Guinea Pigs and Moving into a New House

Hi humans! Long time, no wheek. We missed you. It has been a long time since we updated, so we apologize for the months-long delay. Let us give you an update about what's been happening since we last posted:

• The big news: the humans moved into a new house! It was so exciting but a bit scary because we were moved to an entirely different space. Being the creatures of habit that we are, disruptions to our routine are always unnerving, but especially so this time since we have always lived in the old house, in our old cage. 
• Speaking of which, we got a new cage! The layout of the new house is so different, and the humans decided to gives us our own floor. The finished basement is all ours, and the humans even bought us a bigger cage.
• Lola recovered well from her cancer, thanks to the great work of the vet crew at SEAVS. She still technically has cancer but has no symptoms, is no longer on any meds, and is not in pain. The only difference is that she now attacks me and seems to want to be in her own space. While guinea pigs normally should be paired with a buddy, in Lola's case she's given the signal that she's prefer to be an only pig moving forward, so with the vet's blessing, the humans complied. As a compromise, the humans placed a grid divider between my side and her side of the cage, so that we can still sniff, see, hear, and in Lola's case try to bite the other pig.

• As for me, I'm over seven years old now! The vet mentioned that I am one of the oldest pigs she's treated. I'm a little slower than I used to be, but I still love snuggling with my humans, eating my favorite snack of Belgian endives, and napping in my pigloo. Given my dental issues, I need molar trims every 6 weeks, and I need to be hand fed Critical Care three times a day, plus I take Meloxicam once daily. I look forward to my daily feedings and I like the taste of the medicine. It's my chance to get some one-on-one time with the humans!

Thanks for following our adventure! More posts to come soon.

Black Friday Guinea Pig Deal

Our humans wanted to alert you to a pretty great Black Friday deal on guinea pig hay- and you won't even have to leave your home to elbow other humans out of the way to redeem it!

For one day only…Small Pet Select is offering a full 25% off discount on our 8lb timothy hay product for guinea pig owners. This promotion is starting now and running through midnight November 23rd (Black Friday). Keep in mind we don’t discount our products often…so don’t miss your chance to try the best quality timothy hay for guinea pigs at a rock bottom price that….well…we simply can’t make available for long!

*To redeem this offer, go to their hay page by clicking here and choose the 8lb package of timothy hay. Then use the coupon code ‘guineapigfriday’ at checkout and you’ll save 25% on the purchase (and if you buy by clicking through the above link, you'll be supporting Cavy Savvy!)

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.

Help! My guinea pig won't stop wheeking!

Hi, humans, Lola here.

I'm cute. 

I'm going to do you a big favor and save you for weeks of headache, sleep loss and misery and explain something that will help you understand why your guinea pig might be wheeking in the middle of the night. 

You see, a few weeks ago, the humans decided that because the weather has been getting warmer, it would be a good idea to turn on the air conditioning unit in the living room. At night, they'd turn it on, feed us, and go to sleep in the human room (that one room of the apartment we are not allowed to enter).

Everything good so far, right? Wrong. The A/C makes a low humming sound that has been driving us absolutely bonkers. Nuts. Insane in the piggie membrane. We try to put up with it, but we can't sleep, and so on behalf of the rest of the guinea pigs I wheek and scream as loud as I can.

The humans wake up. Groggy, they stagger to our cage and throw some pellets our way. They check our water. They give is hay. The pellets usually distract me for a bit because, come on, pellets are awesome.

But they never address the root of the problem. And so we wheek again an hour later.

"What do you want from me?!" the humans plead. "Why are you doing this to me? I just want to sleep through the night without being woke up!!"

Yeah, well so would we! But that air conditioner is driving us crazy, and we can't sleep with it on! 

You would not believe how long it took the humans to realize what we've spent weeks trying to communicate to them. Stupid humans.

Anyway, now that they see how much we hate the sound of the air conditioner, they thankfully have learned to turn it off at night. Finally, we (all) can get some sleep.

Guinea Pig Ate Lily - What To Do

Lola here. I've had a particularly rough week. It started on Tuesday, when I rattled my cage bars until one of the humans let me out. Nice, I thought. An excuse to run around and have some floor time.

The human was busy cleaning and had placed one of those yummy looking houseplants they have on the floor for a moment to dust the small table they usually keep it on. I've been wanting to try that plant for the longest time, but those stingy humans don't want to share, so they keep it high above the floor when me and the other guinea pigs can't get to it.

Lilies

I waited until the human's back was turned and ran over to the plant. I quickly devoured one of the leaves, but before I could eat any more, the human saw me and ran towards me screaming. What's your problem, human? Why are you freaking out-

Oh. Ugh. Wait a minute.

I don't feel so well.

Maybe there's a reason the humans have been keeping me away from house plants. The human scooped me up and put me back in my cage, gave me fresh water, and immediately called the vet.

From what I could gather, I had eaten a poisonous houseplant called a Calla Lily. The vet suggested that the human call the ASPCA's animal poison control number (888-426-4435) to try to determine how bad my situation was. The phone consultation cost $65 and they told the human that based on a variety of factors (my age, weight, symptoms, amount of lily I had consumed) I would probably be okay. They told the human to watch me for the next 24 hours and if I showed any signs (diarrhea, not eating, not drinking water, drinking water constantly, winching in pain when belly is touched, or becoming lethargic), they should take me to the vet ASAP. They also said that a small amount of yogurt (1/4 teaspoon) would help relieve my oral discomfort but that yogurt should not be a regular food since it's not all that good for us.

Calla Lilies can be deadly to guinea pigs.

I coughed a bit and stuck my tongue out a few times but otherwise had no symptoms. Within a day, I was back to normal. The humans took me to the vet just in case but as far as they could tell, I got lucky and will be fine.

Humans, please learn from my stupid human's mistake: Lily houseplants, such as Calla Lilies and Peace Lily, can be deadly to guinea pigs. If you accidentally see us eating it, you need to call the animal poison number listed above to determine your course of action. Never, ever let us near any house plants unless you know they are safe. Even though I'm feeling better, I still risked kidney damage and death by nibbling on that calla lily.

Good Human!

One of our humans was a guest blogger at Guinea Pig Today ("Can Guinea Pigs Learn?"). Good job, human! Now that you've proven yourself, maybe one day we'll let you do a guest blog here.

Is someone talking about me?

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year, humans! Today we announce the winner of the guinea pig shaped soap. Drum roll, please...

The winner of the Cavy Savvy giveaway contest is.... Jessie H.! E-mail me with your contact info at cavysavvyaguineapigblog@gmail.com and we will mail you your prize. Congratulations, and thanks to all who entered. We will definitively be doing more contests in the future, so stay tuned!

Agents Of the Month AND A New Pig!

Hello Cavy Savvy readers! For our 100th post, we're proud to announce two exciting pieces of news. First, we won Undercover Guinea Pigs Halloween costume contest and as a reward, we are featured as November's Agents Of The Month! Thanks to everyone who voted! We were neck and neck with Flower, who we have to admit, made a very adorable witch this Halloween.

Second, we appear to have a new cage mate. Well, he's sort of a new cage mate, as he's in a separate cage next to our own. His name is Broccoli (Broc for short), and he's in a different cage because he's an unneutered male. Not only that, Broc has an amazing, heartbreaking story that you won't believe. Brace yourselves, humans.


Broccoli was found living outside, fending for himself in a nearby yard. The human who found him said he appeared to have been living outdoors for several weeks at least, and was keeping warm in the chilly Autumn weather by nesting under someone's porch. The human who found him knocked on the doors of homes nearby to see if anyone owned him, but nobody claimed him or knew how he ended up there. The best they can figure is that someone cruelly abandoned him because they no longer wanted him.

This is perhaps the worst thing a human can do. Humans, listen up: If you can no longer care for your pig, never, ever, ever leave them outside to fend for themselves. We cannot survive outdoors, where there is cold weather and predators after us. It's a miracle that Broccoli survived for as long as he did. He was extremely lucky that his guardian angel human found him when he did.

She took him in by luring him to her with a piece of Broccoli (hence his name), and then took him to a vet to get checked out. Aside from a dirty ear, some malnourishment, and teeth that have grown too long from not having access to timothy hay, he's doing okay. The vet thinks that giving him some chew toys and timothy hay will help get his teeth down to a healthy size. He had his ear cleaned out and he seems to be recovering well.

Our humans heard about Broccoli's story and adopted him from the human that found him. She would have kept him, except that she has dogs and Broccoli finds them scary. Now that our humans have him, he's being lavished with an insane amount of attention. The day after they adopted him, they went out and bought him all new chew toys and treats and cage accessories. We are so jealous, but we're glad that he's safe now.

If the vet decides that he can be neutered, and if we accept him into our cage, he will become our new cagemate. For now, he's a very interesting roommate to have. For one thing, he's a BOY. We've never actually seen a male pig before, and we are absolutely fascinated by him. He smells differently, he looks differently, and he even wheeks differently. He seems equally interested in us. He perches on the split level of his cage and looks at us all day. How's that for an exciting 100th post?

SPECIAL NOTE:

If you are as moved by Broc's story as much as we are, and would like to know how you can help save guinea pigs in similar situations, we suggest donating to your local animal shelter. If you live in an area that has a guinea pig rescue, even better. One such rescue in our area is the Metropolitan Guinea Pig Rescue, and you can donate to them here: http://www.mgpr.org/MGPR/Donate.htm

Games To Play With Your Guinea Pig

We love inventing games to play with our humans (such as our favorite, "Capture The Receipt"), but this post is dedicated to games humans can play with us. Perhaps you've read that you can put objects in your pig's cage to enrich their environment, such as empty tissue paper boxes. But there are more interactive games you can play with us, too.

One such game is "Sniff Out The Treats", and it is our absolute new favorite game. Here's how it goes: you, the humans, place a favorite treat in strategic places around the room. Then, let us out of our cage and watch as we forage to sniff out the good stuff! Just be sure that there aren't any hazards in the room, such as cords, wires, or papers. We might nibble at those, too, if they're available.

Why do we love this game so much? We guinea pigs love to forage. It's an intense instinct that we have. There's no sport in finding food in our cages, but when you hide it around the room and let is find it, it's great fun and good exercise.

Today was the first day that the humans played this game with us. We are let out of our cage for about an hour each day to get exercise, and we always use this time to explore and forage for anything on the floor that the humans might have missed. You can't imagine our joy when we manage to find a stray piece of hay under a chair or desk.

So when we were let out to roam today, we we so pleased to discover that the humans had hid four piles of CareFresh Complete guinea pig food around the room!

It didn't take us long to find them all and eat them.

Interacting with the Humans: A How To Guide for Guinea Pigs

Buffy and I decided to do a post on our relationship with our non-furry friends, the humans. Although much of this blog is dedicated to guinea pig toys and foods, we can't ignore the fact that sometimes the humans are more than just food providers. Here are our thoughts on human-guinea pig interactions:

Lola:

While I hate being picked up, I usually don't mind if the humans reach into the cage to pet my head. Sometimes, they'll want to pick me up and hold me in their lap for a while and pet me. I don't mind it when they do this, because I can just flatten out in total relaxation and go to sleep. I mean, I don't have to worry about predators if I'm in the hands of a fearsome giant, right?

I also sometimes get needy for human attention. It's so boring being stuck in the cage with Buffy; whenever I try to play with her or initiate a game of tag, she hops on top of a pigloo and glares down at me. But the humans are always up for fun. Sometimes I'll create games to play with the humans. I know they hate it when I touch their shoelaces, so I'll try to sneak up on them and see how long it takes them to shoo me away.

Another game I enjoy is "Capture the Receipt". The humans keep a plastic container of important receipts on the floor. Sometimes, during floor time, I'll jump into the container and fish out a receipt. If they catch me doing it, then I'll run away with the receipt in my mouth until they manage to stop me and retrieve the receipt. What fun!

Buffy:

I just want to be left alone bu humans and guinea pigs alike. I hate it when anyone bothers me. I hate it when Lola kicks me out of my pigloo, I hate it when a human hand approaches the cage, and I especially hate being held. Being held feels like being captured to me. I burr and I burr to let the humans know I hate it, but sometimes they don't care and will insist on petting me. I'm not a cat, humans! Just because I sound like I'm purring doesn't mean I'm happy.

Well, there you have it. How much a guinea pig enjoys interacting with their humans varies from pig to pig.