Peeping Hedge

She's never this shy around carrots. She's just pretending to be all abashed. Also, note the diet pepsi box = the illusion of safety. How safe could a 1-pound defenseless rodent really be inside a thin cardboard box? Especially around Troggle, aka 'the plunger.' She will shunt any other pig right out of the shelters.

Sleepytime Sunday

Sunday at our house everyone does their own thing... Here the pigs are just chillin' by their chube. They're sleeping, but they don't have eyelids so it's more of a pig-nap.

The feets!

It's funny how the pigs won't share shelters AT ALL. They basically love hanging out on their own. We have a big pigloo (about twice the size of the one Skitter's inhabiting here), and only one pig at a time uses it! If one pig tries to take it over she can just push the resident pig straight out. They are really just selfish pigs after all.

One of Troggle's favorite games with the one-pig pigloo (above) is to wait until Skitterbug goes in and gets comfortable, then she pops in and Skitterbug shoots out. She really terrorizes that poor little Skitter.

Once we saw Skitterbug and Snuffle playing a sort of tag, running around and around the pigloo and startling each other by nose-bumping the other's bum. They haven't done it since, unfortunately :( It was really silly and cute...

Eternal Hope

We definitely get a lot of mileage out of pig-sized cardboard containers. Soda boxes are the best - perfectly pig-sized with two openings, and highly chewable! They definitely get a pig stamp of approval. (or not-as-much disapproval.)

Loungin'

Snuffle loves watching the wall. I think she was munching on something yummy when I took this photo. Lots of times we walk by and she's chewing and watching the wall. She's really not the smartest pig we've got, but you have to love her cuteness. I just get the urge to give her little leg a gentle tug! but she'd never let me get away with that level of cheekiness.

Guest post

Guinea Pig Wartime Journal: "HedgePiggle has forced me into exhile. Times are dire. The others act as if nothing is wrong. I hope nicole can find me in here to give me carrots....someone is at the door!"

TrogglePig and HedgePiggle

Troggle is stubborn and confident. Try and get her to move and she won't. She's also the heaviest of the pigs, and we think she may have been a breeder at one time (! imagine tiny troggles running around? Cute!)...
Hedge is the loudest (look out for future sound clips) and squeaks at the fridge, plastic bags, human slaves walking by, the exterminator, basically nothing at all. She is the smallest piggle but has the largest sense of entitlement. Also she has just an incredible coat! It's so smooth and soft.

Troggle has cute soft wheeks and squeaks, but she is very individual in the sense of contentment sounds. When she anticipates a treat (when I pick her up), when she gets the said treat, or when she's generally pleased, she gives out a soft silly grunting sound. The first time I heard it I thought she had blocked air passages or some kind of breathing problem! but no, she even grunts happily when we lean over and talk sweet-talk to her. Simple animal, even simpler to please.

Snuffleupagus (SnufflePig)

Snufflepig is gentle and sweet, and the easiest to snuggle with. She loves sitting on your shoulder and snuggling into your neck. She also has soft wheek sounds and silly soft belly-hair. The only way to identify her front or back is by looking for her orange nose. When we first got Snuffle and Skitterbug they were in the same cage huddled together in the corner. Poor little scared baby piggies! We had to get them because they were all snuggled up, of course. They were sooooo thin when we got them because they were about 5 months old and hadn't really plumped out yet! Now, about two years later, they are chubby and healthy adult pigs.

SkitterBug

The chubb!
This photo was taken when she was younger and (relatively) more limber. Behaviorally she is the best survivor, due to her greedy food-inhalation, fast scramming reflexes and apprehensive nature.
She also has a very soft coat, making her a target for snuggle-hungry humans.

We used to serve hay inside paper lunch sacks, which had a dual role: hay container + toy! but since they get all foul and lead to precarious situations such as those above, we built them a little hayloft instead. Plus at that time there were only two pigs, where now there are four.