever guinea pig pellets were available at the pet shop, colored bits and all. Yogurt drops were a daily treat. We did give them fresh veggies, but not every day, and we at least gave them floor time and cuddles. They never lived past 5 years. Pepper died at 2 from sudden-onset pneumonia, Fudgie at 5 from the same disease (I'm betting the pine contributed to this). I did what the books said to do, and was in fact hurting them when I thought I was a model cavy carer. Heck, I even joined the ACBA, wore the T-shirt proudly, and took my pigs to shows. Fudgie got a Best Of Breed ribbon one time for being the only American Crested present.

Boy do I feel like a jerk now that I know better.

I want to say thank you to all the people working on this website and forum. When I came home with Bele and Lokai, with plans to get them a big cage from the feed store, some alfalfa, some yogurt drops, and other things I thought were necessities the next morning, I stopped and thought to myself: I bet cavy care has changed since I last had pigs 7 years ago. I'm so glad my Internet search turned up your site first thing, or I would have kept on keeping pigs the "old" way, much to their detriment. Thank you for saving Bele and Lokai from my flawed good intentions.

Live long and prosper,
Larissa, Bele, and Lokai

[samoews]

Welcome, Larissa! Times and ideas about raising cavies have certainly changed, and it's admirable that you made the effort to learn better ways to care for yours. Bele and Lokai are lucky to have such a dedicated piggie mom! (Beautiful pigs, by the way!)

[jilovecavies]

Welcome! Your piggies are so lovely!! I have that same fleece, by the way, tee hee hee. Anyway, what matters most is that you found this board and a bunch of great information NOW-better late than never! Don't beat yourself up over things you can't change. You aren't the only person that didn't know any better, I promise. I'm so happy you've joined our family! Feel free to ask questions, that's what we're here for. Give the girls some romaine from my boys and I!

[Jenni_Feathers]

Welcome, I love your piggys, they are so beautiful. I have a soft spot for long haired piggys

[TrekkiePiggies]

Thank you! I just love their little hairdos, and I've always been fond of black-and-white coloration in my animals (probably because my first-ever pet was a black-and-white pig). I still have a bit of trouble telling them apart, though! They are distantly related to each other.

Thank you for your kind words, samoews and jilovecavies. I'm going to try to do the best I possibly can for these girls, now that I know how.

Bele and Lokai are slowly letting me know their personalities as they settle into their new home. Lokai has been the more adventurous piggie right from the start--she was the first to eat from my hand, first to come up to me fore a veggie treat, and first to explore the upper deck of the cage (I did have to put a little trail of lettuce bits leading up to a huge pile of greens on top to get her up there). She is also a bit on the squirmy/active side during lap time, and bit be once when I held her in a way that made her uncomfortable. No blood, just a "quit that!" pinch.

Bele is more fearful of change and new things. Up until this weekend (I've had the piggies two weeks now), I would take her out of her cage, set her on my lap with some veggies, and talk to her soothingly with my hands out where she could see them. She would sit there completely still and quiet, which, if I recall correctly, is Cavy for "AAAAAAAAI'MGONNADIEI'MGONNADIEI'MGONNADIE!" Saturday night, though, after about twenty minutes of siting stock-still with a baby carrot under her nose, Bele started to look around, sniffed, and began to eat. I picked up the carrot, and after some hesitation, she ate the rest of it out of my hand. I put her right back in the cage after she finished eating (I want her to think lap time=yummy goodies). Last night, she only was still for a few minutes before chowing down on her baby carrot. Afterward, she cuddled down in my lap, kicked out her adorable little legs, and let me pet and skritch her for quite a while! She' blossoming into a very sweet, calm piggie.

[dextersmycutegp]

Yay! Welcome to the forum!
I have three peruvians myself and it's my favorite piggy thing when they popcorn and their hair flies everywhere. Holly and Midnight are Black and Dexter (my neutered boar) is Golden Agouti Roan. I also have another piggy named Smores who is a Brown, White and Black Dutch American.
They are so beautiful! I'm envious.

[jilovecavies]

That's great news, Trekkie! Even if you don't feel like they don't "fully" warm up to you, don't be insulted. Some piggies are just very cautious. I'm glad they're starting to feel at home!