After a long fight in attempts to save him, Latte has finally decided to join his comrades in GP Heaven. He was lying on his side when I reached home as if he was waiting for me so that I could see him one last time. I’m glad that I saw him one last time.
Since getting him, my family have showered love and doted on him. He knew who would give him food and who wouldn’t. After a few months of constantly talking and stroking him, he would let anyone stroke him except pick him up. It’s a common fear.
I’m glad to have him because he gives me a sense of responsibility. I was upset that he raised his head twice as if to let us know that he would be leaving. After that, he laid down and stopped twitching. I hope that Latte is in better place now.
Guinea pigs are cute but they hide their illnesses too well and I sent him for a vet check at the last stage. I wished I had taken notice earlier. Now that he’s gone, I have a new cat litter that is unopened while the new guinea pig food is opened. I’m thinking of what to do with them.
Latte seems pretty quiet for the past 2 days. I think he senses that I won’t be seeing him for the next 5 days. Poor piggy, I’m sorry, I wish that I can’t bring you along but I can’t. It’s more comfortable for you at home rather than flying. When I get my own personal jet, I’ll bring you along to those places I will be going.
Stay strong, Latte. I’ll be thinking of you.
Latte decided to topple over his hiding place. I don’t know how but he managed to do it. Clever pig, huh? See what he did?
Can you see him? No. He was hiding. Where? Here.
He was very comfortably settled under the newspapers too. That deed was done just after I had changed the newspapers and cleaned the cage too. Bad guinea pig! Bad, bad, bad!
Now that Latte’s been with us quite a while, he’s starting to regconise who feeds him and who scares him. Apparently, he’s afraid of my dad. The loud opening and locking of the doors, who doesn’t? Whenever I pass by the cage, Latte will wheek out loud. Nice. I’ll chat with him and he’ll respond with nods and shakes.
He’s happy whenever my sister arrives home too because his hiding place will be cleared of poo. He’s still running away whenever I’m trying to stroke him despite him calling for my attention. Ironic, huh?
Time to provide some notes on taking care of guinea pigs. Here is a list of things on providing care such as questions on how to handle guinea pigs and asking yourself if you are the right person to own one. Guinea pigs are social animals and will need daily interaction. That I’m trying spend half an hour with Latte everyday.
If you have the space, let the cavy run around the house with some supervision. Electric cables and other things that can be nibbled upon must be kept away from the floors. You don’t want to harm them in any way.
Guinea pigs don’t smell (generally) unless you don’t clean the cage regularly. I’ve to clean the cage soon. I don’t want any smell other than the hay I’m giving daily. Here are the steps to clean the cage. The advantage of using grids and coroplasts is that it is easy to clean.
Be aware that some people may have allergies due to the allergen existing in the urine in the bedding. When the guinea pig scurries around, the proteins exposed will become airborne. If possible, get a family member who doesn’t suffer from it to clean the cage. It would be best to clean the cage outside of the house. Always wash the hands and any part of the body that had come into contact with your piggie.
Take regular weight checks on the cavy because the change in weight will inform you of their medical conditions. Regular vet check ups would benefit them in the long run.
Latte’s not eating hay as much as he usually would. I found out why when cleaning his cage. He was stressed out by baby cockroaches. Ew! I found a dead one in his litter box under his hay rack. No wonder the hay that was put up in the morning was reduced by very little in the evening. There was another live baby cockroach that was in his usual hiding box.
When the roach was caught and thrown away, he popcorned in the box a lot. Thank goodness it wasn’t me who found it. I would have freaked out. Screamed the house down even. Looks like I have to check his cage more often. Maybe clean it more for the next few days to see how. Ants can be seen but it doesn’t bother him that much.
Latte’s still running away from me. The square coroplast with some old clothes is his new hidding place. I think he loves it since he started using it recently. The cardboard tunnel was his first hidding place but with poop all over. I kept pouring them into the litter bin. Hopefully he’ll learn.
I’ve been looking at other types of bedding that are odour absorbant because as a boar, his pee really is strong. A material that is often used is fleece. Quite expensive, I must say. I won’t be able to put it into the washing machine. My mother will freak out.
Other types of bedding could be chopped cardboard, Megazorb, shredded paper (blank ones), VetBed (must be darn expensive) and a few others. I must put those in corners because he likes corners.
The toilet training still continues. Poop is less seen in the rest of the cage but the newspapers seemed to attract his chewing. I guess I need to put more chewy toys for Latte. I decided to recycle the old cage base as the litter box and created a cardboard step to make it easier for him to get to the hay rack. Hopefully he will pee in there too. See the newly cleaned cage below.
[via Webshots]
Latte made some sounds though I’m not sure if he was happy but I guess he was because he popcorned twice under the hay rack. Gee, he could have done it outside and wouldn’t hurt his head. Anyway, he laid down after a while and it was the perfect moment to take a photo of him relaxing.
[via Webshots]
I hope to be able to stroke him without him running away from me every time. The best thing about the large cage is that I can clean it even when he’s in it. He doesn’t seemed bothered by the vinegar smell though. While laying out the newspapers, he kept running under which I had to pat down so he would move away. Time to check out which sort of bedding suits him as boars tend to mark their territory.
The cage is done. After 2 hours of struggling with the measurements and re-cutting. The provided coroplasts sold in Popular is too small. I decided to buy 3 large pieces instead of 2. Thank goodness. It wasn’t easy because the coroplasts refused to bend even when I slit them halfway.
My hands hurt. My neck is stiff. And finally, with all the struggles and cutting and perspiration and perserverence, it paid off. Sort of. At least it’s large and Latte loves running in it except when he’s scared. He’d hide under the hay rack. You can see below.
[via Flickr]
He feels safe under it. At least he’s eating. I’m still trying to toilet train him. It takes quite some time but with the new cage, I hope he learns and adapt faster since there’s a lot of space for him to run now. Except my dad says it’s too big. But he’ll grow bigger ma. Here’s the photo of the new cage.
[via Flickr]
I finally bought some cage materials for Latte. Took me nearly 3 hours of sourcing for the following: metal racks that are used in the kitchen for hanging stuff, metal rack that is used for holding stuff, 3 packets of cable ties (not sure how many I would need but more is always safe) and a spray bottle. Photos to be uploaded but it’s silly to post the materials when I can post the completed cage later, right?
I didn’t buy any coroplasts because I was alone and the 8 racks for the cage were effing heavy! I doubt I could handle the large coroplasts (2 for the base) and the heavy racks. I managed to muster enough strength for the white vinegar bottle too.
I don’t understand though, why is there so many different types of vinegar?! For the white vinegar, they merely stated “Imitation Vinegar” while in Chinese “白醋” which means white vinegar. -_-’ Another bottle stated the something else that slips my mind at this moment because it’s nearly 4am now and I can’t sleep because it’s hot.
I went to check on Latte and he seems to be sleeping soundly, for once. Usually, he would scurry around because of the sounds, maybe it was because I was the only sound and everyone of my family is sleeping soundly, he is less excite/agitated/scared and remains soundly asleep. How I envy him.
I can’t get to sleep even though my eyes are tired! GAH!
