Updates.....

Well they are coming around slowly. Betsy ate food on my lap the other day. She looked freaked out the whole time however she did it!

They both go and use the run on their own accord. Not all the time but when it's dusk and the indoor guineas start to forage around the cage they go into the run and do the same.

Both going to have a final shampoo tomorrow and some more spot on and I plan on letting them meet the indoor guineas to see how it goes. Will do a post and homefully some more photos when I do.

Starting to feel confident that a winter indoors and they will be feeling much more confident and maybe even tame.

Small steps

Well as expected progress is slow. I can sometimes open the hutch and smooth both and they don't run. But both still tremble when held for more than a few minutes. Neither will eat any food on my lap - I discovered the fresh herb Dill yesterday - my house guineas adore it. I thought "right - now's my chance - they are bound to eat it on my lap" so I dutifully tried with each one and NOPE they didn't. I put the first guinea back into the hutch with her piece of dill and then tried the other one to no avail. When I put her back the other one had eaten her dill. She really DID want it.

I have moved all food to the farthest edge of the hutch away from where they sleep and they are still eating the food. Occassionally they will stay in the main bit of the hutch if I am out but rarely. They will if the children are out but not adults.

So it's small steps at the moment. Once they are totally lice free I plan on putting a couple of the house guineas in a run with them to show them how to behave a bit. They have wonderful grass in their run untouched. Maybe they will eat it if the others do. But that will have to wait until the weekend and a second shampoo with lice treatment.

Personally I think there is no hope of them coming around until they come indoors to live. I think a winter in a cage in the kitchen will ensure they tame and aren't so afraid of people. We are going on holiday for 6 days in a week or so and mum is here looking after the guineas. At the moment she can get away with just cleaning out the hutch bedroom and I don't feel I can ask her to catch and hold Bessie and Gypsy as she has no experience of guinea pigs. So they can't come inside to live for a few weeks but as soon as they can they are. End of September it starts getting cold in the night, no shed space, no hutch hugger going to fit the custom hutch so inside it is and i'm pleased. A winter indoors and I hope we will have cracked it.

It's been a week

Well it's been a week and although progress is very slow it's still progress.

The shampoo came and we bathed the 2 girls. Husband put a cage together for me as we did it overnight and kept them in so they wouldn't be cold in the night. Bathed Bessie first, the one i thought would be a pain. She was very calm and it was surprisingly easy. Was shampoo, rinse, shampoo, leave for 5 minutes, rinse so all in all a 10 minute thing. Gypsy fought like mad (I thought it would be the other way around). But both girls were done and the next day WOW they had the glossiest most beautiful hair I have ever seen. It was beautiful, really gorgeous, shiny, healthy - lovely.

They were so clearly miserable in the cage. They ate their veggies and stuff in the night but the morning food by lunchtime was still untouched so I gave the hutch a proper clean and put them back out.

Bessie had to have a cream on a balding spot on her back 3 times a day yesterday and I held Gypsy for a good 10 minutes in the night. Neither of them freaked out too bad either. Hopefully now i can handle them alot and they will calm down a bit.

It's chucking it down outside today so I plan on bringing them in again in their cage. A few hours a day in the cage and maybe they will start to get used to indoors too - the noise and feel of indoors. Come winter they will live indoors so I hope they start to get used to indoors.

More soon

Day 5

NO SHAMPOO!!! I had got myself all ready. I had a tub to sit one in then planned on putting the tub in the bath. I bought new gloves and was mentally ready for the fight. But it didn't show up.

Not very much happened today, I held both girls and looked for lice. Only found one so I am guessing the spot on has killed some off. Gypsy came easier than Bessie. Bessie screached like she was being hurt and tried very very hard to get away. I didn't hold her for long. It was long enough to notice a bit of either hair loss or cut hair on her back. i am going with hair loss and the fungal thing I saw the other day but on a different area of her back too. Can't wait to treat them and help them feel better. I offered both Coriander but neither took it on my lap (they ate it in private later).

They seem to be eating more of their pellets now and when I went out to get the washing in earlier they were in the open part of the hutch! First time I have ever seen them in there voluntarily. They didn't scarper straight away either, they stayed there a few seconds. My eldest daughter (7) has run in a few times today to tell me how exciting that she has seen them in the main part of the hutch a few times today, they don't seem to mind the hustle and bustle of the kids so much.

Both were put in the run today while my tame pigs were out in a seperate run. They spent a fair bit of time in there and at one point one of them even ran all the way to the other end of the run (farthest away from where they can hide). Quite brave for these two.

Feelings I am getting so far are that Gypsy will be more confident that Bessie. Watch this space and hopefully tomorrow - shampoo.

Day 4

Well uneventful day yesterday. It was a definite case of going backwards. After Gypsy was so willing to be picked up on day 3 I wanted to clean the hutch out so needed them to be in the run downstairs. However they wouldn't go so I had to pick them up to put them in but they were a nightmare to catch. Bessie was crazy once caught(we have changed it from Betty to Bessie) and Gypsy was stiller once caught but still hard to catch.

They were also more cautious when being touched or stroked in the hutch. Trust is going to take a while. It's at times like that I wish we had a cage indoors for them. I just believe that they would tame much easier if they were indoors and had to get used to hustle and bustle as for long periods of time it's quiet in the garden. They don't have as much interaction as they would indoors. However until upstairs decoration is finished there is nowhere for them to go indoors. October and they will be indoors no matter how we're doing with the decoration as I don't want them to freeze to death (my neighbour once let a Rabbit freeze to death, I took it in when I saw it but it was just too late for the poor bunny)

Anyway - I try and go to them at least 8 times a day even it it's just to pop a treat in and I talk to them alot. Today (if it shows up) I need to bath them in lice shampoo and once that's done proper handling can start. Wish me luck on the shampooing - I expect to be scratched and bit to death but afterwards these ladies will feel so much better!

I took some photos of them today in the run, here are a couple.

Day 3

Today I took both the guinea pigs out for a hold. The first one (Gypsy) was easy to pick up and sat nicely. I had a good chance to check out her coat, discovering that she has lice. Lots of lice and parts of her skin look a bit scaly, I am guessing fungal but not an expert.
I have treated both of them with a spot on lice, mites, etc treatment and ordered some herbal products from a company called Gorgeous Guineas. I have ordered a lice treatment called 'Lice and Easy' and a skin soother / treatment called 'super souffle'.
I have heard wonderful things about both products so hopefully in a few weeks both will feel better. My fingers were dirty after going through their coats so they will both feel and look so much better after a nice wash.
The second guinea pig (Bessie) was crazy to pick up, she was flailing and flipping like mad and was quite hard to hold onto. Once in my lap she sat nicely and was no problem. Can't say I am looking forward to bathing her though.
I put both of them in the run and threw some parsley in there, they went mad munching the parsley and I picked some long grass which they also polished off. I came back indoors and when I went back out about 20 minutes later they were back in their bedroom upstairs so had figures out how to use the ramp to go back up.
Going to hold them both later and try and hand feed some parsley seeing as it was such a hit. Fingers crossed.

Day 2

Very little progress apart from being allowed to stroke them once without them both bolting. Only once though. We went away this day camping and during the peace and quiet they have eaten all their fresh served by me and my guinea sitter and had a nibble on the herbs.

I have to say they have cottoned on to not all hay being created equal and are only eating the excell herbage with dandelions and marigolds. They seem to wolf that down as they do the excell cigar shaped treats, I really do need to remember the name of this treat as it's so popular.

Day 1 (the first full day)

In the morning it was great to see that they had sneaked out in the night at some point and eaten their veggies and some of their pellets. These were placed just outside the opening for the bedroom so not far to travel whereas the hay and dried herb treats that were over the other side of the hutch look untouched and no droppings over there either. Still at least they are eating the important stuff.

On opening up the hutch to give them their morning veggies they jump up freaking out and climbing all on top of each other in blind panic. Pleased to see the herb cigar shaped treats in there are nibbled and quite alot of it eaten though! That's good as well as some of their bedroom hay. That's plenty of nourishment.

I place the fresh food in the same spot as the previous evening and a few hours later it's still untouched. i think the noise coming from the daytime world is stopping them and it's a very sunny day. I don't want the food to spoil so I put it in the bedroom. A few hours later it's gone, along with a few handfuls of picked grass that I put in. Result.

Going away camping for a night tomorrow so the whole day / night / day will be quiet. That shoudl help them settle in. Someone will pop in and give them veggies on our behalf but that will be the only interruption so plenty of settling in time.

Collecting them and their history

We picked them up from the rescue where they were taken earlier that day from the home they had left behind. The post it note that had their date of births on wasn’t present having blown away somewhere but their names were known. A tri coloured Abyssinian called Gypsy and a tricolour crested girl called Betty. Neither breed I have. They had been taken to the vets earlier in the day who declared them not pregnant and I was also told no lice or mites (although babies also rescued from that house DID have lice). Both were difficult to catch, hadn’t been handled before and I was offered Gypsy to hold. After taking a seat I had a hold of Gypsy. She was scared and after a few minutes started to tremble. You know those trembles from deep within when you are in shock. Hers got bigger and bigger so after a few minutes she was put in the travel box I had bought and we took her, Betty and a small bag of the food they were used to back to Cardiff to settle them into an unused hutch and run. We had decked the hutch out with meadow hay in the bedroom and living quarters on top of megazorb to absorb urine. More nutritious herbage was in abundance in a manger and 2 bowls of different roughage too. I wanted to spoil these two!

We put them in the hutch along with some herb treats and immediately one of them began bolting about like a mad one. She found the hole in the floor that led to the run immediately and headed of to the run. Not really knowing what she was doing. We left them alone for half an hour and went to chop up vegetables for all of the piggies, the indoor 6 that now seemed so tame and a little for the new refugees. Not knowing what veg they were used to meant I didn’t want to upset their system with too many. I served dinner just outside the bedroom so they would have to poke their heads out if they wanted any. Left them alone until the morning