 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Last Updated: 12/20/18
Photos and videos are listed from oldest to newest. Videos include the word video and will take you to You Tube.
These photos are from the day that we got her on 11/19/11:
Avery - before her bath, top view
Avery - before her bath, front
view
Avery - before her bath, top lifted up;
yes, she looked scared! I then bathed her.
Avery - post bath.
These photos are from 11/24/11 when she was released to join Brownie and Abby.
Avery - just about to go down the
ramp for the first time to see Brownie and Abby; you can see all three pigs.
Avery
Avery
Here are some photos of all three piggies on 11/26/11.
Abby, Brownie, and Avery - left to
right
Brownie and Avery - left and right
Abby, Brownie, and Avery - top to
bottom
Abby, Avery, and Brownie - left to
right
Avery - 12/10/11
Avery - 12/10/11
Here are all of the guinea pigs on 1/7/12:
Avery (back), Abby (left), and
Brownie (right)
Avery (back), Abby (left), and
Brownie (right)
Avery - 1/10/12
Avery - 1/10/12
Avery - 1/10/12
Avery - 1/14/12
Guinea pig sliding board video - my guinea pigs sliding down the ramp from their second floor to their first floor some time in February, 2012. They come down in the order of Avery/Lammie, Brownie, and Abby.
Avery video - in late January 2012 I think. I was just doing test videos and petting her to show her long hair.
Avery - 2/23/12 on new third level of Pigtopia
Abby (left), Avery (bottom), and Brownie (right) - on 2/28/12
Avery on 5/2/12.
I took these photos of Lammie (Avery) on 11/30/12. Her eyes are not that color; it is a reflection
from the camera's flash.
Avery
Avery - showing her little piggie
mouth
Avery on 3/3/13.
Avery on 8/2/14.
I took these two photos on 1/11/15. The air was so dry that Lammie's hair was sticky straight
up!
Avery - front view
Avery - rear view
On 11/19/11, my mother and I went to the county's rabbit and cavy show. I thought I might meet a breeder who could get a texel. We wanted a third pig in Pigtopia, another girl. Texels were created in England by breeding silkie to rex guinea pigs. Silkies are long haired guinea pigs. Unlike Peruvians, they do not have long hair around their faces. Rex guinea pigs are similar to the teddies from the USA. Texels have long hair that becomes very curly. If brushed, they become very poofy. There were two young texels for sale at the show. One was white with lilac on the face, almost exactly the colors of Abby. The other was a hard-to-describe color, and we bought her for $15. Her color was not exactly any of these: chocolate, lilac, gray, and brindle but more like a combination of all. She had a small area of white on her right rear but the rest was uniform. She looked like one of those dark-haired sheep, so I called her Lamby but changed the spelling to Lammie. My mother detested that name and insisted on a different one. After going through some names, we agreed on Avery. My niece had some twin girl friends named Abby and Ava. So, now we had Abby and Avery, almost the same.
When I got home, first I checked her sex at my mother's urging. I told her that if anybody should be able to sex guinea pigs it would be a breeder. I took some photos. After I did that, I trimmed her nails. She had been kept on pine shavings and was a bit dirty and soiled so I gave her a quick bath/shower with Bunny Bath. I toweled dried her. She went in to one of the cages in the bathroom by herself until the vet could give her the once over. She was quiet but had made some noise. By 11/21/11, she was eating hay and grapes and had drunk some water.
Avery went to the vet on 11/22/11. He could not find anything wrong with her. She weighed 383 g. He agreed she was about 8-weeks-old. Aside from keeping her lower abdomen clean (it collected waste), he had no real advice. He did not know about her breed so he added texel to the database. I asked him if I should quarantine, and he did not think so. Of course, any decent by-the-rules person like me would quarantine anyway but my mother was anxious to get her in to Pigtopia.
I put her in the top of Pigtopia the next day with one of the metal frames blocking access to keep her separate from Brownie and Abby. Neither one seemed interested in her. Just like with Abby, Avery came out of her shell as soon as she was in Pigtopia. She ate lots more, pooped a ton, and talked almost non-stop. She stopped hiding all the time. In fact, it turned out that she was more gregarious than Brownie or Abby. I was going to keep her separate until that Saturday but mom insisted I let them together the next day. Avery was very smart. Soon after I removed the blockade, she went down the ramp by herself (I had to show the other two). She explored while Brownie and Abby seemed almost afraid of Avery. She went back up the ramp and down again like an old pro. Brownie showed some interest in mounting her (he was neutered) but was not even close to being as excited about Avery as he was about Abby when she joined him. Abby seems miffed but pretty much ignores Avery. So, I guess things are going okay. Avery loves to talk all the time.
I tried for my mother but I could not help it. I always called her Lammie. She was the best piggie ever.
I took all the pigs to the vet on 6/23/16 for check ups. Lammie was at 968 grams. I told the vet that she sometimes has a little goopy eye but not as bad as Abby. Well, when he looked at her left eye, he said it was horrible. I tooked, and it was! She had a piece of straw stuck in it. We both tried to pull it out and could not. He lubricated her eye and forcefully evicted the straw. Her eye bled, and she squeaked in pain. I wanted to cry. He said it should heal, and I would give her ofloxacin eye drops for a week in her injured eye. He found no other problems. I usually held Lammie on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 20 minutes but I was not able to that Tuesday. I also looked at them daily so I think the straw in the eye had just happened; lucky we were going to the vet.
Lammie went with Abby and Brownie for a check up on 6/22/17. She was down to 909 g; she lost six percent of her weight which was a concern. I was concerned because she seemed less active, her fur was not as long as it used to be, she no longer climbed the ramp to the other levels of Pigtopia, and her breasts were still crusty. The vet looked at all those things but did not really diagnose anything. It was just aging.
I took Lammie and Brownie to the vet on 6/19/18. Lammie had lost some weight. She was only 693 grams. Aside from that and not grooming herself any more, the vet said she was in good shape.
Lammie developed some seemingly minor problems including dry eye, minor eye crusting, dried boogies around her face, and slowing down. Yet, it was shocked to find her dead the morning of 12/20/18, and I just bawled for about 10 minutes straight. She was the best piggie ever, the best of the eight that I have had. I held her almost every Tuesday and Thursday night for 20 minutes. She maybe peed on my three times in seven years. She was always sweet, never bit me that I can recall. And, she was so beautiful with her long gray hair. She was seven years and three months old. I cannot imagine not having guinea pigs again but I need time to mourn, dismantle Pigtopia, clean the table under it, replace the soiled and torn table cloth that has been under there for eight years (could not lift the huge cage to clean it off), rebuild Pigtopia, and come up with a plan. In the mean time, I can catch up on other animals chores. It is just not the same though without the squeaking of guinea pigs!
Go to Pigtopia for photos and information on Avery's home.
|
|
Return to the main guinea pig page.
See the master index for the guinea pig pages.
|
|
E-mail RobynCopyright © 1997-2024 Robyn Rhudy |
|
 |
