Pigs on Tuesday 16th May 2006

For breakfast they had several lettuce leaves, half a green pepper, and half a yellow pepper. In the evening they had several lettuce leaves and 2.5 tomatoes.

I've had Jack down to play twice today and Dougal once and they've both been so good!

Pigs on Monday 15th May 2006

Pigs have been super happy this morning. I gave the cupboard area a good cleaning out, including buying a new sheet for when I'm washing one of the others. Both of them were extremely overexcited when I was cleaning the place out and popcorning abounded.

After cleaning them out I fed them the remains of the round lettuce, half a green pepper and some cucumber. I also refreshed their hay.

I think I need to be cleaning out their main litter areas more often, so I'll aim for every 2 days for now and see how that goes.

In the evening they got several leaves of round lettuce, two medium tomatoes, 2 baby sweetcorns, and 2 watermelon rinds.

Pigs on Sunday 14th May 2006

What jolly little babies I have. This morning they had the pleasure of eating 2 luscious leaves of round lettuce, a red pepper and some sliced cumcumber.

This evening I gave them 4 more leaves of lettuce, an unexpectedly large carrot, and a tomato.

I haven't seen much of my boys today having been at grandads. I really hope I can bring them down soon. Jack has been resting in some strangely open places though, I hope its just coz he's feeling more realxed. I can't see anything else that would point to problems though. I think I will soon start them on another oiling/washing program to make sure that their skin is in good condition.

Jack was giving Dougal a pretty tough time with the pellets this morning though. Jack had finally figured out the trick of chewing through the paper bag, and Dougal couldn't get his head in the little hole without getting chased. Jack's been chasing him as well, but when he catches up all he does is stop with his nose at Dougal's rear! What pigs they are.

Pigs on Saturday 13th May 2006

Pigs are so happyn this morning!!! Been popcorning like crazy. I got up at 6.30 to feed them some hay, since they were starting to chew on things. This got them very excited. I've found that they've discovered how to jump onto the lowest bookshelf shelves, so I'd better take all my clean underwear I got stored out of there.

Unfortunately I didn't have a very inspiring breakfast for them this morning. 1 carrot which of course they munched right up, 3 green beans and the innermost crunchiest part of the rocket. But there isn't much else left. I'm going to the farmers market this morning though, so I should be able to find them some excellent munchies for this evening.

This morning I have given them their pellets in a paper bag for enrichment purposes. If they can climb onto my bed, find the bag of pellets and chew their way through the plastic then they can get through this paper bag. They seem really excited about it though. There is still much popcorning going on. They're just running around and around the bag ^_^

Well when I got back later I discovered that in fact they had not managed to get to the pellets...funny animals. I didn't find any nice vegetables at the farmers market either, but I got them a lettuce from the co-op and they had 4 leaves of that and a tomato.

They don't seem to like David Bowie at all. They are hiding.

Pigs on Friday 12th May 2006

For breakfast they got a few leaves of rocket, 2 beans and half a large yellow pepper. They don't much like the inner leaves of the rocket though since they're all crunchy.

This evening I've given them a delicous feast of : half a yellow pepper, a tomato, 3 slices of cucumber, a lump of turnip and 2 raspberries. They both tore straight into the pepper, and Dougal is now nibbling on the turnip. As I go to sleep now they've had a nibble at everything except the raspberries, as expected. They don't seem too keen on cucumber though.

I've downloaded the phosphorus:calcium calculator, so now I can start weighing their vegetables too!

I took Dougal downstairs today, and ended up giving him to my mum for a while. He was a really good boy and never struggled at all, and even got to come out side and sit on the steps for a while in the sunshine. There's really such a difference since I gave them their baths.

Pigs on Thursday 11th May 2006

This morning they had half a red pepper, 4 large leaves of rocket and a small carrot. They seem in high spirits and have been popcorning.

In the evening I got them some more lettuce, a carrot, with which I fed them both a Vitamin C pill, and a lump of turnip, which they readily enjoyed.

In the morning I took Jack downstairs for a visit to Auntie Lainey and he got to play on the breakfast table for a while. I think they need to get out more.

Pigs on Wednesday 10th May 2006

This morning for breakfast they had a tomato, 4 large green bean pods and a small red pepper. They seemed to go for the beans today even though they had previously ignored them. On the other hand by lunchtime when I got home they hadn't even touched the tomato!!! monsters. How can I tell their favourites when they change their minds everyday???

This evening they have dined finely on 4 leaves of Scottish Rocket, 1 small carrot, 2 more beans, and a small slice of apple for a treat. Today Dougal has modelled one of his classic behaviours, which has given him the nickname : The Conger. This manouvre entails sneaking up behind Jack as he is enjoying a tasty morsel of carrot, then launching in, digging his teeth into the carrot and wrenching it backwards to a safe distance where it can be devoured.

The pigs seem good today, although I'm still worried about the white marks on their ears. I must find out when they need their second fungal bath. Dougal though has become much more happy about being handled since his bath, whereas Jack has become more wild. I think I need to spend some quality lap time with them.

I have investigated the distribution of pig pooping and have decided to place the litter tray in the cupboard under the cardboard house, which it fits perfectly. There was a high concentration of poo there. It is where Jack sleeps normally, but if he wants to sleep in a litter tray thats his problem. I've put a layer of newspaper down and covered it with a hand towel. I'm not sure thats a good idea since hand towels dont seem to mix well with pig poo, but I can always get an old pillowcase if i need.

I have changed the cardboard door shield for one made out of the spare cube squares that I have requisitioned for grandads garden. Jack did manage to get behind it by jumping on and off of the shelf, but I think I have blocked him again. I need more joining things for the pig pen though. I'd like to make a squares shield for the bed area but I don't have enough connectors to hold it up, or the grandads pen for that matter.

Pigs on Tuesday 9th May 2006

I spent the whole of this morning cleaning out my/our room. It wasn't that bad seeing as everything was spread out far and not concentrated. I did a lot of reorganising though, and have converted the hay balcony into a food storage area and used the ramp as a blocker for the board guarding the door. Heavy textbooks guard the other side. They don't seem to go up the ramp since I let them run free.

Tomorrow my task is to try and set up a litter box which I bought today. I've also put all the spare grids together from the balcony and I need to see if I have all the parts to make a pen for grandads.

This morning they had half a yellow pepper, several leaves of green lettuce and 2 beans. This evening they had the remains of the green lettuce, some coriander and parsely and a carrot. I also gave them their pellets which they much enjoyed.

Still a bit worried about the white marks on their ears though.

Todays weight reading were 1lb13oz for Jack and 1lb11oz for Dougal. This seems more sensible than yesterdays!!!

Pigs on Monday 8th May 2006

I went out this morning and left them with a fresh pile of hay, and also for breakfast coriander, a small carrot, a little bit of cucumber, a small red pepper and some green lettuce.

When I got back I gave them their pellets which they were excited about, then in the evening they got the remains of the radicchio, some dandelion leaves my mum picked for them, a tomato and another lump o' turnip.

They also got a baby sweetcorn each as I clipped their nails by myself in the afternoon. They were a bit wriggly, but I got all their front paws done. I reckon I'll do their back paws in two weeks, then fronts in a month and so on.

I also gave them an additional wash to try and get the rest of the soap off of them. Dougal seems much calmer with baths than does Jack. He never even bit me when I was giving him a bath, and only once when I was clipping his nails.

I have put in additional measures to prevent Jack from getting behind my door, and it seems to be working. He did some headbutting soon after I had changed things around, and never managed to shift the board :D It's not idea though since it makes it hard for me to get into my room...

Today Jack weighs 1lb12oz and Dougal 1lb15oz, but then I'm always reading that stupid scale wrong, so I'll double check that tomorrow. Dougal wasn't exactly co-operative either.

Pigs on Sunday 7th May 2006

Well yesterday I gave them their first bath which was hardly traumatic at all actually. Their fur isn't going back to its normal smoothness though, so I think I might not have washed out all the shampoo properly. If they aren't fixed by tomorrow they might have to go for another dunk.

This morning they had 2 leaves of raddichio, 2 leaves of green lettuce, half a green pepper, and a small bunch of coriander.
This evening they had 2 leaves of raddichio, 2 leaves of green lettuce, a tomato, carrot peelings, and as a treat they got a lump of turnip, which I didn't think they'd like, but which has dissapeared already. According to the forums on cavy cages is suitable for feeding a couple of times a week, so that might be cool if I can find some nice small ones. They seem to be preferring the raddichio to the green lettuce... I bought it as a treat and it was expensive. Typical!

The little satanists so far refuse to accept the boundaries in my room. Having easily conquered under the bookshelves they (or rather Jack I should say) are attempting to lay claim to the bit of the room behind the door, and underneath my bed and behind the tv... basically anywhere I don't let them run. Actually they haven't gotten into my clothes yet... Anyway tomorrow I step up the defensive and break out... SELLOTAPE.

This morning Dougal let me carry him downstairs and sat in my arms for a good 10 minutes without even trying to bite me!!! What a darling.

Tomorrow I reckon I'll see if their nails need a clipping and stick them on the scales. I want to get some digital scales though because then I'll be able to weigh their food.