Maintenance Costs

I'm nerdy.  I track lots of stuff in spreadsheets, including the maintenance cost of my car and vet expenses of guinea pigs.  I was surprised the other day when I discovered the numbers weren't too far apart.

I bought my car in December 2003, then adopted Athena and Victoria four days later.  (I was more excited about the guinea pigs than the new car... surprised?)  Anyway, nearly 15 years and 10 guinea pigs later, I was curious how the pigs and the car stacked up.

Cardboard Treat Balls

We saw a home-made toy demonstration at the Pig-a-Palooza in May.  I liked the toilet paper tubes filled with treats.  They look like a smaller version of the egg-cersizer.  I gave them a try last week.

Making them was easy.  First, you need a piece of toilet paper tube, cut to about thee inches long.  Then you cut four evenly-spaced slots on one end.  The other end also gets four slots, but staggered from the first four (so they don't line up across the tube).  Fold in the one end, tucking the flaps under/over each other.  Flip it over, fill it with something good to eat, then fold the flaps on the other end.

Typical Cage Cleaning

Cleaning Boadicea and Wedgwood's cage is pretty straightforward.  Twenty minutes of pulling stuff apart, wiping the cage down, replacing towels and fleece, then reassembling.  And chasing guinea pigs.  No cage cleaning day is complete without herding curious or mischievous pigs.

With the magic of time lapse photography, I seem to do it all in a minute and a half.  It would probably go well with Yakety Sax (especially the pig trains).

I weigh Boadicea and Wedgwood, then let them loose on the floor.  I sweep out most of the loose hay.  Pull out the third and second levels, sweep up and pull out the first floor bedding.  Sweep out the the debris on the coroplast and spray vinegar all over the bottom level.

I pull out my box of clean bedding, pick what I want and change the second level bedding; put the second level back into the cage.  Wipe down the bottom level and a put in a fresh layer of towels.

Chase pigs (because they're hanging out in the living room more than they should be).

I Like Thursday: Guinea Pigs

If you've read my blog at all, you know that I like guinea pigs.  (If you haven't, you'll figure it out from all the links and videos I have in this post!)

My mom was allergic to cats; Dad disliked dogs.  So I was never going to have a "normal" pet when I was a kid.  The pocket pets were all cute and I thought rabbits were neat - but guinea pigs talk to you.  It was the first thing I liked about guinea pigs, and from that point I was sold.

I like that they have conversations.  Boy, can they talk!  They burble, they complain, they speak their mind.  Eclair once told the entire vet's office at the top of her lungs that she was being manhandled and it wasn't to her liking.  Here's a few of the sounds I've captured over the years:

U-Haul Pads

I made the switch to all fleece bedding all the time just over two years ago.  Before that, only the upper portions of the guinea pig cage were fleeced (I've been doing that since I've had a C&C cage).  In general, I've been happy with a full fleeced cage.  I was recently reviewing old blog posts and realized I could use a few updates; my cage cleaning routine has evolved over the years.  So this is the first in a short series on my experiences with fleece bedding.  (If you're unfamiliar with using fleece bedding with guinea pigs, a great place to start is The Fleece Project.)

Layered up: U-Haul pad on the bottom,
then towel(s), then fleece

Fleece bedding smells best when it has a chance to air out.  Unfortunately Cannoli is a big drinker, which means she's a pees a lot.  I need to change the bedding more frequently and end up with a lot of stinky laundry.

I know some people use U-Haul pads or puppy pads.  When I made the full switch to fleece two years ago, I had several old towels on hand and saw no reason to purchase more bedding.  Cannoli's drinking is motivating me to research my options.  I recalled an article by Cali Cavy Collective about their experience with U-Haul pads.  (Check it out - she has way better photos than I do.)  She said that using furniture pads helped extend time between cleanings.  Extra towels wasn't working for me, so I figured this was an inexpensive solution to try out.

Seesaw Weights

It's been over a year since I last posted a chart of my pigs' weights.  In fact, the last chart was with Pinniped and Cannoli.  New pigs and, sadly, a new swap in weight.  Just like my prior chart, it's not really the trending I wanted to see.  This time Cannoli's weight was the one to drop.

Poop Shoes

Cannoli displaying poo foot on two of her feet

Yup - you read that title right:  poop shoes.  If you're easily grossed out, stop reading now.

If you've had or known guinea pigs for any length of time, you know that poo happens.  It's just there.  A lot.  Pig poo tends to be hard, odorless and once you get used to the copious amounts of it, is easily swept away or vacuumed up.  However, if one guinea pig has an upset tummy, all the pigs caged together can find their toes encased in poop shoes.  I am not making this up - you can google it.  In this household we like to call it poo-foot.

On nail-clipping day we couldn't see half of Cannoli's nails because they were shod.  Ew!  Once it dries, the stuff is like concrete.  It required soaking her feet and brushing them with a soft brush or carefully popping off hardened poo from each toe.  Don't want to hurt those little toes!

Top Ten Tips to Help a Sick Guinea Pig

I’ve owned guinea pigs for over 20 years.  I have hands-on experience in some areas (what to feed, dealing with UTIs, URIs or ovarian cysts) but am completely void in other issues (anything specific to boars, bloat or elongated roots).  It seems that each of my sows tries to teach me about some new illness I haven’t seen before (the latest was a bladder tumor).  I try to tell them I don’t need first-hand experience with every guinea pig illness, but guinea pigs have their own ideas.

While contemplating the guinea pig illnesses I’ve dealt with, I came up with a top 10 list of what to look out for and how to deal with a sick guinea pig:

1. Know your guinea pig’s weight.  I can’t express enough how important this is.  Invest in a kitchen scale and weigh weekly.  (My girls get weighed every time I clean the cage.)  By the time I can feel the weight difference when picking them up, the pig has lost 100g or more.  That's a lot of weight for a little critter.  I have hauled pigs to the vet with no other symptom than a significant weight loss to discover they had some sort of illness.  I go by the a 30/60/90 rule: weight fluctuation of 30g is normal, a loss 60g is worth watching, but a 90g loss is alarming.  Time to call the vet.

Small Pet Select Orchard Grass

I have been buying KMS Hayloft (aka Kleenmama's) hay for many years.  Their bluegrass and 3rd cut Timothy hay is beautiful stuff.  I had to switch over to bluegrass just over a year ago, when I discovered I'm allergic to the Timothy.  KMS Hayloft recently changed their source of bluegrass and it turns out I'm allergic to the latest bluegrass cut as well.  Serious sadness.

For now, I seem to do alright with straight orchard grass.  I did a temporary test with Kaytee hay earlier this year.  It was terrible stuff and so expensive - $5 per pound!  But I was desperate to see if another source would stop my coughing.  There's so much local baled hay that's inexpensive, but the few places I checked either have first cut only, very brown hay or a Timothy mix.  Here I am, surrounded by farms, and have to deal with funny looks from the FedEx guy as he delivers a box of hay to my doorstep.

Introvert and Extrovert

Cannoli is not a people-pig

Guinea pigs can have such different personalities.  I categorize my sows into two groups:  people-pigs and pig-pigs.  People-pigs are guinea pigs that actually like humans.  They like to talk to people, be touched by people and are just as likely to charm strangers as they are their regular caretakers.  They may or may not get along with other guinea pigs.  In my experience, my people-pig sows tend to be divas, are great manipulators and tend to be the queen pig of the herd.

Pig-pigs, on the other hand, range from tolerating people to being downright afraid of them.  These guinea pigs may love you for the food you give them, but would much prefer the company of other guinea pigs than that of the big scary humans.

Volatile Introductions

Little did I know, when I wrote Cage Match, that I had picked a title that so accurately described introductions.  Good grief!

The first hour of introductions at the shelter went very well, I thought.  I knew things would intensify a bit once we got Boadicea home in Cannoli's home turf.  It was relatively quiet for first few hours.  I set them up on the floor with tons of space.  I gradually shrunk their introduction area down to a 2x4 gridded area.  There was lots of talking from Cannoli, some teeth chattering from both pigs, a little snapping, but nothing too concerning.  Cannoli was acting as the submissive pig and I was expecting more of the same for the next day or so.

Fully Fleeced - A Year Later

All fleece, all the time (with extra layers under the hay rack)

I bought the bulk of my fleece about a year ago and switched to a fully fleeced cage.  So far, it's worked out pretty well.  I have to go to the laundromat to wash the fleece because our washing machine can't get it clean.  That's an unexpected expense and a bit of a drag.  On the other hand, the fleece lasted really well between cleanings in cooler weather - even better than shavings.  It required more frequent changing in the summer, about the same as shavings.  Not surprising.  There were some issues with lingering piggy smell in the fleece towards the end of the summer, until I changed my combination of detergent, vinegar and oxiclean.

I love the multi-colored fleece, especially ones that are brown, black or dark blue, because they hide the poo so well.  Keeping the cage dry was a bit of a challenge with a really leaky rodent.  I learned to keep an extra layer of fleece or a cuddle cup under the hay, since that got soaked so quickly.  Some areas of the cage need an extra layer of towels underneath the fleece.

X Marks the Spot

I'm doing the nerd thing again and showing off my latest guinea pig weight chart.  Last year's tracked a fairly stable Pinniped and a growing Cannoli.  What a difference to this year's chart:  X marks when Pinni and Noli traded weights, just before the new year.  Not really what I forecasted last year.

Guinea Pig Spaghetti

Corn season!  I picked up a big bag of husks this week and shredded the lot for drying.  That left a mound of corn silks, which looked to me like a plateful of spaghetti.  Doesn't it?  It just needs some tomatoes on top to complete the picture (however, I'm unwilling to share my few that have ripened).

I grabbed Pinniped and Cannoli to take some photos.  Pinni was more than happy to sit right down and start munching.  Cannoli, as usual, was a bit shy.  She wolfed down a mouthful of silk, but as soon as I moved her to get a better shot, she was gone.  Made a beeline out of the living room to the home base in the kitchen.  Better to hide where it's familiar than to eat good stuff in a strange place.  Noli is such an odd guinea pig.

Fleece Hay Rack How-to

Front of finished hay rack (with a few strands of hay)

I went through my fleece scraps last week, to make some items for the Boston Pignic.  When I made the hay racks, I jotted down the size and instructions.  There's not much to them.  The following can be adjusted to whatever size works best for your guinea pigs.

Start with the following pieces of fleece:

•  one 5 x 11" strip
•  four 1.5 x 10" strips

Lay out the pieces, all right sides down (or, I realized after I took the photo, all right sides up, with the large rectangle underneath the little strips).  Pin in place.

Guinea Pig Pain

Writing about a sick guinea pig isn't fun.  I am sure it's not uplifting reading, either, but I hope this is informative.

A somewhat puffy Pinni

It has been said, again and again, that guinea pigs are masters at hiding illnesses.  They can be stoic little creatures when they want to be.  Pain and illness can show up in some odd ways; not all of them are obvious.

First, there is the classic puffy-corner-sitting.  This behavior is the easiest to observe and understand.  I've seen this with Victoria, Willow, Bertie and Pinniped.  They'll huddle into a corner of their cage, nose pressed into the corner, curled into a ball and fur puff out.  It would be cute, if they didn't look so darned miserable doing it.  Willow and Bertie did this in the open and in cozies and cuddle cups, too.  My pigs gravitated towards any spot that they felt somewhat removed from everything else around them.

Guinea Pigs Lie: Abercrombie

Abercrombie and Pandora

Rick was my first encounter with a lying pig, but she was a small-time liar.  Abercrombie had some serious skill in misdirection.

Pandora and Abercrombie were my first pair of pigs I cared for as an adult.  Every time they had floor-time, they would get underneath the couch, make a mess and were nearly impossible to catch.  So I constructed a cardboard wall that surrounded the couch.  Abercrombie did not approve of this.  As soon as I’d set her on the floor, she’d run to the couch and start pulling and chewing the cardboard in an effort to get past it.

She knew I didn’t like this.  I’d yell at her to stop her chewing or digging or I’d pick her up and move her to another part of the room.  One evening I was making dinner while my husband watched TV and the pigs ran loose.  I peeked into the living room every few minutes to check out the pigs and converse with my husband.  Each time I looked in, I saw Abercrombie curled up with Pandora under a table farthest from the couch.  She appeared to be sacked out.

Guinea Pigs Lie: Rick

AJ and Rick (hiding in the shadows)

If you’ve owned guinea pigs for any length of time, you’ve probably discovered that they can be drama queens.  They’re good at telling tall tales of woe (“we haven’t been fed in days!”) or exaggerating things all out of proportion (“The vet tried to kill me!”).  But some people look at me askance when I first tell them that guinea pigs can lie.  They do.  Don’t let their fuzzy little cuteness fool you.

My first experience with a piggy liar was nearly three decades ago with Rick.  AJ, her sister, was the dominant pig of the pair.  AJ would occasionally harass Rick.  Over the years, Rick learned that if she cried loudly (“Mom! AJ’s picking on me!”) I would come to the cage and reprimand AJ.

One afternoon, I was in a nearby room and I heard Rick cry.  So I came to the cage and told AJ to knock it off.  Even though they weren’t sitting next to each other I figured AJ had pulled Rick’s fur and that Rick had moved away by the time I arrived.  Five minutes later Rick cried out again, so I went in and again told AJ she was a bad pig and to leave her sister alone.  A while later, I walked into their room just as Rick cried out.  And what did I see?!?  Rick on one side of the cage and AJ sleeping in the opposite corner of the cage.  Nowhere near each other!  Busted!  Instead of getting soothed, Rick was reprimanded.  After that, if Rick cried out in a tattletale sort of voice, I didn’t assume that AJ was picking on her.  What a sneaky little pig!

The Downside of Fleece

I have done a mix of fleece and shavings in the pigs' cage for several years.  I've dabbled with all fleece bedding a few times but had not yet switched to it full time.

I decided to take the plunge for all fleece a month ago.  I have to say, it's been working great and the pigs really like it.  It will be interesting to see how well it fairs in warmer, more humid weather, but right now, the cage lasts at least a week between full cleanings.  I swap out the old fleece every week more from habit than because of any smell or dampness.  The daily maintenance is quick and easy; pulling out the damp hay takes the most time.  I'm impressed that there's less smell and surface dampness than with the shavings, even with two pigs in this sized cage.

The one serious drawback?  Cost.  I know one of the great things about fleece is that it's an initial investment, but then the fleece lasts forever, so there's no recurring cost.  Unfortunately, our washer doesn't deal with debris very well and can't handle a large load of laundry.  The fleece came out smelling nice and clean, but after a few washings, it looked dirty all the time.  Very disappointing.  The washer at our old place did a much better job.

My solution has been to take the pig laundry to our local laundromat.  I wait until I have a big load so I can stuff a single washer.  Even though I bring it home wet, it still costs a few dollars every two weeks.  Not much, but compared to a $6 bale of shavings that lasted two to three months, it's quite a bit more expensive.  Bummer.  This was an unforeseen consequence in switching bedding.

For now, I'm happy to stick with it.  The time it takes to maintain a fully fleeced cage is no more than what I had with half-and-half.  The lack of smell is great, too, since Pinniped and Cannoli now reside in the living room/office.  For now, the pros outweigh the cons.  If we're lucky enough to get a better washer in the future, it will all be good.

Cage Rearrangement

I've been playing around with Pinniped and Cannoli's cage.  I moved the hay rack to the second level, which has gotten mixed reviews.  I was hoping to contain the strewn hay to a smaller portion of the cage in anticipation of fleecing the whole lower level this fall, but I don't think a second-floor rack is as convenient for the pigs.

I also switched the shavings from the left side of the cage to under the hammock.  That was much more of a success, especially this summer.  The hot, humid weather makes for a damper and smellier cage; since that's the corner they tended to pee in anyway, I could scoop it out and replace the shavings daily.  It made everyone in the house happier.