New Giveaway!

Hello humans! Did you know that March 11th, 2012 is a very special day for us? It will be the one year anniversary of when we began this blog! As a thank you to our followers (good humans! we love you guys!) we are having another contest. If you missed out our 2012 New Year's giveaway, this is your chance to win another guinea pig hand soap, generously donated by Cuddly Cavies Creations.

Hey, that soap kind of looks like me.

Contest Rules:

• You must be a resident of the continental United States.
• You have to be a follower of this blog. To follow us, just click the "join this site" button on the right.
• To enter, leave a comment on this blog post expressing your interest in participating in the contest. 
• One winner will be chosen at random and announced on this blog on March 11th. Good luck!

Guinea Pig Social Hour

The other day, the humans decided to try having us play together on the striped carpet. Up until now, the humans have always put us on the colorful square carpet when the three of us are together. Nobody has "claimed" the colorful squares carpet, mainly because it is rare that any of us are brave enough to venture over to the other room (but also because the colorful square carpet is ugly and none of us really want to be seen on it). So the colorful square carpet, being neutral and disliked all around, is where the humans have let us interact when we're all out having floor time together.

We've been getting along so well lately, with fewer incidents of nipping, burring and other general unpleasantries, so the humans let us all out on the striped carpet. Now, Lola and I really enjoy the striped carpet. It is in the same room as our cage, and it's huge. We love running around on it, and up until now, we thought it was reserved exclusively for our use. It turns out Broccoli has been allowed to roam the striped carpet when we are secure in our cage. So the issue has arisen that now none of us know who exactly owns the striped carpet territory. When the humans released all three of us from our cage the other day and let us out on the striped carpet, it was battle royal:

Luckily, nobody was hurt. I'm telling you, if the human hadn't been giving Lola the "I'm watching you, missy!" look, I'm pretty sure she would have showed Broccoli who's boss.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Dandelion Greens?

Let's make one thing absolutely clear up front: Our humans bought us organic dandelion greens from the store. You can pick your own dandelion greens, of course, but you've got to be careful; you don't want to just grab dandelion greens from areas where people might walk dogs or use pesticides. Assuming you have dandelion greens that are safe to feed us, we can have them 2-4 times per week. The flowers and roots are also edible.

For this new food tasting, the humans fed all 3 of us together. They said they wanted to try to get us to bond this way before using the dreaded bathing technique.

Okay, Broccoli, none of us wants a bath, so let's just play nice and get through this, okay?

What are you doing, Broccoli?! BACK OFF!

Mine! Stay back!

The dandelion greens were great, which was more than I could say for the company. Broccoli kept poking his nose onto my side of the plate, invading my personal space. He even ran around behind me and tried to mount me in the middle of my meal! That's extremely poor etiquette, and of course I had to lash out to let him know that's not okay. The humans had to separate us again, though, which makes me think we're all going to be bathed soon. Uh-oh...

Oh, right. I almost forgot I'm doing a review here. Dandelion greens get 5/5 stars.

How To Get Your Humans To Overfeed You

Hi, Cavy Savvy readers, Lola here. The humans have a nightly ritual with us: before they go to bed, they make sure we have plenty of hay and water, give us vitamin C syrup, and say good night. Then around 7:00AM, if the humans aren't already up, we wheek loudly for our favorite meal of the day- breakfast. We have some delicious Carefresh pellets, but we only get 1/4 cup a day. This is a problem for me! I love Carefresh food pellets, and I hate that we only get a measly ration once daily. Oh sure, the humans are concerned about overfeeding us, but I don't care! I want my pellets!

So lately, I've developed a genius plan to get more pellets each day. The humans say good night to us, and we pretend to snuggle up in our beds or in our pigloos. But then, in the dead of night (usually around 3:00AM), I start a guinea pig revolt. Out of nowhere, I start wheeking as loudly as my lungs can wheek. Buffy and Broccoli join in. Oh, the humans hear us alright, even though they sleep in a different room with their door closed. That's how loudly I wheek. They bolt up in bed and then run to the living room where our cage sits. They give us hay. They shush us. They try to pet us. But we won't stop wheeking until we get what we really want: Carefresh pellets!! See, the trick is to be inconsolable until they give you pellets. Then you can stop the theatrics.

It really works! I've tried it every night this week, and sure enough, the humans don't put up much of a fight at 3:00am. They're too tired. They are afraid of waking the neighbors. So it's an automatic win for us. Haha!

Th only flaw in my scheme is that I suspect the humans are planning something. I overheard them saying they were worried about "positive reinforcement" and that we might learn to wheek at 3AM if we know it means we'll get fed. I'm not sure what they're up to yet, but I saw the humans getting the bathing basin and the animal shampoo and- oh no. They wouldn't, would they? I'm going to be mighty displeased if tonight at 3AM I start wheeking and instead of getting pellets, they try giving me a BATH!

Introducing Guinea Pigs

Back when Broccoli was neutered, we said we were really looking forward to finally meeting him. The introduction didn't go as smoothly as we hoped, though. The humans did everything right: they put us together on opposite ends of neutral territory, and let us meet on our own terms. Buffy and I wanted to take things slow, but Broccoli rushed right up to us.

Whoa! Slow down there, cowboy. Give us a few minutes to get used to the idea of being next to you with no cage between us.

Okay, little boy, you want to challenge my dominance? Are you really that crazy?

You better back down! I am twice your size.

Can you believe him? I'm the dominant pig, and I'm not about to let him take that away from me. My teeth started chattering, I raised the hairs on my back and neck, and I made my angry, low grumbling sound. He didn't back down, so I had to lunge at him and bite. That's when the humans stepped in and separated us. Having my authority challenged like that upset me so much that I chased Buffy around when I was back in my own cage (you know, just so she doesn't get any ideas from him).

I heard one of the humans say something about how they read online that bathing us all together can erase our smells and get us to bond instead of fight. Hopefully, they'll forget all about that crazy idea, but if they don't, expect to read an angry blog post here about our treatment!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Lady Apples?

We've reviewed apples in the past and loved them. Lady apples are just another variety of apple, not a different fruit, even though they look and taste pretty different from the red delicious apples we had before. As with any apples, lady apples are high in sugar, so they should only be fed to us 1-2 times per week.

Broccoli likes his. Now give us ours to try! Wheek-wheek-wheek!

That's different than the other apples you fed us... but in a good way!

Lady apples are less sweet than other apples, but we still loved them. 5/5 stars!

Guinea Pig Village!

Did you know that there is a magical place where guinea pigs of all shapes and sizes can frolic in the sunlight, munching on crisp fresh veggies, scamper under bushes, and snuggle together in cuddle cups? It exists! It's called the Guinea Pig Village and it's in the Netherlands. Watch this two minute video from Vice magazine:

http://www.vice.com/the-cute-show/guinea-pig-village

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Sapodilla?

You may be wondering what the heck sapodilla is- we sure were. This small tan fruit looks kind of like a brown kiwi without the seeds. You can sometimes find it fresh at Asian or Latin markets. It is also known as sapoche or sapote. And it is absolutely delicious!

Weird looking, but totally tasty. Sapote/Sapoche/Sapodilla is very high in natural sugar, so don't give your guinea pig more than a small taste. We gobbled ours up in mere seconds and wheeked loudly for more. 

Quick tip to humans- you can blend the flesh of the fruit with some milk, ice and sugar to make a delicious milkshake with a tropical malt flavor.