Curlykrish's Herd

curlykrish

curlykrish

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jul 21, 2020
Messages
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Location
North-West London
Following on from my other thread about Ren, his bonding session at the Rescue went well, and he will be coming home tomorrow with his new friends tomorrow! They have spent the last two days and nights together at the rescue, so I'm hoping there wont be too much trouble when they get to me. I have spent the last few piggie free days washing and cleaning, and setting up a new cage layout while also expanding it. So we now have a 2.2 by 10.2 C&C grid L shaped cage, with an upper level (2 by 2.2 grids) with two exists. Each end of the main cage has two large hay trays... hopefully there is enough space for everyone, and for them to get away from each other if they need their own space. I'm so excited! :yahoo:
 
This is the photo of their new cage...with step stool as I cant quite get to the corners or the back of the top level without it! still some tidying up to do, as i want to get some proper material to cover the ends and the loft level, and also have a curtain to cover all the bits and bobs under neath the cage.
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Aww...lovely looking piggies! 😍 I bet Ren is glad with all the ladies he's now going to live with. And great looking cage for those piggies! 👍
 
Aw, Ren you lucky, lucky lad! :D You are going to have such fun keeping these girls in check 😂
Love your set up, it’s amazing 🤩
 
curlykrish said:
This is the photo of their new cage...with step stool as I cant quite get to the corners or the back of the top level without it! still some tidying up to do, as i want to get some proper material to cover the ends and the loft level, and also have a curtain to cover all the bits and bobs under neath the cage.
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Looks amazing! Love cage set ups like this this! Is this for four piggies? 😍
 
Tara95 said:
Looks amazing! Love cage set ups like this this! Is this for four piggies? 😍
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yes its for 4 of them ... as they are all teenagers, we tried to build as big as we could go without going too over the top...we could have made an even longer L shape to go all the way the length of the sofa!

They are home now and all busy exploring the cage and running from Ren who is trying to hump whoever he can get behind! lol So far I think both Ren and Rose have found the second floor. Little Maz is soo cute...she is much smaller than she looks in the photo, but has been happily exploring too!
 
curlykrish said:
yes its for 4 of them ... as they are all teenagers, we tried to build as big as we could go without going too over the top...we could have made an even longer L shape to go all the way the length of the sofa!

They are home now and all busy exploring the cage and running from Ren who is trying to hump whoever he can get behind! lol So far I think both Ren and Rose have found the second floor. Little Maz is soo cute...she is much smaller than she looks in the photo, but has been happily exploring too!
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Looks fabulous 😍 All that running space! I nearly have a 7 x 6, for my 5 and they literally use every inch of space and run round the cage constantly and it sounds like a stampeed of elephants! I'm sure yours will use every inch of space too!:) And how funny - I don't think mine has figured out how to hump yet - he just rumbles constantly haha. I'm sure your 4 will be very happy together :)
 
curlykrish said:
So far he is doing a lot of rumbling too, and there have been a few mild teeth chatters from the girls. He’s just running between them all!
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Aww bless him, sounds like he's loving it. Winston has been with the sows for nearly two weeks now and he's really settled in nicely. Seeing them so happy makes the whole Neutering ordeal worth it doesn't it?! It's certainly a journey. And I'm sure that'll all settle down within a week. So happy for your new herd, you'll have to take a video of them all together :)
 
Well, 6 hours in, and ive just gone to top up thier hay and noticed that Ren's got a little scratch on his nose, and ive seen a few face offs / Chin ups between him and the Top Sow, Jyn, who he keeps chasing/ trying to hump and she is having none of it. At least he is being sensible and running off rather than also getting aggressive back, but he is being persistent.
 
curlykrish said:
Well, 6 hours in, and ive just gone to top up thier hay and noticed that Ren's got a little scratch on his nose, and ive seen a few face offs / Chin ups between him and the Top Sow, Jyn, who he keeps chasing/ trying to hump and she is having none of it. At least he is being sensible and running off rather than also getting aggressive back, but he is being persistent.
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Sounds good to me (apart from the scratches). They just need time to sort out the hierarchy as mine did. It's such a complex process try not to worry too much! :)
 
Tara95 said:
Sounds good to me (apart from the scratches). They just need time to sort out the hierarchy as mine did. It's such a complex process try not to worry too much! :)
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Thanks, I guess its been such a long journey since I first got Ren..so I'm desperate for it all to work out! they were both having a "chat" upstairs earlier, and Ren lay down, and I hoped she would too, but nope - as soon as she got a chance she ran straight past him and back down to the main cage. He was like "hey.. where are you going? what did i do?!"
 
Scratches aren’t anything to worry about.
When Priscilla met Jemimah we had nips, scratches and fur pulling before they decided to be best friends.
Ren is just learning what males of all species have to learn - the correct response to all females is ‘yes dear, whatever you want dear’

Hope they settle without giving you too many grey hairs
 
So today seems to be much calmer, and it does appear that Ren is learning the cues from the girls for when to leave them alone. I have found them a few times now all resting in the same area of the cage - all with at least one body or more space between them, but none the less in the same vicinity, either eating hay or laying down...no noises... they all look fairly relaxed around each other.

Ren seems to have forgotten various sounds/signals for food, or he is so busy with the ladies that he doesn't care to squeak at me! he does however come to the front and has taken food from me, and Jyn (the eldest female), has copied twice today! So looks like we are slowly getting there. As the girls are so skittish, I think its going to be a while before I can get any decent photos of them... their cage is currently mostly covered in blankets. But i do have a few places where i can quietly observe, and its so interesting to watch the group dynamics.... the youngest (Maz) is definitely at the bottom of the hierarchy.. gets kicked out of the hidies if Jyn or Rose want to be there, but she sort of accepts that she has to move and obliges, and she seems closer to Rose than to Jyn...i mostly see her following Rose around if they are exploring the cage.
 
Managed to get a few sneaky shots of them at grass time..

This is Jyn... she took food from hand today rather than just through the bars it was actually when I had reached in!

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This is Rose front and back. I love her markings. Quite symeterical and the with an upside down heart shape on her bum! 😍
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And finally, Maz..
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Here are some pics from today. The girls are a little odd... they have been climbing on top of thier fleece hidies and sleeping on top of them rather than inside... which I think Ren finds a little strange but has been going with the flow and copying! Lol.

Last night I found them all resting on the top floor together. Was so cute 🥰 0B4FA471-664D-49BA-83E3-D1383EE48D03.webpCE4CF146-2D78-4902-9C74-26D101D54BF3.webp377F9233-7AE4-4379-90D8-829330F3531A.webp2CE002A8-E2D4-403E-8791-DCDBEB1CB997.webp
 
curlykrish said:
The girls are a little odd... they have been climbing on top of thier fleece hidies and sleeping on top of them rather than inside..
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My girl Louise does the same with the snuggle-tunnel - she just hops on top and hops off again. She's stuck her head inside so she knows what it is but just doesn't care! There's also a cushion in there and she does the same - hops on, hops about and then hops off. Maybe I should get her a trampoline!
 
So, today I saw Jyn with the zoomies...she was zipping up one ramp across the first level, back down, across the bottom and back up again...she did this about 3 or 4 times...and it was soo fast 🏃‍♀️ When they zoom like this...are they clever enough not to injure themselves? its a lot of running and jumping and knowing exactly where to place the body to avoid things.. i felt like i was watching parkour (half peeking out of my fingers covering my eyes!) eeks!
 
Tonight was eventful.. better than what i was watching on TV... Looked like Jyn was coming to the end of being in season... started with lots of chasing her other cage buddies, followed by a lot of winding Ren up to chase her ( at one point it looked like Ren got tired and stopped, and I saw Jyn stop turn around to see where he was!..not following her, she went back to find him!).. but of course this chasing was without letting him mount... and finally at midnight 🎆:love::))😉😉

Hoping tomorrow is going to be a little calmer... watching all the running around (either through joy, fear or hormones) is hard work!
 
ps. thank you to all the guides that have been written on this form as they really helped me to understand the behaviour I was seeing, and for what to expect next at each stage, and to be able to see that it was all normal behaviour!
 
Piggies all saying hello... and doing well after 2 weeks... I think either Maz or rose had soft / tear shaped poops but has resolved after a day off veg. All 3 girls now come to the edge of the cage if they think I come bearing gifts, but scream murder if I try to pet them! Weekly weighs have been a little more dramatic than I’m used to!
 
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