New Addition to the Herd!

Hello everybody!

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything because I have been extraordinarily busy but I just had to update the page and welcome the newest addition to my herd: a tiny baby orange guinea pig who I do not have a name for yet. I bought her yesterday from a .. pet store of all places!! I was wandering around in innocent search of a larger feed bowl for the females and..... what do I see in the piggie cages? All curled up in a corner with some other cuties I find this orange beauty.

Violetta Christine meets her namesake!!

I took all the female guinea pigs and the babies to a party last night, primarily so that my friend could meet her namesake, Violetta Christine. The pigs were a huge hit and everybody wanted to cuddle with them. By the end of the night people had decided which pigs were their favorite and I'm sure each person secretly wished for their own guinea pig family... Here are Violetta Christine and Renata, the brindle Abyssinian, being held by my friends.

Bath Time for Squash and Bean!

Today I decided that Bean and Squash, my two long-haired males, were getting WAY too dirty and needed a bath. Anything having to do with guinea pigs in water is always so controversial on the internet - it seems there are a lot of people who feel very negatively about it. I would like to make it very clear that guinea pigs, particularly long-haired guinea pigs, NEED to be bathed once every month or two. If they do not get a proper bath they get very dirty and unpleasant. Their fur starts to stick together and becomes too gummy and smelly to run your fingers through (especially if it is a male pig - they tend to get smellier than females). They should be bathed in warm water and dried with a blow-dryer on the low setting. Here are pictures of Bean and Squash getting cleaned - they might look a little uncomfortable but it does not mean what I'm doing is cruel and dangerous. Squash is an adult, fully grown coronet in multi-colors. Bean is a black and white, five month old texel.

Merry and Pippin

Merry and Pippin are the first guinea pigs of the herd. At this point they are about five months old. Pippin is the white-crested golden agouti and Merry is the American tortoise-shell-and-white (though he does not have any dark markings). Pippin is not a show quality pig because of the white spot on his nose. In order to be of show quality, white-cresteds can only have one white marking and it must be on their forehead crest. Pippin is the most curious pig of the herd and will go in the most unlikely of places in search of an adventure. One time he actually made it out into the garden in the middle of the night and got lost in the lavender bushes, but that is another story... He is the father of Kinsa's three babies, also on account of his being so mischievous. While nobody was looking he found an architectural weakness in the female hutch and broke in on a mission of love and passion. Merry, on the other hand, is very mellow. He spends his time just hanging out and if ever he's in trouble it is because he's followed Pippin there.

Baby Pictures

Kinsa's babies have grown so much in the past few days. They are proper guinea pigs now! They have been introduced to the rest of the pig herd and seem to be getting along just fine. I put Kinsa and the babies in with the females yesterday and after checking that there was no fighting I left. I came back a few hours later and found all the female guinea pigs lined up at Kinsa's side, waiting their turn for a drink of milk!! I made a mental note not to leave Kinsa in with other guinea pigs for too long...

Members of the Cavy Family

Domestic guinea pigs are incredibly fascinating creatures but we usually don't think of them in terms of the larger picture. Where do these little animals come from? Who are their relatives in the animal kingdom? I did a little bit of research today and found some pictures of guinea pigs in the wild and some of their animal cousins. Guinea pigs belong to the family caviidae and so do all the other animals pictured here.

This is the wild form of the guinea pig. Familiar isn't it?

This is the rock cavy.

This is the Mara.

This is a capybara, my favorite. These are the biggest rodents in the world.

Aren't they the coolest things ever!? Look at their facial expressions!

Video of Kinsa Giving Birth

I was finally able to put the video of Kinsa giving birth on YouTube! It is ten minutes long but you can see them actually coming out of her and how she cleans and takes care of them afterward.

You can see the video on YouTube Here.