The Story of Two Little Wheekers

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CleoCharity

Post   » Tue Aug 27, 2019 3:17 pm


Thank you, Renonvsparky! Speaking of fosters, we just picked up our newest ones! Their names are Golden Cookie and Little Fole, but we're probably going to give them nicknames :) They're both only four months old, still babies themselves. Both are very skittish, but Golden Cookie especially is absolutely terrified. Little Fole has already done some popcorns and zoomies, but Golden Cookie is too scared to come out of her pigloo when she's in the cage, much less do any zoomies.

Golden Cookie:

Little Fole:


Sef1268, it's a 2 by 4 with a 2 by 2 loft, and ramps over to a 2 by 2. We originally only had a single boar who wouldn't get along with any other males and had lots of health issues so it would be too risky to neuter him, so we had the 2 by 4 with the loft. When he passed away and we adopted Cleo and Charity, we wanted them to have a bigger cage, but at that point, they were in a corner, so we had to put a ramp to another section and make it L shaped. Now that we've moved things around, we can have it all against one wall, but the girls love the loft, and if we took down the wall between the two sections, the loft would also have to come down because it wouldn't have enough support. I wish we could have one long cage so they could do better laps, but I'll have to wait until the time is right to get more pigs, and then I can completely redo the cages!

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Aug 27, 2019 9:31 pm


They are adorable little guinea pigs, CleoCharity!

CleoCharity

Post   » Sat Aug 31, 2019 11:05 pm


Now that the foster girls have had some time to settle in, their personalities have come out. Golden Cookie, who we just call Cookie, is still scared of a lot of things, but she's also one of the most food-obsessed guinea pig I've ever met (which is saying a lot, because I've never met a guinea pig other than Taco who isn't obsessed with food). I've started working on getting them used to humans by cutting up their veggies into smaller pieces, and hand feeding them, piece by piece. I just leave my hand in the cage, and when they work up enough courage, they'll come over and grab the piece of veggie. Cookie will come right up, but Little Fole (who we've started calling Faye) takes a little longer. It's like a there's a different guinea pig inside of Cookie whenever I walk in with the food, she's not scared of anything if there's food involved!

I love being able to just sit next to their cage and slowly feed them their food, their silly antics make me smile! After most of the food has been handed out, Cookie stops wanting to take the cherry tomatoes halves. If that's what's in my hand at the time, she'll check it out, reject it, and then run to the other side of the cage, and look again. When the food in my hand is the same as it was before, she gives me a very disappointed look, and then keeps coming from different angles and repeating the process until Faye eats it, or I switch it out for something better. It's so funny because she's fine with them in the beginning, but once she's had some more veggies, she decides that she's too good for them. I don't know if she thinks that I have a bunch of different hands, or if she's just hoping I'll switch it if she moves to a different part of the cage.

Faye also has her own cherry tomato story. The girls look alike, but their tastes are so different! She'll eat some of everything, but she doesn't attack the food like Cookie. However, Faye's favorite is Cookie's least favorite. Last night, I gave her a tomato half, and after getting it, she ran off to eat it. She stopped and shook. I've seen my own pigs do it once or twice, where they go up on their hind legs and give a full-body shake. She was holding the tomato in her mouth, and it flew out and across the cage when she shook, and into the hay pile. She looked very confused and started searching for it. I offered her another half (they each can have two because I pick the smallest tomatoes out for them), but she refused it and searched the whole cage for five minutes before she finally found her half. She wouldn't take any other food until she had found that specific piece. I've also witnessed both girls doing laps and popcorns, which is great because Cookie wasn't doing those before.

Faye is steadily gaining weight, about 0.3 ounces every day. Cookie gains some weight, loses a little bit, gains some more, loses some. Overall, though, she's gaining weight. I don't know what this means about them possibly being pregnant, but we'll see if either start to gain more rapidly, or look like they're getting bigger. We'll probably have a better guess in a week or two.

I just realized how long this post is, sorry! I just wanted to give a little update on them. They're such sweet pigs, it's going to be so hard letting them go, even though I know they'll get adopted quick.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Sep 01, 2019 10:13 am


There is something magical about getting to know a pet and becoming closer to them!

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daisymay
Supporter 2016-2021

Post   » Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:16 am


So sorry about Taco. Too precious for this world. Another star in the sky! So happy the others are doing well and have happy homes! Sending big hugs and I congratulate you on what you do as I could never let them go! Great work and you have two cheeky lovable piggies!

CleoCharity

Post   » Sun Sep 29, 2019 6:33 pm


Wow, I can't believe the fosters have been with us for over a month! Faye is still her sweet self, and is getting awesome at letting me pick her up. Cookie is still super scared of everything, but today I was holding her on my lap after trimming her nails (which went surprisingly well), and she purred. Both of them are gaining weight very steadily, and Faye's starting to look a little rounder than she once was, but it's not enough to be 100% sure about her being pregnant.

Cleo and Charity are happy and healthy, and as food-obsessed as ever. The fosters didn't wheek much when we first got them, and my own girls weren't huge wheekers themselves. One day Charity wheeked a couple times for her veggies, which started the fosters off, which got Cleo going. Now during feeding time, I can barely hear myself think.

In a few weeks, I will have owned guinea pigs for 6 years. My first ever pig was a super sweet, incredibly patient boy named Ginger. He was dropped off at the shelter for not getting along with the male pig he had lived with. He had lots of health conditions, and at around 5 years old, his tear duct got infected. We had no idea what it was, and at first, his only symptom was milky white liquid leaking from one of his eyes. We brought him to the vet, and they gave us antibiotics. They didn't work, and a lump started developing between his eye and his nose. We brought him back to the vet, and they said it was much worse than they thought, and he had to have surgery on it. The surgery went well, although we still kept working on draining the lump, and he still wouldn't eat well. We had him on critical care, pain meds, and antibiotics at this point. Eventually, he started to get better, and we were able to take out the tube that we used for draining the lump. He started to eat again, and when we checked in with the vet, they said there weren't any more signs of the infection. They took him off antibiotics on a Wednesday and the next Monday, I come home and found him lying in his cage, unable to get up. He was spasming and couldn't control his limbs. We rushed him to the emergency vet, and they immediately brought him back. About a half-hour later, they came and got us, and told us that the infection had moved into his brain, and taken control of the part that controlled his muscle movements. They had him in the surgery room, on oxygen with a bunch of tubes hooked up to him. There was a very small chance he would survive, and if he did, he wouldn't be able to be a normal guinea pig. He was in a lot of pain, and we ended up deciding that putting him down was the kindest thing. I remember seeing him hooked up to all of those tubes, and how helpless he looked.

This post is longer than I meant it to be, but I wanted to share Ginger's story to remember him. He was such a special pig, and he will forever be missed. I realized that I hadn't posted anything about him, and since it's nearing the anniversary of six years since I first met him, I wanted to share my sweet boy's story.

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daisymay
Supporter 2016-2021

Post   » Mon Sep 30, 2019 3:51 am


That is so sad1 Thank-you for sharing! I have tears running down my face! RIP sweet Ginger! Loved then, now and forever! You are now pain free. Sending big hugs.

CleoCharity

Post   » Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:03 am


This is him at about 2 years old, with his favorite stuffed animals:

This is about a week after his surgery, when he still had the draining tube in:

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daisymay
Supporter 2016-2021

Post   » Mon Sep 30, 2019 2:51 pm


Handsome sweet boy. So gentle eyes! Great pictures!

CleoCharity

Post   » Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:53 pm


We're pretty sure both of the fosters are pregnant. They are gaining weight fast, becoming pear-shaped, and you can feel large lumps in their sides. We are crossing our fingers for safe and uneventful pregnancies and births, with big, healthy, fast-growing babies.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Oct 12, 2019 9:47 am


I hope for the best too! Always worrisome when you have a pregnant guinea pig.

CleoCharity

Post   » Sat Oct 12, 2019 6:50 pm


Yes, definitely! I'm always worried that I'm not doing something right. When we checked in with the shelter a few weeks ago to tell them we thought it was possible at least one of them was pregnant, the person on the phone (just a staff member, the foster coordinator who we normally talk to wasn't there), we asked if we should bring them in for checkups/ultrasounds. He said it probably wouldn't be necessary, but I'm now wondering if maybe we should try emailing the person we normally talk to and asking her opinion, especially now that we're almost positive they're pregnant.

I'm also worried about cage size. I can feel at least two babies in both pigs, maybe three in Cookie, and I'm not sure if when they give birth, if it would be better to ask the shelter for another cage, and split the litters up so they all had more room. The person on the phone said that they could always give us another cage, but their cages are impossible to clean and to take the pigs out of. For fosters, we put them in the pet store cage we got when we first started owning guinea pigs, before we knew better. It's slightly bigger than the pet store cage the shelter had them in when we picked them up, and it's top opens up so it's easy to take them out. I think it would be a good idea to have the sisters together, and have them help parent the other litter along with their own, but I don't want them to be cramped.

I wasn't sure if I should post this here, or make a new thread. If anyone has any ideas, or experience with pregnant pigs/multiple pregnant pigs together, anything helps!

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