Triplets, Finally Arrived

Well, I was only about 30-days incorrect on the arrival of these triplet piggies. They arrived on the afternoon of March 31st and are doing just fine.

I was guessing that Squeaky's litter of three and this litter of three would have arrived around the same time but that didn't happen.

These are the offspring of the recently departed Tootsie Roll...

R.I.P Little Buddy

Sadly, I must report that Tootsie-Roll, pictured above, has gone to the great big guinea pig cage in the sky.

Although, the most traumatic piece was that Emilie was the one who discovered ole Tootsie-Roll lying outstretched and stiff as a board. Needless to say she was VERY upset and still is.

I adopted this dude from Craig's List in early 2007 and never asked how old he was. He could have died of old age, could have had some terminal ailment or perhaps the cold New England weather from garage living was the cause or some combination of these.

He fathered (4) babies back in July 2007 with Riley, (3) babies March 1, 2008 with Squeaky (his daughter from July 2007) and Riley is due again anytime now, she's huge. So, there's no doubt he sowed his wild oats.

Alas, rest-in-peace old chum. It was difficult watching the trash truck haul you away...

They're Here! Well Some...

Guinea Pig Update:

Squeaky popped out three piglets one week ago today (03/01/2008). They greeted us on Saturday morning when we went down to check the maternity ward. She is doing a great job for a first time mom.

Riley is now a grandmother with the arrival of Squeaky's three. However, she has yet to have delivered her babies, which is surprising since she is huge and getting bigger. I was guessing the two would have their babies around the same time but I was mistaken.

You see in my previous post I wrote that the expectant mothers were approximately 63 days along in their pregnancies. However, 63 days is the approximate time that I put the male in the same cage as the females and not necessarily how long they've been pregnant. Apparently he took a fancy to Squeaky and hooked up with her first. Riley, having been through the pregnancy process before, prolly fought of his advanced knowing full well what was to come. Ah, but you can't fight mother nature and of course true love or perhaps animal lust. Stay tuned...

One Little, Two Little, Three Little...

We have two guinea pigs that are expecting any day now; they're HUGE and about to explode! The gestation period for guinea pigs is typically between 60 and 70 days. These two are at approximately day 63 today.

Riley is the piggy on the right and that's her daughter Squeaky on the left that was born on July 4, 2007. Squeaky was one of four piglets born that day and the only we got stuck with, err I mean, that we kept. Of course I didn't learn the first time around, so here we go again. Stay tuned, updates and pictures to follow...

You Gotta Problem!

Whada you look'n at?! You wanna piece of me?!

They're Here...

Cigars for everyone!

We decided to go out for ice cream last night around 7ish. Surprisingly Emilie complained that she didn't want to go, she wanted to stay home but we ignored her and anyway we all went. Of course once she had her ice cream she was happy as a clam and so was JoAnne!

We returned home around 8ish just in time to see the first of four baby guinea pig being born! The births were an amazing event, which we all got to witness. I was also amazed at the natural instinct that the mother (Riley) had. She just new what to do and wasted no time in cleaning the after birth (there's a visual for yeah) off each piglet as soon as it arrived. They were born approximately 5 minutes apart, with the whole process taking about 30 minutes.

The timing was good too because I was able to remove the two males from this cage so Riley could be left alone to give birth and then tend to the young'ns.

This first picture shows the four babies shortly after being born. As you can see they're still wet.



This second picture was taken the following morning (today). They're with their mum, all dry and ready to rock and roll.



It's funny how things work sometimes - had we given in to Emilie and not gone for ice cream we would have missed this experience completely.

Guinea Pigs for sale - make me an offer for the entire lot of them, all 7. No reasonable offer refused!

Cuy

I haven't had any luck selling this black and white male guinea pig of ours - no takers :-(

He's a little pecker-head and definitely has to go! He's worn out his welcome; he bullies the other cavies, has no personality and is too skittish. All this equals bye, bye.



I've been struggling with ideas on the best way to *re-home this little feller and as fate would have it I came across this interesting - very interesting, article this morning. It's given me a new idea...

Peru celebrates tasty guinea pigs

Click here for the definition of Cuy

* Re-home is a term used by many animal-loving-tree-huggers meaning to find a new loving, caring home. I've got to be honest here, my definition is different and I'll leave it at that.

Tootsie Roll and M & M

'Tootsie Roll' and 'M&M'

They're not exactly candy but their names are appropriate - say hello to 'Tootsie Roll' and 'M&M'. These two Guinea Pigs (Cavies) are the newest addition to our managerie. They're both boys and cage mates that have been raised together since babies. We've had them now for just over a week. We picked them up last weekend as companions for Riley (see my previous posting titled 'Meet Riley', dated 9/13/2006).

For those of you who have not been following along, Riley is a young female Guinea Pig of ours, approximately 9 months old, that we adopted for Emilie last fall. Even though she is kept in the same area as our bunnies she seemed to be in need of a companion, or two, of the same species. They're still in separate cages for now but we can already see and hear the diffrerence, as they're constantly squeeling and chating back and forth.

Yes, they're rodents but interesting just the same...

Meet Riley

Say hello to Riley -

"Hello Riley"

Riley is a 7 week old female Guinea Pig, as of 9/14/2006, and the newest addition to our menagerie.

Just the other day, out of the blue, Emilie asked if she could have a guinea pig someday. The very next day there was a posting on the bulletin board at work, "Guinea Pigs for Sale". How could I refuse with a coincidence like that?! It's karma I tell yeah. Needless to say Emilie got her pet guinea pig and I need my head examined...