As for pets, James has a guineapig, his sister Kelly has a cat, and a dog that belongs to the entire family.
  I found a post James made on 01/02/05. He had just gotten a new guinea pig and shared the details with us. Here's the story...We were called by the pet store today that the baby guineapigs could be bought. I picked out one that was the same color as Buddy, but instead of a white stripe on his nose, he has a stripe that runs horizontally around the center-section of his chest, and it is the color of a "blaze" of sunshine, so I named him "Blaze". When Blaze first moved in, he was very timid, he didn't even want to climb out of the cardboard box they gave us to carry him home in, but once he got out, he started exploring. He almost walked off the bed, but once he got used to the limitations and I'd petted him for about 30 min. to establish myself as the owner, I took Buddy out. Buddy at first just went under the bed, not really caring much about Blaze, but then Buddy and Blaze started checking eachother's gender and just running around the bed with eachother, blaze chasing Buddy or Buddy chasing Blaze, it went both ways. Eventually, I pulled them off, as a safety precaution. Once Blaze gets bigger, he and Buddy will both live in the bigger cage I bought Blaze. Blaze's cage is bigger because although he's small now, when Buddy and Blaze live in the same cage, it'll demand a pretty big size. Buddy made alot of noise when I put him back in his cage, wanting to see Blaze again, so I put Blaze in his cage and let Buddy run around the bed a bit. They are both in their cages now, relaxing for a bit. In about twenty minutes, I plan to pull Blaze out again and pet him some more. The strange thing is that while when I got Buddy, he instantly started checking things out, I put Blaze in his cage for the first time, and all he did was look around a bit, looked at the water bottle, looked at the food bowl, checked out the wooden shelter I bought him, and then walked into the small igloo hideaway I bought him and just stayed there for a while, peeking out every so often. That may be in response to Buddy's running around and squeaking on the bed, but either way, I think the cage combination will work great. Here's my current plan for the setup of the combonation cage. I will use Blaze's cage. I will put Buddy's food bowl in only at first, to see if they are good with one bowl, if they need 2, I'll put Blaze's in, but Buddy's is bigger, and Buddy is used to his. I think I'll probubly put both water bottles, as Buddy needs extra Vitamin C, and some Vitamin C wont hurt Blaze when he's young, but water is a huge essance with Guinea Pigs. Buddy's igloo will go in, as his is a "large" igloo, whereas Blaze's is a "small". Buddy actually had a "medium" when he moved in, but only Petco has those, and the local Petco closed down, leaving ony a Pet Supplies Plus, which had only large and small. I will put Buddy's nutra-puff dispenser, carrot dispenser, and lettuce dispenser in the combonation cage, aswell as Blaze's wooden hideout. I will include plenty of chew toys, as I dont want it to become a battle for dominance. I'm trying to promote Blaze using the wooden hideaway at this point because I want him to have a few things he's used to when I combine the cages. Under the absolute worst circumstances, if Blaze outgrows the wooden hideaway, I can always buy the "large" one they have. Its a big big, but luckily, its designed for a corner, so it should be fine. At this point, I'm trying to decide how long I should wait before moving them in together. I belong to a guineapig forum, so I think I'll check with them, they've got people with seven, eight, and even some breaders in the thirties of guineapigs, so I'm sure they can answer my question. Blaze and Buddy seem to be getting along very well, I just hope it stays as good of a relationship as it is, and Blaze gets less timid (though being a little timid is good because Buddy is still the dominant male of the guineapigs, and if Blaze were too audacious, he may challenge Buddy's dominance, which wouldn't turn out good for him). [Member Spotlight] [News Story] [Tribute Signatures] [Obituary]
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