I did get a Valentine's day gift eventually... is it a baby hippo or a mutant bat?!

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

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Who's this then? It seems my Valentine's day present is... a skinny pig! Allegedly called Tallulah though I'm not entirely convinced she's a girl... could be Trevor? Hope not but best get a vet to have a look, skinny bums look weird! Currently asleep in a fleecy tube in a quarantine cage. Vet check Monday. Other piggies going absolutely mental because they know there's a new pig... she (hopefully) seems very healthy and robust and quite chilled out? And totally looks like a fuggly baby hippo gremlin with a bat face :)
 
I think piggy daddy knew I was disappointed those rescue Abbies had been rehomed... its a skinny pig! She totally forgot her piggy pyjamas, really naked with huge ears! Just hope she is in fact a girl... or we'll have to start a second herd upstairs somewhere!
 
PigglePuggle said:
I think piggy daddy knew I was disappointed those rescue Abbies had been rehomed... its a skinny pig! She totally forgot her piggy pyjamas, really naked with huge ears! Just hope she is in fact a girl... or we'll have to start a second herd upstairs somewhere!
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Any chance you can get a underneath photo so we can see? Or will it stress her or him out?
 
She/he's only been here a couple of hours, think I'll leave her in peace for now... apparently she came from what seems like a very brave but slightly crazy lady near Manchester who fosters any stray animal or child she comes across... lots of foster kids, ostriches, wildcats, rabbits, piggies both furry and naked... I'm not sure about the new arrival yet but she's definitely a lot healthier and more socialised than Blodwen was, and she's got a fleecy tunnel and a big dinner with porridge oats and pellets and 5 different types of veggies and a big pile of hay, so we'll see what happens!
 
Aww I love your ugly gremlin bat hippo. Adoooooorable.
 
PigglePuggle said:
She/he's only been here a couple of hours, think I'll leave her in peace for now... apparently she came from what seems like a very brave but slightly crazy lady near Manchester who fosters any stray animal or child she comes across... lots of foster kids, ostriches, wildcats, rabbits, piggies both furry and naked... I'm not sure about the new arrival yet but she's definitely a lot healthier and more socialised than Blodwen was, and she's got a fleecy tunnel and a big dinner with porridge oats and pellets and 5 different types of veggies and a big pile of hay, so we'll see what happens!
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Hope all goes well, look forward to hearing more about her when she has settled.
 
Well baby-hippo-gremlin-bat-face has a good appetite, she's stealth-eaten all the pellets, most of the porridge oats, a whole slice of cucumber, 2 small slices of carrot, some grated beetroot and a big piece of lambs lettuce plus some hay in the past 2 hours! Seems she doesnt like peppers yet. I just posted in 3 stems of coriander while I was feeding the others... and there was a cheeky nose obviously waiting very impatiently until I left the room sticking out of the fleecy tunnel! :)
 
Do skinnies need a special diet or just eat a lot? Seems her previous hooman mum was recommending some sort of high fat pellet but I dont trust that idea, I'd rather feed extra porridge oats and more root veg if she needs the extra calories... which I don't think she does, she's very chubby for a baby skinny pig- 623g, supposed to be 3 months old... thats just outright fatty! She's obviously not an adult yet as she's quite small but she has a huge bum and no obvious ribs or spine to feel... trust piggy daddy to bring home an overweight skinny pig :)
 
I have never asked, but do all guinea pigs look like skinny pigs of they didn't have fur?
 
PigglePuggle said:
She/he's only been here a couple of hours, think I'll leave her in peace for now... apparently she came from what seems like a very brave but slightly crazy lady near Manchester who fosters any stray animal or child she comes across... lots of foster kids, ostriches, wildcats, rabbits, piggies both furry and naked... I'm not sure about the new arrival yet but she's definitely a lot healthier and more socialised than Blodwen was, and she's got a fleecy tunnel and a big dinner with porridge oats and pellets and 5 different types of veggies and a big pile of hay, so we'll see what happens!
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I knew an old man that lived near my old house, he kept injured badgers, foxes, birds, ducks, allsorts really for years, until someone reported him, and whoever it was came knocking and tried to evict him, guess what! He actually shot one of the two men that tried, i heard the shotgun go off from where i worked at the time, close by. Crazy! The man lived but couldnt walk again. Wad all in the papers and on the news. The man was actually a really nice bloke, but couldnt handle parting with his animals. Your post reminded me of this
 
I see your point @SkyPipDotBernie but this lady was an approved foster carer for kids so I'm sure she's actually quite nice and normal really just a bit eccentric and loves animals a lot. If I had no job but a husband who earned enough for us to have a big farmhouse with some land I'm sure I'd do the same. Maybe not wildcats and ostriches but definitely goats and donkeys and some foster kids!
 
PigglePuggle said:
I see your point @SkyPipDotBernie but this lady was an approved foster carer for kids so I'm sure she's actually quite nice and normal really just a bit eccentric and loves animals a lot. If I had no job but a husband who earned enough for us to have a big farmhouse with some land I'm sure I'd do the same. Maybe not wildcats and ostriches but definitely goats and donkeys and some foster kids!
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Lol, i wasnt relating it like that. You just reminded me of what happened. I felt sorry for the man helping the wild animals
 
PigglePuggle said:
Do skinnies need a special diet or just eat a lot? Seems her previous hooman mum was recommending some sort of high fat pellet but I dont trust that idea, I'd rather feed extra porridge oats and more root veg if she needs the extra calories... which I don't think she does, she's very chubby for a baby skinny pig- 623g, supposed to be 3 months old... thats just outright fatty! She's obviously not an adult yet as she's quite small but she has a huge bum and no obvious ribs or spine to feel... trust piggy daddy to bring home an overweight skinny pig :)
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Lucky you she is gorgeous.

My skinny pigs have the same diet as my others but just a bit more veg and a few more nuggets. They definitely need more food because of their faster metabolism. The result of this is of course much more poop too.

Also, they really don't like your hands being cold when you handle them. The trainee vet would vouch for this as Dora bit her when she picked her up with cold hands,

I would say that at 3 months it was very obvious my Ginger was a boy. The lack of hair meant you could see his boy bits quite clearly. 😀

I think @Flutterby is the most experienced skinny pig owner on the forum.
 
What a lovely pressie! Look forward to seeing more of fuggly baby hippo gremlin bat face! Has she got a name yet? I think she looks like a Dora as she is adorable!:love::love:
 
She's called Tallulah if she is really a girl, she has fur round her bum bits so it looks a bit funny and I wasn't sure, she's very wriggly! I did notice though that she has a belly button :)
 
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Here's a rather blurry photo of Tallulah skinny pants racing across the sofa to hide under a pile of cushions! She's very fast and wriggly and difficult to keep hold of, but I'm sure she'll settle down. I only disturbed her for a quick poop scoop, she definitely has a fully functional digestive system!
 
Still not seen much of my baby hippo but I did notice when I was feeding the other piggies first and they were all excitedly wheeking she couldnt resist coming out of her fleecy tunnel and doing a few zoomy cage laps to see what was going on! Then she shot back in when she noticed I was looking at her. So far she eats cucumber, carrots, assorted salad leaves, grated beetroot, coriander, a grape, red pepper after an hour or so if nothing better arrives, all the pellets and porridge oats, and plenty of hay. Bit suspicious about the beansprouts, but that's still a very impressive and varied food intake for her first 28 hours with us! She's a very messy eater, it looks like a tornado whirled through the food dish heading straight for the good bits and throwing the rest across the cage- but very tidy with the pooping which is one neat little corner in the cage and another neat little corner in the hay tray. Vets tomorrow morning for a full new piggy health check and to make sure she really is Tallulah not Trevor :)
 
Hope all goes well with the vet check.
Looking forward to knowing whether you have a Tallulah or a Trevor
 
I really hope she's Tallulah, she's supposed to be Tallulah and she had a sister an 2 brothers for her previous owner to compare to- but skinny pig bum bits look a bit weird I think- its like the whole area sticks out, like you'd more expect in a boy, but maybe all piggies look like that under their furry piggy pyjamas! Plus she's very young and wriggly. So I'll leave it to the vet :)
 
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