Bad boys, Bad boys, what we gonna do......?

Cosy in their winter quarters, time for supper!

You might remember we found ourselves in need of a new pet after our lovely cat Polly left us in February. Lauren had been asking for some rabbits or guinea pigs for months, so we did lots of research and finally decided we would get ourselves a little herd of guinea pig babies.
From a desire to make their lives as nice and roomy as possible and after being unable to locate a suitable hutch online, we headed out to White Post Farm, near Farnsfield. We found a huge double decker hutch there, a run and all the necessary accessories. A bit of texting between the grown ups ensued and finally we agreed that we would come and get everything the following Sunday. Just as Lauren and I had finished cooing over the baby guinea pigs and were headed back to the car, we saw a cage with a label reading "Long John and Silver", detailing 2 guinea pigs in need of a home. We were smitten as soon as we saw them, teeny, tiny, 2 month old Silver who looked nothing like a guinea pig and his great, big fluffy dad Long John, with his long white hair and enormous mouth. We bugged Tony all week and once he saw them he agreed they were a must. Why we didn't stop there who knows, but there were 2 more "older" guinea pigs, William and Harry, who had managed to get to 5 months without being snapped up, feeling sorry for them we decided to take them too.

Long John and Silver determined that they fit in this space together!

It was a nerve racking introduction but everyone seemed to get on fine and we were soon moving them into their permanent home.
The happy families didn't last for long, Long John got bitten on his bottom a couple of times, he moved out of the bedroom and into a draughty corner out of the way of everyone else. Then William got bitten too. We couldn't work out if it was all four of them or one culprit, I didn't like to see Long John being segregated and Harry was monopolising Silver. As Long John and Silver had been living happily together since long before William and Harry came along we decided to separate the hutch into an upstairs and downstairs and harmony was restored and a status quo has been in existence until a couple of weeks ago.
Tony had gone on a weekend wild camping to Knoydart in Scotland, Lauren and I had been to a play centre and then for some food. It was dark when we got back but we ventured out to feed the pigs and cover them up for the night.

Poor Harry looked a right state, he had a big black mess on his face, we brought him in to sort him out thinking he had a poo stuck on his face, but as I began to clean him it became apparent he'd been bitten though his top lip and nostril. A lot of patient washing later and he was nearly back to normal, it didn't look nice but it looked a lot better when all the matted fur had been cleaned. We had no choice but to put him back with William.

Half way through the clean up, looks bad, but once the blood had gone it wasn't as bad as it seemed.
A little touch of Sudocrem and he was looked as good as new.

They marked their territory taking separate sides of their hutch and only meeting in the middle when it was time for dinner and that's how it's been ever since. There have been small incidences since, William's had a couple of nips on the nose. They have pretty much stayed in their corners ever since, some days they look like they are getting on, some days Harry chasing William round in circles for ages trying to "have relations"(!!) much to Williams understandable annoyance.

In the heat of the storm we tried the "bathing" remedy, give them a bath together and they find a common bond in the unfamiliar situation, they come out clean and friendly, both smelling the same. All went well in the bath but after 5 minutes in the run they were back to rearing up at each other and chattering.

William in the bath

Harry in the bath

Pretending to bond!

Finally things seemed to have settled down a little this week William has even let me feed him by hand and tickle his nose without him running away.

It may have something to do with them being moved into the summer house, a less exposed location, a bit easier for us to get down and speak to the boys downstairs. Easier to keep them warm in the coming winter.

Lets hope things stay on good terms or we will seriously have to consider finding new homes for the 2 brothers, either somewhere where they get a lot of attention or in separate homes.