Sagebrush Mom
Active Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2013
- Posts
- 28
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2013
- Messages
- 28
First I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who has shared cage, fleece, feeding info on this site. I have spent the last several months updating my piggie knowledge (my last guinea pigs lived in a kids swimming pool in the basement in the early 1970's so I had a lot to learn). For anyone who has not used it the search function on this site can be used to find a wealth of information and the galleries are a great souce for cage building inspiration.
Anyway, on to the piggies. I finally finished my 2 level 2 X4 C&C and brought the piggies home last night. I had a hard time finding pigs to adopt where I live (intermountain west USA) and had resigned myself to a 3 1/2 hour drive to the nearest city with adoptable pigs when these ladies popped up on craigslist (in 3 months of searching there have only been 5 craigslist postings for pigs within a 2 hour drive and they have all been placed almost immediately). Our 2 ladies were former research pigs (nothing invasive) that had been placed with a family after the research trial was over. After several months the family decided pigs were not for them (I think if they had learned about fleece and C&C cages the outcome may have been different after talking with them -they are certainly going to relay the information I gave them to the other family that adopted pigs from the University).
My two new ladies are 7 months old and had been living in 2 storage containers connected by a short piece of pipe. They had free choice pellets but limited amounts of timothy hay and only celery and carrots for veggies. The previous owners reported that they did not like apples so other foods had been tried. This diet had no doubt contributed to Chubby's obesity (she even has a fat roll under her chin that almost drags the ground). Chubby is reportedly the bossier of the two and had kept Squeaky from the most choice foods (probably why Squeaky is a better weight). After sharing some feeding information with the previous owners for them to relay to the other adopters we were on our way home.
Chubby and Squeaky had been living with 5 children so my two boys were nothing new to them and they are very friendly and gentle with the kids. It's funny to watch them zoom around their cage or in their playpen for floor time, although no popcorning yet - I don't think they are sure what to do with all the space. Green leaf lettuce was popular for breakfast this morning and they even nibbled on their green pepper slices. I'm going to introduce new veggies slowly so I don't upset their systems - unlimited timothy hay and restricted pellets is already a big change for them.
Anyway, on to the piggies. I finally finished my 2 level 2 X4 C&C and brought the piggies home last night. I had a hard time finding pigs to adopt where I live (intermountain west USA) and had resigned myself to a 3 1/2 hour drive to the nearest city with adoptable pigs when these ladies popped up on craigslist (in 3 months of searching there have only been 5 craigslist postings for pigs within a 2 hour drive and they have all been placed almost immediately). Our 2 ladies were former research pigs (nothing invasive) that had been placed with a family after the research trial was over. After several months the family decided pigs were not for them (I think if they had learned about fleece and C&C cages the outcome may have been different after talking with them -they are certainly going to relay the information I gave them to the other family that adopted pigs from the University).
My two new ladies are 7 months old and had been living in 2 storage containers connected by a short piece of pipe. They had free choice pellets but limited amounts of timothy hay and only celery and carrots for veggies. The previous owners reported that they did not like apples so other foods had been tried. This diet had no doubt contributed to Chubby's obesity (she even has a fat roll under her chin that almost drags the ground). Chubby is reportedly the bossier of the two and had kept Squeaky from the most choice foods (probably why Squeaky is a better weight). After sharing some feeding information with the previous owners for them to relay to the other adopters we were on our way home.
Chubby and Squeaky had been living with 5 children so my two boys were nothing new to them and they are very friendly and gentle with the kids. It's funny to watch them zoom around their cage or in their playpen for floor time, although no popcorning yet - I don't think they are sure what to do with all the space. Green leaf lettuce was popular for breakfast this morning and they even nibbled on their green pepper slices. I'm going to introduce new veggies slowly so I don't upset their systems - unlimited timothy hay and restricted pellets is already a big change for them.
i had to chuckle abit when i read about chubby's chubby chin!
