Sam and Dean

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:06 pm


Formerly known as Hades and Mr. Crowley. Paired brothers rescued from the Humane Society. Perfectly healthy and happy! 9 months old.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:41 pm


I felt bad for them. The only guinea pigs in a room full of rabbits (in separate cages, of course). We took to each other immediately. Mr. Bubbles and Scruffy are like "meh".

Sammy is the brown one and Dean is the black and white one. Sammy is very vocal, Dean not so much, but both are very lively and affectionate. The previous owner left a note that they don't like bell peppers. That's something I'm going to work on. Until I can get them to eat it, I have a vitamin C supplement for them. They love the Oxbow pellets too.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:24 pm


I don't think these boys were fed veggies at the Humane Society and maybe not by the previous owner. They don't eat very much lettuce. I tried romaine, red leaf and green leaf. Between them, they only ate about half of what I gave them this morning. It was about a cup or so for each. Going to keep trying since they do eat some of it. Contrary to what the note left with them says, they do like bell peppers. They ate the red and the green ones. They turn their noses up at the cilantro and the parsley. I'm going to try tomato and see if they'll eat that.

They love the orchard grass, but I'm going to have to scratch it and go to oat hay or back to the Timothy hay since my wife is allergic to it. The piggies are all over the house at different times and I always have plenty of hay with them, so there's no way for her to avoid contact. Sammy loves to burrow under the pile and eat his way out while Dean sits right there and eats his way in. It's really cute.

They are still skittish around us and run when we approach them, but after some coaxing, they'll let me pick them up and they love to snuggle. Housing is tricky until the end of the month when I get their large sized cage. At night or while nobody is home, they go into Scruffy's old cage for safety. It's only big enough for one piggie, but during the day they go into the much larger playpen. They have a tunnel, lots of chew toys and a big pile of hay in their day time enclosure and they are very content. At night, I put the tunnel in with them so they can hide.

I'm very happy I was able to rescue these guys. It'll take them some time to earn their trust, but I will. I've introduced them to the wild grass. I started off with a small handful for each. I'll give them small amounts daily and slowly increase what I give them over time until they can eat their fill like Mr Bubbles and Scruffy do.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:24 pm


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Sammy loves his brother, Dean!

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Stopped just long enough for a photo op!

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:53 am


I was thinking about trying to get Scruffy to be cage mates with Sam and Dean. With the information I have I think it might be possible. I believe Mr Bubbles is just too aggressive to ever play nice with other guinea pigs, but Scruffy is a more easy going. Size wise, he's quite a bit bigger than the other 3. Sam and Dean are a little bit bigger than Scruffy and will probably get a even bigger as they are only 9 months old. Scruffy is 2 and though he's completely healed up from his illness, he might not be back to full strength yet. His weight is about half a pound less than before the illness. It may never get back to that.

As far as Sam and Dean go, it's pretty clear that Dean, the slightly heavier of the two is the dominant one between them. He might view Scruffy as a threat and take offense to him being there. As tough and resilient as Scruffy is, he'd be in deep trouble if they ganged up on him. I don't think he'd have the strength to protect himself.

If I were to get them to be cage mates with Sam and Dean, would the fact that he's older and fully developed make any difference? I would really like to get some opinions on this. There's some rewards to getting them together. One less cage to clean, one less piggie by himself. There's some risk too. The partnership going south in the middle of the night and me waking up to a seriously injured or dead piggie or the odd one out feeling neglected and going into a depression. So what do you guys think?

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Fri Apr 12, 2019 1:50 am


Shortly after the above post, I might have my answer. I put Mr Bubbles and Scruffy on the floor outside of Sam and Dean's pen to see how, or even if they would respond to each other. I had to do it separately because Mr Bubbles and Scruffy don't get along with each other.

With Scruffy, he wasn't even interested in the other two and just wanted to run around the room. I gave him a few minutes, but the room isn't guinea pig proof enough for him to run loose outside of an enclosure. Sammy wasn't the least bit concerned and just stayed under the hay pile eating. Dean came up to the side where Scruffy was, did the guinea pig strut and purred. Scruffy tried to run off so I had to put him away so he didn't get into trouble.

Mr Bubbles took an immediate interest in Sam and Dean. He did the piggie strut, purred and climbed up on the side of the pen. Sammy ran into the tunnel and hid. Dean did the same as Mr Bubbles as they followed each other around the pen. After a couple of laps, they touched noses and then Dean went to the tunnel and chased Sammy around nipping his behind and trying to mount him. It was brief and they went back to being buds as soon as I removed Mr Bubbles from the area. The scent of other males must have made him feel threatened.

That tells me two things. First, Dean is definitely the dominant one between him and Sammy. Second, he's probably not going to allow another pig into the fray. I don't want to do anything to jeopardize the bond between Sam and Dean, so I'm going leave things as they are. It works for the boys and that's the most important thing. I would still like to hear opinions on this.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Apr 12, 2019 9:15 am


When I read your first post about this, my immediate thought was that you're likely to screw up the relationship between Sam and Dean.

The reason you see so much about trios of boars not working is because trios of boars don't work, except in very, very, very rare cases. All too frequently, people wind up with three solo pigs, none of whom will live with another pig.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Fri Apr 12, 2019 10:54 am


Ditto bpatters. I have never been able to house 3 males together for any length of time. It's not worth breaking up a bonded pair, and I personally wouldn't do it.

The new guys are very cute!

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Fri Apr 12, 2019 1:49 pm


Ok. That's all I need to hear. I don't want to do anything to break up the pair I have. Thanks for the advice! I've always had bonded females, but never even had a boar before. I read that they are harder to bond than the girls. It's a male dominance thing animals have, as I understand it.

Things are going well with the newbies. They are starting to trust me already. At least if this morning is any indication. When I went to put them in the day pen, Sammy was still a little apprehensive, but he let me pick him up after I little jump and run to his corner and Dean seemed totally ok with it. I held them and gave them some reassurance for a few minutes and put them down. They went about their guinea pig business of attacking the hay and seemed more relaxed.

I fed them lettuce and red bell pepper. They actually prefer the bell pepper over the lettuce and ate that first. With the unbonded boys, Scruffy and Mr Bubbles, I give them a whole leaf of lettuce and a quarter chunk of the bell pepper. For Sam and Dean, I break it up into smaller pieces. I didn't do that the first time I fed them and Dean always grabbed what Sammy had rather than getting his own. It's much better this way. These boys are getting spoiled. That's ok. All of my piggies are!

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Fri Apr 12, 2019 2:54 pm


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Dean and I making friends. He's my best lap piggie. He likes to snuggle, be petted, take pictures for GuineaLynx and he doesn't pee or poop on me! Dean, maybe you can pass on your secret of relaxing for lap time to your brother, Sammy!

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:20 pm


He sure is a cutie pie. :) So glad you were able to give two more piggies a loving home.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:49 pm


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Hi there! My name is Sam, but I like Sammy too!

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