A harem of piggies!

Dudley, otherwise known as 'Dudders' or 'Big D' now has a harem of piggies. He was paired up with little Pepper and now that they have bonded I decided to introduce him to Ruby and Sparkle. There was some initial squabbling but I held back from separating them as they were not hurting each other. There was a lot of chasing going on too but eventually they settled down and I think this could work out well too. Dudley seems to like both of the girl guineas and he has been sharing an igloo with them on the run. Miss Erin is none too pleased with this state of affairs as she is concerned that Dudley should only love Pepper and not be interested in anyone else! She makes him sound almost human!
Eventually the plan will be to add little Gary and Robbie to the mix and maybe little Teddy one day too. Dudley could end up with six girlie piggie friends!

A trip to the vet for little Teddy.

Although baby Teddy has been doing well we were a little concerned about one of Teddy's eyes. The day after Teddy was born Miss Olivia noticed that one of her eyes looked black and one looked blue. As time went on, the blue eye looked sore and seemed to stay closed and looked  a little red on the edges.  
I decided to take little Teddy, accompanied by mummy Robbie, to the vet for a check up. The vet placed some fluid in her eye and shone a very bright light into it. The conclusion was that she had probably sustained some trauma around the time of birth, most likely to have scratched it on a piece of hay. The eye showed signs of odema and that was making it look a blue colour. The vet prescribed some eye drops and was hopeful that it should heal and that any visual problem would be temporary. So now Teddy has drops four times a day into her eye with a lot of squealing and wheebing in protest! Robbie also got a post-natal check up and all is well.
The vet also had a sneaky look and decided that there was a very good chance that Teddy was likely to be............a girl!

Little Teddy suckling after a trip to the vet

Welcome to the world, Teddy piggie!

Imagine our total surprise this morning when Miss Olivia called out that there was an extra piggie in the cage today! At 08.38 we found a little piggie snuggled up with Robbie. I was expecting a newborn at the end of May or early June. Such a nice surprise.
We had no idea when the piggie was born so we waited and waited and waited to see if it was twins.
Eventually we consulted with the vet for advice who reassured us that as long as she seemed well we didn't have to worry. The baby was lively and climbing over Robbie and was soon suckling. There was no sign of a placenta so we can only assume that Robbie had already eaten it. So we waited and waited and waited. No second baby came.
Robbie seems to have taken to motherhood easily. She has been feeding her baby regularly and responding to her very tiny wheebs. She protects the pup if she thinks Gary is getting too close. Gary has been a very lovely auntie and so far there have been no problems. Within a few hours our little baby piggie was running around the cage. So cute to watch.
At the moment we do not know the sex of the pup but we have decided to call him/her Teddy. It suits either gender and it is such a cute name for a piggie. Now we are all hoping that our new piggie is a girl.........

Our first picture of baby Teddy

A snack after birth

So sweet little baby

Gorgeous Teddy suckling from Mummy Robbie

Our little Teddy wants to play!

Pregnant piggie!

Huge development in the house of Piggies' Eye View. Last night I had my suspicions that little Robbie was pregnant. She was becoming more and more irritable and it suddenly occurred to me that she was growing much faster than her female cagemate Gary. I was holding her on a lap pad and she was grumpy. When I touched her back hip she spun round as if to bite. I tried to calm her down and kept my hand on her back with my finger around her side when I thought I felt something move! Now as I am a midwife, I am used to fetal movements!
I felt fairly sure that she was pregnant but as this was an unplanned pregnancy and we got her as a baby with a female I knew she had not conceived in our care. We have had her since the 7th of April so she must have conceived 40 days ago at least. I told hubby of my suspicions (he was not amused) but kept it quiet from Miss Olivia and Miss Erin. They would only have been upset if she wasn't expecting.
So today I took her and Gary to the vet for a check up. Gary is definitely a girl and is not pregnant. Robbie is definitely a girl and IS pregnant. Her belly was shaved and she had an ultrasound scan. I saw two fetal hearts so we are having at least twins. She may even have triplets!!!! Robbie was so good for the vet. She tolerated being handled and scanned and did really well. So now we are expecting an arrival in the next three weeks.
I broke the news to hubby - not happy. I broke the news to the girls after school. They laughed and screamed and danced and then Miss Olivia got tearful when she realised that one in five guineas dies in childbirth! Such a midwife's child. Bless her. The vet actually reassured me that she should do alright in labour so I am hoping that she is right. The next concern was "Can we keep them all? Will daddy let us keep them?"

Pregnant Robbie (left) taken on 8/5/2014

The fleece experiment.

So we have decided to experiment with fleece. I have used fleece liners in one cage, the one where the babies live and we will see how they get on. I ordered them from candE cosies and had them made to match the snuggle pouches in the Cool Britannia theme. We will wash them every few days and air dry and see how the piggies get on. Miss Olivia's pigs are still on sawdust at the moment which is very messy when she wants to get them out and also is an ongoing expense. If it works out for the little piggies then we will order pink fleece for her piggies too at approximately £25 for a 4x2 grid cage. It seems a lot but sawdust is £14 for a huge bag and we use so much of it.
Today I put all the piggies out in the run and gave the fleece a quick hoover and it looks just as lovely as when I laid it yesterday. No smell yet either so we will wait and see.


Smart new home.

Piggie bonding

Dudley and Pepper seem to be a great match. They are bonding together nicely. At first I was worried due to the size difference. She only weighs 600g and he is just over 1kg. He also spent the first few hours trying to climb on top of her but he seems to have calmed down now!
We are at the stage where she follows him everywhere, they share an igloo on the lawn and they are now sharing a piggie pouch in the hutch. You can just see her bottom end in the picture below. I keep updating the family we adopted Pepper from as their little boy was sad for her to go but as she was so lonely this seems a happy ending for her. As for Dudley, he will soon have a harem as we are planning to introduce him to all the other lady piggies.............

Bonding in the igloo and deciding which way to run!

Pepper, are you in there? Hiding behind Dudley!

More piggies than people!

So now there are six! Dudley has joined the crew. There was much excitement in the home when the girls came home from school. They didn't know that I had collected him and then suddenly saw him in the garden. This was followed by exuberant singing of 'More pigs than people, more pigs than people' in the house.

Dudley is a rescue piggie from the RSPCA and is approximately 11 months old. He is a tri-coloured long haired Peruvian and we are hoping that he will pair up with Pepper and become her mate. He has been neutered so there will be no babies!
Miss Erin named him after the character in the Harry Potter books, Dudley Dursley, known as the 'pig in a wig' which is actually a great description of him. He is going to take some trimming and grooming but that suits Miss Erin.
So far so good in the courtship department. They seem to be getting along ok and I am quietly confident that this could be a good match. At the moment we love watching him run about with all his hair trailing behind him and chasing Pepper around the run.


Dudley with his Elvis hair!

Kiss chase!

The way to a piggies' heart is through their stomach.

We've been given a bag of scraps! That's exciting in the house of five pigs. My friend Wendy brought a bag of veggie scraps to work. It included carrot scrapings which Gary couldn't eat quickly enough, some cauliflower stalks and everyone's favourite - broccoli stalks!
I guess I never really thought about how much it would cost to feed five, soon to be six pigs so any scrapings from charitable friends are gratefully received. The piggies loved them and eat them out of your hand and wheeb when you rustle the plastic. We love it, they love and it is definately the way to their hearts. Just look at Ruby and Sparkle tucking in.