Discovery

Baile has discovered her voice.  She's been quiet the last couple of days, but tonight, I think she discovered that the noisy Reese was another pig.  She's become more vocal tonight.  It was non-stop squealing at each other for about 5 minutes straight!  Her voice is quieter than Reese, though I don't think it's possible for her to be louder!  I would really like to put them together so that they can play, but I'd have to get Reese fixed first.  I can't risk him getting Baile pregnant. 

While I held Baile tonight, she snuggled up near my neck.  That's a good sign.  That might mean that she's getting more comfortable with me.  I might even be able to reach into her cage and pet her in a few more days.  Reese still snuggles up to my neck, which makes me happy.  I was thinking that once he learned that there's another pig to talk to, that he'd lose interest in me.  But he still likes to cuddle!  ^_^  Granted, he's more focus on girl-pig, but he still likes to be petted and cuddled by me!

Baile seems to be settling down.  She still runs and hides in her tube, when I come near.  But she still gets out and roams around.  I might have to take the tube out, so that she gets used to lying around outside of it.  Reese does fine without his tube during the day.  I'm sure Baile will be find too.

Oh!  Here's an updated pic of Reese.  He's gotten quite a bit bigger!  Though you might not be able to tell from the pic.

Welcome Baile.

She's my new little pig.  I picked her up today, and I'm guessing that she's a week or two younger than Reese.  She's a mixture of dark grayish-brownish, light brown, and white.  When I saw her, she made me think of dunes(don't ask my why, that's simply what I thought).  So when I got home, I looked up the names of famous dunes world-wide.  I saw two dunes in Scotland that had names I felt drawn to.  The first was Fervie, which I still think is a cute name, and the second was Baile.  I teetered back and forth with the names.  Then I stood and looked at her(and she at me) and I said to her, "you look like a Baile, so I'll name you that."  ^_^

This is the best pic of her that I took today.  I didn't want to take too many pics, because I didn't want to frighten her.  I need to get a good pic of her other side.  She has a white patch over her back left leg.  I've held her a few times so far.  She's very rambunctious, and if I don't keep careful hold of her, she'll run right off my shoulder!  If she sits on my arm and I pet her, she'll stay still, but I can't rest for a moment.  Not like Reese, who'll plant himself against my neck and stay there.

She's still very shy and frightened, so I'm trying to not bother her too much.  The same can't be said for Reese.  He's VERY noisy!  He kept chewing on the bars of his cage in an attempt to get at her(not a good thing when the bars are vertical)!  I had to put up a barrier between their cages, so that he can't see inside her cage.  She needs to be left alone, not screamed at by a little horndog.  ;P

Even so, I made a VERY bad choice earlier.  I decided to let them meet.  I hoped that they'd(okay, Reese) would calm down afterwards(boy was I wrong!!).  Yes, they are boy and girl, so I kept a very close eye on them.  They stayed away from each other for a minute but she finally came over to him.  They sniffed at each other a little, then I make a fast grab for him just as he started to mount her.  I can only hope I grabbed him in time.  I guess I'll find out in 10 weeks.  *face palm*  *sigh*  I'm too worn out to make decisions.  I just hope she isn't the one to pay for my mistake.

shelf

The shelf and ramp I ordered for Reese's cage arrived today.  It's a little smaller that the cage, but I'll see what I can do to fix that.  I'm not putting it in today.  I need to wash it first, and then I'll put it in when I clean his cage on Sunday.  I hope he'll like it.

Reese is learning his name.  I've had him come up to me when I call him.  It's only been a couple of times, but he seems to realize that's what his name is.  He's also getting more used to me.  He'll come up to the bars to sniff my fingers.  He still runs sometimes when I try to pet him, but more often he stays still and lets me pet him. 

He really loves being held.  I'll sit down, plop him on my chest, and he'll instantly snuggled himself into my neck.  I don't seem to have as much of a reaction now.  The area will still get a little red, but that might be from his claws digging into my neck.  When I put him back in the cage, he jumps, runs around, and makes happy noises. 

And I'm pretty sure he's twice the size he was when I got him last week!  But he's only a couple months old, so I guess he'll be growing fast over the next few months.

Celebrating one week

It was one week ago that I brought Reese home.  He's settling in nicely.  I held him some more today and now he runs right up to my neck and snuggles in.  Ironically, I think he's trying to escape me, by hiding there.  ^_^  But after I put him back in the cage, he was running and jumping all over the place!  He was so happy!  I also got him a popcorn stick, which he's been nibbling on.  At one point it moved, which caused him to run off.  But he went back and nibbled on it some more.

Right now a thunderstorm in coming in, but he doesn't seem to be bothered by it.  It's good that the loud noise doesn't scare him.  Apparently only moving popcorn sticks and Mama scares him.  ^_^

You mean I can chew this??

Reese discovered that he can chew on his tube.   This makes him happy.  Tonight, just after I put the tube in, he ran into it, sniffed at it and started nibbling on it.  Then he ran around, nibbled on the tube.  Ran around, sniffed at my fingers.  Ran around, nibbled on the tube.  Ran around, ate some pellets from his bowl.  Ran around, sniffed my fingers.  Ran around, got a drink.  Ran around, nibbled on his tube.

He got his exercise in for tonight, and I'm worn out from watching him!  He's eating right now.  Soon, he'll crawl into the tube and probably spend the night in there.  Then come morning, he'll be unhappy when I shake him out and remove the tube.

cuddling

A couple of times tonight, while I was holding Reese, he pressed himself into my neck.  My best friend told me once that they do that as babies.  They'll tuck themselves under there mother's chin.  I think it's a security thing.  They feel safe there.

Well, as I said, I picked him up and settled him on my chest.  After a while, he moved toward my neck, and then snuggled himself in, while I petted him.  I held him like that for quite a while, and he seems very happy.  After I put him back, he was running around his cage making happy noises.  He also was hopping, called "popcorn".  It's where a pig jumps straight up in the air and it how they express that they are happy.  They only go up a couple of inches, so you don't have to worry about them harming themselves.

He's also been coming closer to me a few times.  His cage sits right next to where I sit at my computer.  He's come up to the bars and, when I put my fingers slowly inside the bars, he stretched his neck out and cautiously sniffed my fingers.  He's also nibbled on my fingers a few times, which is a good sign that he's losing his fear of me.

The only down thing, is that I have a slight allergic reaction to guinea pigs.  my skin turns red and I can get little bumps.  But it's so very slight and well worth it to have a happy pigs and to feel his tiny warm body against me.

Had to change his water bottle.  The one I had in there is fine for a bigger pig, but the spring-ball is just too hard for a tiny pig to push to get water.  I put a smaller one in there and that seems to be working.  He doesn't have to work so hard to get water.