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The Dax Piggies 💕

E

Ezry_Dax

New Born Pup
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Hello all 😄 I've decided to start a bit of a herd thread, mostly because I have some little stories to tell of my silly little friends.

I have 6 guinea pigs at the moment, the most I've ever had at once. They mostly live in large homemade pens, though one boar prefers solitude and lives in a large store bought cage. Two are young sows who live together, and the other three boars are currently together, as we're trying out a triplet (I'll go more into it later)

No worries for the triplet, so far it's going great, and they aren't being excessively aggressive as of yet. I will be sure to keep a close eye on them to make sure they are comfortable with their living arrangements and in no danger 👍

The girlies are Andromeda and Kuiper, each about a year old. The triplet boys are Gallifrey and Neelix, both 4 years old, and Cerzon, my sweet 7 year old. The lone boar is Londo.

Neelix, Londo, and Gallifrey are new pigs, so their living arrangements may still change around as they settle in and I get to know them better.
I have had the girls since December, and they have settled in quite nicely. Cerzon, I have had since he was a few months old, and he is the biggest sweetheart.IMG_20230306_202439.jpgIMG_20230409_125726.jpgIMG_20230409_125551.jpgIMG_20230119_205338.jpgIMG_20230409_125658.jpg
 
Silly story #1...

The girls (Kuiper, the brown brindle piggy, and Andromeda, the black rex) were from two very different places. A friend of mine reached out to me several months ago, and said that her cousin was needing to get rid of a young guinea pig. I went to pick the piggy up, and immediately noticed some uncool pig practices. The pen was on the floor in the hallway, and the person has two small and noisy dogs running around. The poor sow was a nervous wreck.
I took her to my quiet, sunny room, and set her up with fleece. She had previously lived in paper bedding, and was an instant fan of the soft, plush fleece. I held her some after she'd had time to acclimate, and noticed that she was extremely underweight. It was hard to tell initially because she is a rex. I trimmed her nails, brushed her gently, and got to work spoiling her.
She quickly filled out and began to be much happier.
One problem still remained- getting her a friend.
I reached out to the local rescue and asked if there was any single sow. They replied, but let me know that she was fiesty and had lost her cage mate, her sister, and was not agreeable with other guinea pigs. I agreed to take her on, and give it a try.
As expected, after letting the tow get used to being in the pen with a wire divider, I tried an introduction, and it failed. Andromeda was overjoyed to meet Kuiper and make a new friend, but Kuiper was defensive, and immediately attacked. I quickly separated them and allowed them more time to get used to each other's presences. I tried again a while later, and it failed again, this time leaving Kuiper with a deep cut along her cheek. She has chased Andromeda and sliced her cheek trying to jump over a hay feeder.
The wound healed quickly with diligent cleaning and antibiotic ointment, and I decided they'd be best separated by the bars of their cage.
They always did well with the divider. They would eat leaning against it on either side, chat, and sniff each other through the wires.

Flash forward a month, and my dad and I finally got around to building a real wooden pen for them. We built it in a night, and half-tried an introduction. It went south fairly quickly, so we built a temporary solid wooden divider with plans to make one from either wire or Plexi glass so that they could interact with one another.

The next morning after their first night in the new pen, I got up to visit them. When I got into the pig room, Andromeda's side was empty! I quickly checked Kuiper's side, and I found the two girls in the same side! Sometime during the night, Andromeda had hopped over the divider and joined Kuiper.

I was mortified. What happened? Did they hurt each other because of this divider that I had designed that was climbable?

I took the divider out for a short, and thoroughly looked over the girls in case of injury. I was amazed that the only think I could find was a light scratch on Andromeda's ear! I was amazed, and decided to observe their interactions in the pen for a short before deciding whether or not to put up the divider again.

It was a miracle! They were so sweet to each other, wandering around together, cleaning each other's ears, and such. Whatever happened that night, they sorted out their differences.

It's been just over two weeks now, and they've grown inseparable. Often times, when I visit them, I'll find them napping in the same little hidey. They do everything together, and Kuiper has completely changed. She is no longer the reserved, cranky girl I'd thought she was. She wheeks constantly along with Andromeda now, and popcorns all the time. She seems attention from me and gives the sweetest sounds when she gets pets.
Andromeda is still quite shy, but progress is being slowly made with her. She dislikes being picked up, but boy does she love being held.
 
Kuiper was so happy yesterday, wheeking away. I love to see it! She used to be so quiet and moody before she made friends with Andromeda. She's such a climber... Here's her on top of their favorite hut 😋IMG_20230413_174419.jpg
Kuiper-- "I like it when there's hay in the rack! Fill it up! What are you waiting for?"
 
What a lovely story and such a fab ending with these girls finally bonding like this. It sounded so unlikely and yet they’ve managed it all on their own ❤️❤️
 
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