Sunday 19 April 2015

My New Pets!

Hi guys!

  So, this post is going to be about something very exciting that happened recently. After years upon years of begging for a pet, I am finally able to say that I have not only one but two! I'm referring to my two beautiful pet guinea pigs that I got a few days ago. They are 2 month old males, brothers, given to us by a friend of my dad's whose sow gave birth to three pups and he could only keep one of them.

  As for their names, my brother and I decided that we would each name one of them. We also wanted to give them very unique names. He ended up naming one of them Cairo (which is a male name of Arabic origin which means "victorious"). I named the other one Ren (which is a unisex name of Japanese origin which means "water lily/lotus") because I liked the way those two names sounded together.

                And so, let me introduce you to the pups.


                          This is Cairo:
                 (Shout out to this cutie who was such a good boy and                                                didn't move at all during the photo shoot.)





 Cairo was very skittish at first and wouldn't let us pet him, but in the course of a few days, he has proven himself to be a very friendly and gentle guinea pig. He's also very food-driven which means that he's the first one to stop what he's doing and jump out of his hideout if he suspects that we have a treat for him.

                     
                            This is Ren:
                  (I had to feed him a cucumber slice to calm 
                        him down and keep him from moving around 
                        too much)





     
  Ren is a little underdeveloped in size compared to his brother. He's not very fond of being picked up, but once he's your arms he is calm and happy. He loves being petted and he shows you that by licking and nibbling on your fingers, which I find extremely cute.



  At first, when we got them, they were very scared and they wouldn't leave their little hideout inside their cage. Even though we were very excited and wanted to play with them, we didn't want to force them to come out, so we waited for them to do it on their own. Eventually we got a bit impatient and tried to lure them out with treats (lettuce and cucumber, which seem to be their favorites so far) but they would grab them and run back inside.

  The first one to start exploring the cage was Ren, proving that even though he's smaller in size, he is much braver than his brother. It took Cairo a little more time to get used to his new surroundings, but he is now completely comfortable with coming out of the hideout as well. Both of them have gotten used to our presence and they let us pet them as much as we want.






  So far we are dealing with two problems:

1. The two of them keep growling at each other. They make a growling/purring sound, their bodies look like they're vibrating and they might even chase each other. I've also heard them chatter their teeth which means that they are upset and angry and are warning the other guinea pig to stay away. Because of this my family and I decided that we will have to keep them in separate cages for a while. I just have to go get another cage soon.

2. Cairo can't seem to figure out how to use the water bottle. I noticed him approach it a few times but all he did was gently bite it's end, like he didn't know what to do with it. I have put a bowl of water in the cage because I'm afraid that if he can't get access to that he won't drink anything at all. Please comment down below if you have any suggestions on how to get him to understand how a water bottle works.


Lastly, because I read that guinea pigs are animals who like to follow a routine, I am currently working on making a daily schedule for them with my family. We're all very excited about spending time with them and we've done a lot of research so that we can take good care of them.


If you liked this post please share it.
Also, please leave a comment down below talking about your own cute pets and what it was like when you first got them.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Stephanie

1 comment:

  1. Nice pets!!! I hope you will continue your blogposts!!! <3

    ReplyDelete