Eriathwens piggies

Today has been extremely stressful (As I'm sure you will see from the first video!) It's been very difficult to watch Misty watching the herd clearly wanting to be with them, even after 2 failed attempts to rebond them.
So, today I decided I would be hard hearted and let it play out, it previously failed due to Shelly coming to blows with her, which I now feel was due to her being unmedicated for her Osteodystrophy. It appears I was correct in that assumption, after a few hours of Misty pushing to see if she could get them to react, she decided she had nothing to fear from them after all and settled down, allowing her to reclaim her 4th in command position within the herd, so far.
Hopefully the peace lasts!

Poor Daisy, Panda, Pippin and Delilah sought shelter behind me while she battled it out with Shelly, Ivory and Pumpkin (the current top 3) but when they felt safe to reemerge, very brief chasing ensued before they accepted they had all moved down a place.

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Well done for sticking it out, it's so hard to watch them testing each other sometimes. I'm so pleased it's worked out, fingers crossed peace remains in your beautiful herd. :luv:
 
Thankyou! I came close to calling it quits a few times, but i'm glad I kept out of it, it's still nice and peaceful, although I don't think I'm ready to put their tunnels and bits back in yet 😅 i'll see how they're doing tomorrow for that.

If it works out, that hopefully means that I can attempt Thistle in with Bailey and Ebony next and they'll get the entire top of the tables with should be 2x6, which also means Leonard can finally move out of his little hospital cage and into a 2x3 next to Tilly and Hazel (once I can get a proper perspex divider instead of just grids...dont need any through the bars late night meetings resulting in pregnancies!) Finally everyone will be in a c&c so the room looks tidier.
 
Thankyou! I'm honestly exhausted and I wasn't even one of the ones running about haha! The bond has so far survived veggie time, pellet time and just recently treat hay time. It's almost bed time where I get 12 hours that I dont have to anxiously monitor them 😂 and hopefully by morning, they will have sorted out any lasting differences.
Bless her, it was like a switch went off in her head when I put them in the pen, she seemed to know she was home and with her family. Once the rest of them have calmed down a bit, they're still a little on edge, but hopefully it will be like she never left :)
 
So far so good still! Hopefully tomorrow her spare cage thats still on standby can go back out to the shed ☺
I was going through the pictures I took and realised I forgot to post this one, poor Pippin minding her own business when Misty turns suddenly and yanks off a mouthful of her hair and eats it! 🤣 I've never seen a pig react so little to something bless her.

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I realised I hadn't been taking progress pictures for little Thistle but bless her she's doing so well. She's no longer so desperate for good food that she scarfs everything down without even looking at what it is, she's actually developed food preferences, like she doesn't like celery (I don't blame her!)
She's able to walk so much easier, I haven't weighed her in a while so I might do that tomorrow but last I checked she was 1250g. She has a little waist now though and you can actually see her legs and nipples when you lift her front up!
Her belly no longer drags along the floor to the point of wearing off the hair, which is growing back nicely.
She's being treated for fungally ears at the moment, but it could well be normal curly hair breed dry skin but better safe than sorry. She's also got quite itchy skin on her back, which is what the biting my shoulder thing was all about, when touched in certain places she frantically bites herself or whatever is in front of her if she can't reach her back. She has quite a lot of dandruff, which was pointed out at her first vet visit by our vet, from malnutrition and general poor care. It has improved which he said it would over the first 6 weeks in our care but we're still going to be treating for mites anyway just to be sure. If that doesn't work I'll trim her hair down and give her a nice bath with something moisturising, I'm sure gorgeous guineas do a shampoo for texels which should help with the dry skin.

Anyway..look at her little belly! The left is today, right from a few weeks back... and her face so she can keep some dignity 😂

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I was tense just watching the bonding video! (Still feel tension in my belly even after a few minutes) well done on sticking it out. Fingers crossed it may long continue.
 
Eriathwen said:
I realised I hadn't been taking progress pictures for little Thistle but bless her she's doing so well. She's no longer so desperate for good food that she scarfs everything down without even looking at what it is, she's actually developed food preferences, like she doesn't like celery (I don't blame her!)
She's able to walk so much easier, I haven't weighed her in a while so I might do that tomorrow but last I checked she was 1250g. She has a little waist now though and you can actually see her legs and nipples when you lift her front up!
Her belly no longer drags along the floor to the point of wearing off the hair, which is growing back nicely.
She's being treated for fungally ears at the moment, but it could well be normal curly hair breed dry skin but better safe than sorry. She's also got quite itchy skin on her back, which is what the biting my shoulder thing was all about, when touched in certain places she frantically bites herself or whatever is in front of her if she can't reach her back. She has quite a lot of dandruff, which was pointed out at her first vet visit by our vet, from malnutrition and general poor care. It has improved which he said it would over the first 6 weeks in our care but we're still going to be treating for mites anyway just to be sure. If that doesn't work I'll trim her hair down and give her a nice bath with something moisturising, I'm sure gorgeous guineas do a shampoo for texels which should help with the dry skin.

Anyway..look at her little belly! The left is today, right from a few weeks back... and her face so she can keep some dignity 😂

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Wow what a difference! She is starting to slim down nicely. Amazing what a lot of love and care can do!
 
Aw little Thistle 😍 I was just wondering yesterday how she was doing. You are giving her such a wonderful new lease of life, so good to see her progress and know that you will do everything she needs to be in top condition. She's a beautiful piggy and obviously appreciates your TLC.
 
Aw Thankyou all!
I've been laughing hysterically in the kitchen for a while..I couldn't find her usual weighing bowl so we had to make to with a small one and she was so not happy. The poor thing could barely fit, but it put her in a prime tomato smelling position!

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Betsy said:
Dennis says "Did someone mention Martoes? where?!? I love a Marto!"
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Oh look at his handsome little nose! I bought what appears to be a bottomless pot from sainsburies...even 14 food disposals havent eaten them all yet so my lot would gladly share with him so I dont have to keep looking at them 😂
 
Eriathwen said:
Aw Thankyou all!
I've been laughing hysterically in the kitchen for a while..I couldn't find her usual weighing bowl so we had to make to with a small one and she was so not happy. The poor thing could barely fit, but it put her in a prime tomato smelling position!

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I really didn’t know whether to laugh or love with these photos
 
I hope no one gets fed up of Thistle on the scales because it's honestly my favourite thing in the world right now 😂 she's such a funny little thing, sitting in her bowl like she's royalty!

She's down to just over 1230g now :) slowly but surely dropping that weight.
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Mistys taken up hairdressing.. poor Pippin! All her lovely fringe is all gone 😂 :doh:
I'd even it up a bit but it's quite funny to look at as it is lol!

Before and after 😂
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Some of the piggies this morning decided to have a pose while I handed out medications and supplements :)
Our new 2x6 has arrived so once I've ordered some perspex to safely divide Leonard from the ladies, the bonding of Thistle, Ebony and Bailey will commence! Exciting times.

Speaking of miss Thistle, she has reached her 200g weight loss milestone today!
We've ditched commercial pellets for everyone, and swapped to a healthier 100% dried grass pellet instead and that has helped loads.

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Can I ask about this grass pellet, I’m looking for something like this for Bill and Ted, they’re not keen on commercial pellets really. Would love muesli, but don’t want to give them it. Grass pellets sounds a good compromise?
 
Bill & Ted said:
Can I ask about this grass pellet, I’m looking for something like this for Bill and Ted, they’re not keen on commercial pellets really. Would love muesli, but don’t want to give them it. Grass pellets sounds a good compromise?
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That's what I thought, I was originally going to just go pelletless but that would mean depriving them of a mealtime which wouldn't go down well and this seemed a good compromise.

These are the ones I'm currently using: Red Bag Grass Pellets - Unmolassed High Energy Spring Grass Nuts

With 14 piggies I figured buying in bulk would be the best thing, which ultimately means it's horse pellets, but being 100% grass with nothing added, what animals face is on the bag is irrelevant, they also do a 100% Timothy pellet but as I'm allergic I've avoided that one for now. From sight and smell if you have less pigs, they're identical to the grass pellets from Galens Garden which I've also used in the past and definitely recommend if your piggies will eat them. The trouble with swapping them to such a high dried grass content pellet is they're used to pellets with sugary binding ingredients such as molasses so switching can be difficult. A bit like getting a kid to give up chicken nuggets for a salad lol
 
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