And The Winner Is...

Last week, we hit 100 followers! Thanks to all the humans who enjoy reading what we have to say!

We used a random number generator and the winners of the contest are...

Leah (Filonious and Hughbet)
Susan (Herman and Wilbur)
Bibbidi Beth (Poko)

These lucky winners will receive a handmade guinea pig cape with their piggy's name (or initial, if the name won't fit) on it by mail in the next 3-4 weeks. It will probably look something like this:

To claim your prize, please email your mailing addresses to cavysavvyaguineapigblog [at] gmail [dot] com

Thanks to all who entered! If you didn't win this time, keep reading the blog for a chance to win during our next giveaway!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Squash Blossoms?

Squash blossoms are a type of edible flower that guinea pigs can eat, too. Just make sure that they come from a safe source, like a supermarket, farmer's market, or grown by you personally. You don't want to feed us flowers that have been sprayed with chemicals.

Looks pretty. I want to eat it.

Yum!

Lola got bored of it. Now's my chance to eat these last pieces!

Squash blossoms were pretty good, although Lola and Broccoli got bored of them eventually. This was nice because I got to eat my squash blossoms in peace towards the end. I'll give them 4/5 stars!

Guest Piggies: Willow And Athena

Today's guest post is extra special: the two piggies you see here are up for adoption! If you live in South Carolina and are looking to invite one or both of these two very special girls into your home, contact Safe Haven Animal Rescue. 

This is Willow, an adoptable guinea pig located in Simpsonville, SC. She is approximately 6 months old and is very calm and sweet. Willow is special needs due to chronic eye problems so she will needs extra love and vet care. If you or anyone you know may be intersted in meeting Willow, please let them know at safehavenarsc@yahoo.com
*Adoption will require application, home visit, vet references, and an adoption fee.

This is Athena, an adoptable guinea pig located in Simpsonville, SC. She is a 2 year old female guinea pig. She is very sweet and is looking for her forever home. If you or anyone you know may be interested in meeting Athena, please let them know at safehavenarsc@yahoo.com
*Adoption will require application, home visit, vet references, and an adoption fee.

Want your piggies to be featured on Cavy Savvy? Just send an email with a photo of your piggies to cavysavvyaguineapigblog [at] gmail [dot] com and tell us a little about them!

Guest Piggies: Filonious And Hughbert

Hello, we are Filonious and Hughbert. We became friends 4 days before Mom and Dad moved us from New York to California for Dad's "other job" in the Army. His first job is taking care of us, of course. 

Filonious is the oldest, and Mom and Dad have had him longer, it was Hughbert who was adopted 4 days before our big move. It took time for us to bond, but now we enjoy cuddling, demanding more food, and knocking over our food dishes, as you can see in our picture.

Or favorite foods are timothy hay, oranges, the occasional broccoli, more hay, apples, and carrots but we're not usually picky about noms.

Want your piggies to be featured on Cavy Savvy? Just send an email with a photo of your piggies to cavysavvyaguineapigblog [at] gmail [dot] com and tell us a little about them!

Guest Piggies: Ophy And Gatsby

Meet Ophy (Ophelia) and Gatsby! Ophy is an American shorthair and Gatsby is an Abyssinian. These two little girls are about six to seven months old now and full of personality and spunk! They love carrots, parsley and lettuce - lots of lettuce! 

Their favorite thing to do is wheek in their cage, popcorn and play with their new friend Bowyn- the 4 month old kitten. At first they weren't sure about the new addition, but once they realized that Bowyn will run away if they squeak at him they were ok! We absolutely hate baths but looove getting our nails clipped! 

Wow! We would be terrified if we were in a cage with such a fearsome creature! 

Want your piggies to be featured on Cavy Savvy? Just send an email with a photo of your piggies to cavysavvyaguineapigblog [at] gmail [dot] com and tell us a little about them!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Mangosteen?

Mangosteen is an exotic fruit that the Guinea Pig Hutch lists on their "question food" list. However, we found a research paper that showed mangsosteen has anti-inflammatory effects on guinea pigs, so we figured it's probably safe to try. Since we don't know a lot about it, we'd recommend feeding it only as an occasional treat.

This is a mangosteen.

Cut it open, and feed us the white part only (minus the big seed).

Yum!

Mangosteen is sweet and delicious, and we even licked the juice off the plate after we ate the fruit. 5/5 stars!

Guest Piggies: Pop Tart And Scout

 

Pop Tart and Scout are the two lovely piggies you see above. Their humans are Christian, Sara, and Robert, and Pop Tart is best friends with Lola, their mixed breed terrier.

Pop Tart is a fiend for cilantro. They are both in love with romaine lettuce and green peppers, and apples always hit the spot.

We love all those foods, too! But I don't know about Lola the terrier. I think we'd probably run away and hide in our pigloos if we saw her. Pop Tart and Scout must be very brave. 

Want your piggies to be featured on Cavy Savvy? Just send an email with a photo of your piggies to cavysavvyaguineapigblog [at] gmail [dot] com and tell us a little about them!

We've Hit 100 Followers!

Thanks to our followers for helping us reach 100!

As a special thank you for helping make this blog great, we're holding a new giveaway!

Not one but 3 lucky winners will win a handmade GUINEA PIG CAPE with your guinea pig's name on it! To enter, just comment on this post and let us know that you wish to be included in the drawing and what your piggie's name is (one cape per winner). The only condition is that you must be a follower of the blog and have a mailing address in the Continental United States to be eligible.   

The winners will be chosen names-out-of-a-hat style and announced next Monday August 27th, 2012. 

Thanks to everyone who supported us over these last 16 months! You guys rock!

Product Review: Simple Rewards Veggie Treats

Today we're going to review Simple Rewards Veggie Treats.We liked the Simple Rewards Papaya Treats and Timothy Treats, so we couldn't wait to try the veggie treats.

Can't wait to try it!

Yum!

Those treats made us really thirsty! Let me at the water bottle, Broccoli!

These treats were just as tasty as the other ones, but I think they must have had a lot of salt in them because we couldn't stop drinking from the water bottle afterwards. We give them 4/5 stars.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Nectarines?

Did you know that nectarines are actually just a type of hairless peach? Since we've reviewed peaches before, we had a pretty good idea of what we were in for with nectarines. As with peaches, nectarines have a lot of sugar, so you should only feed us small portions 1-2 times per week.

The humans have learned to cut up foods into small, thin pieces to make it harder to hog it all.

Hogging it all is so fun, though!

All for me! Haha!

I love it, although Broccoli got bored and wandered off to eat hay. I guess I'll give it 4/5 stars since he didn't like it, but Buffy and I loved it.

Inquiring Humans Want To Know

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Parsley?

We received another food suggestion from Willow, who said we should try parsley. The humans tried telling us that they've already bought plenty foods for us, but we weren't willing to accept that answer. We wheeked until they gave in and bought us parsley.

Parsley can be fed to us 2-4 times per week.

Let me show you my disappearing parsley trick. Now you see it...

...Munch, munch, munch...

...and now you don't! Great trick, huh?

Parsley gets 5/5 stars! Thanks for the suggestion, Willow!

Guest Piggies: Larry and Mo

Hi humans! Today's post is about our featured piggies, Larry and Mo. 

Larry and Mo are six-month old brothers. 

Their favorite foods are plain pellets, cantaloupe, cucumber, hay, carrots, dandelions, and grass.

Like Lola they love to cuddle up with their human, Bella, and watch TV. They especially enjoy cartoons!

Want your piggies to be featured on Cavy Savvy? Just send an email to cavysavvyaguineapigblog [at] gmail [dot] com and tell us a little about them!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Romaine Lettuce?

You know what bugs us? When the humans give us something delicious, and it turns out we can only have it as an occasional treat. Take bananas, for instance. They're delicious, but we can only have small amounts, and the humans like to space it out for our health. Romaine lettuce, on the other hand, can be fed to us almost daily. So, if we like it, that's how often we'll be demanding it, and the humans will have no good excuse not to give it to us!

Tug of war!

Lola! Hey! I wanted that piece!

This is good lettuce!

Romaine lettuce is crisp and delicious. We give it 5/5 stars, and will be demanding it almost daily from now on.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Spinach?

We received a suggestion on the comments section from Astro, saying we should try spinach. If I'm not mistaken, I think this is the first time we've received a suggestion for a new food to try. If any other readers would like to suggest new foods, we're all ears! Just don't suggest anything that guinea pigs can't eat.

By the way, spinach should only be fed to us 1-2 times per week.

Look at me! I've got a green beard.

Hey! Let me in! I want some more.

Why are you so greedy, Lola? There's plenty for everyone.

Spinach was delicious, and gets 5/5 stars! Thanks for the tip, Astro! Now if only someone had a tip to make Lola more generous with food.

Should I Get Another Guinea Pig?

Thinking about adopting a new pig into your herd? You should think carefully about what will need to change before you adopt a new bundle of furry joy. Here are some things to consider:

Broccoli is the newest member of the herd.

Interactions between us takes interesting new twists and turns

Since guinea pigs are herd animals by nature, throwing a new pig into the mix forces us to reassess our social hierarchy. The battle for top pig begins all over again, so be sure you introduce us carefully and monitor us so the fighting doesn't get too ugly.

You'll need more space (and an extra pigloo)

The number of pigs you have should determine how many square feet our cage should be. Check out the guineapigcages.com handy guide for exact measurements.

Make sure you can handle the extra expenses

You may think that since you already invested in cage, hay, pellets, your water bottle, bedding, etc., that another pig won't be a big deal, but consider that if you have one pig and get a second, your vet bills will double. If you have two and are adding a third, that's triple the vet bills. In our experience, vet bills are always the biggest expense, and can be as little as $20 here and there for nail trims to $80 for check ups each year, to $400 for major surgeries. So just remember that you'll have to put some extra cash aside for your new furry friend. We love the saying, "If you can't afford the vet, you can't afford the pet."

We get a bit louder

Our need to communicate broadens from just chatting with you, the human, to this new pig. Be aware that we will have a lot to say, and we might not stop chatting just because you've gone to sleep at night. 

When Do Guinea Pigs Sleep?

Here are a few things you should know about the sleep habits of guinea pigs:

• Domestic guinea pigs do not have the same sleep habits as our wild cousins and ancestors. We've adapted more to human life than they have. So we'll be up when you're up.
• Some people describe our sleep habits as "on an hour, off an hour," but sensitive to routines. So once we learn that nothing is going on at night time, we'll be less active at night. 
• We tend to wake up at the same time every day and wheek for breakfast, Just think of us as your furry alarm clocks.
• If we wheek in the middle of the night, it could be because we can't sleep due to noise (like from an air conditioner). It could also be because we've learned that wheeking in the middle of the night means extra food.
• Once we get comfortable in your lap, sometimes we can actually fall asleep in it.
• Sometimes we will sleep with our eyes open.

Writing blog posts really tires me out. I think I'll nap now.