This Is How It's Done

Mabel rarely begs.  She occasionally gets up on the second floor and waves her nose around.  Most often she expects green pepper to be handed to her as she lounges in the hammock.  Like royalty!  And because she's so cute, she often gets away with it.  I've been trying to get her to beg properly on the second level.  The other day Wedgwood decided to show her the art of The Silent Beg:






Okay, Mabel.  Are you watching carefully?  First you chew the bars to get Mama's attention.  Hey, Mama!  She doesn't like bar chewing, so that usually gets her to come right over to tell me to stop.




Then you wave your nose back and forth. This shows Mama that you're properly enthused for treat and you deserve to be fed.  First, nose goes to your right...





...then to your left.  Are you watching, Mabel?

If that doesn't get her attention, you can do the whole thing again (including the bar chewing, if Mama is really not paying attention).  If you're totally ignored, then you can wheek. You should do that more often, Mabel.  You have a good wheeker that the whole house can hear.



Got it?  It's best if you do it from the second level.  It's closest to the kitchen, which is where the goodies come from.  And you can be seen:  Look, I'm starving.  Such a poor starving piggy am I.

I'm not sure Mabel is convinced.  But I get excited any time I see two noses waving about on the second level of the cage.  In the meantime, I'm trying not to cater to Mabel in bed in the mornings.  Ha!