Food Coma

Hay. His favorite thing in the entire world (except for Kaela and I of course). He craves it in the morning, afternoon, night. He dreams about it and I don't think he even has an interest in the female guinea....just hay.

Naturally, whoever wakes up first will feed the pets: scoop of food for Stud, hay for Stud and a scoop of food for Bella. Except McMuff doesn't understand that if he still has food left after a day, or even a few hours it's still OK for him to eat it. I'm pretty sure the hay at the bottom of his "hay holder" (I'm not really sure what else to call it) is days, maybe even weeks old. It also might be due to the fact that once it gets too far down he can't reach it.

He gets so excited about hay, he actually overdoses. Hay is his Thanksgiving meal, except every day. Naturally, as I do, when it's Thanksgiving, you eat until you can't eat anymore...and then you sleep. This is what Stud Muffin does EVERY SINGLE DAY. We will walk upstairs to find him passed out right next to his hay (to give you a little insight, a normal nap/bedtime would be spent in his igloo, but food coma's happen almost instantly). He literally is so full that he can't make it back to his igloo, so instead he just gives in and takes a nap.

I have tried my hardest to stalk him for the last couple of weeks to get a picture of this, but I can't, of course! So, instead here is a picture of a potential food coma.

And here is a picture of just how much he loves hay.

My new best friend.

As many may know, the 111 N Mills residence has turned into a zoo. New resident: Bellatrix Lestrange (her name didn't begin as this, it was Isabella, a much cuter/pleasant name, but behavior has influenced the name change). Why you ask? I'm not going to make this blog about her, because I think it might upset McMuff, but maybe I'll have to start one up in the future.

This post is however about the newly developed relationship between Bella and Stud. This may come as a surprise, but they are best friends, although we were a little nervous after the first few days. Their friendship went through stages, rather quickly I might add, and it began quite unpleasantly.

The 1st night Bella was here she tried to eat him. It was a bit scary, but for some reason Stud had a "no fear" attitude about the whole thing. Although he viewed the situation fearlessly, Kaela and I decided to save his life and hide him in her room for the rest of the night. In fact, she was standing on top of his cage sticking her paws, claws out, into his cage; the only thing protecting him was a fragile plastic igloo. You are welcome Stud.

After a few days of us running up the stairs anytime we heard a noise to make sure we didn't find a half-eaten guinea pig, Bella started to realize he probably wouldn't taste so good, probably pretty fatty, not so lean. So instead of sticking her claws into his cage, hoping to snag him, she would just sit on the stair ledge right next to his cage, or on the plastic tub right in front of it. She went from clawing to staring, with the occasional mouth water, she was moving in the right direction. But Stud still had no fear. Pictured below: the evil glare in Bella's eye; Muff is unaware.

Now she's generally pretty uninterested. They've actually become besties. She will sit in the same spot on the plastic tub and put her nose up to his cage and he will put his up to the edge of his cage too. It's pretty damn cute, we might have to start watching for inter-species mating, instead of half-eaten guinea pig. Love is in the air.

Get your hands off me.

The title of this post is the thought that continually ran through his head all night. He needed a good cage cleaning, so we decided to make a spa night for the pig. We pampered him, fed him carrots, trimmed his nails, reorganized his cage; the list continues. What respect does he show us? None. Listed below are the series of not-so-likable behaviors he showed us tonight:

1. Biting. I was feeding him a carrot (number 2 i might add), and after he tried to rip it out of my hand the whole time, he bit me. He doesn't have razor-sharp teeth or anything, but I must say he broke skin. Thank god I didn't start bleeding, he might have tried to drink it.

2. "Don't touch me" head jerk. This may be confusing, but sometimes you are petting the top of his head and he thrashes it up and throws your hand off as to say "If you don't stop touching the top of my head, I will pee on you." After this lovely gesture, he received no more petting.

3. Frantic spinning. As Kaela slaves away to clean his cage, which includes new hay, a fresh rug, vacuumed surroundings, fresh bedding and a feng shuied living space, he can't even be thankful. On top of the spring cleaning and remodeling, I am attempting to feed him yummy Yo Dips, which are a healthy yogurt dessert he has recently stopped enjoying; apparently he is too good for them. He won't sit still. He keeps running around in circles all over my stomach and I can't help but think he's situating himself to just pee right on me. Yes, he has done this, but to Kaela, I'm not really looking for a repeat. Thankfully he doesn't, but we had him out of his cage for maybe 10 minutes (which he should be appreciative of) and he couldn't relax.

Three strikes and you're out Muff. I put him back in his cage before he had his igloo back in there, which freaks him out as well. So he ran around in circles until he got that shelter back. I've never been so happy to have his cage clean, I think I might be happier than him.

Pictured below: His frantic "Get me out of here" face; a very clear sign he wanted a cage cleaning. The things we do for him.



At the end of the day, we still love him, although sometimes we truly wonder why.

P.S. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. Groundhogs are a distant relative of the Guinea Pig. He's pretty excited for the festivities we have planned. He likes all the attention he can get for just about any holiday minorly related to him.