Guinea pigs fighting over a clean cage

Things were going so well. We were halfway through cleaning the guinea pig cage when the pigs started doing some cute exploration. Time to grab the camera! But then things took an aggressive turn when Zucchin decided it was grumpy time for no apparent reason. She did some nipping at the other pigs, which caused Butternut to start her nervous teeth chattering habit, which further escalated the situation. There were some angry guinea pig noises but eventually some rumblestrutting from Spaghett convinced Zucchin to stop and sniff the clean cage and things calmed down. I think our pigs have poor social skills!


WHAT’S PIGS?

We publish daily highlights of the adorable antics of our guinea pig herd. Subscribe to see what they do tomorrow!

In June 2019 we adopted five pigs from Los Angeles Guinea Pig Rescue. They are cute herbivorous pets with funny social interactions. We film all their behaviors, from cute guinea pig noises to eating sounds, playing with their food to sleeping with their eyes open, and occasional fighting. So far they have been most popular for their loud wheeking and rumblestrutting and their ridiculous guinea pig fights!

MEET THE PIG FAMILY

Spaghett is the boar of the herd. The rest of the pigs are females, but he’s a neutered male so they won’t be breeding. Sorry, no pregnant or baby guinea pigs! Spaghett has orange-brown fur with a white crest on his head and cute red eyes. He goes on morning romps with entertaining popcorning and zoomies. He does hilarious rumblestrutting for the ladies while purring. When pigs argue he trots over to comfort them. He likes burrowing through hay and standing on his back feet like a goofy dinosaur. He enjoys petting, especially scratching behind the ears.

Acorn is the youngest. She has white, black, and gold fur with a cute mousy face. She’s inquisitive, always wants food, and talks to herself while exploring hay piles. Little Acorn’s special talent is jumping on houses to go on rooftop adventures.

Butternut appears either confused or deep in thought. She has white and gold fur. Her hobbies include sleeping and yawning while flopped over with her feet sprawled out. She continues wheeking, squeaking, and squealing at us after we have already given her food.

Pumpkin has black fur except for white back toes. She looks like a cow, a non-guinea pig, and a rabbit. She has noisy standoffs with Acorn when Acorn gets feisty.

Zucchin is the oldest and grumpiest. She has white and gray fur with cute red eyes. At first Zucchin fought with Spaghett. There were teeth chattering, nose raising, and hair puffing battles. Now they get along, but Zucchin is still a grouch. She enjoys lunging at anyone who comes near. She loves to chase other pigs out of their homes, then follow them to another home and chase them out of that one too. But she looks like a cute rat!

THEIR HOME

The pigs live in a semi-custom 4 by 6 foot cage we made by merging 3 Midwest Guinea Habitat cages. We cut the seams of the cage bottoms and joined them into one large cage liner with duct tape and super glue. Now we have a MidWest cage of triple the size! The cage is on cheap folding tables so we can easily interact with the pigs. They first lived in the same 3 cages connected by ramps with DIY ramp covers we made by sewing blankets.

Their bedding is soft paper bedding from Small Pet Select. We spot clean wet spots daily and do a full cage clean when the bedding starts to smell funky. They used to live on fleece blankets with towels and newspaper underneath. Back then we washed guinea pig fleece by hand in the sink. But since moving to a new apartment guinea pig laundry is less convenient so we switched to bedding. We also considered pine bedding but thought soft paper sounded more comfortable for their little feet!

The pigs prefer free stuff to actual guinea pig toys. They love to hide under packing paper. A DIY guinea pig house made from a cardboard box is a favorite hidey. They are not interested in most chew toys but will chew the bark off small willow sticks.

THEIR DIET

Their favorite hay is 3rd cutting timothy hay from Small Pet Select. They also nibble hay cubes. But they get most excited about fresh grass. They also gobble up guinea pig pellets.

They eat nearly any vegetable. The only thing rejected so far was zucchini. Their favorites are dandelion leaves, fennel, cilantro, parsley, banana leaves, kale, collard greens, kohlrabi, carrot tops and roots, beets, bell peppers, corn with the husk, cucumbers, and pumpkin. They go wild for homemade wheatgrass sprouts.

Their water bottle is a 26 ounce Living World Eco+ glass bottle. They drink half of it in a day.

THEIR CINEMATOGRAPHY

The pigs are filmed with the latest GoPro Hero 8 Black in 4K.