My mom recently commented to me, "I wish I could die and come back as one of your pets." Sadly, I kind of have to agree with her. My furballs enjoy pretty sweet lives. So this week I embarked on some cage renovation for the little sea pigs. Sparked by a fellow pig owner's comment, I found out about using fleece to line the pigs' cage. For the uninitiated, you generally line the cage with a mixture of hardwood chips (something non-aromatic and oil-free, like aspen) and CareFresh which is a crinkly, paper-like absorbent material. The CareFresh is expensive but important because wood shavings are dusty, oily and even the scent-free kind can irritate sensitive piggy noses. This works well to an extent. The cons are that it creates a lot of waste, and cleaning is kind of a hassle (no one likes scooping poop), and it can get expensive though the wood helps cut the cost. Lastly, the pigs tend to choose 'bathroom' spots that get wet and smelly faster than others. Obviously smell is bad, and no one wants to live in a spongey environment.

The first step to the renovation was to expand the cage. The really truly dedicated pig people say that 10.5' sq is ideal for two pigs. The last cage reconfig only gave them 7.5' with a 13"x13" loft and I've been feeling guilty ever since. I have a ton of spare cube pieces so when I couldn't sleep on Monday night I got out the zip ties and went to work.

The new abode (I like to call it Pigwarts) has different rooms. Pictured above is the Apéritif y Antipasti room. Note the two water bottles for multi-pig hydrating. This is also where most of the veggies land. You'll notice that the AyA room has a traditional CareFresh and wood shavings floor. This is because pigs (like most rodents) are multi-taskers and tend to do the input and output of food at the same time. Plus the waters are drippy.

The middle of the cage is now dedicated to living and lounging space. Several layers of cotton towels are topped with soft and plushy polyester fleece. Urine quickly drains through the polyester into the towels, which are laundered 1-2 times a week. A quick daily vacuum keeps the poop under control and the whole thing supposedly will stay drier and cleaner. Ideally the pigs will concentrate their waste activities in the areas with CareFresh. In the meantime everyone seems quite pleased with the velvety soft bedding.

Last but not least, you should notice the second kitchen, the tube tunnel (with viewing ports) and the expanded hay loft. The hay goes in up top and 'Tufo and Ginnie spend a lot of time pulling it down (much easier than just going upstairs). No picture yet, but it's very cute to watch such stubby animals go up on two legs.

The bottom of the cage provides convenient storage space, though I think the next project will be to create a curtain to go around the bottom. It doesn't look that bad, but the cubes just seems so dorm chic to me.

I'm sure this won't be the last change to the environment, but for now the pigs and I are pretty pleased. It really seems like they have a lot more room and I like the look of the space (key since it's in my office.) Several weeks of dedicated socializing have also brought about huge changes and I'm free to pet and pick them up, rub their noses, bellies and cheeks and there is far less terror involved, especially from Ginnie.

Wheek wheek!

PUBLISH OR PERISH
I'm trying not to be bitter that Sarah is having seasons. Cathy and I are going to try and fake it while I'm in DC next week. She's been posting like crazy lately, but seems to have fallen off the bandwagon this week. Heather warned me she would be late, but I think she forgets that the rest of us are on EST, so she still makes the cut in my book.

We had quite the pig overhaul today. I begged to get a visit from Fluffy a few weeks ago, and he seemed to really enjoy the company of other pigs even though they had to stay separated. Leo decided to get Fluffy his own baby pig, while I kept lobbying to keep Fluffy at my house. We couldn't decide on which piglet, so we ended up with two. After some floor time -- in which Tufo took out a chunk of Fluffy -- we decided to isolate grumpy Miso and give Fluffy and Tufo each a piglet. This worked to an extent, but both pigs had thoroughly drenched the piglets in spray to the point where territory was all over the place. Fast forward to a completely emptied and cleaned cavy condo and five freshly washed and dried pigs. We put the pups in with Fluffy, put Tufo on the other side and put Miso in the travel cage. But oops! we forgot that the pups could just slip through the bars like they weren't there. After a couple hours of running back and forth, we decided that Ginger would stay with Tartufo and Fred would stay with Fluffy. (Fred & Ginger, or Freddie Mac & Ginnie Mae -- don't worry though, they're both boys.) The older boys stopped spraying them down, but the adults would get anxious/neurotic if both babies were on the other side and the insane chewing of the dividing bar was driving me insane. So they're paired up now and seemed to have settled in quite well.

We made a quick trip down to Port Charlotte tonight, and of course I wanted to see my old friend Fluffy. I ended up wheedling to take him home and now he has half of the pig condo and all three pigs are carrying on a vigorous conference. While I cleaned the cage, Fluffy and Tufo had some romaine on the floor wherein Fluffy got more exercise in 15 minutes than he has in 6 months. I don't know what kind of communication they do through their butts but Fluffy was hot on his trail and Tufo wanted to have none of it. Finally Tufo realized that he could dine and dash by carrying the romaine in him mouth and wouldn't have to stop. Miso and Fluffy are on either sides of the barrier in the last picture, chattering at each other. Leo likes to throw about dire predictions based on a couple hours of behavior, but I'd like to keep them together for at least a week and see if we can't create a Pig Accord. If the kids don't ask for him back, I'll expand the condo for an expanded herd.