Wiebke's Tribe: Sows and the City Boars

Piggylove82 said:
Your grass looks so nice my mouth is watering. What size run are they in?
Click to expand...

It's about 1.5m each side. My husband has built two of them for me. They fold and are very quick and easy to set up.
Without the dry April, the grass would be even higher. I haven't mowed my lawn for about 15 years now; it's all ended up in the piggy bellies. However, it never looks tidy, either!
 
Wiebke said:
It's about 1.5m each side. My husband has built two of them for me. They fold and are very quick and easy to set up.
Without the dry April, the grass would be even higher. I haven't mowed my lawn for about 15 years now; it's all ended up in the piggy bellies. However, it never looks tidy, either!
Click to expand...
Do you have a lid or cover for them?

I love that grey colour? Is it called lilac?
 
Piggylove82 said:
It's a beautiful colour. Are any of your piggies related?

As beautiful as guinea pig breeds are I feel they are often a combination of several.
Click to expand...

Hyfryd and Hireal are mother and daughter.
I currently also have three sister pairs: Mererid and Morwenna (Myfina died Christmas 2017), Hapus and Llawen, Miaren and Meleri are sisters - see my intro to the blog. ;)
 
Wiebke said:
I have too many piggies to wanting to spam the forum with daily pictures (for that you can click on the Wiebke's Tribe facebook page link in my signature where I also share rescue stories and piggies from around the world) but I thought it might be interesting for you to keep abreast of any major Tribe developments!

So after losing over a quarter of my piggies last year (mostly thankfully to old age) and 20 piggies in all over the last three years, there has been an inevitable generational change and of course quite some group and pair juggling for bereaved or fallen-out companions in order to provide a stable relationship and make them happy again. Not always an easy task!

Here is an overview of who is living with who at the moment, so you can put faces to the Welsh names in my avatar.


Mererid & Morwenna
(nicknames: Merry and Menna)

View attachment 130670
Sisters Mererid 'Margaret/Pearl' and Morwenna 'White Seas' are the last of their happy little piggy family that started with the baby sisters' arrival in Spring 2014 and also comprised of their litter sister Myfina 'My Little Lovely One' (RIP Christmas 2017), orphan Angharad 'Much Loved' (RIP April 2017) and their beloved daddy boar Bedo 'Little Splendid Lord' (RIP June 2018) as well as TEAS foster piggies Essylt/Jessica and her daughter Crisiant/Krystal (returned to the sanctuary in 2015). The Triplets were born at and adopted from TEAS sanctuary.

Here they are with their whole family in back 2015:
View attachment 130671

Since Bedo's death, Merry and Menna have refused to bond with any other piggies (not for lack of trying), but are very closely bonded.
Both sisters were spayed for medical reasons in 2019; they are turning 6 years old at the end of February.


Barri, Briallen & Llawen and Hapus & Heilin
(nicknames: Bria for Briallen)
View attachment 130667
Barri 'Hill' managed to introduce himself to Briallen 'Primrose' when he squeezed through the divider in the bonding pen while I was answering the door bell in June 2017. But the two have shared a loving bond since his rather over-enthuasistic introduction!

Before her marriage with Barri, Briallen used to live with Carwyn 'Blessed Love' and Heini 'Lively' since her adoption in July 2015 and with very skittish sisters Hapus 'Happy' and Llawen 'Merry' (Autumn 2016). However in view of the enduring love affair between Carwyn and Heini (which continues at the Rainbow Bridge), Briallen was always the odd one out.
Photo from bonding Hapus and Llawen with Briallen, Carwyn and Heini on the right in 2016. The picture also is a good expression of Briallen's relationship...
View attachment 130672

Feuding and difficult sisters Hapus and Llawen (who have been rescued as babies from the worst possible circumstances) have been moving between Heini/Carwyn and Briallen/Barri a few times over the intervening three years, depending on how they were getting on with each other and their respective companions at the time.

After Heini's sudden and unexpected death in January, Llawen rejoined Barri, Briallen and Hapus, but eventually her feud with Hapus flared up again worse than ever. Llawen became unwelcome in the group, so I adopted young Heini lookalike Heilin 'Generous' for as a companion for Llawen.

Unfortunately that didn't work out, but thankfully Llawen was accepted back (initially rather grudgingly) by Barri and Briallen while Hapus moved out to live with Heilin instead after a failed attempt to wrestle the group leadership from Barri, so peace reigns again - hopefully for longer this time!
View attachment 130669

Nothing like a proper piggy soap!


Gethin & Carys

View attachment 130673

Young 5 months old Gethin 'Dusky' fell in love with then 5 year old Tesni in 2016. The two lovebirds were joined in the following year by Tesni's bereaved sister Ffwlbri (they were the mother and auntie of Tegan, the little baby in my avatar, by the way). Tesni sadly passed away aged 7 years in April 2018.
View attachment 130674

Baby Carys joined Gethin and by then 7 1/2 years old Ffwlbri in order to make the inevitable transition easier for Gethin, given the large age difference. But her arrival did give old lady Ffwlbri a renewed zest for life, and she lived for nearly a year longer!
View attachment 130675

However, Carys' presence has worked as hoped for Gethin, and the two are getting on well as a pair. Carys is growing into a proper peru diva, but Gethin is gentle and experienced enough to cope!

Carys is named in loving memory of two lilac and white long-haired sows of mine, Cariad (RIP 2014) and Calli (RIP 2018).
View attachment 130696View attachment 130699

To be continued...
Click to expand...
 
Say hello - finally - to Tegeirian (Orchid) or Rhian (Maiden) for short! And also with a short summer haircut...
IMG_1364_edited-1.webp

Here is a rescue picture of her in full glory.
Merrypigs - Sammi March 2020_edited-1.webp

She's been reserved for me since her arrival at Merrypigs Guinea Pig Sanctuary in Stoke-on-Trent in January pending a 10 weeks pregnancy watch. Full lockdown was sadly announced without warning a mere three days before the end of it and the already organised socially distanced adoption handover after the Kidsgrove Animal Rescue Spring Fair had been cancelled at which Merrypigs would have also had a stall.

Anyway, this has finally happened yesterday in full compliance with existing regulations and all possible precautions. It's not my longest ever wait. Pili Pala still holds that record from 2013, but only by a fortnight!

I still very much miss my peru family after all those years together (2011-19) with Ffwlbri 'Moonlight', her sister Tesni 'Sun-warmed' and Tesni's daughter Tegan Syndod 'Beautiful Surprise'. Tegeirian is strictly speaking an abyruvian and while she combines bits of all of them, she is not resembling any of them too closely. That time will eventually come when the pain of the loss has subsided but not for a few years yet!
IMG_9412_edited-3.webp

Wish me luck that she settles happily with one of my many pairs!
 
All the best with Tegeirian, I’m sure that she will have a comfortable life there with you. We shall wait with baited breath to see who she’s settled in with ☺️
 
She's a very beautiful piggy. Looking forward to seeing and hearing more about her.
She's going to have a fantastic life with you and all her new piggy friends.xx
 
Sorry for not posting sooner; I have been first very busy and then not very well in the last three weeks.

Anyway, after a failed bonding attempt with Dryw (who reminds me very much of a young Tegan), Rhian has settled in well and has used to the time to make good friends with Carys and Gethin through the bars. They are the pair I initially wanted to adopt them for anyway, so I can hopefully build up a little long hairs group over the coming years.
IMG_1398_edited-1.jpg


Thankfully, the bonding has gone very well and despite her rumble-strutting habit (a very mild form of fear-aggression). Tegeirian has been welcomed with open paws; she is a very happy girl now! Carys is very happy to have a friend and gentle Gethin is not at all averse to another wifelet! Unlike Dryw, none of the new trio is very dominant.
Here is a snippet from the bonding with a little piggy dominance 'dance':
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=3656802284348000
 
rhymer said:
Loving this, especially the long fringe flicking while popcorning.💕
Click to expand...

Carys urgently needs another summer haircut (she had her first in March at the start of lockdown) but I didn't want to put her in a bad mood pre-bonding. Long-hairs are so cute when they let go with all their hair flying.
 
Here is a quick photoshoot of the new trio during cage clean (all piggies duly in their 'summer coats' of course!)
They have settled together with a minimum of fuss, if you discount Rhian's occasional five minutes of rumble-strutting, which the other two seem to find rather funny. Anyway, it always ends with a mini-popcorn from everypig!

DSCN2661_edited-1.webp
 
I've ended up with an emergency holiday boarder this weekend after a call from my pet shop when an old lady struggled with her granddaughter's new guinea pig, so I offered (with permission of the granddaughter) to look after the boy here since concerns over mange mites had been raised.
IMG_1508_edited-1.jpg

IMG_1503_edited-1.jpg

Nibbles (who is a rather stunning cream himilayan) most definitely has nothing wrong with him and is very well cared for.
Anyway, he is having a good time here and is very excited (and sometimes rather overexcited) meeting other piggies. He will be found a friend for himself in due time by his new family.

Tegeirian was rather interested in him when they shared a subdivided run on the lawn during cage clean on Thursday!
Nibbles has also shortly met my spayed old lady Mererid who gave him a quick and comprehensive lesson in manners, just to see how he is when directly interacting with other piggies; it helps to know whether a piggy is on the submissive or dominant side and whether singles have got social hang-ups or not when it comes to companionship. Mererid did like him but he was struggling with his gonads taking over a bit more than she was happy with.
IMG_1512.JPG
(PS: Teggy, Meleri and Gareth on the left; Tegeirian, Gethin (whose bum Nibbles is sniffing) and Carys on the right)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top