Rodent Relations III: Stealing

I've covered Biting and Bickering.  The last bit in this series is stealing.  I'm sure there are more types of bad behavior between bonded pigs.  These are just what sprang to mind when Pinni and Bertie's actions upset The Girls Next Door.

Guinea pigs are willful little creatures.  Pinni loves to oust Bertie from some good sleeping spot or force her to move to some other spot in the cage.  Abercrombie loved to pull the treat bowl into the hidey house and block the entrance so she could eat all the treat by herself.  And all guinea pigs, even the most bonded pair, will steal food from each other.  Often it's straight out from the other's mouth.  Some people view this as being mean, but it's really just par for the course for any herd of guinea pigs.  Obviously, what one pig is eating must taste better than anything else in the cage, so why should that pig get to eat it all?  If it's a really good morsel, then the idea is to snatch it from the one eating it, and high-tail it to another corner of the cage to eat as much as possible before the first pig (or some other pig) comes to take it.  I used this piggy attitude when Willow was on her own to entice her to eat more hay (Healthy Competition).

Rodent Relations II: Bickering

Today's topic:  Bickering.  This, honestly, is a variation or escalation of Biting to include chasing, screaming and the occasional rumblestrutting (and possibly teeth chattering, although my current girls don't do that to each other).

Everyone has a day that nothing seems to go right and you take it out on whomever is closest to you.  It seems that guinea pigs go through this, too, and it's especially true when sows go into heat.  Both Pippin-Willow and Pinniped-Bertie were experts at all out screaming matches. 

And they're impressive:  Pinni and Bertie caterwaul at each other worse than a pair of fishwives.  When the screaming is at its worst, it's enough to make me lose my mind.  The hollering usually starts when one or the other is in heat, so it can last as long as two days.  All.  Day.  Long.

Rodent Relations I: Biting

This winter I had the Girls Next Door watch Bertie and Pinniped while we were out of town.  When I came back they told me all about feeding and caring for them.  Then they told me how Pinni bit Bertie and how they had to break up the two of them.

The twins knew Willow had lived alone because the Newbies bit her and I think they were a little sensitive to Pinni and Bertie's behavior.  They thought the two pigs were having a falling out.  And they aren't the only ones who are nervous about what constitutes normal guinea pig behavior.  This type of question comes up a lot.  New owners often separate their guinea pigs for fear that they're fighting when the pigs were just trying to establish boundaries and pecking order.  They also fear that pigs that don't cuddle together all the time don't really like each other.  Piggy politics can be complicated, and sometimes there are only subtle signs to indicate that two (or more) pigs are actually quite happy to be together.

Bertie and Pinni are one of the strongest bonded pair of pigs I've had (my best bonded were Vicky and Athena).  But like any close couple, they have their off days and spats.  When they do, they can really dish it out.  And because there is so much badness two pigs can get into - I'm going to cover it in a trilogy of posts.

Today's unseemly behavior:  biting, snapping, hissing and lunging.

Poked and Prodded

Thursday was not a fun day, for anyone.  We all spent part of the evening in at Windhover Vet.

Neither pig had been quite themselves for a week or three.  Nothing was particular worrisome - a little weight loss, some heavy sleeping, some moping about, some overzealous chasing and humping.  Between their recent behavior and some suspicions I had been harboring about Pinni for months, I decided to haul them both to the vet.

Pinni was examined first and my fears were confirmed:  ovarian cysts.

Peach Cobbler

I love peaches.  They are one of my very favorite fruits.  I brought home a half-bag of them last week from the Walpole farmer's market.  By Saturday, they had all ripened all at once.  I still had a few left over from the grocery store as well.  Too many to eat and it would be a sin to let them all go to waste!  So I baked them all into a peach cobbler last night.  I very rarely make this, since I normally don't have that many fresh peaches on hand.

It smelled delicious when it came out of the oven.  I could barely wait for it to cool a bit, before helping myself to a big scoop with some ice cream.  Yum!

Hmm... I've made myself hungry writing about it.  I may have help myself to some of the leftovers.

Mow the Lawn

Pinniped and Bertie love being outside, as have most of the guinea pigs I've had over the years.  As we sit and watch them stuff themselves with fresh grass, we often wondered how many pigs it would take to mow the lawn.  It's never any fun to haul out the mower, especially on a hot Saturday when you'd rather be doing something fun.  The pigs seem to enjoy themselves - why not have them do it?

Well, wonder no more!  I stumbled across an entertaining online calculator that determines how many guinea pigs you'd need to mow your lawn (along with an assortment of other animals).

Toes Together

Bertie's toes all together

I caught Bertie the other night attempting a Superman pose.  This is a classic guinea pig pose in which the front legs are parallel and stick straight away from the body, with the paws beyond the pig's nose (there's some good pics of this at the Cali Cavy Collective).  It's a resting pose that Pinniped has long since mastered.

Bertie had the toes together and the weight on the forearms, but her paws remained under her chin.  To top it off, both legs looked like they were under her left side of her body; I wondered how she didn't roll over onto her right side!  I think she needs to ask Pinni for pointers.  Still, all of those little toes in a row looked pretty cute.

Dog Days

It's been hot. We have an old house, which takes several days to retain the heat. Therefore, we have not bothered installing the AC downstairs this year.  After a couple of warm evenings, though, the house is heating up, and all of us are reacting to the warmth.  The pigs have been blobby.  So have the humans.

I peeked in the cage last night to find a pair of guinea pig puddles.  They're not totally spread out, yet, but they're working on it.  Begging is at a minimum unless they know veggies are about to arrive.  There's no movement as I walk through the kitchen, but I do see noses when I come to the cage bearing gifts.