piggy rescue pics

Well the gps arrived this morning - I'm totally exhausted
I only woke up at 3am though - could have been worse! None of them had names though, so I put the time to valuable use...

This is the 'breeding unit' they arrived in - all 15 of them - 45cms square per pair :shock:



The cage on top was mine 'on standby' (luckily!) and a large cat carrier is perfect for one of the randy boys - he's totally chilled in there

I've put Delores and Abigail in the cage on top:



they keep scuffling :?
I know nothing about bonding guinea pigs - I hope that's OK as I had to split the males from the females - even though she knew I didn't want to breed them, she put a couple together for me :roll:

Didn't want to stress them out any more than they already were from hurtling down the M1 in the back of a white van for 45mins, and being tipped over whilst the unit was manhandled into my house - so more piccies another day

They are mostly alpaca, which I today discovered means 'woolly nightmare' and have never been groomed - although they're all under a year old and look OK considering...

3 males, 7 females, 3 of whom share 5 babies, 4 of whom are most likely pregnant (HEEELLLPPPP!!!! :? ) Here goes my life savings...

owwwwwwwwww well done u so out with the brush soon then

Awwww bless them - 45 square cm per pair :shock:

If I was nearer to you, I'd happily help out by fostering a couple of them until permanent homes are found. Give me a shout in a couple of weeks if you're still overwhelmed and I'll see if I can sort something out to help.

Hi Elve
Huge admiration for saving these poor piggies. What a way for them to live. :evil:
Whereabouts are you? I coild help out with fostering too if you need it.

I've got a feeling she said Sheffield in another thread. Certainly makes you wonder about the poor bunnies left behind too

Oh, I didn't think about that

So you have all 15 piggies now?! You have a handful overthere, but It looks like your handling it nicely and I'm sure they will all soon be very happy and loved! Well dont you :thumb:

Well done for saving those gorgeous piggies. I can't believe that they were all in that tiny breeding block

hi

Thanks everyone

I did ask her about her rabbits but she loves them more I think as they have names - she's keeping her lop and the mother of the latest batch of babies I think - hope so anyway! We had a great chat on the phone - it's interesting to hear her point of view on all the breeding stuff :shock:

She breeds chinchillas too :?
But the gps must be a lot of work - that hutch thing looks a pain to clean so I'll replace it ASAP...The 2 boy babies need seperating from their mum next week, so I guess she just ran out of space for them all - So why make them all pregnant? I mean, at £10 a baby it's hardly worth the bother is it? That's if you can even sell them :roll:

It don't make no sense to me - too many animals chasing too few homes
Apparently there's an endless demand for her baby rabbits though...wonder what happens to them all? It's very confusing to talk to such a nice, caring person, as she certainly seems to be, who doesn't worry about that side of it at all - just hands her babies over to strangers :?

so you have a house full!

are the piggies living inside?

hope you are able to find some nice homes for them all to go to!

so what did you name them? i am always lovely for some more names for when we get rabbits in that are nameless.

sophie

wow I take my hat off to you honey, well done...your going to be sooo busy!!!

Awwww well done Elve - your going to be a busy bee over the next few days then gal but how wonderful to help them all like you have - your a star :wink:

hi

Aww thanks! I'm usually a pain in the butt, not a star :lol:

They're all settled in now - clucking away to themselves - it rose to a mass squeak when I cut a cabbage up for their tea :lol:

They're in my kitchen Sophie - my living room looks even more...err...unusually stunning than it did on the housework thread now it contains half the kitchen, and a bunny that used to be a kitchen bunny (promotion :wink: )

I've called the 3 boys Albert, Basil and Charlie, the 7 girls Abigail, Beatrice, Charlotte, Delores, Emily, Florence and Sabrina (letters of the alphabet at 3am :lol: ) and Charlotte's baby boys Walter and Zebedee :shock: and little Nelson (Sabrina's 4 day old baby - washing himself already - awww) - and Emily's twin girls Harriet and Imogen...

Better get feeding everyone again now - the breeder rang twice to make sure they were OK, and tells me there's a lady in Stoke on Trent who rang just after me, really really interested in them - I said 'is she a breeder too?' and she said she loves guinea pigs - they may have had a little conference over my stubborn refusal to bless the world with more alpaca guinea pigs - I will ring this lady in Stoke but she'll need a home check if anyone can volunteer who lives out that way? I don't trust anyone - especially not if they've been primed to say the right things on the phone to me - and I don't have a car (plus child constantly in tow :roll: )

eek is that the time? :shock:

love the names! very clever having them the letter of the alphabet!

good luck looking after all these little ones!

sophie

love the names! very clever having them the letter of the alphabet!

good luck looking after all these little ones!

sophie

Well done Elve :thumb:

You don't do things by halves do you :wink: 5 rabbits at a time wasn't enough, so you go for 15 guineas :!: I have 20, but that happened gradually. (Not through breeding I hasten to add, although there was an accident or two as Oscar was passed off as a girlie when he came to me :? ) It sounds as if you may well have more than me by the time they stop producing :shock:

I haven't got an alpaca, but I have 5 longhaired piggies, and they aren't hard to keep tidy if you trim all the hair from around their back legs - chop off those fluffy britches - and all the hair that reaches their bums or drags on the floor so it doesn't get dirty and start to matt. But mine seem to have hair rather than fur, I hope for your sake yours aren't more like Angora rabbits, that would be work :roll:

Having them in the kitchen is risky, you will be obliged to give them each a little treat every time you open the fridge as they will learn the sound and yell at you everytime you open it :lol: :lol: I had 10 in my kitchen one winter, they learn that very fast :roll:

hi

Thanks - I can't afford to feed them all for long though, although I seem to be 'just keeping one more' every hour - I wasn't into piggies at all before but the alpacas are so fluffy they're irresistable

So - before I go back to cage cleaning and rabbit litter trays this evening (may have to get son some food too :roll: ) here's some piccies of the mother and toddler group - I've just cleaned out their filthy sty - the first time I've had a real handle of them too (wibble - I was brave! )

I'm a bit worried as the mums are very bloated - are guins all like balloons full of water? And sadly Sabrina (the black fluff ball) has 2 big matts on her back end - I guess that's a job for a vet? They've never been groomed at all, although she did regularly use mite spray - they have sharp nails :shock: Dettol cream is my constant companion now...

This is 3 mums and 5 babies - the 2 little girls are hiding under the furpile - the little tricolour alpaca boy is Milo (was Nelson but Milo kept popping out of my mouth whenever I thought of him - which was often ) the 2 grey boys are almost ready to split from mum - I have a handy cage divider! They were called Walter and Zebedee, but I noticed today that one has a ginger nose, so he's got to be Rudolf, and my son wants to call the other one Irwin, for some unknown reason - so he's Irwin - I'm just glad my once animal-hating son likes them



Can you spot Milo on this one? :lol:



This is a better one of Emily - mum to the invisible twin girls - the beige/white alpaca (woolly piggie)



This is Sabrina as good as she gets - I want to keep her - the black one with the matts on her bum - she's so pretty when you find her face (the large white patch is her right thigh) - And the long haired (are they called Peruvian) ginger girl, Charlotte, is mum to Irwin and Rudolf - I'm keeping her too - My best friend at school was a red-head named Charlotte - hope she doesn't mind having a piggie named after her :lol:



I'd quite like to keep Rudolf too....and Milo...and and and :?

Any advice about grooming gps and caring for mums welcome

owwwwwwww they look happy

Don't worry, it is quite usual for girlie pigs to be shaped like balloons with legs, particularly if they have had a litter or two....or many (grrr)

I would try to cut the matts off with scissors, carefully of course. And just generally give them a good trim to get them in order, particularly rear ends. Baths could help, piggies are very prone to skin trouble and regular bathing can help. You could use a mild anti-dandruf shampoo for now, or you can order some gorgeous guineas shampoo from www.gorgeousguineas.co.uk - great stuff. This would probably soften the matts too, removing any muck holding them in the fur. It can be easier to trim wet fur too. They aren't too hard to bath although you will no doubt get more scratches :roll: Maybe cut their nails first, not difficult on the nice ones with light coloured paws. If you start with them you would get an idea how long the dark ones should be. Human nail clippers work well. I bath mine in the bathroom sink, and if the water isn't too hot put them under the tap, of course make sure they stay warm while they dry, not too hard this time of year. I wouldn't bath the babies until they are 12 weeks though.
The girlies can get pregnant at 4 weeks old so be careful. I had no clue, so Oscar got at a little one as well as getting Esme pregnant again. She was pregnant when I got her, and he was supposed to be her female companion :roll: The boys should be taken from their mums at 3 to 4 weeks, and be kept away from the baby girls too. But that young age is perfect for introducing the little lads to an older male as long as you get them out of smelling distance from the girlies.

They are addictive aren't they

Wow... what a beautiful handful you have there