|
Post by SiLamb on Jun 14, 2014 16:44:46 GMT
Last night, hubby and I watched TV with Harry & Weasley. Weasley moved to my shoulder and just stayed there with me petting him. Hubby got jealous, so he moved Harry to his shoulder. We had a great time. Hubby still hasn't caught on to Harry's indications that he needs to pee. You'd think that after being peed on 3 times that he would have learned. hehehe I still have to figure out Weasley's indicators, because they aren't the same as Harry's. I got peed on too. But Weasley only peed a little. I quickly got him to his cage and he peed the rest there. The piggies are such a joy! We are off to check out a local feed store and another pet store. We are on the hunt for the best deals for the feed and hay.
|
|
|
Post by faafaa on Jun 15, 2014 2:26:07 GMT
Good luck finding feed and hay! We found a great deal at the local Guinea pig shelter. There is a feed store that has great hay prices, but how does one store a whole bale of hay?!?
|
|
|
Post by 3piggles on Jun 15, 2014 19:35:03 GMT
Good luck with the hunt! Prices can vary a lot. I love shoulder sitters. Hope hubby gets the knack of reading piggy signs Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
|
|
|
Post by SiLamb on Jun 15, 2014 22:19:01 GMT
We had quite the adventure and hit five pet stores. Found the best source for everything. It was a lot of fun and hard reminding us to not buy things that the piggies really don't need. We did get a corner litter box and a skewer wood chew. Since I added the skewer wood chew, I haven''t caught them chewing on the ramp. YAY They have knocked over the litter box, so I'm going to have to add velcro to the back to keep it in the corner.
|
|
LL
Newbie
Posts: 8
|
Post by LL on Jun 16, 2014 0:43:50 GMT
I'm looking into getting a litter box too to put in the pig's kitchen. I feel like I have to change the fleece everyday, so hopefully a litter box will help so I don't have to change it so often. I love having the piggies on my shoulder. I need to keep my very long hair up though because they got a little tangled up in it the other day. I need to shop around for the best hay deals soon too. I'd like to try the fresh hay I saw someone use in a YouTube video. I worry though how quickly the pigs have to eat it. My pigs haven't eaten much hay the last 2 days, so I took some out of the rack and they seemed to prefer to eat it on the ground. Picky pigs.
|
|
|
Post by Bean on Jun 16, 2014 8:50:33 GMT
Glad to hear the boys are settling in so well and getting along! Sounds like the chewing is sorted, but we've used report binders/ spines on thin edges we don't want them to chew - like this. We used them along the correx edges when we made a C&C cage. Another tip I only recently found is that they like to chew pine cones - my boys are big chewers so having a couple attached to the side of the cage for them to gnaw on works brilliantly. how does one store a whole bale of hay?!? We have all sorts of bales of bedding and massive bags of pellets in our shed! When we didn't have a shed, we just bought smaller amounts more regularly and it worked out okay with just the pigs, but the rabbits go through masses more hay so it'd be costing me a fortune to get smaller bags now. I need to muck everyone out this morning - shouldn't be sitting on here acting like I have nothing to do really!
|
|
|
Post by faafaa on Jun 16, 2014 13:13:45 GMT
Yay! I'm so glad you found everything you needed Silamb! I have a wood skewer chew toy too. Mine has a bell on the bottom. My boys spend more time ringing the bell then they do chewing on the wood. I give my boys random boxes and paper bags to chew on and run thru. They love it and it gives them something new a couple times a week. I also give them empty toilet paper rolls, but I cut a slit up them long ways so no one gets stuck.
|
|
|
Post by jolovespiggies on Jun 16, 2014 16:40:24 GMT
Ha ha Silamb, thank you for sharing that with us, it made me laugh!! My bunny does a tinkly on me sometimes. You do get to know their little ways and what they mean. I do think it is lovely the way they interact with you, they sound absolutely gorgeouse.
Hugs Jo xx
|
|
|
Post by 3piggles on Jun 16, 2014 20:00:20 GMT
They do like to chew. I've used those spines before. They worked well. I have a corner litter box, though it never worked as a litter box. Hay box, bed and way to block them from the corner, but not litter box Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
|
|
|
Post by glittze2001 on Jun 17, 2014 6:50:39 GMT
We always used to get our supplies from a big pet store. But found a farm feed store that caters for lots of other animals and everything is a lot cheaper. They will also order anything in for you if you need it. Like you did silamb it pays to shop around xx
|
|
|
Post by SiLamb on Jun 18, 2014 20:37:12 GMT
Good luck finding feed and hay! We found a great deal at the local Guinea pig shelter. There is a feed store that has great hay prices, but how does one store a whole bale of hay?!? You know, my hubby and I have been discussing that. He said that he has a tub that we can use and keep it in the garage. One of the stores we had stopped by on Saturday was a feed store that sells bales of hay. In looking at the baled hay, it is all brown. The hay that I have been buying is green and has seed buds. I haven't researched it, but knowing general veggie info, I'm assuming greener is better. Plus Harry and Weasley might go on strike if I stop giving them hay with seed buds in it. They love seed buds. So I'm leaning more towards not getting a bale of hay. Speaking of hay. I've only bought hay twice. The first bag Vitakraft Fresh & Natural Timothy Premium Sweet Grass Hay. The boys seem to really like this hay and LOVE the seed buds. The negative is that it is messier than my 2nd bag of hay which is Kaytee All Natural Timothy Hay. The boys seem to like this new hay but don't seem to go as gaga over its seed buds as they did over the first types.
|
|
|
Post by SiLamb on Jun 18, 2014 20:40:16 GMT
Good luck with the hunt! Prices can vary a lot. I love shoulder sitters. Hope hubby gets the knack of reading piggy signs Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk Hubby has gotten peed on the last two nights in a row. hehehe Actually, last night, I started to think that Weasley was trying to let me know that he needed to pee. Well I got distracted on my way back to putting him in his cage last night...his butt was hanging over the edge of the towel (of course) and next thing I notice is my foot getting wet. Oh well...I deserved that!
|
|
|
Post by SiLamb on Jun 18, 2014 20:59:43 GMT
I'm looking into getting a litter box too to put in the pig's kitchen. I feel like I have to change the fleece everyday, so hopefully a litter box will help so I don't have to change it so often. ... My pigs haven't eaten much hay the last 2 days, so I took some out of the rack and they seemed to prefer to eat it on the ground. Picky pigs. LL, if I remember correctly, your piggies are quite young. I noticed that my boys when they were younger and newer to me didn't eat much hay. I would be shocked if yours didn't pick up their eating as they grow more accustomed to their new environment and get older. Update on the litter box training... I had used a small corner litter box which had gp litter and some of their poop in it, which they had promptly knocked over spilling litter everywhere. Hubby noticed this and scooped the litter into the corner that they mostly pee in and he removed the litter box. This is when I advised that I'll have to attach some Velcro to it to prevent future spillage. On Monday, when I did my thorough cleaning of the cage, I decided to use a larger corner litter box that had come with a kit that we were planning on using to hold hay in the playpen. Instead of wasting more litter, I just put hay in it. I figured, why shock them with so many changes at once, just start with hay, which they have no problem peeing on anyway. I also put in some of their poop. I proceeded to multiple times a day picking up all of the poop in the cage and throwing it into the litter box. I kept noticing them eating the hay but not peeing in it. I did notice some pee spots around the cage, so I was trying to not get discouraged. I was encouraged that the 2nd floor gets very little poop now, but the 1st floor gets poop everywhere. Today, I decided to check the litter box...it was full of soggy hay and poop! That must mean that they are peeing in it most of the time. The boys are in their playpen right now, therefore they don't know it yet, but I cleaned out the litter box and replaced the hay with litter. Hopefully it will work this time.
|
|
|
Post by 3piggles on Jun 19, 2014 19:47:19 GMT
Maybe they don't like the feel of the litter under foot I've never heard of gp litter, but not all cat litters are the same. Also, since pigs live much closer to the litter than cats do, they breathe every bit of dust and anything else loose in the litter. It's impossible to make litter completely dust free, so dangerous for pigs to have direct contact. Perhaps either using Carefresh instead if litter, or covering the litter with a layer of hay would work. They will be attracted to the hay anyway, but don't know litter from fleece. Another option is putting the hay holder where they sit in the litter box to eat. Pigs can't be litter trained like cats. They either go where they spend the most time, or where they prefer to go. Making where they prefer to go and where you want them to go the same place is the trick Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
|
|
|
Post by SiLamb on Jun 21, 2014 3:35:35 GMT
3piggles, thanks for the advice. The boys have been in their playpen (Quidditch field) all day where I don't have the litter box, but they will discover when return home to Hogwarts (their cage) that their litter box has a layer of hay over it. When I put the hay there, I did discover three areas of pee; so they are using it, but not exclusively. Hubby was so tired when he came home from work today. He got Harry out from Quidditch and took him to the bedroom. When dinner was done, I went hunting for hubby and found him snuggled up with Harry asleep. See attached pic. Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by Bean on Jun 21, 2014 12:45:21 GMT
Aww sweet! I'd have to be careful falling asleep near Cadders as he seems to like licking people's noses and that'd certainly wake me up with a start!
|
|
|
Post by faafaa on Jun 21, 2014 15:15:35 GMT
What a great picture! It Sounds like you all are getting on great! We are thinking of buying a bale of hay too, it's just so much cheaper. I just have no idea how we are going to store it.
|
|
|
Post by Bean on Jun 22, 2014 9:00:44 GMT
Some places slice bales up - that might work out cheaper than a pet shop but not as difficult to stash as a full bale.
|
|
|
Post by 3piggles on Jun 22, 2014 16:10:24 GMT
When we used to buy it by the bale, we broke the bale into sizes that fit trash bags or containers. All bales are strands of hay compressed and tied, and generally have natural sections or are easy to cut into sections. Just remember bales come with whatever wss in the hay when the baler picked it up, including any wildlife that walked or slithered in at the wrong time.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
|
|
|
Post by SiLamb on Jun 22, 2014 17:48:43 GMT
3piggles, thanks for the advice. I just did a Google search and found out why I wasn't finding local suppliers of Timothy Hay...it is grown in cooler climates. What is Florida? Not a cool climate. Bummer I GIVE UP...the litter box thing is not working. The piggies are peeing at the edge of the litter box. Not IN the litter box, but just outside of the litterbox. They are mocking me. Oh well. I'm taking someone else's earlier statement about using the litter box as a hay bin. So I'm going that route. Hubby and I are going to completely re-imagine the Hogwarts cage. We got Fresh News bedding. I'm thinking of completely scrapping the use of towels except in Quidditch playpen. I'll let you know how it goes. One day, I'll get a cage setup that is perfect. Okay, maybe I'm dreaming here, but a girl can dream. The positive is it seems the piggies really like it when I move things around. They usually popcorn around as they discover all of the changes.
|
|