Sleepy Pigs

Guinea pigs sleep with their eyes open most of the time. Last evening, I caught this rare sight of Fluffy and Baby sleeping next to each other with eyes wide open! Baby also twitches his ears when he's asleep. Usually, one would be eating while the other sleeps.

Most of the time, they would sleep on different ends of the cage - but I guess they might be feeling a little cold - so they huddle for warmth. When the room temperature is above 17 degrees, we turn off the heater, otherwise, the heater is on 24 hours of the day for their sake.

Guinea Pig's Food

What do Baby and Fluffy eat everyday? Timothy Hay is their staple food and we feed them with several other varieties of healthy titbits. It is interesting to see that each of the guinea pigs has its own preference - Baby likes to eat the flower part of the hay while Fluffy enjoys the softer blades.

As for the other titbits, each picks and chooses its own favorite! I enjoy shopping for their food and catering to their needs. I tried feeding them a variety of goodies so that they get the best nutrient. But despite all the good food (plus all the fresh fruits and veggies that they get during floortime), both piggies still tear and eat up newspaper which I laid out on the floor during their playtime. Baby will go on to create tunnels below the newspaper - and occassionally peeps out to survey its surrounding.

Fluffy isn't interested in this kind of game - he would rather sit in the wet corner - his toilet area.

Haircutting Tools I used for my long-haired Guinea Pig

These are two different views of the haircutting tool which I paid quite a lot for. It consists of a changeable "foot" which could be affixed to have hair cut to a certain length. In the picture here, I've chosen to trim Fluffy's hair shortest,
9 mm. This shaver can be recharged, so that it's wireless and flexible.

Fluffy's Haircut again

This is how Fluffy looks like after another haircut - in fact, fur shave. I only shaved his head and his back, leaving his sides intact. We think he looks more like a kitten now.

Guinea Pig hairdressing is very fun but messy. Those very fine hair sticks every where and is quite hard to get rid of. The first time I gave him a haircut, I started having a bad runny nose and tearful itchy eyes for a couple of hours after that.

Now I use surgical masks so that his fur and dust would not get into my nose.

Fluffy's Fur-trimming

Fluffy has the most beautiful, thick and luxurious golden fur any GP could have and I wondered if Baby was ever jealous of that. Baby loves to pluck out Fluffy's fur and that causes Fluffy some distress. He ate Fluffy's fur like hay and Fluffy's long fur was present in Baby's droppings!

Finally, we think perhaps it's better to give Fluffy a good hair trim - in fact we trimmed it often, at least twice a month or else we could hardly see his eyes. But his fur grew so quickly and became long again in no time.

Two weeks ago, I purchased a professional electrical hair-trimmer (cost HK$450) so that I can give Fluffy a good trim. It was an excellent decision. Now I no longer hear Fluffy "squeak" in distress because Baby wasn't pulling out his hair anymore. This picture shows Fluffy with is new "hair-style". Funnily too, they do not fight anymore after Fluffy's haircut. 

Baby is everybody's favorite guinea pig

Not that the animal is exceptionally good looking or terrifically adorable, but "Baby" is an amazingly intelligent guinea pig who wants attention all the time. He eats hay, veggies and lots of nutitional titbits but never ceases to be satisfied - he's getting chubbier.

When we are vacuuming the house, his "wheeks" for food and attention usually gets louder than usual and is piercing. It was like Chinese flute whose sound could be heard far away. To reach that sort of decibel, Baby uses his whole body as a sound box -- a lot of effort.

Now he even recognises our footsteps and "wheeks". When he hears Mom walking, he will beg for food. We love him so much!