We're twice the size as we were when we first came here

When chocolate and fern first arrived with us in September (at 6 weeks old), they both weighed around 170 grams. Now, in Mid November (at 12 weeks old), Fern weighs 360 grams and Chocolate 400 grams, and steadily gaining 20 to 50 grams per week. They'll be taking over the house at this rate.

Our first bath

So, we thought it was time to have a bath....and we really rather enjoyed it - chasing up and down the bathtub after each other, playing with the bubbles (guinea-pig shampoo!).

We're feeling much fluffier now, thankyou

We've had our full course of anti-mite jabs (which we didn't enjoy one little bit), and now we're looking much fluffier and feeling perkier.

At food-time now, we get very excited and start wheeking very loudly and racing around our hutch. Sophie is very gentle with us, and we happily run to her to let her pick us up, but we run away from Mummy and Daddy!

Poorly piglets

The piggies have had their first trip to the vet :(

Within a few days of them coming to us, Fern had starting getting some dry scabby patches on her skin, and a few days after that, Chocolate had the same. The pigs don't seem to be bothered by the patches and aren't scratching/biting at them, but even so, they're starting to look a bit mangey.

So, today was our first trip to the vet. The receptionist and the vet were just lovely, so sweet and kind (mind you, if I was charging those sort of prices, even I would manage to be sweet and kind to people), and confirmed that it was a mite infection. So, Fern and Chocolate had to have a quick jab, followed by another next week, which will hopefully clear it up. They weren't impressed, lots of squeaking and complaining, but they soon got over it and got back to the business of devouring the sweetcorn leaf i'd provided - their favourite food.

Apart from the scabbiness, they seem to be doing well and settling in. They've really bonded well with S and will come over to her when she sits on the floor - in fact, she has no problem catching them to pick them up as they don't run away from her like they do with everyone else. They love to be cuddled and stroked sitting in S's lap.

This week's pics:

Settling in

Fern and Chocolate have been with us since Sunday evening, and we're loving having them in the family - and already seeing their different personalities coming out. Chocolate is about a week older than Fern, which showed initially in her confidence. But it's now clear that Fern is the quieter calm one (very happy to sit on our lap to be stroked) and Chocolate is the mad adventurer, who just wants to race round the room at top speed, wheeking away.

Quite appropriate then, that S chose Fern and E chose Chocolate... Strange how these things work out, isn't it?

Setting up home

We're hoping that our new baby piggies will be able to come to us in a couple of weeks time, so we've been busy preparing their new home for them.

We've got a hutch, lots of newspaper, some dust-free woodshavings (although having done some reading on this, we will try to get some Megazorb to reduce the risk of any dust-related respiratory problems), some timothy grass hay, Gerty Guinea Pig food, a bowl, water bottle, a Chube (cardboard tube to play in!) and some VetBed lovely fleecy soft bedding to make their sleeping area extra snug when the weather is a bit colder. Is there anything else we need?!

The girls have had a trial run of putting it all in, along with two toy guinea pigs and it looked very cosy.

Sophie took some pictures:







Now, all we need are some little friends to bring some life into the hutch!

What's it all about?

In the next couple of weeks, we are going to have two baby guinea pigs come and join our family. This blog is a small diary of their life with us, hopefully with plenty of pictures and regular updates.