Herd Film Strips

Whee heard our humans talking about something called 35mm film, and decided to investigate for ourselves. Nowadays everything is digitalized, but vintage has its charm too... click on the film strips for closeups!

Cinnamon and Caramel

Sharky, Morry and Coppy take turns at the food bowl

...while Truffle, Revy, Poof and Peaches squabble over corn husks!
Truffle takes an unorthodox approach in the last frame.

Belka and Truffle turn one!

Truffle blowing out the candle

Belka and Truffle turn one this month! Of course, nobody knows their actual birthday, but our humans estimated that it is sometime in July. Belka and Truffle are sisters from the same litter. Judging by Truffle's size,  which is a lot smaller than Belka, whee guessed that she is the younger of the two. However, you certainly wouldn't be able to tell by her attitude - although she's the smallest, she makes up for it with her bite. Often, just a glare from her is enough to send the much larger Peaches and Belka running for cover. Or downstairs, whichever is closer. But whee digress.


Anyways, Belka and Truffle got to have their own special piggy party with lots of wheatgrass and the wearing of celebratory headgear! Happy first birthday Belka and Truffle!

Wheeks, from the non-birthday piggies

"Can you tell we're sisters?"

Nom nom nom

Sibling squabbling

"But... but.... it's my birthday too!"

"...but this is a satisfactory consolation prize."

Piggy Pics of the Day: Poker for Parsley

Poof deciding which cards to keep

While our humans were away, whee guinea pigs decided to have a few games of piggy poker using our new deck of piggy playing cards. Instead of poker chips and money, whee played using more important currency - FOOD! Here are a few pigtures of our Poker for Parsley night.

Peaches the dealer prepares the deck - she shuffles by sitting on the cards and  popcorning

Truffle was the Purveyor of Parsley, protecting the loot

Belka puts on her thinking cap

Revy decides to raise

Belka's bluffing face - cute, no?

Poof opts to leave the table while she's ahead

Truffle takes her cut of the winnings

Whee are not sure who really won, but for some reason, whee think it was Truffle...

Piggy Pics of the Day: A munching panda pig

Farmer pig chews grass instead of straw

Our slaves thought these pigtures of Revy munching on grass during her last photo session were adorable because you can see her teeth and tongue in some of them (click to enlarge)! Don't expect this often though, most of the time whee are much too quick for humans to catch us ;)

Even piggies have to floss

"Mine!"

"Why yes I would love to floss using this blade of grass!"

Our playpen

Our play area

Today whee wanted to show you all our playpen! This is our play area outside of our regular cage. It's a 5 by 7 foot enclosure, with several protective layers of fleece and towels over a rug. Our humans fenced it off using some of the grids left over from our C&C cage, and put cardboard around the perimeter because certain piggies like to spray pee really far outside. Although whee secretly think Belka does so as revenge against the humans for creating such an escape proof enclosure.


In our playpen, whee always have a water bottle, a bowl of pellets, pigloos, a cardboard box filled with hay, and several bricks to use as stepping blocks. There is always a box or two lying around, so our slaves fill them with hay for us to jump into and munch on. We are rather fond of going to the bathroom while eating in there, so when it gets soiled they just compost it for us and give us a new one. Sometimes whee also get paper bags, cardboard tubes, or tunnels to play in.

Whee usually get to stretch our legs in our playpen every day or two for several hours. Our slaves say that this way, we keep active and healthy by promoting more exploration and exercise (whenever whee visit our vets, they always comment on how surprisingly muscular and fit whee are). Often we also have meals delivered here, such as in the pigture below where we're all sharing a leaf of Swiss chard. Our favorite is when the slaves scatter wheatgrass everywhere, it challenges all of us to run around as rapidly as possible with the goal of eating more than anyone else can!

Surveying the territory

Sharing a leaf of Swiss chard

Peaches reclining as Belka continues to eat

Wheatgrass hunting!

Summer fun hiding in the bushes

Here's an older video of Sharky, Coppy and Cinnamon relaxing outside in the grass on a warm summer day. Sharky and Coppy go scampering off into their favorite hiding spot in the bushes while Cinnamon continues to eat happily. Hmm, whee would like some grass right about now...

Our new roommate, Revy!

Revy

Our humans had quite a surprise for us after they returned this weekend from their drive to southern California - a new roommate! Whee haven't met her yet, but they told us the new piggy's name is Revy, and that she is a talkative black and white Abyssinian named after a pirate, or the sound a car makes when you step hard on the pedal. The humans said they adopted her from our favorite rescue organization, Orange County Cavy Haven, where she was being cared for by her foster family.

They're giving her some time to settle in and get used to her new home before introducing any of us. Apparently she is having fun sampling all the different veggies they give her to try. One of her favorites is wheatgrass, just like us. Perhaps she will help us convince the slaves to make our cages out of infinitely regenerating fast-growing grass instead of fleece? But they assure us that whee will get to meet our new friend soon!

Piggy Pics of the Day: Perching at the food bowl

Me giving the humans big hopeful button eyes to get more treats

Hi again! I, Belka, am back! Here are some more pigtures featuring me perched at the food bowl eating one of my favorite foods (aside from grasses and hay) - pellets! I am particularly happy in these pigtures because our slaves order of Kleenmama's timothy pellets finally came in. They ran out and served us Oxbow instead for about a wheek. I like Oxbow pellets a lot too, but nothing can compare to my favorite from Kleenmama's Hayloft. They are the freshest and greenest, fortified with special attention to a piggy's nutritional needs. Healthy and yummy! Nothing at all like that unhealthy, high fat commercialized mush masquerading as pellets sold by Kaytee. Pumpkin seeds, bird feed, nuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, banana chips, and papaya?! Whee aren't birds or squirrels, and definitely shouldn't be fed like one! Not to mention, those are also choking hazards.

As a piggy pellet connoisseur, I could talk about the different subtleties and nuances for ages, but that  Abyssinian spike-butt Poof wants to look for more piggy videos on YouTube again, so I'll stop for today. Any fellow pellet connoisseurs are welcome to discuss pellets with me, just leave a comment or stop by on Twitter. Bye for now!

Nom nom nom

A pigture of me with a pellet half out of my mouth

"Is that a fridge door I hear opening?!"

Peaches first birthday!

Happig birthday Peaches!

Happy birthday Peaches! June is her birthday month - whee don't know her exact birth date, and neither does she, but our slaves estimate she was born in June. Hard to believe she's one already - time sure passes by quickly when you're in a herd. Must be all that competing for food. Anyways, our humans gave her a little silver birthday hat they made, as well as a cupcake and mini cake to pose with for her pigture shoot. Peaches says she didn't get to sample any of the cupcake, but she did get spoiled with her favorite foods afterwards! Sounds like a fair tradeoff to us. Again, happig birthday to you Peachy-Peach!

XO, the Un-Birthday Cavies from the Collective

One year old!

"For me?"

"This is an even better present!"

Nom nom nom nom nom

"so delicious, must lick my mouth clean before taking another bite!"

Piggy Pics of the Day: Chubby Tummy

Me engaging in one of my favorite activities, eating

Hello all, it's me, Belka! Today I am sharing a few pigtures of myself with you. As the story goes, there I was, munching quietly away at the food bowl, minding my own business and enjoying my solitary meal when all of a sudden, I was startled by this bright white light. Kind of like a flashbang grenade. After I recovered from the momentary blindness, I saw that the slaves had decided to sneak up on me while I was eating to take my pigture!

Apparently they thought I looked funny perched on the side of the food bowl like that because they could see my "chubby tummy flab". I have no idea what they're talking about. I personally think I am very lean and fit so I found this extremely offensive. Hmph. Then they proceeded to try tickling my tummy - while I was still eating! Of course, Peaches and Poof had to come upstairs to investigate what all the fuss was about, and after that, it was no use trying to continue my nice quiet meal anymore. And that was that.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"As if the humans weren't enough, now I have to fend off an invasion too?"