Name:
Jasmine-Peaches

Approx. DoB:
May 4th, 2005

Date of Adoption:
July 30th, 2005

Sex:
Female

Color & Breed:
Tri-Colour English (American)

Personality:
Jasmine is much more comfortable in a smaller group with older pigs, though is still rather timid. A very cuddly girl nonetheless, and my second-biggest, weighing in at over 3lb!

~

Name:
Dexter-Pippin

Approx. DoB:
February 23rd, 2007

Date of Arrival:
April 7th, 2007

Sex:
Male (neutered)

Color & Breed:
Harlequin (cream and black) Crested.

Personality:
Dexie is my people pig, and my chunky pig. Weighing in at 3lb 4oz he's a handful and a delight to cuddle. He just loves being with people though is very partial to his two Mrs Dexter's. He likes to think he's the boss of his girls but Lottie has other ideas!

~

Name:
Lottie-Primrose

Approx. DoB:
June 30th, 2002

Date of Adoption:
June 27th, 2005

Sex:
Female

Color & Breed:
Black & Tan English (American)

Personality:
Lottie is a dominant lady. It cost her a friendship with Tuppence, but she quickly made friends with Dexter and has been living blissfully as alpha-female with Dexie and Gwen ever since.

Name:
Gwenivere-Petal

Approx. DoB:
November 16th, 2005

Date of Arrival:
November 25th, 2007

Sex:
Female

Color & Breed:
Pink-Eyed White, mixed breed (mid-length hair)

Personality:
Gwenny is a sweetie, a happy and mellow little girl. We suspect she is deaf, and so is more flighty than the others, but she does love her new life with us and is the chunkiest pig (in size not weight).

 ~

Name:
Saffron Willowrose

DoB:
March 11th, 2008

Date of Purchase:
April 1st, 2008

Sex:
Female

Color & Breed:
Tri-colour Abyssinian

Personality:
Saffron is very outgoing, loud and brave. Despite being so young and new to the family, she is the first pig at the cage bars, and the first pig to wheek when food or people are nearby. Saffy is a fidgety pig - unable to sit still for a moment!

~

~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will make no secret of my opinions on guinea pigs before I got my first one. Aged 11, I heard a girl at my school say that her guinea pig has bitten her. Not knowing anything more about cavies I thought they were nasty, vicious little creatures. I didn't think them cute, intelligent or interesting at all. Feel free to admonish me for my thoughts but I was young and I know how foolishly wrong I was back then.

So, how did I come to get my first guinea pig after having such views on them? It's a long story, and I mainly bought Charlie for theraputic reasons.

In school when I was 14, my trust in teachers was abused when I was mistreated by a teacher who misunderstood that I felt ill and that I had been given special permission to leave the class if necessary, after gentle persuasion to stay in class. Without going into detail, I ended up severely phobic of school after having a major painic attack brought on by the incident. I tried going in again countless times for short visits, but it was hopeless - my trust and happiness in schools was forever gone.

I became agoraphobic and even lost a lot of weight because I was too scared to eat anything much  in case I felt sick - after all, feeling sick was what caused the incident in school in the first place. It was a vicious psychological cycle which was very difficult to get out of, and I was pretty much house-ridden for over 6 months. I managed to get out very occasionally in that time for very short trips, but it was very tough and it almost always ended in me saying, "I can't do it."

One day during these 6 months - around 2 months before I started getting over it - my mum suggested getting a guinea pig. We had two dogs - Sheba and Bosun - but my mum felt it would be a good idea for me to have my own pet so I had the responsibility of looking after an animal to encourage me to pull myself together. So we went to the local pet store and looked at the guinea pigs, and I chose the one I wanted. I picked him because he looked so strange - his hair was very scruffy and he just looked so cheeky. I had never seen a guinea pig like him! I was told he was around 8 weeks old.
We bought a hutch, some food, a toy, some bedding and a few treats and took him home. I called him Charlie right after I got him, as he looked so cheeky, and it's quite a usual notion to think of someone as "Cheeky Charlie".
It was a spontaneous decision, and something which is never recommended.
The date I got Charlie was 16th July 2003.

There was another guinea pig who had been in the pet store with Charlie, a gorgeous smooth haired piggie in a lovely chocolate brown colour. We brought him home and called him Choccie.
A few months after we brought Choccie home, the boys began fighting (ball-of-fur fights, constant pestering and bullying, severe teeth chattering). We read on the internet that if you neuter them they will stop fighting. So we went ahead and got them neutered when they were four months old, yet they still fought. Little did we know back then that neutering made no difference to behaviour - it only takes away their fertility. So we decided to split them up and rehome Choccie. I cried a lot for a day afterwards, but I knew it was only fair on Charlie that I keep him (since he was the first piggie here and he was the weaker one).

A few months after Choccie was rehomed, my family and I were put in touch with an education centre known as the Integrated Support Service. They sent out the "head" of the centre to interview me and ask questions about what subjects I wanted to study, and I was accepted. I was tutored for an hour a week to begin with, and gradually that increased to five hours per week - two hours on one day, an hour on three days, and a day off. I also began to go to a children's nursery to get Work Experience for my Child Development GCSE and to attain my target of completeing a full, detailed Child Study.
To this day I am still in contact with my tutors, all of whom I now consider to be friends rather than my previous teachers.

Charlie lived "happily" during this time. I say "happily" because now I know he would have been a lot happier with the life he is living now than his lonely life in a small hutch with no toys or ideal food. He was given lots of attention due to me being at home so much and ghe was very loved right from the start.
I knew from the beginning, when I first got Charlie, that my previous thoughts about piggies being nasty and horrid creatures were so very wrong. There is no way I would even think of calling a piggie anything other than a positive name these days. My worry about being bitten was short-lived and irrational.

It was August 2004 before I really began to pick up new things and begin to improve Charlie's life. I bought him a female guinea pig on 12 August '04 - remember Charlie is neutered - and they bonded instantly. I originally called her Camilla, but my grandmother came up with the name Tuppence, and that name stuck. It's so unusual and quaint and it suits her so very much. Few other names could have fitted her so well.

Around 4 months after I got Tuppence, I began thinking that they could do with a bigger cage. I began searching the internet and came across this website called Guinea Pig Cages. I was amazed at the cages, yet disappointed because I hadn't seen the materials necessary to build one in UK. I also doubted that my mum would agree to let me have one.
Eventually I joined the site in March 2005, and asked where I could find materials. We were given details on companies which sold the cubes, and advised on the type of shop to buy the coroplast - correx - from. This was only the beginning of their new life.

Right now, in April 2008:-

* I have 7 piggies - four adopted;
*  Tuppy and Jasmine live together in a full 2 level 2x4 C&C cage;
*Dexie, Lottie and Gwenny live together in a full 2x3 level C&C with permanent C&C run;
* Bree and Saffron live in a 2.5x4ft run;
* They are all bedded on fleece with special all-hay areas;
* They get fed a variety of veggies every day, and the types of veggies has changed dramatically - the staple veggies are peppers, all different types of lettuces, coriander, cucumber and cabbage, with things like parsley, courgette, corn rotated variously through routinely;
* They are fed Science Selective Guinea Pig pellets - one of the best plain pellet feeds in UK;
* They have fresh filtered water (due to living in a hard water area) daily;
* They get unlimited amounts of fresh meadow hay daily, plus a variety of orchard grass or timothy routinely;
* They get the option of up to 2 hours floor time every day, both morning and evening.

I have come a very long way from my first (mis)conceptions about piggies. It has been a long journey, but it's been one well worth travelling.
I am now pursuing a number of dreams and ambitions all centering on educating and helping others on guinea pig care - so watch this space!