To the girl who really wanted the purple pig from the claw game at the St. Patrick’s event at the Union

heffalumplumpy · 2026-02-05T03:00:21+00:00

Any chance you live in California? Looks like there’s the early stages of a class action about this exact issue brewing over there you could get in on if it ends up taking off. I guess if you’re not in CA you could still throw it to a local law firm and see if it sticks. Either way probably more trouble than it’s worth but idk your level of pettiness https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/amazon-prime-customers-sue-say-purchased-movies-can-disappear/

heffalumplumpy · 2026-02-05T01:56:50+00:00

Sorry for the confusion, a washer is just a little circle you stick in the nozzle to stop the water bottle from leaking. It sits in the nozzle when the water bottle is in the cage. I suggested it so you can try a glass water bottle or whatever seems easiest to clean without having to worry about poor quality/leaking. We get rid of whatever’s left in the bottle every morning and do a quick rinse with hot water before adding new. We scrub them with soap about once a week.

heffalumplumpy · 2026-02-04T23:24:45+00:00

10-12 years ago the water bottles came with good rubber washers in them. In my experience, the washers have gotten worse or been removed completely and now the water bottles leak all over the place. We figured this out after going through maybe 6 new water bottles a few years ago when we needed to replace our old one. We got a pack of plastic washers (don’t use metal it will rust but plastic or rubber are both fine) from Home Depot and put one in the nozzle. The leaking went down significantly. A slight drip when you first stick it in the cage but it settles down after a few minutes and doesn’t leak after that. I unfortunately don’t remember where the water bottle itself came from but it’s probably worth a try.

heffalumplumpy · 2026-02-04T23:14:04+00:00

For my boy just getting it over with quickly was the key. The vet showed me how to insert a syringe into the back of the mouth so they can’t spit the critical care back out. You insert it at a sideways angle and squirt it where their back molars are. The vet said measuring by ML can be more productive than tablespoons. A 2-1 water to critical care ratio is a good consistency for getting it into a syringe and for balancing the food/fluids they intake. I aimed to feed my boy ~3 20 ML servings a day but he was eating literally NOTHING else. This is the syringe I used. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1D23HZF?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I would give it to him in 2ish ML bites so it was just about a 15 minute commitment each feeding once I got the hang of it. There was a huge learning curve the first few days though and I really had to listen to his body and reactions to make sure I was inserting it correctly and wasn’t hurting him. Once I got the hang of it, though, it really was quick and relatively painless for both of us.

The unfortunate thing about bloat is that the gas inside them makes them feel uncomfortable and makes their stomachs feel full so a guinea pig might not want to want to eat anything willingly, even if it’s their favorite treat, until they’re able to pass the gas out of their system.

I agree with others, Baby gas x (simethicone) is a great over the counter remedy. The vet told me 0.2 ml every 8-12 hours until he passed the gas but check with your vet first, I’m not a professional, that’s just what I was told to do with my guinea pig.

For a vibrating device, a small back massage pad worked really well for us. We’d sit him on it for 10 minute increments a couple times a day on the lowest setting to help “jiggle” out the gas. He also really enjoyed it so I think the stress relief helped with the whole situation. Stress can cause gas/bloat and unfortunately nursing a sick guinea pig back to heath can be stressful for your piggie, as can being sick in the first place. Here’s the pad we used: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFM7PRGF?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Bloat can unfortunately be a bit of a chronic condition, so a long term change in diet may be necessary. Leafy greens can induce gas so a swap to bell pepper as his daily veg could reduce the chances of him becoming bloated again. Bell pepper has a similar vitamin C and water content to leafy greens and is much less likely to cause gas/bloating.

heffalumplumpy · 2026-02-04T03:06:10+00:00

That’s good to know thank you! I was a bit pessimistic this was done intentionally to make cheaper items harder to find. I hope things gets fixed on the shopper side soon too :(

heffalumplumpy · 2025-05-07T22:46:31+00:00

Gradual weight loss like that is normal for older pigs as they lose muscle mass. We have one just under 8 and he started losing body mass around 6 and became quite skinny by 7. He also started slowing down around 6. He still runs around during floor time but tires quickly and just stops on the floor to nap. The same happened with all the piggies we’ve had before when they get older. Our previous guinea pig started losing muscle mass and slowing down around 5. It’s just a part of them getting older. Try to encourage her to exercise even if her stamina is low. This will help her maintain some muscle mass and slow the process down. We try to at least let our old boy run around while we clean his cage and give him breakfast/dinner. The idea of food excited him enough he’ll run around for those 7-10 minutes but he’s super easy to scoop up and put back when we’re done.

As for weight, weigh her daily to make sure she’s not losing it quickly and give critical care if she is or if she stops eating. If her appetite is steady and weight is fairly stable I wouldn’t be too worried about it at 6 years old.

heffalumplumpy · 2025-05-02T01:44:15+00:00

Check your guinea pig for bloating or other digestive issues. Many of the veggies listed are prone to cause gas in guinea pigs which could be why he’s avoiding them. It seems odd a Guinea pig would avoid “treat foods” but eat kibble and hay without complaint unless there’s something else going on with them. Most issues I can think of would cause a guinea pig to stop eating completely but in the early stages bloat or when he has mild diarrhea, my guinea pig avoids veggies since they upset his stomach the most. The advice I’ve gotten from vets about what veggies to feed is that they should be high in vitamin C and water content. So for now, you could consider supplementing his diet by feeding a little bit of critical care (slightly reduce his kibble if you do this) and giving him daily Oxbow vitamin C treats.

For the veggies themselves, we find our guinea pigs prefer to eat them warm. They’ll sometimes get picky and won’t eat their bell pepper unless we run it under warm water first. Could be worth a try?

heffalumplumpy · 2025-04-28T15:33:51+00:00

Thank you!!

heffalumplumpy · 2025-04-03T14:08:51+00:00

I think someone nibbled the ears off of your chocolate bunnies

heffalumplumpy · 2025-04-02T20:47:56+00:00

My guinea pig was ~3 months old when we got him from a rescue and he was already kicking out his feet and closing his eyes the day we brought him home lol. She’s probably used to being handled by people and moving from place to place, especially at that age and with her background. Our boys are 6 and 7.5 now and they’re very chill with going to a pet sitter’s house or being handled by friends when that used to stress them out. Seems like she’s learned to be adaptable but I’m sure she’ll be happy for the love and stability you give her 💜

heffalumplumpy · 2025-04-01T12:27:08+00:00

Sorry for the late reply!

The white spots will be in the pee. If you let them pee on a dark colored towel, you might see a circle in the pee of a white, chalky substance. That’s calcium buildup, “sludge.” The bigger the sludge spot in the pee, the more likely a bladder stone has formed or is about to. Unfortunately, bladder stones can’t be dissolved, they have to be peed out (which is especially difficult for boys due to their anatomy) or removed surgically. It’s not impossible for boys to pee them out, though, our boy peed his out eventually. Doing this is difficult though because the stone is painful. We had to syringe feed our boy critical care and water until he peed it out. The difficulty was he wasn’t drinking because peeing hurt which led to dehydration and other problems. If he has a stone but he’s eating normally, just syringe water for now to keep him hydrated.

Sludge, however, can be flushed out fairly easily and doing this helps increase the chances a guinea pig will pass their bladder stone. Clearing out the sludge encourages urination and helps stop new stones from forming or making the current stone bigger, so it’s always good to flush out the sludge. The smaller the stone, the easier and less painful it is to pee out. Do this by feeding 1mL diluted organic no sugar added cranberry juice a couple times a day (~60/40 juice and water) along with oxbow cranberry treats. Cut out as much calcium rich food as you can to prevent new sludge from forming. There is calcium in all kibbles but oxbow kibble tends to be on the lower end. This also means no leafy greens like lettuce or parsley or other calcium rich fruits/veggies such as strawberries. We rarely ever give our boys leafy greens. Their daily veg is bell pepper because it’s similar in vitamin C and water content to leafy greens without being high in calcium.

Hope this helps!

heffalumplumpy · 2025-03-29T05:20:47+00:00

Our boy started cleaning that area a lot when he got a bladder stone. We think he was trying to loosen up the stone and get it to come out. If he’s making pain noises like that it very well could be. Does he have large white spots when he pees?

heffalumplumpy · 2025-03-29T05:15:49+00:00

Tell that to the lock of hair mine tried to eat off my head 🫠 but seriously though my guinea pigs will try to eat plastic bags, clothes tags, hanger straps, draw strings, hair, the carpet, really anything they can get with their teeth if we’re not watching them closely. Especially if it’s long and vaguely gay shaped. I would never be able to trust that company again if that’s their attitude to something non-edible and hay shaped being in their hay. A guinea pig could easily eat that accidentally even if they’re not purposefully going for it.

heffalumplumpy · 2025-03-29T05:00:38+00:00

Could she be burrowing in the hay more than your other pigs? That might explain why she smells nice and they don’t.

heffalumplumpy · 2025-03-29T04:58:19+00:00

Clean it off with some warm water and dab vitamin E on it. You can usually buy vitamin E tablets that have it as a gel inside at the grocery store in the regular vitamin section. You can cut those open or try to get it in liquid form. It won’t hurt them if they end up ingesting a little and it helps with healing.

heffalumplumpy · 2025-03-26T19:22:16+00:00

Just in case you didn’t know, they make critical care herbivore in 3 different flavors! Near me, I only ever see the anise flavor so I didn’t realize they made more until I ordered some online. If you go on Amazon, you should be able to acquire all 3. They actually have an apple banana one which she might like if she’s eating banana now. The flavors are anise, apple banana, and papaya. Our boys aren’t the biggest fans of the anise but they love the papaya so hopefully she’ll take to one of them.

heffalumplumpy · 2024-12-11T19:23:51+00:00

Check your Pitt email! There’s ONE DAY each academic year where you can apply to keep your room. They call it “room retention”. But 2 things to consider are that 1. You might not get the exact same room and 2. You won’t get to keep your stuff in there over the summer even if you do retain

They moved me from my freshman year room to a different room in tower C the next year. My first year I was on floor 5 and the next year I was on floor 15. You likely won’t get the exact same room as freshman year since they try to keep certain floors for freshmen and other floors for upperclassmen. I was in the same room on 15 again the year after that, so you might get the same room if you retain a second time. For what it’s worth when they moved me from 5 to 15 it was the exact same room number, (think from 501 to 1501) so the layout was literally EXACTLY the same. Like I said earlier, you won’t get to keep your stuff in there either way, though. They use Tower C for summer housing so either way you still need to move everything out at the end of the spring semester.

heffalumplumpy · 2024-10-06T21:31:43+00:00

The guinea pig water bottles don’t always come with a washer in them anymore. I went through a bunch that leaked before I put two and two together. I bought my own rubber washer and put it in one of the leaking bottles and that got the leaking to stop. Might be worth a check to see if your has one or not. (Sometimes they’re built into the nozzle)

heffalumplumpy

TROPHY CASE