Sunday, February 16, 2014

Eric and Sheldon

Two weeks ago, after much discussion, Larry brought home two guinea pigs. They had belonged to a friend, who wanted them to go to a good home. For any of you who happen to be fans of The Mighty Boosh, you will appreciate why the guinea pigs had been given the names Vince and Howard. For no other reason than I just could not get in my head which one was which, we decided to change the names and so we now have Eric and Sheldon (Yeah, guess what we watch! Hmmm... quite a varied taste in TV programmes). 

Initially they both seemed quite reluctant to be picked up and tended to try to nip us if we picked them up, but gradually they have become used to being handled and are actually quite sweet.

We took some criticism over the fact that they live outside and it is cold. There are several reasons that they have to live outside. 1. They smell more than rabbits and I don't want the house to smell. 2. they have always lived outside, so there is really no need to bring them inside. 3. We have outdoor hutches and would have to buy 2 indoor hutches / cages if we were going to bring them in. 4. Where the hell would we put them? We already have a house bunny, who takes up far too much room in the living room. So, outside they will stay.

Although they are outside, they will be well looked after. Their hutches are covered at night to protect them from the rain and wind and are cleaned out regularly. They get plenty of fresh hay and fresh vegetables, clean water and dry guinea pig food. We let them out regularly to have a run around with each other and spend time handling them. I think Sheldon (smaller brown one) and Eric (larger brown and white one) are both very happy and have settled well.





Today, I want to rearrange their hutches and set up a run,so that they can come in and out easily during the day, while we are around. I'm going to need to make sure that they can't get underneath the hutch to escape; I need to cover the run over with netting; and I need to make some kind of ramp so that they can get in and out of the hutches. Busy day ahead then...