Tasha's Tails: Writings from Amy and her cavies

2012-01-27T03:34:00.002-05:00

Hi folks,

I haven't been writing about pigs because, well, I haven't had pigs to write about. Livvy, Tasha and Rocky went to Oswego County Guinea Pig Rescue to find new homes this summer, and I have since been pigless.

I am going to leave this blog intact so that those of you who use it for reference may continue to do so :) and I may make an occasional post here or there if something comes to mind.

Also my etsy shop kind of dropped out of existence in the same manner as the blog, mostly because when I moved I didn't really have the means anymore to keep it going, and my priorities changed. I am considering getting it up and running again [I have a TON of leftover fabric] but I wouldn't be able to do custom things, just pre-mades. I will still donate to OCGPR a percentage of the proceeds.

If you guys have any questions or suggestions my ears are open!

Wordless Wednesday featuring baby Daisy

2011-04-13T23:14:00.003-04:00

2011-03-23T23:38:00.001-04:00

Unfortunately we lost Sophie-Mo tonight at about 11:15pm. She suffered very little. She will be sorely missed.

News.

2011-03-19T20:05:00.003-04:00

The Re-homing.

I found someone who wants to adopt all four of the pigs. She is an hour and a half away and we're driving to meet her tomorrow.

Sophie-Mo.

Mo's health has been on a slow but steady decline. A recent trip to the vet revealed that it's due to old age. She currently weighs in at a frail 1lb 4oz, which is less than she has ever weighed. When I got her in '07 she was around 2lbs, before she started losing weight she was around 1lb 9oz.

This morning just as I was leaving for work I saw Livvy, Tasha and Rocky all gathered around the food dish eating their breakfast. My white fluff was nowhere to be seen. Oh no.

She was laying under the hay rack, not interested in food at all. My poor lady. I eventually was able to convince her that pellets were delicious and this evening when I got home, I made her some home-made Critical Care mash with Sweet Meadow pellets, endive, maroon carrots, organic blueberries,[all of her faves] and a tiny bit of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar. She is currently chowing down, but still not doing great.

Wordless Wednesday featuring Ferdinand

2011-03-16T22:52:00.002-04:00

Oh deary me.

2011-03-04T20:48:00.003-05:00

Usually when I haven't written in a while, I make some comment about what a bad blogger I am or how things have changed drastically.

They have. I am having to do something I never thought I'd have to do.

I have to say good-bye to half of my herd.

Yes, it's true. I feel like a terrible pet owner but the truth is, I should probably have done this a long time ago, when they were younger. It would have been much easier on all parties involved.

There are several reasons why I need to do this.

1.] I am allergic to them. And not just a little. Sneezing, runny nose, itchy mouth/eyes, watery eyes, etc. are not just symptoms I get when I touch one of them, pick them up or hold them. I have them all the time. I have been miserable since we moved out of the yellow house in the beginning of February. I am also allergic to the hay, but not as bad.

2.] I don't have the space. I've had to split them up and most of them are living in pet store cages. No one is in an adequately sized cage right now. This makes changing their cages even worse because that's when I start sneezing horrendously and the mucous starts a-flowin'. Having to go through that once is bad enough, but having to go through it five times is a nightmare. I take allergy medication on the day that I change their cages, which helps a little, but not much.

3.] I am physically not able to care for all of them. I was supposed to have a surgery on my ankle to remove built-up scar tissue from an old injury. I have been delaying it for over a year due to lack of insurance. It has been slowly getting more and more painful to walk. I cannot take pain medication for it, as even the strongest of doses does just about nothing. Every time I have to change their water, feed them, play with them, etc. I have to go up and down a flight of stairs, which is very difficult for me. I don't know when I will have the surgery but even after that I won't be able to walk for about a month.

4.] None of this will change any time soon. I am not able to care for all of my cavies, and I am not doing right by them keeping them in their current conditions. Sophie-Mo, Rocky, Natasha, and Olive will be staying with me and I hope to get a good-sized cage built for them as soon as I can, and get them back on fleece, which should help.

You can see their Guinea Pig Home page here.

2011-01-03T19:06:00.003-05:00

After quite the [unannounced] hiatus, I'm back! For now I am taking it easy on etsy and I'm going to try and just focus on blogging for now.

Hey! Exciting news!

I am considering having a monthly/bi-monthly Guest Blogger. Someone who writes another blog, be it small or fairly big, writing an article of their choosing [relating to guinea pigs, or at the very least pets]. I'll start an archive of these guest bloggings, which will be located on the lefthand sidebar. If you would like to be a Guest Blogger, please send me a sample of your work/website/blog, your name, and what your article subject would be. You can find my email at the Contact Info link on the lefthand sidebar.

For example, if I were entering my entry would be,

"Amy C., "Tasha's Tails" http://tashastails.blogspot.com

My article would be about home medical kits for small animals."

If chosen, you'll be given a minimum of 1 month's notice.

Also if you have not yet seen it, I have made a Bio page for the blog, go check it out! It's on the lefthand sidebar under "What Is This?"

And yes, I am still working on my medical kit post. :)

You should probably read this.

2010-11-26T06:10:00.005-05:00

I've always had a pretty good idea of what my limits are. But sometimes you have to cross the line to know where the line is. I don't know what I was thinking, when I crossed the line, but it was probably something along the lines of "well, if I turn around here, I'm just a wimp." Yeah, guess what.

I'm not a wimp.

But I went from working 0 hours a week to 50-60. Plus being at the shelter. One of my jobs is extremely physically demanding, and my other job demands a lot of patience and focus, and I have to transfer from one to the other almost instantly [I have about 20 minutes to change and let my hair down]. I don't like complaining about having to work, because everyone has to work, and I don't respond well to sympathy. I hope that very soon I will not have to work more than perhaps 35 hours a week between both jobs. Until then, though, I won't be able to do much posting. And I am re-vamping my etsy shop. The focus will no longer be on custom items, and for the time being I've discontinued the piggy pads. I do hope to bring them back soon but I need to work on the design a bit. Few things are perfect the first time.

One last thing. I've stumbled upon a blog that is hauntingly similar to mine [formatting, writing style, topics, etc]. I'm not naming names, because I have more class than that. I just wanted to say that it's pretty childish to play copycat, and this borders on plagiarism. I don't understand the motivation behind it, but no matter.

I realize I'm not the first person to blog about cavy care, but when I make a blog post I like to think it's original. I don't take an existing post of someone else's, cleverly re-word it, and slap my name on it. Please stop being lame.

That's about as whiny and petty as this blog is gonna get, folks. Prepare for my upcoming post about our piggy first aid kit at the shelter, and at the yellow house.

Tumbleweeds.

2010-11-23T12:22:00.002-05:00

This blog seems abandoned!

I'm really sorry; I have been up to my ears in excuses for why I haven't written. I've had to make some major changes to my lifestyle and my etsy shop. I am working on a post at the moment, and I hope to have it done by the weekend. Please stay tuned.

Contest Winners!

2010-10-23T13:36:00.004-04:00

The contest is over and I've chosen the winner and runner-up. I would like to thank everyone who entered, I got some really adorable photos and I have uploaded all of them to my Flickr account to be enjoyed by all. See them here.

If you submitted more than two photos, I chose from the first two that you sent me, since the rule was only two per person. The way I chose these was by having my roommate open al of the files so I didn't know who sent what. These photos were chosen based solely on their snuggle/cute-factor.

Now, on to the fun.

Congratulations to Emmy and Heather!

Emmy is our winner, with her photo of Pippin, seen here.

And Heather is our runner-up, with her photo of "baby rats," seen here.

Like I said I got a lot of really great photos, and it was tough to choose from all of them. So I have also chosen the top 5 photos [besides Emmy and Heather's, of course,] and I would like to offer the takers of these photos 10% off their entire next purchase at my shop. This does exclude shipping but there is no time limit, and I do ship all over the world.

View the Top 5 here.

How does this all work? For our winner and runner up, simply choose "other" when you get to checkout. If you purchase more than your $25 or $15 worth of stuff [remember, shipping included], I will invoice you via paypal for the remaining balance.

If you're in the Top 5, you can Convo me in Etsy and tell me what you'd like to order, I'll make a custom listing for you with the 10% taken off. Be sure to mention that you were in the Top 5 for this photo contest!

What about the sale? I did mention that I was planning a sale shortly after this. Unfortunately though I am too darn busy with my two jobs do stock up for it right now. But I do have something planned, don't you worry.

Photo Contest Reminder

2010-10-21T22:33:00.006-04:00

The photo contest is supposed to end tonight but I am extending it a day because I'm really not going to have time to look at the photos until Saturday.

Please send your submissions to SilverBeatShop [at] yahoo [dot] com. Remember, Winner gets $25 worth of goodies from my shop, Runner up gets $15 worth! This does include custom items AND shipping.

For more info, see this post.

Guinea pigs at the CNYSPCA.

2010-10-17T12:27:00.004-04:00

I am now *officially* the girl in charge of the cavies at the CNYSPCA in Mattydale, NY. Which means a lot of changes in care, diet, grooming, and cleaning will be made.

Now.

The pigs are being kept in fairly small cages in an ex-storage room in the back of one of the cat rooms. Basically anyone who wants one can have one, for the $35 adoption fee. They're kept on newspaper bedding, changed daily, which isn't great but the fact that it's changed daily is definitely a plus. It's better than keeping them on shavings. They are on a diet of Sweet Meadow pellets [which I provided] and a handful of hay a day. They get veggies whenever I get in there to give them veggies, so a couple of times a week.

Soon.

I am drafting a daily care/feeding schedule and a list of acceptable pellet foods for the shelter director to post to the kennel staff. Right now I personally am okay with them being on paper bedding. They're not going to love it, but I will make sure that it gets changed daily. Veggies will be my responsibility to get to them, which isn't a huge deal for me. I have also been told that I am free to set up a "floor time" space for them whenever the bunnies are out, which will be awesome.

Later.

My long-term goal for the guinea pigs is to move them out of the cat storage room and into the rabbit room. I am working with "the rabbit guy" [Bob] on designing a cage setup for the bunnies and the piggies that is affordable, large, sturdy, easy to clean, preferably mobile [on wheels], and easy on the eyes.

I am also collecting all of my fleece scraps and will be making the pigs some patchwork piggy pads for their swanky new cages.

Right now we have three single pigs- Jamie, Tyler, and George. They appear all to be female. And we have one pair, Lucy and Ethel [female as well]. I will be posting updates about my experiences with the shelter pigs and whatnot.

What's Going On?!

2010-10-16T19:48:00.004-04:00

Hi Everyone!

Life is busy these days in the yellow house. Some big decisions are being made, some big paychecks are being earned, and some big time-budget cuts are being made.

Rocky.

It looks like Rocky is a keeper. He is very old, that's for sure. He's probably lived his whole life alone, and lord knows how long he's been dealing with this impaction problem, but even with a big cage, a HAFF [Hay and Fresh Foods] diet and regular cleanings, I have to "squeeze" him at least once daily. My vet said that neutering him would have little if any effect on his chronic impactions. He is obviously uncomfortable, and I just want him to be comfortable and happy for the rest of his life.

Because I don't have the money right now to get Laika and Ferdie spayed, and because I'm not sure if I even really want to put them through that procedure unless absolutely necessary, AND because I do not want to mess up the "dynamic" of the sows' cage, I have decided that I am going to adopt a buddy for Rocky. Probably an older male (3-4). I would love a Peruvian if I had the choice.

Rocky's QT period is over, his URI has subsided and his infected rump is growing fur. He is moving into the girls' room for now, And I will work on building him a C&C cage and getting him a buddy within the next month.

Winnie and Milo.

Winston and Milo are doing very well at my mother's daycare. I call them my "satellite" pigs. The kids love them and are learning a lot and my mom is warming up to them. I will get some photos and do a special write-up about my take on guinea pigs in day cares, classrooms, and children's rooms someday soon.

Wordless Wednesday: Where was this photo taken?

2010-10-06T19:16:00.001-04:00

Photo Contest Reminder

2010-10-02T19:08:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone! Only 19 days left to enter my "Snuggle Up" Photo contest! I have only gotten a couple of submissions so far...

*The photo does not have to be of a guinea pig. It can be any animal*

*I am now going to allow up to 2 entries per person*

Here are a few examples from my own collection [click the image to view the large version]:

View the photo contest rules and how to enter here.

Introduction: Rocky

2010-09-29T22:07:00.007-04:00

Phew! The past week has been utter insanity. So much running around, moving this, saving that, dropping things off and picking things up!

Let's start from the very beginning.

Saturday when I was at the farmer's market, I asked the farmer I buy my greens form if she would please bag up some of her scraps for the piggies at our local shelter. Later that day we went to the feed store for a bale of hay and to deliver some composting worms, and then headed to the shelter.

While we were doling out the greens to the shelter bunnies, Bob, a volunteer at the SPCA who worked with me and a few others on t he swamp rescue, met up with us and told me about a guinea pig they had who was down on his luck. He had been at the shelter for a few weeks and had "something wrong with his butt." We went to see what was up down there and it was immediately clear to me that poor "Rocky" was impacted... pretty badly. Unfortunately I didn't have any experience dis-impacting piggies and the last thing I wanted to do was do it wrong and make a bigger mess out of the situation. I promised Rocky I would come back for him, and set him back down in his cage.

I went back on Monday, after a doctor's appointment, to meet with the vet tech there and do the deed. I was shocked to find that not only was the mass no longer sticking out of Rocky like a cork, but there didn't seem to be any obstruction when I poked around with q-tip after q-tip. At any rate, Rocky was in poor shape and I had already made up my mind that I wasn't leaving without him. I left all of my contact information with the tech, got some kisses from her three-legged pit bull and headed home with Rocky in tow.

Driving down the main road near our house I saw a little yorkshire terrier trott

ing down the sidewalk. He had a collar and tags but no leash and no person. It had begun to rain. I told Scott that I would 'scoop him up real quick and be home in five minutes.' Since this is Rocky's introduction I'll make a long story short, suffice it to say that I was not home in five minutes. I spent nearly two hours in the rain with this dog, until finally he let me drape my handkerchief over his face, pick him up and tote him home. He had recently been re-homed to our area and escaped from his yard, he was very scared and very obviously lost, but we contacted his owners and got him home safe.

Rocky was a sneezing, wheezing, shedding mess when I got home with the pup. I called the vet immediately and jammed him in for an appointment on Wednesday. I suspected he had mange mites--due to a bald patch on his hind end--and a URI in addition to his impaction.

At the vet today we were relieved to learn that rocky did not, in fact, have mites. He has a bacterial infection on his rump, a URI, and the vet was able to dis-impact mister Rocky in one fell swoop. The pig who had been silent since I got him home let out a shriek so loud that all the dogs in the kennels began barking and some even howled! Poor boy.

Our doctor thinks that his impactions may be chronic, but proper diet will definitely improve his condition. We're also thinking he may be a bit older [3-4+], since he seems to have limited control of his muscles back there.

The little man is safe and sound now in my big 2'x4' quarantine cage. He had a pretty poor diet at the shelter [where I am now a volunteer] so he is enjoying his hay, veggies, and seed-free pellets!

Is he a resident? It's not official yet, but my mom is taking Milo and Winston for a "test run" this week, to see if they like living in the day care, and if she likes having them there. So far all looks well. We have set them up in the "quiet" room, so if need be, they can be closed off from the kids. Their cage is just high enough that the kids can look, but not touch, and we've attached a crib bumper to the outside of the cage so no-one bumps their head accidentally.

If my mom likes Milo and Winnie, I'd be perfectly happy letting them be permanent residents of my mother's in-home daycare. And if my vet thinks that having Rocky neutered will improve his condition, or at the very least not make it any worse, there is a distinct possibility that he could be a permanent resident.

Number Eight.

2010-09-28T23:02:00.005-04:00

Yummy New Fabrics

2010-09-22T15:22:00.002-04:00

I went to Jo-Ann's last night after picking up my CSA goodies, and bought sooo much fabric. Mostly flannel prints, as I really need more selection in my shop. I bought a lucky 13 flannel prints, and I believe I got 5 new polar fleece prints. I do plan to go back, but I only had so much cash on hand. You can see my selection of flannels here. I was so excited... It's been a long time since I spent more than $40 in one place that wasn't the farmer's market or the grocery store. Special thanks to Chris, the nice cutting girl who was patient with me and talked to me about her guinea pig while her co-workers looked on in horror at the mountain of fabric on the cutting table.

More things to be happy about... I have secured two jobs, and neither one is going anywhere anytime soon. Eeeee I'm so happy! This dreary rainy gray day can suck it!

"Snuggle Up" Photo Contest

2010-09-21T17:10:00.008-04:00

PHOTO CONTEST

I am planning a sale for November and I'm in need of some cute photos.

This is the first contest/giveaway I've done, so here goes:

1.] The theme of this photo contest is "Snuggle Up," please take that into consideration when entering.

2.] Entries must be e-mailed to SilverBeatShop [at] yahoo [dot] com.

3.] No more than two photos/entries per person.

4.] Brownie points if your photo also features one of my products.

5.] No Stealing! The photo you submit MUST be your own.

6.] Entries will be accepted until 12:00AM [Midnight] EST, October 21, 2010. That gives you a whole month!

7.] The winner and runner-up will be announced October 23, 2010.

8.] The winner will receive $25 worth of goodies from my etsy shop. The runner-up will receive $15 worth of goodies from the shop.

9.] The photos of the winner and runner-up will be used in my newsletter (join by emailing SilverBeatShop [at] yahoo [dot] com, with the subject "subscribe), shop listings, etc and the photographers will be credited. Please include a website, if you have one, when you enter.

10.] Ready... GO!

EDIT: I am just feeling so darn snuggly today, I made a treasury.

Vet/Emergency Funds

2010-09-19T13:06:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone, happy Sunday! I'm writing to you today about having a Vet/Emergency fund for your little ones. This applies not only to guinea pigs, but any pet. It is always a good idea to have extra cash set aside so that, no matter the circumstance, you can give your friend the care he/she needs.

This is the first question you need to address when starting a vet fund: How much should I be saving up? The answer varies, depending on how old your animals are, how many you have, what kind are they [cavies or chow chows? rabbits or rhodesian ridgebacks?], and other questions. This is definitely something that you need to sit down and brainstorm on your own, but I will give you the guidelines I came up with way back before I adopted my bunnies.

An emergency could be a one-time visit, a couple hundred dollars and everything's fixed, or it could be a long drawn-out process. You really should plan for either. I recommend at least $500-700 per guinea pig, depending on your average vet bill/ER bill. To give you an example, the vet I see regularly is $45 per visit, but my emergency vet (Cornell) is nearly $200 for a fairly small emergency.

For rabbits, it's a good idea to have at least $700-900 on hand The reason that number is slightly higher is because folks are more likely to have 2+ guinea pigs, compared to one or two rabbits [not true for everyone, of course]. But if you have three guinea pigs, and one gets very sick, you have at least $1500 in care funds for it. Whereas, if you have one rabbit and it gets very sick, you only have $900 in care funds.

There is no set amount, no limit, to how much you should have saved, but the numbers I've given should cover you for basic emergencies. In five years keeping rabbits and guinea pigs I've only had to go to the ER vet once for Benner [Newman's brother] about a week before his death--he wasn't eating and his regular vet was on vacation--the only other emergencies I've had was Sophie-Mo and Olive's emergency spays [$240 each], and Newman's upper respiratory infection, which went downhill so fast after I noticed it that we couldn't get him to a vet in time.

It's best to have a vet fund before you adopt your friends, since almost no vet these days will accept a payment plan. [many do take Care Credit though, which is worth looking into if you have a lot of animals and no vet fund]. Some vets will work out a payment plan if you have a particularly hefty bill and you've been a client for a certain amount of time. My vet allows this for me, and I usually have my balance paid off within a month. I do this so that I don't have to take money out of our emergency fund if I don't need to.

It's also very important that you register with a vet before an emergency arises. Our emergency vet requires a $60 registration fee for each animal, so for my 9, that's $540. Do I have all of them registered? No. Three of my animals are registered there though, one of whom is still living; and the vet knows me from the House Rabbit Society. Some clinics, however, provide emergency care only to registered clients, whose animals have already had one routine check-up with them. Our regular vet clinic is one of these clinics, but our exotics vet doesn't do emergency care regularly, so we have to have a back-up.

The moral of the story being, have a vet fund and a vet before you need one.

I may add to this later, but for now I'm filing this in Cutting Back and HDYDI.

Wordless Wednesday starring Miss Abbey

2010-09-15T23:19:00.003-04:00

Social Sunday No. 6

2010-09-12T21:55:00.000-04:00

Hey folks. I hope your month's been good.

Quick little updates....

+ I have installed a "how to navigate this blog" page at the top left column... you should all check it out.

+ My etsy shop now has a mailing list. I will be using it to notify folks about sales, new products being launched, etc. I'm only going to be sending out probably 1-2 [no more than 3, ever] emails per month. You can join by emailing silverbeatshop [at] yahoo [dot] com

+ Due to more insanity than I've dealt with in a while, I'm jobless. Again. It's making me really moody.

+ The other night I accidentally deleted 25 comments. My apologies.

Now, onto the creamy nougat-y center.

What's one change you've made recently that you're super proud of?

My Answer: I cleaned out the garage and it makes for a really great storage space. I've got all of my old kennels and cages in there, plus 4 bales of hay, extra towels, my vermicompost bins... soon to add more!

WELCOME NEW FOLLOWERS, Please do join the fun!

Fleece Bedding Breakdown.

2010-09-09T19:24:00.000-04:00

This post, as the title suggests, is a breakdown of the ins and outs of fleece bedding. As a newbie I found the GPC Forum post to be wordy, long and a little confusing. So I have taken the main post, plus the more helpful of the replies, and boiled them down to this user-friendly post.

What is it?

Polar fleece is a 100% polyester fabric, made from recycled plastic bottles. It's super-soft, doesn't rip easily or fray, and once it has been "broken in" [by tossing it in the washing machine a couple of times] it wicks any liquid from the surface, which makes it ideal for small animals such as guinea pigs, ferrets and rats, who have bare feet and carry their bodies so low to the ground and thus are particularly vulnerable to urinary tract infections.

Where can I find it?

You can find polar fleece at Big Box-Marts, thrift stores [fleece throw blankets], fabric and crafting supply stores such as Jo-Ann Fabrics and Hancock Fabrics. Fabric supply stores and some Wal-Marts have many colors and patterns of polar fleece available for purchase by-the-year. All you need to do is let them know how much you need. Most bolts of polar fleece are 60" wide, so for, say, a 2x4 cage [28"x56"] you'd only need 1 yard [36"x60"]. Most places that offer by-the-yard cuts will also have fleece throws available, which come already cut and hemmed; I find these usually work perfectly for a 2x3 or 2x3.5-sized C&C cage, or a similarly sized cage. If possible, you should get anti-pill polar fleece, as it will last longer than just regular polar fleece. It's also best to get two sets of fleece and whatever you'll be using underneath it [towels, etc], for an easy cage cleaning.

How much is this going to cost?

That question is best answered here.

How do I get the fleece ready for pigs?

Make sure you have a good absorbent material to go underneath the fleece. Mattress pads, towels, puppy training pads and newspaper are all common choices. Fleece itself is not absorbent, it simply wicks liquid away from the surface. It needs somewhere to wick the liquid to. If you use fleece and fleece alone you'll be sorely disappointed.

Also make sure that you send your fleece through at least 2 wash cycles; 3 if you have a front-loading washer. In my experience, you do not need to use detergent, and you don't necessarily need to tumble-dry it between washings.

How do I set it up in my cage?

The best way to set up your cage so that your fleece doesn't become a mess is to set up a kitchen area and use a hay rack. Your pigs will do most of their "business" in this area, as an added perk.

As far as putting down the fleece, first layer your towels 3-4 layers thick, or use 2-3 layers of mattress pads. Place your fleece over the top of the towels/pads, and tuck the fleece under the towels [you'll want to leave about 4"-6" on either side of your fleece blanket]. If you find that your pigs are burrowing under the fleece you can use bricks or binder clips to secure the perimeter fleece.

This all sounds like a lot of work.

It doesn't have to be. Cute and stylish cage liners are available online in a number of places.

I make customized cage liner pads, available here. And so do a few other folks, here, here, and here.

How do I clean/care for it?

For regular upkeep you'll want to sweep or vacuum your fleece. Every 4-7 days you'll need to thoroughly sweep/vacuum/shake out the fleece and throw the fleece and towels in the washing machine. Never use fabric softener. Line or tumble dry. I prefer line drying, as the fleece always seems to smell fresher. How often you'll need to wash your fleece depends on your cage size, number of pigs, their age, and etc. For more cleaning tips, go here.

Did I miss anything? Please comment with questions/concerns/praise.

Tiny Tips no. 2: fleece care.

2010-09-03T00:09:00.000-04:00

I am in love with fleece bedding. I have already said this, probably multiple times. It makes so many aspects of my life so much easier. But occasionally, there are bumps in the road. In this Tiny Tips post we will address some of the problems that people encounter with fleece bedding, and how to fix them.

1.] Hay sticks to it.

This is easily solved with a small hand rake, a cat litter scoop, or if you lack that kind of hardware, slipping on a latex glove and

picking it up with those wonderful things called your hands.

2.] Poop.

Hands do not work so well here. There are better tools for the job. Many people use a small handbroom and mini dustpan. If your cage is on the floor, upgrade to a regular broom and dustpan. Occasionally I throw my mini broom into the wash for a thorough cleaning, because I'm like that.

I know a gal who swears by using a soup ladle to scoop poop, and if you've got one of those little hand-held vacuums hanging around, I haven't ever tried one but I hear they work great.

When to be on poop patrol is mostly up to you. I sweep about every other day. If you have a vastly expansive cage, you may not need to sweep at all; just shake out the fleece before you do your regular washing.

3.] Laundering: fur

Cleaning the filter in your washing machine regularly can keep fur from building up in there. An alternative to this is to run a rinse cycle after washing with only water and non-chlorine bleach or vinegar, OR you can thoroughly shake out your fleece and place it in a washing bag, or a duvet cover, to keep the fur contained.

4.] Stank/cleanliness

After a few months of using fleece I started noticing a stinkyness that wouldn't go away even after a washing and line-drying. This can be tackled a few ways.

a.) When laundering your fleece and towels, run them through a rinse cycle first, THEN a full wash cycle. This gets most of the nastiness out so that you're not just shampooing and up-covering the stink of urine-soaked towels.

b.) Add a cup of baking soda or vinegar to the wash cycle, along with the detergent. Be sure also not to use too much detergent as it can build up in the fabric and irritate your pigs' skin.

c.) Sprinkle baking soda onto the bottom layer of towels when you are changing your pigs' linens. Though many people hate to admit it, animals [and people] SMELL. It's a fact of nature. By adding baking soda to your pig's towels/litterbox, you can absorb most of this unpleasantness.

d.) Line-dry your fleece and towels. Sun exposure will kill any yucky/stinky stuff in your towels and fleece and all that fresh air, sunshine and unicorn saliva will leave them smelling fresh and clean.

5.] Laundering: poop

Let's admit it, we're not perfect. Sometimes the odd poop-capsule gets into the washing machine, despite our best efforts. But luckily, cavy poop floats [count it, David Letterman]. I just let my washing machine fill up, agitate for half a minute or so, and

capture the unsuspecting victim(s) with a yogurt cup. I'm not sure if this is a problem other people have, but if so, there's my solution.

Have you ever hit a snag when it comes to fleece bedding? Got a tiny tip to share? Need a solution to your problem? Please post in the comments--with or without a Blogger ID. :)

Milo and Winnie are back together!

2010-08-19T16:10:00.000-04:00

And better than ever! After another buddy bath and an exhaustingly clean and odor-free cage, my two boys have decided that they can live together without tearing each other apart.

More posts to follow, as I was informed yesterday that I'm not working this week. For now, I don't have a problem with it. I can get my home life back in order.

A Cute Story for You All

2010-08-10T09:20:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone!

Right now is a busy time for me-- I am working two jobs [finishing out my last two weeks at my old job and starting my new one] and sales in my etsy shop are picking up, which I'm very happy about. I'll soon be listing a lot more products, including C&C cage-sized Patchwork Piggy Pads, pre-made hammocks and snuggle bags, and soon, some solid-colored Piggy Pads, which will be less costly because there is much less time involved in making them.

Even though this blog is about guinea pigs, I'm sure most or all of us here are animal lovers, and I wanted to share a cute [and true] story with you.

Lately I have taken to eating supper on the front porch of the yellow house. Last night was no different. Just as I was sitting down to dinner, I heard the jingling of ID tags on a collar. I shot up out of my chair and looked out the side window. A black lab was in our driveway, sniffing at my tomatoes. I threw on my shoes and went out to grab him. "Hey dog. Come on, let's take you home." He trotted right over to me. And then I recognized him. A little more than a month ago I saw him hanging out on the porch of the vacant house across the street, his name is Bo. He lives a couple of blocks away.

I led him across the busy main road and up the hill to his home. He is very street-wise, and stopped immediately at the corner until it was safe to cross. On our way to his house, we passed a garbage can he had terrorized. When his owner opened the door she recognized me and asked me inside so I stepped in. It turns out she wants me to babysit her two school-age girls! We didn't talk extensively but she seemed to want me to babysit several days a week. She is a single working mom.

That dog got me a babysitting job. I could have just hugged him right there but he was busy stealing a roast beef sandwich off the table.

New posts soon to come this month:

How Do You Do It: Veggies part II

How Do You Do It: Organization

Tiny Tips: Emergency kits

I would also like to say welcome to all new followers! I hope y'all like my blog :)

Social Sunday no. 5

2010-08-08T20:43:00.000-04:00

Hey y'all. I hope you've had a wonderful week. I am in a bit of a rush so this month's Social Sunday is gonna be pretty quick and dirty.

For those of you with C&C Cages... How long have you had a C&C cage setup and how many times have you rearranged the cage? [added a loft, made it bigger/smaller, changed the shape, etc]

My Answer: I have had C&C cages for as long as I've had cavies, and for my bunnies as well [four years now]. I have changed my pigs' setup more times than I'd care to think about... but here is me thinking out loud:

1st cage: 2x5 L-shaped cage for Sophie-Mo + Olive,

-->added a loft soon after building

2nd cage: 16.9 sq foot odd-shaped windowseat cage for Mo and Livvy, which they later moved back to with Tasha, Milo, and eventually the babies [and not Milo]

3rd cage: 2x8 divided into three sections: one housing Livvy and Laika, one with Milo and Winston, and one with Tasha, Mo and Ferdie.

4th cage: 2x6 for the girls, 2x3 for the boys

---> added a 1x6 loft to the girls a while after building

5th cage: 2x9 for the girls, my first floor cage

---> added a 2x3 flip-up loft, attached to a 1x4 windowseat loft recently.

There is a more detailed post about my cages coming soon.

***For those of you without... what cage setup do you have?

Cutting Back: Episode 5: Hay part II

2010-07-31T23:01:00.000-04:00

This is a follow-up to my first Cutting Back post. I have some additional information to share with you all.

Buying hay locally

I have found a few more websites that connect you with hay sellers in your area:

Internet Hay Exchange has listings in all 50 states and allows you to post wanted ads if you can't find what you're looking for in the sellers' advertisements, plus a hay price calculator and other neat stuff.

The Hay Barn, though most of its listings are here in America, is an international website that works basically the same way as the Internet Hay Exchange, allowing sellers and buyers to post ads and search by state. Personally I think it's easier to navigate, even though it has fewer listings.

Lastly, the Texas Department of Agriculture has a Hay Hotline on their site, which lists hay for sale in not only Texas, but many other states. It is worth a try if you are really having trouble finding hay in your area. It allows you to search by type and quality of hay, and you can narrow it down to organic/not organic as well.

Farm Fodder is a site for Australian farmers, with several listings for hay.

Storing hay

If you are having trouble wondering how you're going to store an entire bale of hay [usually around 40"x24"x24", 40-50lbs] in your house or apartment, I have some more ideas for you.

This website and this one sells hay bags which, though costly, are easy to tote and contain a lot of mess. The first website also sells half hay bale bags, among other things.

You can also share a bale of hay with a friend. You can use a chainsaw to chop a bale of hay in half, or you can remove the bailing twine/wire and break it up into flakes--a bale usually consists of 8-10+ flakes, depending on how your hay was baled.

I didn't mention this in my first post, but garages are a great place to store hay, so long as there isn't a lot of direct sunlight or any leaks, you can put a pallet down [often free at places like feed stores or home improvement stores, even from local barns] and put up hay like you would in a barn. I plan to do this for the coming winter, since I just renewed my lease and my roommate suckered our landlady into giving us the garage she was renting out separately.

photo credit

If you have any tips to share, please post them here!

2010-07-31T17:52:00.000-04:00

All of my hard work has finally paid off. I got a new job. And, my etsy shop is donating $10.15 to the Oswego County Guinea Pig Rescue. It's not much but it's a start. For those of you who do not know, 15% of all my proceeds [before paying any etsy fees, etc] goes to the OCGPR and this is my first month of doing it. I will be donating to those fine swine indefinitely, so don't be bummed if you couldn't help this month. A clean slate starts tomorrow, and my goal for the month of august is $25.00 or more!

New stuff in, or coming soon to, my etsy shop includes Patchwork Piggy Pads, Double-Decker hammocks [great for peegs because they provide cover and multiple exits/entrances] and made-to-order all-fleece or all-flannel hammocks.

I am also hoping to make some listings this week for donations of goods at wholesale prices [40% off] to reputable rescues. But more on that later.

It is starting to be a real pain in the butt not having my own computer. I haven't been able to do much online lately because my roommate is doing a huge project for a memorial service for his grandmother that requires both the computers, the PS3, a portable DVD player, two VHS players, my camera and a tiny fan. Plus some other stuff that cost $500 that I don't know that it is. Technology.

But! He is out of the house all night so I will be posting a follow-up to the Cutting Back: Hay post and making a ton of listings on etsy momentarily. Jut wanted to let y'all know what was going on.

coming soon!

2010-07-26T18:41:00.000-04:00

Hi all, a few things.

1.] I am changing Social Sunday posts. They will now be the second Sunday of every month, instead of weekly. I think that will give a chance for more people to read and respond to them, instead of them getting buried.

2.] I have spent all day today modifying the girls' cage and have just finished. Tomorrow and Wednesday are my days off so expect some serious posting, I have a lot of stuff to share.

3.] Sophie is back with the girls and standing up for herself. Her weight had gotten all the way down to 1lb. 3oz, and in just two weeks she is back up to 1lb. 8oz [her norm is between that and 2lbs]. She is displaying a lot of confidence and not taking guff from anybody.

4.] My pigs are finally back on fleece, after 60 straight days of newspaper bedding that I had to change every day. I have never seen so many zoomies, popcorns, lap-running... Natasha even laid down and rolled in the fleece like a dog.

5.] Winnie and Milo are about to be re-united after being apart for two weeks. Winnie's wounds and ego have healed completely, his appetite is good and he's more than ready to be out of the quarantine cage. I am building him a special loft that Milo can, but probably won't want to, get to. Then I am going to spray down the cage, change the bedding, buddy-bathe them and see what happens. Hopefully this works.

Introduction: Bella

2010-07-23T20:13:00.000-04:00

Yes, yes, I know. a.) I said I would introduce you to Milo this week and b.) Bella is not a guinea pig!

But know this, please: Bella is not only not a guinea pig, she's also the supreme ruler of the yellow house and a huge part of my life. Plus you got to meet Newman! He's not a guinea pig! So hush up and listen to my story about this little bunnydragon.

Actually though, I need to take photos of Milo and I haven't done that yet. So, dragon it is.

BellaMonster came to me a sad shell of a bunny. A friend of mine received a call one day asking if she wanted a rabbit. "The meanest rabbit in the world," as the woman described it. My friend said no, but she told the lady that I did rabbit rescue and gave her my number. I never got a phone call, but a few days later I got a small baby dutch bunny on my porch in a cage that had been cable-tied together. It was November of 2007.

A cage-aggressive little spitfire, she was intended to be a foster bun with the House Rabbit Society. But I could tell after a week it was going to be a while, if ever, before she would be "adoptable." Still, I worked with her every day for months--and I still do--to tone-down her cage aggression. She is still pretty darn feisty, which is why I call her names like "Bella Monster," "The Beast" and "It". And yet, she is one of the cutest little things I have ever met!

For a short time Bella lived in the front hallway/stairwell of my mother's house. Every day then I got home from school she was there on the landing by the window, waiting to greet me. It was pretty nice.

Bella loved Newman very much, his death affected her greatly. For weeks she searched the house for him. After a few days of frantic nook-and-crannying, she gave up and receded back into herself. I am now trying to bond her with a female foster rabbit named Abbey. It is going better than I thought.

Well, that's it for now. Bella's story is a short one, probably because I have told it so many times that I've been able to pare it down to a quick little anecdote.

Social Sunday #4

2010-07-18T18:30:00.000-04:00

Greetings, True Believers. Let's get right down to it.

Our fourth Social Sunday is a suggestion by Cassandra, one of our most avid readers/commenters :) She would like to know:

Why do you have cavies/what do you love about cavies?

My Answer:

I love so many things about guinea pigs, but the thing that sealed the deal for me was the little "wheek wheek" noises they make. Sometimes these noises are not so little. Hehe.

I just love being greeted by those cheerful noises whenever I walk in the front door/up the stairs/roll over in my sleep/breathe.

I look forward to hearing your answers!

I also have exciting and yet not-so-exciting news. A dear family friend passed away recently, and his wife is now "getting rid" of some of the extra stuff lying around, so I am finally getting my own [Dell] laptop, instead of having to write to y'all from various shared computers at whatever hour I can get ahold of them, I will be able to write whenever I please [oh no], and be a lot more organized about it. I love Macs, but I'm really terrible at navigating them. I was raised on Windows.

2010-07-17T22:43:00.000-04:00

Just a quick little update before tomorrow:

Everyone is doing great! It has been rough but Sophie-Mo's weight is increasing at an encouraging weight, and she looks happier than ever.

I had intended to stick Tasha, Livvy and Mo with Winston and Milo. I have put this group together with great success in the past. But this time I decided that Mo couldn't handle the pestering of the boys. So I put her off on her own and just left Livvy and Tasha to the boys. Bad idea. I came home later that day to bloody pawprints and a very sad Winston. He is in the hospital cage now, and Ferdie, Laika, Tasha and Livvy are back together. Winston is healing very well, he has a gash under his chin and a cut on his foot. He's not bothering his bandage, which is just wonderful.

Coming up: Social Sunday no. 4, and later this week an introduction post for Milo if all goes well, a How Do You Do It post on organization.

Also, I got my first two Etsy sales a couple of days ago, hooray!

Much-needed update

2010-07-14T22:06:00.000-04:00

Sorry for missing our fourth Social Sunday, folks. I was busy wondering why my bed was made of diced chicken and getting angry at Neptune for stealing my bathwater. Ehm.. I had a 103F fever.

Unfortunately, things are not well in the cavy world. Sophie-Mo has been getting bullied relentlessly by Laika. She has lost a bit of weight and just today I discovered a bald spot on her from where Laika has been pulling her hair out. We have run into this problem before, but never to this extent. I feel awful for not noticing this sooner, but Sophie is recovering quickly. I put her in a separate pen for 3-4 hours a couple of times a day so she can rest and have all she wants to eat. While I am at work I leave Mo with the herd and put Laika separate, to be sure that Mo isn't getting stressed by being away from them for so long. I am going to get her to the vet to be sure that she hasn't developed any health problems because of this.

I'm not crazy about splitting anyone up but if I absolutely must, I think that Mo, Olive, Winston and Milo will get along just fine, and Natasha sure as sugar doesn't put up with any

of Laika's crap, so she, Laika and Ferdie would be fine in a trio. The next time I clean cages I will try this setup. A 2x3 is not suitable for three girls long-term but it won't hurt for a couple of days or so, so I can see if it'll work between the boys and Livvy and Sophie.

That's what's happening in my neck of the woods. After a couple of doses of rice-water and honey, my fever/nausea/vomiting/headachey/hallucinationey-ness subsided. Hooray for natural remedies!

By the way, fi any of you have questions you'd like to submit for Social Sundays in the future, you can submit them here or at any Social Sunday post. They don't necessarily need to be about guinea pigs, the idea is to get to know each other a little better. I would like most of our Social Sundays to be about piggies though, because that is why we're all here, after all.

photo-less Social Sunday

2010-07-04T22:43:00.000-04:00

It's still Sunday for a few more hours...

So here's our third Social Sunday question:

What is one unique/remarkable/just plain silly thing that your guinea pig[s] does/do? This can be a trick you have taught them, a habit they've formed, or just something about their personality.

My Answer: The babies [Winnie, Laika and Ferdie] have always been more agile than their older cagemates. Winnie loves to jump up onto his hidey and lounge the day away, or perch and watch the world go by. And Laika and Ferdie, when they do zoomies or popcorn, they will include their hammock into their "laps;" they jump into it and right back out of it without missing a beat while running their laps. It is one of the funnier things I've seen in my years.

Happy Independence Day to those who celebrate it. :)

Tiny Tips #1: cleaning

2010-07-03T20:32:00.000-04:00

Better late than never! Here are some tiny tips for you all on cleaning your cavies' area. Hopefully you'll find some, if not all, of them to be quite useful come the next Cleaning Day.

Tiny Tip no. 1: Many hands make light work. Never underestimate how helpful an extra pair of hands can be. This tip goes for everything. Whether it's cleaning, salad prep, or even just nail trimming. I couldn't be more thankful for my roommate's willingness to help me with whatever the task at hand may be; his nephew even helps me make salads every weekend--he loves our Salad Spinner.

So grab a parent, a roomie, even a younger sibling can be a lot of help.

Tiny Tip no. 2: Baking Soda and Vinegar are good for more than Science Fair volcanoes. Aside from being great for unclogging the drain and scrubbing down wooden cutting boards, vinegar and baking soda are the only safe disinfectant cleaners for your guinea pigs. Here's how I go about cleaning my coroplast cage-bottoms: spray down with 50/50 vinegar and water, wipe thoroughly with a rag or two, then dust with baking soda and scrub out with a wet rag. Rinse with water outdoors or wipe down with a wet rag [depending on the weather].

If you have an issue with how your guinea pigs' cage smells--I myself do not enjoy sleeping right next to a cageful of gross boypig smell, no matter how clean their cage is--place a small saucer of baking soda near their cage [out of their reach], or put a light dusting of baking soda in their litterbox before adding litter to it. Just like it keeps fish-stench out of your leftover mac & cheese in the fridge, it will cut down on the amount of "gross boypig smell" you experience.

Tiny Tip no. 3: Quit breaking your back! If you have a floor cage, [my girls have one] and your back is anything like mine, I'm sure the last thing you want to do is bend over and scrub at their cage for however long. You can get it plenty clean without spending half an hour on your knees. I have a broom that is strictly for 'animal use,' per my roommate's request, and pads that I made for my semi-retired Swiffer WetJet [tutorial coming soon]. The way I clean the girls' cage is as follows: Sweep out very well, then spray down with 50/50 vinegar and water, and mop aggressively with modified WetJet. Rinse by spritzing with water and using a new mop pad. Done!

Before I had the fancy WetJet pads, I just clipped a washrag or two onto my Swiffer and went to town.

Tiny Tip no. 4: Lighten up! Cleaning Day can become a daunting task, and I have been known to put it off when things start to pile up. When this happens I usually end up cleaning their cage out of guilt, usually late one night when I have to work early the next day. It is not a pleasant experience.

What usually help me to work fast and efficiently without feeling like a chicken with my head cut off--pardon the expression--is to have good music playing. Something uplifting and energizing; I prefer Country but to each their own.

It also helps me to make a schedule and stick to it. I usually [aim to] clean cages the same day that I weigh, which for me is Wednesday--a day I usually have off. I mark my calendar up and put it on my to-do list for that day.

That's all for today. See y'all tomorrow for our third Social Sunday. No, I'm not taking the holiday off :)

Feel free to comment with any of your own tiny tips!

Ready for another one?

2010-06-27T14:47:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,

Oh my goodness, it's been a week! This one got away from me; I was planning to do a new Tiny Tips post about cleaning but never finished it! It should be ready by Tuesday or at the very latest Thursday, so y'all have that to look forward to :)

Things are crazy as always here at the yellow house. I was just informed yesterday that the lease I plan to sign next month has been changed from a 12-month lease to a 6+ month lease. My landlady wants to sell the house, and Scott and I sure aren't buying it.

Such is life. I am still working on the guinea pigs' room, and I'm honestly glad I found this out before I finished it; now there won't be so much to do if we're just gonna move out in six months or so. This news is a disappointment, but also presents some exciting new opportunities for me as a future farmer.. it means I can look for a new house closer to the country.

I hope you've enjoyed a peek into my personal life. Now onto our Social Sunday question. This week I would like to know...

Your story. How/why did you get your guinea pigs? Were they a pet store "rescue"? Adopted from a friend? Snatched up as they quivered before the dripping jaws of fate on a cold and dreary November night?! Tell us!

Most of you already know my stories so I'll be brief.

Olive and Sophie: adopted whilst transporting a fiesty lionhead from shelter to sanctuary

Natasha and Maybel, aka Milo: adopted when a babysitee of mine had a second accidental litter

Winstonn, Ferdie and Laika: Brought to you by the terror that is Milo Two-Face aka Maybel the Mountain Pig. His intro is coming soon.

You all are welcome to be as detailed as your heart desires.

Social Sunday #1 and an Etsy update

2010-06-20T14:00:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

Welcome one and all to our first-ever Social Sunday! Each week I will be asking you all a question relating to your piggies, and I would love you all to participate by answering in the comments section at the bottom of each post. Even if you do not have a Blogger ID, you can comment using your Livejournal, AIM, etc. The purpose of this exercise is so that we all get to know each other['s pigs] a little better :)

Our first Social Sunday question is this: What are your pigs' names and what is one ridiculous/silly pet name you have for them?

My answer: My pigs are Sophie-Mo, Olive, Natasha, Milo, Winston, Laika and Ferdinand. Two of my silliest pet names for them are 'Tasha 'Tocks--because Natasha is a bit heavier than the rest of my pigs, so I call her by her huge butt--and sometimes I sing Winston's name: Winnie The Guinea-Pig!

Etsy update: 15% of my Etsy proceeds will be going to the Oswego County Gui nea Pig Rescue indefinitely, to help Jennifer free up some space for her rescue cavies. The money will go towards a bigger cage, or cages, for her sanctuary piggies. Most of her permanent resident pigs are singles and she would like to house them together, so I and my Etsy shoppers are going to help her with that. I will post monthly at my shop how much we have donated. If you have yet to check out my Etsy shop, I encourage you to do so now! :) New stuff that's on the way includes bunk-bed hammocks and custom-sized cage/crate pads/liners for C&Cs, Ferret Nations and Midwest dog crates.

Introductions: Laika, Ferdie and Winston

2010-06-16T19:39:00.000-04:00

The youngest of my herd have told me that they would like to be introduced to you all. So here we go. Ferdie, short for Ferdinand because for the first couple of weeks of her life, I thought she was a boy, Winston, and Laika are Natasha and Milo's three offspring. They will be celebrating their first birthday this year on August 13th, 2010. Two days before my birthday.

When the babies were born, I was living with a coworker due to issues I had with my roommates, one of whom is now serving some much-deserved hard time. My cavies were all living with my mother. I got a call very early the morning of the 13th and raced right over to see my tiny new family members.

Baby guinea pigs are different than the babies of most other small mammals, including rabbits, because they are born "ready to run." They are fully furred, eyes open, nails grown, can eat hay, pellets, greens... They are miniature, weightless cavies with big huge eyes.

Basically, they are the cutest thing in the entire world. Ever. Seriously.

Since that day, my caller ID photo for my mom has been a photo of her with Winston in her shirt pocket.

When I rented a room in September, the pigs had to live in less-than-ideal spaces. Milo and Winston got paired up and stuck in a 2x2-grid space, next door to Sophie, Natasha and Ferdie in a 2x3 and Livvy and Laika in a 2x2. I didn't have the girls all living together at this point because I was still unsure about Ferdinand's gender, so I didn't want to put her in a cage with anyone who wasn't spayed. This went on for four months, though it felt like eight, and it was no picnic for any of the parties involved. When we moved into the yellow house in mid-November, One of the first things I did was set up properly-sized cages for everyone, and let all my girls live together. I planned and planned and planned for a free-range room for everyone, and I am finally getting there.

I love Laika, Ferdie and Winnie very very much. Their birth was accidental and their parents and grandparents were both siblings. There grandparents were conceived in a pet store. So they are quite inbred. While this is common for many small animals, cavies included, I am still lucky that none of them were stillborn or lethals, there were no birthing complications and that Natasha did not reject any of them.

If you have any questions about these three, you're more than welcome to comment. I couldn't think of much to write about them.

My Etsy is up and running!

2010-06-08T13:10:00.000-04:00

I did something huge this weekend--I took my Etsy Shop off vacation mode! After weeks of making excuses to myself for why I wasn't ready to run the shop again I realized that I wasn't really doing anything to get myself to that point. I was just making excuses.

So, I don't have a lot of inventory. I don't have as much time to devote to it as I would like. But instead of sitting in bed until noon on my days off and focusing on the negative, I have something to work on. Besides, of course, slaving away for the good of the guinea pigs.

My Etsy Shop doesn't have a clear direction right now and I'm okay with that. I'm selling things that I like to make, I'm good at making them, and I am offering a lot more in the way of custom work than many other sellers on Etsy.

For funsies, here's a list of my goals for the month of June:

1. Change my avatar. Olive is beautiful, but I am not selling guinea pigs. :)

2. Make a listing for the following items:

-Snuggle Bags

-Double-Decker hammocks

-Pocket hammocks

-Cage Liner Pads

-The rest of my women's menstrual pad set.

3. Take better photos of everything. I haven't had access to the better photos I took before we moved in some time; I've pretty much given up hope that I'll ever see them again.

4. Move all of my money to my local credit union and [here comes the Etsy-related part] get an Etsy-only credit card with them.

5. ***Make at least five sales!*** You guys can help me with that part, I'm sure ;)

Cutting Back, Episode 4: Bedding

2010-05-27T21:32:00.001-04:00

After more procrastination than I care to think about, I present to you the fourth installment of Cutting Back. This post is mostly about the joy and wonders of fleece bedding, but I also have some tips for those of you who prefer not to handle poop on a daily basis.

Fleece Bedding

I'm not sure who ever discovered that Polar Fleece is perfect for guinea pig bedding, but I want to publicly congratulate him or her. Many of us--be we environmentalists, penny pinchers or just avid pigpen-interior decorators--are eternally grateful. Fleece bedding reduces our impact on the environment because it is made from recycled plastic bottles and we get years of use out of it--keeping tons of single-use disposable bedding off of transport trucks and out of landfills. It is an initial investment [depending on your cage size it could be anywhere from $20 and up] but it will pay for itself within a month or two.

Acquiring polar fleece

You can get polar fleece from a number of places.

Most people get it new from a fabric supply store, They usually have it for $8-$13 per yard [36"x60"]. For this post we will assume the fleece was $11 per yard. Once you've gotten a sifficient amount of polar fleece, it is important to wash it 3-4 times on a "heavy duty" cycle in your washing machine with detergent, but NO fabric softener. Most fabric softeners hinder the fleece's ability to wick moisture from the surface. And they are usually unnecessary. You do not need to hem your fleece, it will not fray.

I prefer to get mine from thrift stores. A normally-sized fleece throw will fit a 2x3 or a 2x3.5 C&C cage quite nicely. My boys Milo and Winston share a 2x3 currently, and this is what I use for them. Fleece throws at my local Salvation Army usually cost $2.49. They also have the added advantage of already being somewhat worn-out, which is important if you want the fleece to wick away your pigs' urine and keep them nice and dry. This way you only have to wash them once as opposed to 3-4 times.

A very important note about acquiring fleece secondhand: PLEASE be sure to wash ANY fleece, towels, or other fabric products you get from a thrift shop before giving it to your cavies. My entire herd is recovering from a lice infestation because I recently put them on wool blankets that had lice living in them unknowingly, without carefully washing and line-drying them as I usually do beforehand.

Just as you would quarantine a new guinea pig before putting it with your existing herd, Quarantine anything you get secondhand before exposing it to your cavies. I usually wash all my pigs' bedding with Arm&Hammer powder detergent, a squick of non-chlorine bleach and very very hot water. I then tumble dry them and hang them on the clothesline to bleach in the sun. Skipping this important process just once landed my poor cavies in a world of yuck and I do not wish the same on your dear beloved pets.

What goes underneath?

In order for this method to work, you absolutely must have something underneath the fleece. Otherwise, the results will be just as disgusting for you to clean as it is for your guinea pigs to live in.

Many people, myself included, prefer to put towels underneath the fleece. I acquire my towels from a thrift store as well, using the same sterilizing method as described above. I usually put 3

layers of towel under the fleece; a normally-sized towel folded in thirds fits almost perfectly in a 1x2 grid space which makes it easy to calculate how many you need. Towels at my local thrift store usually go for $1.99 apiece.

The average price I found for a new towel [I compared Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target, Wal*Mart, K-Mart and Big Lots] was about $3.50 per towel.

You can also use Mattress Pads, at around $6.00 per pad. I wouldn't use less than two layers. One Mattress Pad fits perfectly into a 2x4 C&C cage.

If you so choose, you can use Newsprint under your fleece. Though it is not ideal, if you are a subscriber or if you get it free from your workplace, it is the cheapest option. For this post we will consider it $free.

Some people use Puppy Training Pads, but not only do these create unnecessary waste that will never disappear, but if your cavy ingests a significant amount of this soft plastic material, it can cause intestinal blockage and in severe cases, death. I don't recommend using Puppy Pads under your fleece because of this and also, they are not very absorbent.

Expense analysis:

For this post we will assume you have a 2x4 C&C cage, since this is the most common size. I would be happy to fudge with the number if you'd like to know what the cost would be for your particular cage, please just comment below. We are also assuming that you have two sets of fleece and towels in this post.

+Fleece and towels acquired used: $21.00

+Fleece and towels acquired new: $50.00

+Fleece [new] and newsprint: $22.00

+Fleece [new] and mattress pads: $45.00

Compared to the old way(s)...

Again, assuming you have a 2x4 C&C and change the bedding weekly.

+Yesterday's News: $315.00 per year

+Equine Pine: $126.00 per year

+Woodstove Pellets: $84.00 per year

+Aspen Shavings: $273.00 per year

+Carefresh: $613.00 per year

Kitchen Areas

Kitchen Areas are a wonderful addition to the fleece-bedded cage. For those of you who don't use a hay rack, they're a great place for your pigs to play in the hay without making a big mess all over your fleece. They're called Kitchen Areas because that's

where all the food is! The hay, pellets, and salads are served there.. why? Because guinea pigs are furry poop tubes. When something goes in one end, something is pushed out the back end. Rabbits are the same way, but they can jump higher than cavies can.

My kitchen area for my girls' main cage--a 2x9 C&C--is 28"x21", or 2x1.5 grids. It is simply a box I made from leftover coroplast. When I want to clean it I remove the entire thing, dump its contents in my compost heap or garden or around the lilac bush, scrub it down with vinegar and water and fill it with disposable bedding.

Many people use their old pet store cages or lofts as kitchen areas, which work quite well. Beware that if you use either of these options, it is not considered part of the overall square footage of the cage, which is why when it comes to cavy cages, bigger is always better.

Here is a short assessment of disposable beddings that can be used alone or in combination with one another for the kitchen area or the entire cage..

Disposable Beddings

+ Mulch hay: $Free-$2/bale

Mulch hay makes an especially great top layer for your cage or kitchen. It is simply old, leftover hay that is completely brown and has no nutritional content. If your pigs eat it, it will not harm them. Make absolutely sure that the mulch hay you are getting is not at all moldy. If you find a moldy part of your hay bale, remove it and much of the hay surrounding it and do no give it to your guinea pigs.

You can go about finding mulch hay the same way you would go about finding hay by the bale.

+ Pelleted Beddings: $4-20/40lb. bag

Pelleted beddings make a great bottom layer for your cage or kitchen. They are not as hard on a guinea pig's foot as they appear. Pelleted beddings are very absorbent and expand when they come into contact with liquid. They do not stick to the bottom of your pigs' litterbox, which is a problem with most other beddings.

[In order from least to most expensive:]

Wood Stove Pellets, Equine Pine, Feline Pine, and Yesterday's News are some of the most popularly-used pelleted beddings. Make sure that if you use wood stove pellets, you're using a pellet without any propellent.

+ Shavings: $10-$15/4 cu. ft

The only shavings that should be used for your guinea pigs are Aspen or

kiln-dried pine. These are free of the aromatic oils that can cause infections. Shavings are soft on the feet but not terribly absorbent. They are best used as a top layer paired with a pelleted bedding.

+ CareFresh: $18-$24/60L

CareFresh is some of the greatest bedding out there. It is lightweight and soft yet very absorbent. It's quick to decompose and is the perfect addition to vermicompost. It is quite expensive, but when I feel like a splurge, I go straight for the CareFresh.

hang in there!

2010-05-06T23:25:00.000-04:00

Hey folks,

This is a quick little update because I don't have time to put together the next installment of my episode-style posts. Here is what's going on in this small yellow house:

Sophie-Mo was rushed to the vet yesterday and treated for a Urinary Tract Infection. She has been increasingly lethargic and is not keeping weight on as well as the rest of my herd. We have determined also that she has either a build-up of scar tissue/irritated tissue from her spay, or an infection on/around her uterus stump. The pain from this was probably influencing how much she felt like moving.

In two weeks' time, when she is off the Baytril, we will be going back for a follow-up exam, and if she is still as lethargic as she was before the round of Baytril, we will be treating her for heart disease, which she is showing vague but early symptoms of.

I will soon be making updates to two of my past posts: Cutting Back: hay and How Do You Do It?!: veggies. When I make these changes they'll be noted in a new post.

Since we moved here I have dreamt of turning the guinea pigs' room into a free-range space. I have been to the home depot and my mother's cellar [where all of my scrap wood is], and it looks like I'll be able to fulfill that dream within the next couple of months.

I will be returning to Etsy this month! More on that story as it develops..

CALLING ALL READERS!

I want to hear from you guys! Even those of you without a blogspot account, you can comment under an Anonymous id--no registration required. Please let me know what of the following you'd like to see more of:

1.] Money-saving tips [Cutting Back]

2.] Care/Organization tips for herds large and small [How Do You Do It?!]

3.] Sneak Peeks/special offers on my etsy products for cavies and small animals

4.] Updates on home life in the yellow house [like this post]

5.] Share your ideas! Photo contests, Q&A posts, I'm open to anything! Please let me know what you'd like to see more of on this still-young blog.

Introduction: Sophie-Mo

2010-04-12T16:05:00.000-04:00

Greetings, readers! I hope you all are having as wonderful a day as I am.

The sun is shining, it's warm out but not freakishly so, and I have a houseful of things that love me.

I would like you all to meet my Sophie-Mo.

Of all of the creatures that I have had the good fortune of knowing in my years, Sophie-Mo is the sweetest, gentlest being that I have ever crossed paths with. Over the years she has just gotten sweeter, and more wise and humble. Whenever I see her, pick her up, or even when I just hear her wheeking, I can't help but smile. How did I come to share my life with this loving little spirit? A little bit of luck, and a lot of chance.

In the spring of 2008, I was Bundergrounding [to transport a bunny from place to place via a chain of pick-up/drop-off points, usually involving multiple rescuers] a feisty little lionhead bun from the Stevens-Swan Humane Society in Utica, NY to my hometown of Syracuse. At the time, I'd been trying to adopt a pair of guinea pigs for a little under a year and had basically given up hope. The first thing I did when I got to Utica was to get very lost. Then I finally found my way to the shelter.

Upon walking in, the first thing I noticed was all of the guinea pigs! They had at least 6 [two to a cage] in the little foyer. I retrieved the bunny--whose name was Fufu--and while I was signing him out, asked the woman at the desk how much the adoption fee for the guinea pigs was. "You want one? Oh, you can just have them. They've been here so long." I went over to check out a pair of texels that were very cute, but skiddish as all get-out. After a few moments, I decided on the pair that was against the back wall, a fluffy white pig and a tri-color covered in cowlicks. Their names were Mo and Sapphire.

Driving home, I just couldn't stop looking at them. I couldn't believe it. Guinea pigs were in my car. They were coming home to me, to stay and live with me. I decided to name them Olive and Sophie, but almost immediately started calling Sophie "Sophie-Mo," Because both names fit her very well.

Sophie and Olive were my very first guinea pigs and I'm happy to say, two years later, they're still with me. At first we thought that they were sisters, but these days I'm not so sure. Most guinea pigs don't really show that they're aging, but Sophie-Mo has certainly slowed down. We have had her checked for heard disease, but the results were inconclusive.

As many of you know, Sophie-Mo [and Olive and Natasha] got pregnant in the summer of 2009. When Olive was less than two weeks to term, and Sophie about three, I had to make a very difficult decision. I knew that if I just let them have the babies, someone would die--whether it was the mothers or the babies, it would be impossible to tell in advance. Sophie and Olive were two years old, at least, and had never birthed before. But an emergency spay could lose all of them as well.

I took all three girls, heavy with young, to my vet to get her opinion. She seemed very confident that they would survive the surgery. So with a very heavy heart, I kissed my two girls good-bye, wished my vet and them the best of luck, and headed home with one very pregnant Natasha. I called off of work that day, explaining to my boss that two of my friends were fighting for their lives and I could focus on nothing else. I'm lucky it was Scott.

Dr. Roach had promised to call me once the surgery was done, and at 6:30pm I was starting to get anxious. I called the hospital and explained that I'd dropped my two cavies off that morning for emergency surgery that morning, and just needed to know that they were okay. "Oh, Amy! Yes, they're fine! I'm so sorry for not calling you sooner--Olive's babies are still alive.. they're not doing too great but all the vet techs are doing their best to keep them going. They're such little dears. You can pick your pigs up tomorrow morning, honey, I'll call and let you know how the babies made out when my shift ends at 9, okay?" The woman on the phone was a nurse whose name I can never remember to this day, but she [and pretty much everyone else in that hospital] absolutely loves me and my pigs and bunnies. It turned out that the babies didn't make it, they had barely any fur and a necropsy showed that their lungs were under-developed. They would have had very hard lives.

My girls' impregnation was a complete accident, and I in no way promote breeding of guinea pigs as '"education for the kids," or for any other reason, but there's no denying that some creatures are just born to be mothers. I saw how proud and confident it made my Natasha. And I can't help but be a little sad that Sophie-Mo didn't get to raise her babies. Being with Tasha's babies gave her such joy, you could just see it in her eyes.

I could write novels about what a wonderful and caring soul my fluffy white girl is. But if I don't get up and do the girls' laundry, I will have five very disgruntled sows on my hands. So, I'll be going now. That is the story of my little Sophie-Mo. I am grateful for every day that I get to wake up and share my life with these seven guinea pigs and two rabbits. And you folks. Please do have a wonderful evening.

Cutting Back, Episode 3: Veggies

2010-04-05T17:23:00.000-04:00

Hello all, I'm back from the North Country! And man, I had such a blast and learned SO much. If you want to see photos from the trip, they are here on my Flickr page.

So this episode of Cutting Back is all about veggies. And I'll be honest, a lot of this is common sense stuff that many of us don't really think about. I've been back from the North Country for a week and a half now, and I've been working on this post for a while trying to compile all of the little stuff.

It seems obvious, but that isn't alway the case..

Know your veggies. It is definitely important to know your veggies. Too much of something, like spinach, kale or silverbeet [swiss chard] can be bad for guinea pigs. If you don't memorize well, I recommend you print out Ly's Nutrition Charts from Guineapigcages.com and keep them in your purse/wallet or bring them to the grocery store. In a nutshell, your pig's menu should be lettuce-based, with a good variety of leafy greens each week. My guinea pigs usually get 1-2 kinds of lettuce, one dark leafy green and one or two kinds of herbs each week. I know my veggies very well because I have been doing this for a long time. Practice makes perfect.

Stick to your budget! I spend between $19-$21 each week on greens for my 7 cavies and two rabbits. More than that, and I know I've simply bought too much. Less, and I know I'll be back to the grocery store later in the week. Make a budget, and stick to it. This goes a long way with helping you to cut back on your expenses.

Prep your veggies ahead of time. Many of you are familiar with my post on prepping salads. If you need to cut down on the time that that prep takes, you can cut out the washing/spinning step, which takes the longest and can be done at the time that the salad is served. I do this when I have a busy weekend and don't have two hours to devote to making 10 boxes of salads.

Prepping your salads in advance allows you to portion out your greens so that you're giving your pigs the amount that they need, and you're not using too much and running out early, messing up both your budget and your weekly routine.

Grow your own. I'm not suggesting you go all-out and flood your balcony with 21 heads of lettuce, 3 tomato plants, 2 bell pepper vines and a 2 window boxes full of spinach. Though it you want to, by all means. The more you grow, the more you'll save. I grow about 1/3 of the greens that my cavies eat in the summer time. If you have space on your steps, your porch, your balcony or, if you're lucky enough, some backyard, I encourage you to get your hands dirty and grow some food for your pigs.

Get it locally/in bulk. Things like carrot and celery greens are something that most farmers remove before selling their product. Contact a local farmer and ask them for these perfectly nutritious, delicious greens. I also recommend shopping at the farmer's market when greens are in season. The prices there are much better and the money you spend goes back into your community.

If you have a lot a lot a lot of green-munchers, you can buy a box [about 20-25lbs] of greens from the grocery store for around $20. I know many fosterers who do this. Just be sure you can keep the greens cool. They won't last longer than 7-10 days at the very most.

Storing veggies

I have a lot of green-munching mammals in the house, and I am lucky enough to have two refrigerators. But it has not always been this way. There are many ways to store your veggies.

Coolers. While I was boarding my animals over this past summer/fall, I kept a large cooler in their room so that I could keep their food as close to them as possible. The downside was that, especially in the summer, I had to change the ice at least once a day.

An old chest freezer/fridge. I am a big fan of repurposing old chest freezers and refrigerators. These are very hard to 'recycle' and often they're doomed to hundreds of years in a landfill until Wall-E discovers a plant in a shoe inside one of them. You can use them just like coolers, except you have much more room! If you buy your greens in bulk this is the way to go.

Your ventilator drawer. If your house isn't overflowing with guinea pigs, you can just use the ventilator drawer of your fridge. Really, anywhere that is between 40-55F will do. Many people just keep greens in their basement.

Oh no! An Apology.

2010-03-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

Folks, I gave up my search for my memory card tonight and got a new one with double the memory of the old one. Obviously, I will not be making a post between now and when I leave [5:30am tomorrow morning]. But I will tell you what's in store for you when I get back...

+ Firstly, the third episode of Cutting Back, this episode is regarding veggies and greens.

+ Also, a new series called Tiny Tips, which will just be a series of relatively small posts, each containing one or two helpful tips that don't require their own "episode-style" post.

+ An introduction post for Sophie-Mo, one of my two original guinea pigs.

+ The second episode of How Do You Do It?!, about my many cage setups--past, present and future. Future being free-range.

So my sincerest of apologies, and I hope you all enjoy the next couple of weeks; here in Central NY the weather has just been beautiful. I hope it continues.

Hang in there...

2010-02-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Folks! I would like to apologize for the lack of posts lately. I know this blog is fairly new but my goal was to make at least one post a week. I've unfortunately been backed up with a truckload of work.

There has been much going on in the yellow house the past few weeks. Things have slowed down now but I unfortunately cannot make the posts I wanted to because my memory card for my camera has gone missing. I assure you, we have every member of our team searching frantically for it. Once it is found, you'll be the first to know. Aside from, you know, the person who found it.

I wish I could sit here and give you a more thorough update on how things are going here, since it has been pretty exciting. Especially for the pigs. Unfortunately I am still playing catch-up on a quilt order that I absolutely must finish by Monday morning. I promise I'll make a proper update and a post or two before March 13th, when I'll be leaving to volunteer on Bittersweet Farm in the St. Lawrence River Valley for two weeks.

For now, please accept these semi-cute photos I snapped and uploaded before my memory card went missing. You may recognize a photo or two!

Here and also here.

How Do You Do It?! Episode 1: salads.

2010-02-02T22:03:00.000-05:00

I can't count the number of times I've had this exact conversation: "How many guinea pigs do you have?" "Two. What about you?" "Seven." "SEVEN?! How do you do it?!"

In honor of that ever-present question, I'd like to introduce y'all to a new series called How Do You Do It?! [fear not, penny pinchers, I still have plenty of money-savin g tips to share with you.]

Episode 1: Preparing Salads.

With all of the salad-eating critters in this house (currently there are ten!), the sheer idea of preparing a fresh salad every morning and evening is exhausting. I prepare all of my salads for the week in one fell swoop for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it saves a boatload of time. It also allows me to budget better, since I can portion everything out in advance for the week, and I'm never stuck making that late-night run to the supermarket because we ran out of parsley. I always know days in advance just exactly when the food supply will run out. I like to mark this day on the big office desk calendar on the side of our main refrigerator.

So here, just for you, is a set of step-by-step instructions on how I prepare my salads for the week.

Step 1: Assemble your containers.

To store my salads for the week, I use big plastic containers that once held salad mixes. In Upstate NY, these containers are not recyclable, because they are stackable. But, so long as you are not using them to store a cold liquid or anything hot, they make wonderful storage containers. I use them for everything, from dishwasher detergent to Bunny Chow. One of these big containers holds about 8-10 cups of packed greens. So it is perfect for my 7 guinea pigs. I give them half of a container in the morning, and

half at night. You can also use tupperware containers, ziploc bags or any container you'd like, really.

I keep all of these containers in our spare refrigerator, which also stores our local meat [frozen], big meals, and other non-everyday stuff. Putting a piece of paper towel or a washrag in the bottom of the container helps to keep your salads dry while they are being stored.

Other essentials: A cutting board, a salad spinner [your salads will not keep if they are soaking wet], additional containers, sunglasses.

Optional: a bucket for your scraps--for compost!

Step 2: Cleaning Your Meals-to-be.

Give your veggies/greens a rough chop and throw them in the strainer part of the salad spinner. Spray them with a mixture of 1 part distilled white vinegar and 1 part water. This is especially important if you are not using organic vegetables. Pesticide poisoning is real and it has claimed too many lives. Rinse thoroughly with cold tap water. Shake out as much water as you can. Spin them through the salad spinner and, when they are as dry as can be, set them aside

in one of your extra containers.

Repeat this for all of the veggies and greens in your salad.

And don't forget to chop up your worm food nice and small for those tiny mouths!

Step 3: Distribute.

You can do this one of two ways:

If you are planning to use one container per day, you can lasagna-layer your greens.

If you plan to use one container for a few days in a row, you can toss the salad to ensure that everybody gets a bit of everything.

Here I have shown the lasagna-layering in action, as it is the method that I use.

Close up your containers and stash them in the fridge.

Step 4: Treat yourself.

Congratulations! You've just saved yourself some pretty valuable time by preparing all of your salads for the week all at once! Don't forget to mark your calendar, and help yourself to some of these cherries that I bought mostly for the guinea pigs. Mostly.

A word about local and organic.

As a future farmer, I am very passionate about choosing foods that were grown or raised sustainably by farmers I know--locals. More and more people are choosing local and/or organic foods to boost their health; why not for your pets? Your guinea pigs should be getting most of their nutrients from their fresh foods, as these are much easier for their little bodies to absorb. Local and organic foods are richer in antioxidants and their vitamin/mineral contents are higher than those of conventionally-grown veggies.

Keep in mind that even though many small-time family farmers may not be USDA certified, they likely follow a similar--sometimes a much more strict--set of guidelines for their farming practices. Most family farmers know that it's best to work with nature, not in spite of it.

My heart has joined The Thousand

2010-01-31T01:07:00.000-05:00

...for my friend stopped running today.

As some of you know, my roommates are more than just cavies and environmental canvassers. The yellow house is the home of rabbits, fish, and at times, a select few of the neighborhood cats.

My dear friend Newman recently came down with an Upper Respiratory Infection. It went downhill very quickly. Last night around midnight, I was falling asleep when I had a sudden thought that maybe Newman needed another dose of sub-cutaneous fluids. When I got him downstairs and was preparing to stick him with the needle, he went slightly limp and took a deep breath. I rushed him upstairs to my room. I cradled him and rocked him. I begged him not to leave. After two more heavy sighs he stopped breathing and went completely limp. My friend was gone.

I laid down on my back with Newman's body on my stomach. I cried for a very long time.

I adopted Newman and his brother, Benner, on Earth Day of 2007. Newman was the sweetest rabbit I have ever known. He always had a look about him that was so very knowing and wise. Everyone who met him instantly fell in love with him. My mother's daycare kids talk about him all the time. They loved visiting him when I lived in Westcott Nation.

When I rescued Bella in November of 2007, She too fell in love with Newman. But not so much with Benner. The year that followed was rough on the three of them, trying to make a bond work between them proved to be darn near impossible. Benner passed away suddenly in November of 2008. I had the same reaction. I was jerked awake at 6:18 AM. I had plans to go for a morning walk with my mom, so I thought my body was just anticipating that. I went. When I came home, I found Ben lying

underneath my bed, stiff. I now know the real reason that I was awoken was because he was leaving me.

Newman was one of my very dearest friends. He was five years old when he died. He was a pretty sickly bun. His mama, Marshmallow, and two of his five sisters, Hyacinth and Edelweiss, are still in foster care.

Bella and I have never been close, she was rescued from a cruelty/neglect situation as a young bun and had never trusted or liked people very much, despite how much I worked with her after I rescued her. I toned down her cage aggression but she still has a lot of mental trouble. I know that I will probably have to get her another friend eventually but for now, it's just going to be her and I. And the cavies and the fish. And when he gets back from Florida, my roomie, Scott.

This is the last photo I took of him.

Goodnight, sweet bun. Thank you for sharing your life with me.

Introductions: Natasha

2010-01-27T22:28:00.000-05:00

Natasha, for whom this blog is named, would be my favorite guinea pig if I had favorites. She was born in March of 2009 as part of an accidental litter. I adopted her and Maybel, her sister, in April '09. Since then she has practically been my sidekick.

In the summer of '09, I ran into a fair bit of housing trouble. I had to move my herd of 4, and all of my other animals, in with my mother for a while. I traveled to Dallas, TX, where I canvassed for Texas Campaign for the Environment for three weeks, as a training exercise for my job as a Field Manager with Citizens Campaign for the Environment. When I returned, I noticed that three of my guinea pigs were very, very fat. And the fourth had a look of guilty pleasure about him. That's right, Maybel was a boy. He developed very late and I was not around to notice it.

Natasha spent the next two weeks getting all the special treatment she wanted from me. She got all the good treats, I took the bus at 5am from my apartment across town to see her, she got all the lap time a girl could want (Tasha is quite the lap pig, especially when she was preggers). A few days before I had to leave for Columbus, OH, Tasha gave birth to three beautiful pups: Laika and Ferdinand [female] and Winston [male]. All were happy, healthy and tiny; baby guinea pigs may be the cutest things on the planet. There is nothing like holding a two-hour-old cavy in your hand. The weight of a creme puff, I tell you.

Since becoming a mother, Natasha went from being the shy, quiet pig who faded into the background to the cornerstone of my sow herd. She is the one pig whom everyone likes.

She has been known to restore peace, protect Sophie--who is at the bottom of the pecking order--from Laika--the boss--and she is always the first one to start wheeking when it is mealtime.

As for Tasha's markings, they are quite unique among guinea pigs. I have yet to see another pig quite like her. When I adopted her, she'd been called "Snickers", which does fit her coloring quite well. But the moment I saw her, I knew she was my little Natasha.

Cutting Back, episode 2: pellets.

2010-01-19T12:07:00.000-05:00

Pellets, like hay, are very costly to ship. In this post I am going to compare the three highest-quality pellet-makers for guinea pigs: KM's Hayloft, Sweet Meadow Farm, and Oxbow Hay Company. Since Oxbow no longer sells directly from their site, I am also comparing the top three sites they sell from, Leith Petwerks, PetFoodDirect and Dr. Fosters and Smith. Here we go.

Storing bulk pellets

50lbs of pellets showing up at your doorstep can be a little intimidating. But storing it is easier than you may think. First, calculate how much you will need in the next three months. I have found that my 7 guinea pigs [fed 1/8 cup each per day] go through 5lbs every 19 days. So they would need about 24-25lbs. Store these pellets separately from the remaining pellets.

Take your remaining pellets and clear some freezer space for them. We have an extra fridge/freezer. Put them in a plastic bag and let them shiver in the freezer for the next few months. This is so that the vitamins and minerals in the pellets don't break down.

As for the pellets you're going to use in the next three months, you have many options. You can use a plastic bag, a metal "trash can", a plastic storage bin, or any combination you wish, as long as the pellets are kept in an airtight container out of direct sunlight so they don't go stale or lose their vitamin C content.

Moving on to the exciting part.

Keep in mind that many of these sites offer sizes other than 50lbs, but not all do, so I used the one bulk size that all of them offer.

Also keep in mind that the estimated shipping is using the respective websites' shipping calculators, using my Syracuse, NY address. Their locations are noted so you can find the provider nearest you.

Expense Overview.

+KM's Pellets: 50lbs+shipping = $105.28

KM's Hayloft ships from Washington State.

+Sweet Meadow's Pellets: 50lbs+shipping = $42.43

Sweet Meadow ships from Massachusetts.

+Leith Petwerks [Oxbow Pellets]: 50lbs+shipping = $98.54

Leith Petwerks Ships from Oregon.

+PetFoodDirect [Oxbow Pellets]: 50lbs+shipping = $84.28

***location to be added.

+Dr. Fosters and Smith [Oxbow Pellets]: 50lbs+shipping = $80.98

Dr. Fosters and Smith ships from Wisconsin.

And lastly, comparing to the old way...

50lbs of pellets at PetsMart or my local vet = $140 + tax.

Cutting Back, episode 1: hay.

2010-01-18T22:04:00.000-05:00

The first post! Oooh what fun.

This blog is intended to be informative, helpful and fun. I thought I'd start with the basics.

Having leased a house and then almost immediately lost

my job back in late November and eaten up almost all of my savings in the past couple of months, I was recently forced to cut way back on my expenses. I'm sure the story is similar for many pig owners across the country. Here's what I'm doing.

#1 expense: Hay.

Yes, yes. I admit it. I didn't even bother ordering it online. I bought it in those 48-96oz. plastic bags at the pet store. It cost me a fortune. To those of you who think you're getting a great deal paying $60 for 25lbs. of hay, I say, GO LOCAL!

Get your hay from a feed mill or a local farmer. It took me less than half an hour to find decent hay around here. $4 for 40lbs. of it. The guy I got it from even offered to deliver it since he works right near my house. So in three or four months when I run out all I have to do is haul it from his truckbed to my basement.

How to find local hay by the bale:

My first and best suggestion is Craigslist. Some sections of Craigslist are sketchy and should be avoided, but the farm+garden section is not one of them. do a search for 'hay' and you will most likely be overloaded with ads. You can narrow it down based on what quality of hay you want. If your pigs are picky, search for 'horse hay' or '2nd cutting hay'. depending on how good the season was, some places may have 3rd cutting, but it's not something I've found in the past few years.

My second suggestion is to try your local feed mill. They likely have hay by the bale, and while this is sometimes not the best stuff, the same terms apply. Ask for horse hay, or 2nd cutting, or be straightforward and tell them "I want the greenest bale of hay in your loft"

How to store a bale:

There are many solutions to the storage-space pickle that 40lbs of hay puts you in. The way I do it is I got a cardboard box from Sears, zip-tied that together, cut a hole in the [broadside] top and throw it in the basement.

Our basement is leak-free and has a dehumidifier. This is by far the easiest and cheapest way to do it.

You can also use several plastic storage bins, though this can be messy and is typically more space-consuming, some people find it easier because they can keep one of the the bins in their pigs' room/near their enclosure and just swap them out.

if you want something sturdier or more waterproof/raised up/prettier than these options, you can use a found object. I know someone who found an old chest with two doors that opened at the front. She removed the legs and repositioned them so that the doors opened upwards, not outwards. I also know that when my mother gets rid of her old clawfoot tub, that's going straight into my basement to store my hay in style.

You can store hay any way you want, really, so long as it's not in a moist environment and so long as its out of direct sunlight, all will be well.

Expense Overview.

I have seven guinea pigs, which go through a bale [40lbs] about every 3 months. That's 4 bales a year, at a cost of $5/bale [the extra dollar is for delivery], =$20 per year.

If I were to order through KMs Hayloft, I would need 160lbs per year, which would end up being approx. $240.52 per year.

And If I were to order through SweetMeadow, it would run me around $173 per year.