The Pigglingtons

With the loss of Red Brilo was on his own and we don't have room to fit a cage in for him next to any of the others. The Babies are very small and were hiding away. I thought if Brillo would be an uncle pig it would help the babies and Brillo. There was no way Brillo was co-operating with that idea he hated Snoopy and Parker, as soon as they eagerly approached him for friendship he nose butted them away and tried to nip, luckily they dodged away quickly.
Enter Duck bless him. For a guinea pig who has never shared a cage he loves them. He is constantly checking them and herding them together.
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In the bonding pen.
When it looked to be a success I deep cleaned Duck's cage and put Brillo in next to Bertie. Then took the divider out of Brillo and Red's cage and deep cleaned that. I lined the grids with a combination of spare Corex bits and sheets of Perspex to baby proof it and moved the trio in. I've never seen so many zoomies and popcorns. For two little piggies who just hid away, scared and confused Duck has been a life changer.
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In the cage.
I don't usually use bowls but they came with this one which they seem used to, they were really confused by food on the floor and didn't eat it.

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I know I'm a really good boy to help you out.
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Phew, time for a rest while my charges are asleep!

Only a temporary solution while the babies are small but while we are grieving for Red it's a relief not to have to worry about Brillo being alone. Bertie's not to sure if he likes his new neighbour yet, he hasn't worked out he can rumble and grumble as much as he likes, Brillo will take absolutely no notice.
Yes, Snoopy has blue food dye on his head, it was supposed to be a little dot but it wouldn't come out of the tube, you can guess the rest! I tried to wipe some off and ended up with a stripe instead of a dot. When I was handling them yesterday I weighed them and gave them a quick check over. They are identical so I needed to come up with a way of knowing who was who to record their weights. Sorry Snoop it will grow out!
 
Uncle Duck is a really good boy to be helping out with Snoopy and Parker. Well done, Duck!
How about Snoopy and Nosey, the latter just as an additional nickname of course?

Lovely pics :love:
 
So lovely that Duck has become an Uncle, it sounds like he is taking his responsibilities seriously, I hope he teaches your new boys well.

I love Snoopy’s new fur style, rocking the punk look!
 
Snoopy has a small nick in one of his ears and a tiny bald patch on his neck where Parker has got a bit snappy with him and pulled his hair out. Parker is getting awfully dominant for 8 weeks old! Snoopy is such a lovely sweet boar at the moment, I'm wondering if he would be better left with Duck and try Parker with Bertie. Plan A was we were having a baby to try with Bertie not having 2 babies so maybe back to part of plan A. I can accommodate the cage sizes to do this if Bertie would accept a friend. It would be easier than having 2 more singles because the babies need splitting later when they hit teens. I wasn't expecting to be thinking about this just yet but if I'm going to try Bertie with a baby it has to happen soon before they much older. Brillo is not a good bar buddy for Bertie as he is very inactive and sleeps a lot these days so it would solve the problem of keeping Bertie entertained now he won't be going in the garden surrounded by several others to get excited with.
Argh! Something to mull over, is it worth trying, will they co-operate this time with my best laid plans? :lol:
 
This arrived for Red's pot today. I love it, the little piggy picture looks so like Red when he was young and the flowers and butterfly remind me of how much he loved the garden. One of my last memories of him happened on the Sunday when I knew something bad had happened in the night and we were likely losing him. He was sat on my lap in the garden and a bee was investigating the flowers, as it got nearer Red rumbled at the bee. Always the boss!
I have to admit I've shed a few tears since this plaque arrived.

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I witnessed Parker aggressively chasing Snoopy and hair pulling again this morning so I stopped thinking about trying him with Bertie and did it!
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Bertie did his usual over excited reaction to another piggy in the pen but with a tiny baby he wasn't getting negative feedback so he didn't get aggressive. For an hour we had lots of humping and noise from Bertie and submission squealing from Parker. Then the sun came in the kitchen window and Bertie settled for a nap. The nap lasted about 2 minutes and he was off again.
I moved Brillo into a freshly made up 2x3 C&C and took the divider down in the big cage. After 4 hours in the bonding pen I moved Bertie and Parker into the deep cleaned, baby proofed cage.
IMG_2173.webp Into the fresh cage with just stools and tunnels until the new 2 door hides arrive. IMG_2174.webp
I missed baby proofing the grid that holds the loft up (The loft is 4 grids long), the loft is not in use at the moment, I've taken the ramp away. Bertie keeps looking for his ramp but I'm hoping a friend makes up for not having his loft. Didn't notice that grid until looking at this picture. Will sort it this weekend, Parker's head is too small to get stuck yet so I can leave it while they settle for a day or two.
Long may they live happily together and save my nerves!
 
piggieminder said:
I witnessed Parker aggressively chasing Snoopy and hair pulling again this morning so I stopped thinking about trying him with Bertie and did it!
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Bertie did his usual over excited reaction to another piggy in the pen but with a tiny baby he wasn't getting negative feedback so he didn't get aggressive. For an hour we had lots of humping and noise from Bertie and submission squealing from Parker. Then the sun came in the kitchen window and Bertie settled for a nap. The nap lasted about 2 minutes and he was off again.
I moved Brillo into a freshly made up 2x3 C&C and took the divider down in the big cage. After 4 hours in the bonding pen I moved Bertie and Parker into the deep cleaned, baby proofed cage.
View attachment 275057 Into the fresh cage with just stools and tunnels until the new 2 door hides arrive. View attachment 275058
I missed baby proofing the grid that holds the loft up (The loft is 4 grids long), the loft is not in use at the moment, I've taken the ramp away. Bertie keeps looking for his ramp but I'm hoping a friend makes up for not having his loft. Didn't notice that grid until looking at this picture. Will sort it this weekend, Parker's head is too small to get stuck yet so I can leave it while they settle for a day or two.
Long may they live happily together and save my nerves!
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That’s great news. He looks so small next to Bertie. 🥰
 
weepweeps said:
That’s great news. He looks so small next to Bertie. 🥰
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Bertie is something near 1.2kg heavier than Parker. It's a bit scary when Bertie goes into humping mode, Parker disappears. It's a relief when he pops out from underneath and is okay. I've always been surprised by how fat Bertie is because he is forever on the move, the most energetic piggy I've had, he hardly ever stops running and sleeps for a few minutes at a time. He ran up and down his ramp all day long and is going to miss that. Mindful of his size he always get half size bits of veg compared to the others and less pellets. I dread taking him to the vet they always say he needs to lose weight.
 
It seems Bertie has met his match! His food keeps disappearing right from under him. He's been on his own since 2 months old, he's not used to some pig else grabbing his food and running away. His face, he looks down to take another bite and it's gone.
I gave Parker a tiny Fuzzbuts hide last night in case he wanted to get away. Bertie's front end was asleep in it earlier, the back end hanging out the front door! Parker was rattling around in the hooji cube which had room for 6 of him. Parker is standing up to Bertie he doesn't like his back end sniffed, he swings round quick and nose punches Bertie who just looks surprised.
 
Just got back from the vets with Brillo. He's breathing like a holed exhaust! All the noise sees to be coming from the upper respiratory tract thank goodness. The nebuliser is out again, he's on Baytril to see if it helps. He has dropped 40+ grams, his hay hasn't gone down much and he didn't eat his pellets this morning so I'm syringe feeding him. Poor Brillo's really feeling the loss of his life long friend, his new neighbours are being completely ignored.
 
The piggies have had a reasonably good run health wise since 2022, 2025 is making up for it. Just found darling Fizz bunny hopping and limping badly. There's nothing in the cage he can have fallen off, these two are not climbers so I don't think he would have been on top of the hides and there's no ramp. Poor piggy, Fuzz is being a pain getting all dominant with him so he knows he's not right. Hope I don't have to separate them. I've given him Metacam (vet approved) off to the vets tomorrow unless he's massively improved in the morning.
 
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