The last days I have tried to tidy up a little bit by optimistically getting rid of stuff I hope I won’t need anymore in future. But like everything, it has become more of an exchange of things rather than being able to get rid of stuff. Especially as I got two guinea pigs now, via freecycle. I originally wanted a non-barking dog, but then that offer came along and I thought I would try. The two are not that tame yet, but seem to be happy to listen to classical music and they are very shy and a bit overweight. Now, unfortunately, with guinea pigs, there is no way that they could be made to diet, the only way would be more exercise, but that is very tricky as they are not yet tame, and less energy-rich food, and more hay, and securing all the electrical cables.
In fact, the worst thing you could do to a guinea pig is to make it starve, as it disrupts its darm flora and can kill it. In my pre-veterinary days, I have seen one guinea pig die because the family went on holidays for two weeks and did not organise any regular feeding of hay!!! Dogs and cats are less prone to irregular feeding as they are carnivores, so they are dependent on their hunting luck and nature doesn’t punish them if they are unsuccessful, but all the grass-eating animals can suffer from huuuge health problems if they are not feed hay ad libitum (as much as they want) and every day.
The only way guinea pigs can be made to lose weight is to cut out the commercial pet food, and just stick to hay and fresh fruit and veggies, and to give them a much, much bigger area to run around and maybe increase the guinea pig herd.
The two guinea pigs are constantly squeaking, so had to evacuate Fluffy into my bedroom so he can sleep during the daytime undisturbed. They are quite shy, but I got the guinea boar to eat some parsley out of my hand, they are like very messy vegetable and fruit vacuum cleaners, trying to eat nearly everything. Fluffy is much more tidy I have to say, with him peeing in only one corner and also keeping his food in a pile. Apart from that, though he is much smaller he is much more tame than the guineas, like he comes when called and never ever seems to be scared of me.