Wednesday 27 October 2010

Bunny convict!

Well, Miss Bella is in trouble with her daddy! He really was not amused when he went into his room and found that she had escaped her hutch and taken to destroying anything she could get her paws on. The words "she's going" were said but to be honest I think he might love her too much. Right now she's in a temp cage in my room until the big one arrives later in the week.
I feel sorry for her in a way, it's a bunny's nature to do the odd nibble or two.. But still, she is a very naughty bunny rabbit. I love her to bits though so she's staying :) As I'm typing she's watching me to see what on earth is going on with her human. She hasn't got me trained just yet though...
Unlike the piggies! I think their needs to be a Guinea Pig Slave Anonymous somewhere for people who are trained by their piggies. I swear all they have to do is wheek at me and I give them extra food, cuddles and all sorts of things! Sneaky beasties...

Sunday 24 October 2010

Tips

I'm actually quite sprightly considering the events of last night so I thought I'd drop a post with a few tips in terms of guinea pigs and rabbits.
Firstly! The guinea pigs are big fans of Wagg Guinea Pig Crunch but the pet shop near me has a cheaper alternative. So what I've done is bought both and mixed them together in one of those plastic airtight containers that people use for cereal. It's much cheaper this way and they still get the food they like. It's also a plus that the container keeps their food fresher for much longer.
Second: basil. Piggies LOVE basil so why not buy a basil plant! They're only around 75p from morrisons and it provides a yummy treat for your piggies. Poppy and Phoebe go crazy for it :) They don't usually come to you for food but Poppy has started taking basil out of my boyfriend's hand which is so cute!
The next tip concerns rabbit hutches. They are so so expensive! But if you look on ebay with 'ending soonest' rather than 'best match' you can pick up a real bargain. Even if this doesn't work out signing up for the Pets At Home newsletter gives you 10% off your first order which can save some pennies if you're buying a hutch :)
What else.... Oh yeah! If you have some sort of pigloo for your guinea pigs they tend to wee and poo in there so what I do is I put in an old tea towel or dish cloth that I no longer use. It keeps the cage cleaner for longer as they can be removed often without causing too much mess.
I think that's it for the time being but if I think of anything else I'll make sure I post it!

Saturday 23 October 2010

My latest triumph!

I fell in love with rats a long time ago but I never got any due to my piggy obsession! So I've taken to making things for them and I've just started selling them on ebay. I've got a bidder on a fleece tunnel so yay for that :)
Also, I embarked on making a cube bed which went so so so well! Here's a picture of my triumph


I think it was a real success to be honest :D So far I haven't sold any of these but it's currently up on ebay. I realise I'm going to mention ebay a lot so I may as well tell you my user name: ames1509 which, if you didn't know, comes from the fact that my first name is Amy :P Ah well.
I've been selling a lot of stuff to get some extra cash for the time between one student loan installment and the next since the people of Greater Manchester refuse to give me a part time job hehe. I'm only up to £27 so far but it's most certainly a promising start. I'm pretty sure I can make a fair amount of money selling my animal stuff :) Fingers crossed!
I think that's pretty much it for now... I'm not sure if I'll be posting anything tomorrow since I'm going out with my boyfriend tonight and I intend to come home a little worse for wear hehe.

Friday 22 October 2010

Valentino makes me giggle!

I thought I would share something that Vally did today. I bought a new bag of hay for the animals so I put some in each of the cages. Vally dashed up to the kitchen area of his and Casey's cage and started munching.
Casey soon followed but Vally is a greedy-bum so he started eating really quickly so he didn't have to share as much.
Then he started making a little choking/coughing noise. I soon figured out that silly little Valentino was eating too fast for his body to handle. Silly greedy piggy! I know it's not the hay because Casey is enjoying it just fine.
I had a look in on Poppy and Phoebe and they seem to be enjoying it too! Silly Mr Valentino...
In terms of they hay I need to give a shout out to Court Pet Shop in Bolton. It sells massive bags of hay for 50p! Bargain! It's sawdust is pretty damn cheap too, to be honest. I wouldn't buy an animal from them but their food is so cheap! Plus when I go in the little black and white dog that lives their comes for a nosey. It really likes my boyfriend hehe I might trade him in for a new rabbit hutch but shhhh he doesn't need to know that.
I'm going to make a video in the next couple of days with a cage tour for my boys and maybe a hutch tour for my girlies. Miss Bella's accomodation is a work in progress so I'll wait until we're all done with our DIY.

Thursday 21 October 2010

Handmade

I just found a few pictures on my laptop of things I've made so I thought I would share them with you! First of all I've made more snuggle sacks than I care to remember for my piggies, Miss Bella and for friends. I've got one up on ebay actually (I'm very excited that someone is bidding on it!). I've also got a ferret/rat tunnel up on there as well since, if I'm being honest, I cut a piece of fleece that was too small for a piggie tunnel hehe. But it's the same theory so here we are.


I've made these snuggle sacks in piggy and bunny sizes :) My Bella is very taken with hers as is Poppy, though I made hers in a different colour. Below are two pictures are Poppy and Bella enjoying their snuggle sacks!








So those are the snuggle sacks now here is a picture of the tunnels I make.

It took me forever to figure out how best to make them so they open at both ends! But there we are, my ferret/rat tunnel! I'm making a piggy-sized one soon to test out with Vally and Casey since Poppy and Phoebe are getting a hammock as soon as I can muster the energy hehe.
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If anyone is interested I'm more than happy to make them to order! I can make snuggle sacks and tunnels to match each other. I have a fair amount of the fabric shown in the snuggle sack pictures but if you have a colour in mind I'm pretty sure I can get hold of it for you since I live really close to a fabric shop.
Speaking of which, I went into this shop a month ago and nearly died of happiness! There was fleece EVERYWHERE! I swear I was in heaven. I could have bought the whole lot if I'd had the pennies but ah well, there's always next time.
So! If you want a snuggle sack I'm working on them as being £4 each and the tunnels are the same. Postage.. Hmm. I'll update you on that one when I find out.
If you want to contact me my email is: alh2ame@bolton.ac.uk

The Pawsteps In My Life

Here are the five animals that are currently leaving pawsteps on my life and heart.



POPPY

This beautiful brown and white guinea pig is Poppy! She's a bossy little madame and makes sure her cage-mate knows who is boss. She loves cuddles for a certain amount of time but after that she's off on a wander. Her favourite food is cucumber although she's always happy with anything you put infront of her.





PHOEBE

This lovely girl is Phoebe. She lives with Poppy and although she is bigger and older she lets her little friend boss her around. Phoebe is a lot more skittish than her friend but once she is settled she is a loving little lady! Phoebe eats cucumber very strangely - she eats the dark green part first all the way around the slice then eats the middle.





BELLA

This beautiful bunny is called Bella! I adopted her after she was found left in the middle of the street. She was pretty scared at first but she's getting used to the idea of having people around her. She's a naughty bunny, always nibbling anything within her reach. Even so she loves to snuggle up with me :)





VALENTINO

This handsome chap is named after Valentino Rossi. I adopted him and his cage-mate from Pets At Home. They were put in the adoption section for bullying the other piggies... I don't believe this to be honest. Vally is such a big squish! He loves cuddles and being fussed over. He's still rather timid but he'll come into his own soon enough.





CASEY

And last but by no means least we have the gorgeous Casey, named after Casey Stoner. He lives with Vally and has the most incredibly large ears I've ever seen on a guinea pig! He's a very laid back piggy and loves to follow his friend around the cage. He's taken to nibbling their igloo house despite having so many toys to chew on... Still, how can you be mad at that face?!

First things first

Hi and welcome to my blog! I guess the best way to start off is to explain what my blog is all about.
Basically I'm an animal fanatic! I love animals and I have my fair share of them :) I thought I would share my experiences, tips and even the products that I make with you all.
The first animals I really fell in love with were when I was a child. I had the most gorgeous black and white Shih Tzu that I miss terribly even now. She was the most incredibly loving dog I've ever encountered!
And now I have four guinea pigs and a rabbit who I adore. You'll be introduced to them in my next post, don't worry.
I've taken to making things for animals which I will also share with you. If you see anything you would like for yourself I'll leave my contact details on each product-related post so you can get in touch with me. I'm always more than happy to sell my products to fellow animal lovers! I'm in the process of getting them on ebay as well but I'll update you on that as and when it all happens.
So I guess that's it for now!