Engel's Herd

How could you! I hope they made you feel ashamed so you gave them extra nummies.

Happy belated birthday AND gotcha days.
 
They had extra veggies and grass to make up for it. They don't know any different but I do like to mark special occasions with them.

As of last weigh day Autumn was 1322g. Everyone else has plateaued but she has continued to gain lol. It's got to the point where I can't feel her ribs and when she gets worked up, her breathing gets noisy. She has got a short head anyway which doesn't help. She is a lazy pig too. There's nothing in her diet which would cause her to be so fat!

Any tips to help her get moving? I regularly do boredom breakers to make them work for their food. But other than putting her on the floor and try to get her to eventually run, I'm stuck on what i can do.

Picture of the chonker:
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It's not the way I'm holding her...she genuinely got no form. 😅
 
weepweeps said:
Maybe she’s just big boned. 🤣. She’s gorgeous though. 😍
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Ha maybe 😂 She's changed a lot from the tiny, thin piggy she was when I got her. Obviously there was no reason for it other than she'd not been fed.

She is lovely and she's come into her own now. If she doesn't approve of something you will definitely hear about it!

May start to let her and her pals free roam the room for a couple of hours a day to get her moving more.
 
So they've been out 45 mins and Autumn has started with the bright red pee again so she'll be going back on cystease. Gave me a quick (but gentle) nip as I was putting her back in the cage to show her disapproval.

Cyril had a great time. Popcorn and zooming everywhere. Blossom spent most of her time exploring and stopping for a quick snack before using human slave as a tunnel.
 
Today was clean out and weigh day. Everyone looks good. Autumn has lost weight (I gave them a different hay to make their usual Timothy hay stretch as we're waiting for more to arrive).

Weights are as follows...
Eileiythia-Eris - 1130g
Dysnomia - 1047g
Basil - 1036g
Autumn - 1265g
Blossom - 1291g
Cyril - 1130g
Jupiter - 1063g
Apollo - 1058g

Autumn and Blossom had their nails done last week and looking their best for Santa Paws.
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Just 6 more pigs to go!
 
Oops, it's been 5 months since I last updated this thread (sorry). Everything's been a bit hectic if I'm honest.

Piggies are doing well and have moved back outside. Eileithyia-Eris 'Mumma', Dysnomia 'Mia', Apollo 'Po' and Jupiter 'Jup' settled in rather quickly as this isn't their first time in their holiday home. Basil 'Mr Fuzzy', Cyril 'Squirrel', Blossom 'Bloss' and Autumn 'The Brick' were not too sure about the new apartments. Mr Fuzzy settled much quicker as he lives with Mumma and Mia.

Since moving outside 'The Brick' has lost some weight and is breathing much better. Mia's IC seems to have settled down where I'm now debating whether to drop the cystease altogether now to see what happens.

I've started drying some forage for the winter, which I know sounds silly as it's May, but last year I seriously underestimated how much forage they have, and with 8 pigs it doesn't seem to last long. Does anyone know if sticky weed dries well? They love if fresh, just wondered if anyone's tried drying it. I've ordered this hanging herb drying rack for the forage.
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A friend of mine has a slightly overgrown front garden as they currently don't have a lawnmower. So over the next few days I'll be getting a lot to feed the pigs and to dry. Who knows what the neighbors will think!

There's also a track near by that normally has a lot of sticky weed, brambles and nettles so once it dries up a bit I'll be coming back with bags full of forage.

I've already cleared 5 flowerbeds of weeds aka free pig food. I only have 1 left to do then I need to wait for the grass to grow again.
 
Engel said:
Oops, it's been 5 months since I last updated this thread (sorry). Everything's been a bit hectic if I'm honest.

Piggies are doing well and have moved back outside. Eileithyia-Eris 'Mumma', Dysnomia 'Mia', Apollo 'Po' and Jupiter 'Jup' settled in rather quickly as this isn't their first time in their holiday home. Basil 'Mr Fuzzy', Cyril 'Squirrel', Blossom 'Bloss' and Autumn 'The Brick' were not too sure about the new apartments. Mr Fuzzy settled much quicker as he lives with Mumma and Mia.

Since moving outside 'The Brick' has lost some weight and is breathing much better. Mia's IC seems to have settled down where I'm now debating whether to drop the cystease altogether now to see what happens.

I've started drying some forage for the winter, which I know sounds silly as it's May, but last year I seriously underestimated how much forage they have, and with 8 pigs it doesn't seem to last long. Does anyone know if sticky weed dries well? They love if fresh, just wondered if anyone's tried drying it. I've ordered this hanging herb drying rack for the forage.
View attachment 224228

A friend of mine has a slightly overgrown front garden as they currently don't have a lawnmower. So over the next few days I'll be getting a lot to feed the pigs and to dry. Who knows what the neighbors will think!

There's also a track near by that normally has a lot of sticky weed, brambles and nettles so once it dries up a bit I'll be coming back with bags full of forage.

I've already cleared 5 flowerbeds of weeds aka free pig food. I only have 1 left to do then I need to wait for the grass to grow again.
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Glad all your piggies are doing well
 
The pigs have been enjoying the sunshine these past few days and enjoying fresh grass for breakfast. I read somewhere that it's a real possibility that this summer is going to be as hot as the last. I really hope it isn't as everything was scorched and I nearly lost half the pigs. So for the past few weeks I have been drying left over forage and have so far dried about 500g and have another ~1kg drying. This week seems like a good week to dry stuff. Dry, warm and plenty of sun. There is talk of a small heatwave at the end of May. I hope it doesn't get too hot. It feels like the pigs have just gone out into the shed and now I might be bringing them back in again.
 
Basil has got some sort of fungal thing going on. He's got a strip of it on his nose which is really thick and flakey. Can see any hair there at all. Hoping it's one of them self limiting fungal strips that you don't need to worry about but we'll see. Got the vets in an hour. I'll take his ladies with him and see if they can do their nails while we're there.

Mia has started with her painful pees again after a month + of nothing. I gradually took her off cystease and nutra calm thinking she may not need it anymore but nope, she's started off again.
 
Vet took a sample of whatever was on Basil's nose and put it under the microscope but couldn't find anything that'd suggest fungal. They've taken a photo for the exotic vet to look at as she's stumped as it looks fungal but doesn't act fungal as it's in a straight line. She's recommend cleaning the area X2 daily with diluted hibiscrub and a cotton bud to see if that changes anything. The next step would be a culture.

I'll attach a photo below. Looks a bit sore in places as the vet needed to remove some to go on the slide. She tested for mites while there too and said it looked clear.

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Edit: just to add, it doesn't bother him at all.
 
I think I'm going to stop the hibiscrub. It's taking off some of the flakey stuff but the skin looks red and sore underneath. I'm going to leave it alone for a few days and just monitor it. I can't get over how it's a perfect line. It does look like fungal stripe though. I'm up at the vets in the next few weeks so I'll speak to the vet again then.
 
It's felt quite different since Autumns and Jupiters departure. Apollo has settled nextdoor to his new neighbours and is a happy boy once again. It's starting to drop cooler at night now so I'm slowly adding extra hay to snuggle down in. I've made my own hay cubes too which they love just as much as shop bought ones and doesn't cost me any extra.
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This morning I was tempted to make some porridge for the older piggies to help with their reserves as temperature are dropping and staying cooler. Eileithya-Eris seems to have an overactive grease gland which is making her hair really greasy and clump together. There a small amount of hair loss/barbering which I'll keep an eye on. I'm going to do a bum bath as and when she needs them to see if that helps. There's a little bit of a waxy build up on the skin around the gland but nowhere else on her body.

Anyway, here's some up to date photos of the scream machines. (Top let: Cyril. Top right: Apollo. Mid left: Blossom. Mid right: Basil. Bottom left: Dysnomia. Bottom right: Eileithya-Eris).
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It's been a while so I thought I'd receive the thread for 2025.

I'm starting starting the year with 5 piggies which is still strange to me after having 8 for so long.

Mia and Po have outlived their parents, and to mark this milestone they've got new hay cubes and had first dibs on fresh grass. Mr Po is starting to look his age now. It's hard to think of the babies as 4 year olds and considered seniors. It didn't seem that long ago that I watched them come into the world.

Here's the crew:
Cyril (brown) and Blossom (blonde)
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Mia (black and white) and Basil (the little rex photo-bombing the first photo lol)
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Mr Po
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Po has a 4x2ft hutch to himself which is permanently joined to Cyril and Blossoms hutch so he can interact with them 24/7. Their sleeping/cosy areas are right next door, separated by a mesh wall. I often peep through the shed window and see them interacting through the mesh and 'sharing' hay.

Now the weather is getting warmer and spring is on the way I'll soon be able to start foraging which I enjoy and find rewarding.

On another note, has anyone found pets at home hay to have gone really stalky, almost straw like? Nature's own has been my go to for a while now but p@h was cheaper this time so thought I'd get some. Quite disappointed really and to top it off Basil got a hay poke so it wasn't cheaper after all. 😅
 
Lovely to see your piggies and hear how they are getting on. Sorry to hear about the poor hay and the hay poke. I only bought P@H hay once, it was inedible according to my piggies at the time! We love Nature's Own too.
 
piggieminder said:
Lovely to see your piggies and hear how they are getting on. Sorry to hear about the poor hay and the hay poke. I only bought P@H hay once, it was inedible according to my piggies at the time! We love Nature's Own too.
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You wouldn't think they'd be so fussy for animals that live to eat and not just eat to live. My RB Eris was the same. Except there were only 2-3 hay brands I could buy, all Timothy, anything else simply wasn't good enough! She loved haybox Timothy blend so much it was difficult to switch her over to other brands. I might get another batch from haybox for a treat.
 
I have had to get Hay Box soft timothy for my two oldies as it is all they will eat these days. The other six get the Natures Own meadow, it's cheaper and I don't want them to acquire expensive tastes!
 
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