We’re Pig Sitting!

[TARM]

I am broke as a joke.  I just bought my house and there are tons of things that need to be done.  Painting and gutters and new windows and some kind of landscaping…so to bring in some extra cash I threw an ad up on Craigslist offering to petsit small animals in my home.  I already have two boarders! 

Meet Teddy and Patches!

Ranger sez “Hi!  Ken I share ur hay?”

Tank doesn’t have time for pigs.  He’s practicing being a parrot.  That’s what he wants to be when he grows up. (He crawled up there all by himself and sat there for 10 minutes.)

I can’t believe how much I love these little guys!

 

[BinkyBunny]

Cute, CUTE CUTE!!!!

[minnieservis]

Awww how cute!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Cute!! So how long do you have the piggies for??

[TARM]

We have them for two weeks! They’re so cute! Teddy is more friendly than Patches. Teddy is a pet store pig and patches was adopted from a rescue. Patches had surgery about two months ago to remove a tumor. Her owner said they had taken her to an exotic vet and the prognosis was the worst you could expect. I know the vet, it’s a well respected practice, though greatly over priced. They got a second opinion from a family practice that doesn’t even do guinea pigs..but the vet did a ton of research and called around for advice, then did the surgery. She’s doing really well, you never would have known she was sick!

Both bunnies are very curious about the pigs, and when Ranger hopped away Teddy called him back! It was so funny to watch.

[Beka27]

they are so cute!

[bigsis7]

How cute!! I love tank’s pic!

[kimberleyanddarren]

aw thats so kewl how much are u getting for sitting them? (sorry i know its rude to ask! hehe)

[TARM]

First let me say that I briefly co-owned a pet care company where I mainly did dogs and cats. I know what it costs a pet sitter to travel, get insured, business license, etc. Also, I know what the competition is out there…so I went cheap. It’s $5 a day to park a cage in my house. Playing with the critters is an added benefit for me and the girls. :0) Their family is on vacation for 15 days so it’s an easy $75 in my pocket.

[kimberleyanddarren]

wow thats kewl!

[BBMommy]

..
U

[BinkyBunny]

You get to have fun AND make some $$ from it. So when you say Teddy called him back…was he “whooping”? I’ve also heard they binky too, but I guess it’s called Popcorning?

[Deleted User]

Wow … I should pet sit too … $5 a pig … cheap as chips. 

Yeah pigs are cute …

[Beka27]

that’s a great thing with little kids too… they can experience different pets for a short time, play with them (supervised, of course), and then you return before the boredom sets in.

*hmmm… considers the empty space in the dining room…*

[COOKIE'N FLUFF MOMMA]

what an awesome idea!  cute piggies!

[Lightchick]

I LOVE that picture of Tank! I’ve never seen a photo of a Lionhead where the bun really did look like a little lion (with pointy Elf ears)!

(And when I read your subject line, I was thinking real piggies…like the “oink, oink” kind! Envisioned them running around your living room rooting at your buns! LOL!)

[kimberleyanddarren]

i would love to pet sit! i may look into it..

[TARM]

They’re very friendly. They like for you to feed them out of your hand and they love nose rubs! But they don’t want to be handled. The owner said his daughter picks them up all the time but I guess they just don’t know us. So far we haven’t let them out of the cage (this cage is huge! It’s a marchiorio and I’ve never seen one like it!) but hopefully soon they’ll warm up to us enough so they will come out.

[Beka27]

the Marchioro’s are pretty impressive cages…

[TARM]

OK, just to show you guys how huge this cage is…I parked my dog in his crate next to the pigs.  My dog is 100+ pounds.

[PeppersMama]

You have a GORGEOUS rott! he is beautiful! i have always loved rotts, but never had the space or a willing parent for one

[TARM]

Thank you! He’s a pound puppy. People ask me all the time if I’ll stud him out…despite the fact that he doesn’t have any balls. I wonder if I could send him and collect a stud fee without getting caught….

[TARM]

We attempted to let the pigs out to play…but they didn’t want to come out!  Ranger wanted to play so he took matters into his own paws.

If he won’t come out I’ll come in!

Hi!  U will b my frend?

Wuz dis?

Teddy sez:  U ken get him out now?

 

[minnieservis]

awwww that’s adorable. i love ur bunnies theyre so cute

[Beka27]

i love how he just had to hop in… that’s too cute. were the piggies like, what the heck?!

Knowltons and I both have the Tommy 120 Marchioro cage. they are really nice, and huge, but the absolute smallest i recommend for one bunny. they cost betw/ 80 and 100 bucks, so an xpen is a much better route to go for buns. what we both did was have an xpen/NIC fence attached to allow for constant exercise space.

[TARM]

So you guys have one bunny in that cage? I still haven’t decided what I’m doing for their permanent house.

[Deleted User]

I have two piggies, both males … They have the opporunity of coming out every night, however, only one is interested … the younger of the two will jump out of his cage, have his run around for 15 minutes and is then waiting for me to put him back in most times …

My older pig is so not interested … he is more than happy to stay in his cage … even when I am cleaning him out … and once his clean hay filled tray is placed down he will jump in it … he is a sleepy pig.  However, when I do bring him out I always place him in a towel .. that way he feels safe and is happy to sit on my lap for a while .. but he soon lets me know when he has had enough and wants back in his house.

Maybe try to bring out the piggies … the height of the opening in the cage is quite high for them to jump out … and they could injure themselves in doing so …

Happy piggie sitting!

 

[kralspace]

The pigs and the bunnies are so cute. Everyone jumps in the piggie pen here, too. I finally raised it so Pringles couldn’t get in. She’s a big rabbit and would sit by their house and pat it with her front feet till the pigs came out and made a lap, then do it again.

You can see my cats like it in there too, but they just take a nap or sit and watch the Piggie Channel. The white one you see is Snowflake, she’s a ‘lethal’, white, blind and deaf and hair normally so long it drags several inches on the ground, looks like cousin It on the Adams Family. She was getting her feet all tangled up so I gave her a terrible haircut and now she’s a lot more active.

There’s a normal one in there too, Brownie, but she’s extremely camera shy.

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[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

Hahaha, I love it. And small animal sitting is a great idea! I have to say, my bunny has a thing for visiting my piggies now too. I built them a new cage without a top and Frankie hops in a few times a day. Unfortunately it’s more to eat their food and pee in their corner than it is to visit the piggies, but they love it!

[Beka27]

the Marchioro cages are very nice but NOT worth the money for the limited space.  what i ended up doing was attaching a NIC fence to it and leaving the cage open 24/7 to allow for more room.  the smallest space i recommend for one bun is 2×4 feet.  for 2 buns, you’re going to want to at least double it.  once you put a litterbox and food and hidey house in the cage, there is no more space for the bun, not to mention toys.  i kept all the toys and boxes out “in the yard” so she could come and play whenever she wanted.

i still suggest you go the xpen or NIC condo route.

this is what i have now for the two bunnies…

[TARM]

I absolutely L.O.V.E. pictures of your houses! I sit here at work during my down time and google “rabbit indoor cages” and look at as many as I can.

Right now the boys are in a 36″ long Marchioro cage, which they have outgrown already. I want to do the pen and put the cage in it, maybe cover it with a towel or something, and keep their hay in it. Sort of like a giant covered litter box they can sleep in without make me feel icky…lol

I’m trying to figure out how to reinforce it to be rectangular. When I used to put my ferrets in a playpen my dogs would push the sides around while trying to sniff at the ferrets. They never tried to hurt them, but the ferrets teased them and the dogs “chased” them through the fence and I would walk in after stepping away for a second and find the cage in all kinds of different configurations.

[Beka27]

my xpens came with some kind of corner reinforcers to keep it square. we don’t use them, but it might work for you.

[TARM]

I found a bunch of uber cheap xpens and super big dog crates on ebay…and of course the shipping is killer. It’s more than the dang product!

I went to Target at lunch and found only the chrome grids that weren’t the 3 in ones. I don’t like the chrome, plus they cost $5 more per box. What’s up with that?

Still searching for the perfect house for the bunny boyz.

[TARM]

Teddy and Patches are leaving us on Sunday and I’m actually really sad about it.  You can’t hold them and they won’t run around on the floor, but you can stand over their cage and they will let you scratch their ears and rub their noses endlessly.  They also like to be hand fed their greens. 

I like walking downstairs in the morning and seeing Teddy rush to the door of his cage because he knows his pellets are coming.  And when I come home they both rush to the front of the cage to see what kind of greens I have for them. 

I’ve had pigs before…when I was young and didn’t understand how to be a good small animal owner yet.  My pigs were never as interactive as these two are.

Maybe I’ll get to sit for them again some time.  I’m sure going to miss the little boogers.

[Author]

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