Max and Bart
Bartleby and Maxwell have now been part of the Montgomery household for three weeks. I will admit that I did not do a lot of research before we bought them. I had a rabbit and several gerbils when I was a kid and figured that a guinea pig would be pretty low maintenance. While they do not require a lot of work, they definitely need attention. This is not a problem as our whole family immediately fell in love with Max and Bart.
I have since learned some interesting facts about guinea pigs.
Popcorning. Max and Bart joined our family during a very stormy week—rain, thunder and lightning every evening for about 5 days. When Bart began to run around and jump erratically, I thought that he was freaked out by the storms. Harold thought Bart was defective, commenting that he was glad that the pet store offered a guarantee. I soon learned that Bart was “popcorning”- a common guinea pig behavior that indicates happiness. A popcorning guinea pig will run-around very quickly, jump into the air, quickly turn around and jump again. This all happens in seconds and is very amusing to witness.
Potty training. When the salesperson at the pet store (who looked 12) explained that guinea pigs could easily be trained to go in a litter box, I did not believe her. She instructed us to fill a litter box with critter litter and the guinea pigs would eventually start going in the litter box. We bought the litter box and filled it with critter litter. After about 3 days, the cage and the litter box were both covered with droppings and I was afraid to let Max and Bart roam around outside of the cage. After about 2 weeks, I noticed that they were indeed going mostly in the litter box!
Cavies. I knew (or assumed) that guinea pigs were not pigs and did not come from guinea. I did not know that they are also called cavies because they belong to the caviidea family and the genus cavia. The caviidea family consists of rodents native to South America and the genus cavia refers to guinea pigs. For those of us who are not zoologists, let’s just call them guinea pigs.
Speaking. In addition to popcorning and swinging their hips to communicate their state of mind, guinea pigs also purr, chirp, squeal, whine and make various other sounds to let you know how they are feeling. For Harold this was almost a deal breaker. Prior to getting the piggies, Isaiah found a video online that featured a guinea pig chirping incessantly. Harold’s reaction: “That’s how they sound????”
Stacey Montgomery
Stacey M Design
I have since learned some interesting facts about guinea pigs.
Popcorning. Max and Bart joined our family during a very stormy week—rain, thunder and lightning every evening for about 5 days. When Bart began to run around and jump erratically, I thought that he was freaked out by the storms. Harold thought Bart was defective, commenting that he was glad that the pet store offered a guarantee. I soon learned that Bart was “popcorning”- a common guinea pig behavior that indicates happiness. A popcorning guinea pig will run-around very quickly, jump into the air, quickly turn around and jump again. This all happens in seconds and is very amusing to witness.
Potty training. When the salesperson at the pet store (who looked 12) explained that guinea pigs could easily be trained to go in a litter box, I did not believe her. She instructed us to fill a litter box with critter litter and the guinea pigs would eventually start going in the litter box. We bought the litter box and filled it with critter litter. After about 3 days, the cage and the litter box were both covered with droppings and I was afraid to let Max and Bart roam around outside of the cage. After about 2 weeks, I noticed that they were indeed going mostly in the litter box!
Cavies. I knew (or assumed) that guinea pigs were not pigs and did not come from guinea. I did not know that they are also called cavies because they belong to the caviidea family and the genus cavia. The caviidea family consists of rodents native to South America and the genus cavia refers to guinea pigs. For those of us who are not zoologists, let’s just call them guinea pigs.
Speaking. In addition to popcorning and swinging their hips to communicate their state of mind, guinea pigs also purr, chirp, squeal, whine and make various other sounds to let you know how they are feeling. For Harold this was almost a deal breaker. Prior to getting the piggies, Isaiah found a video online that featured a guinea pig chirping incessantly. Harold’s reaction: “That’s how they sound????”
Stacey Montgomery
Stacey M Design
Labels: family, guinea pigs
posted by StaceyMDesign at Tuesday, July 06, 2010
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home