Breakfast time

Every morning, Guinness and Peanut wake us up, whether we want them to or not. After my alarm goes off, or we make ANY noise, they assume its time for breakfast. They squeak and make noise until they get it. Those pigs love their veggies!

This morning, Cole took some pictures of the action. 

Piggy breakfast: cucumbers, red peppers, carrots, and parsley

Guinness is excited for veggies!

Peanut begging 

Peanut chowing down

Guinness munching away (and making a big mess)

Guinea Stamps!!!

I decided to order stamps from stamps.com with pictures of Guinness and Peanut on them. I was inspired by my parents, who had stamps made of our pets Gusty (cat) and Charlie (goldendoodle). The stamps are super cute! Here are the pictures I decided to use:

Guinness in the cave

Peanut looking extra rascally on the bridge

I love these two pictures. I wanted to use a picture of both of them together, but it was too much to fit on the little stamp. If you would like a guinea-stamped letter or card, let me know! (Or even if you don't want one, I will be sending out something soon)

Big Pigs

I've been charting the guinea pigs' growth since we got them. Its amazing how fast they grow! I'm pretty sure Guinness has stopped growing (almost 1 year old), but Peanut is getting bigger every day.

Guinness weighed 1 lb 8 oz when we first took him to the vet in September 2010 (looking back to some of my earlier posts, you can tell how small he was). As of March 2011 he weighs 2 lbs 7 oz. I've read that guinea pigs can grow up to a year, so Guinness could still grow a little in the next few months. We'll see!

January 2011: He takes up half the cave!

March 2011: Tall pig! 

Lying down, he's about 12 inches from nose to rear. 

Peanut has gotten up to 1 lb 8 oz! He was under 1 lb when we got him in early January, so hes growing pretty darn fast. He's still tiny compared to his big brother, but he's catching up quickly.

Early January 2011: SO tiny!

Late February 2011: taking a piggy nap in the cave

After just 2 months, he looks like he's double the size!

I'll update in a few months when Peanut is full grown. He's 5 months old now, so if he's anything like Guinness, he'll grow pretty fast over the next 3 months!

Best Friends

The pigs have been together for about a month now. We built a giant PIGGY PALACE so that they both have lots of space, and we can still separate them while they eat in the morning. There is a little bridge between both sections. They love their home and they love each other! It took a while to introduce them, but they are best friends now. They pretty much spend their days puttering around together, eating hay, wheeking, and begging for treats when mommy or daddy walks by. Here are some extra-cute pics of the piggies hanging out together.

PS-- as you can tell, they now have a colorful fleece bedding. I find its easier to clean and MUCH cheaper. Previously, we were buying 1 large bag of Carefresh per week--yikes! Go Hawks!

Piggy train-- they always follow each other around!

Pigs on the bridge, begging for treats :)

Peanut poking his head out of the hutch-- curious little piggies

One side of the cage + the connecting bridge

Other side of the cage (this is the original cage we built for Guinness)

Welcoming Peanut!

We recently welcomed a second guinea pig, Peanut, into our home. He's so tiny right now, about half the size of Guinness (who happens to be pretty big at 2 lbs 4 oz)! 

The new guinea pig, PEANUT!

Peanut up close and personal! (and a little scared)

Just for size comparison, this is Guinness in the same cave. 

We have them in separate cages right now for the "quarantine" phase, meaning that we need to keep them apart for a few weeks-- just to make sure they are both healthy pigs before we introduce them! I made vet appointments for both of them next week so they can have regular check ups. Then its piggy play time.

I really can't wait to introduce them. They will both be much happier having a buddy around!

Salt Blocks for Guinea Pigs?

Yesterday at Petco, I was buying some guinea food and fluff when I stumbled upon "salt blocks". They looked interesting and came in some tasty flavors. But, I was unsure as to whether guinea pigs needed salt blocks-- I had never heard anything about them. Up to this point, I've just been giving him a good assortment of pellets, hay, vitamin C treats, and fresh veggies like red peppers, cucumbers and parsley. Petco didn't have Guinness' favorite vitamin C orange slice treats in stock, so I just bought the pellets and fluff and went home. 

Then, last night I was exploring some info about guineas on the PETA website (they don't have a very comprehensive info section, but just the basics) and it mentioned something about salt blocks. This intrigued me, since I have read just about every single website and book about guinea pigs, and never heard anything about salt blocks. 

It makes some sense that they need more salt, since it doesn't seem like they get much in their diets. Guinness has also been drinking water like crazy lately, so I was thinking maybe he needs more salt to retain water.

Today I read some things on guinea pig discussion website, and people said salt blocks are unnecessary. One person even said it can hurt them by causing kidney/bladder stones. I'm not really sure what to think!

Oh well, if anyone has any info about these salt blocks, let me know. I will probably buy some and see how Guinness likes them. If it looks like he's eating too much of it, I'll take it away. I'll update soon!

Holiday Guinea!

Its certainly been a while since I've posted about our wonderful piggy. But needless to say, we love him more and more every day- he just keeps getting cuter and more fun! He's so silly and playful now. We take him out every night and he just goes nuts running around, jumping on us, popcorning, and begging for treats! We usually lay down in the play room and read, and he jumps on our backs. He's a crazy little pig!

Anyways, its the holiday season now, and I have some GREAT pictures of Guinness being adorable.

The first night of hanukkah! I got him a "pepper saver"-- a plastic container shaped like a red pepper-- so you can keep cut peppers in there and they stay fresh! We let him open his present :)

Me and Cole with Guinness-- hes not super happy to be held like that, but at least hes looking at the camera, and he looks cute! (PS this picture is going on our chrismukkah card!)

This is me with Guinness in the holiday photo shoot. I made him some reindeer antlers for the pictures! 

The guinea antlers: they were easy to make out of dark brown pipe cleaners (you can get them at any craft store) and they don't hurt him. Its like a little guinea headband! He's pretty good about keeping them on but they eventually fall off when he runs around.