Hi there! My name is Rise and this is my brother, Shine.

Nom nom nom, oh, hello!

We are guinea pigs and are sometimes called “Cavies”. Last year I visited my home in Peru. All of us cavies came from here.

There are lots of different types of guinea pigs. This is my friend, Stanley. Can you see how flat his hair is? That is because Stanley is a smooth-coated guinea pig

Do you like my tortoise-shell colouring?

Now this lovely lady’s name is Rapunzel…. Can you guess why? She is a long- haired guinea pig.

I wish it didn’t take me so long to get ready in the mornings… All that brushing! I’m so glad my owner has the time

Our coats are known as Rough-coated. Can you see the “rosette” on my brothers coat here?

Timothy hay!!!! My favourite! NOM NOM NOM

Its very important that we have a place we can

go to hide in. Its embarrassing to admit, but we are afraid of lots of things. We feel much safer when we cant be seen so please don’t

disturb us.

Z Z Z Z Z z z

This is our summer cottage….(Not that we get a summer here in Ireland.) Its important that we are enclosed

so that no other animals can see us.

This is our favourite type of guinea pig food. We like to jump on top of our food so its best if you serve it in a ceramic bowl

You must remember that all guinea pigs need to be fed fresh vegetables that are high in Vitamin C everyday! Now if you’l excuse me I must eat this carrot… NOM NOM NOM NOM

@II

I love lazing in my hammock. I’m lucky that my owner gives me lots of toys to play with. Otherwise I’d be very bored.

Our water bottle and hay need to be available to us at all times. Our owner sometimes moves them in different places in our cage to make us look for them. Its great fun!

My owner checks my nails and cuts them every month. She started doing this from when we were only babies, so now it doesn’t scare us. We always get a treat afterwards

M

CHEESE!My owner is checking my teeth to make sure they havn’t grown too long. This is why I need lots of things to nibble on in my house.

You should allow us at least one hour of floor time a day. We have lots of adventures!

We really don’t tan well so please don’t keep us in direct sunlight. Oh and not where there would a terrible draught. I don’t want to catch a cold

We have such unusual markings!

Can you see the face on shines nose?

hehehe

W..WHAT??

This was our friends birthday party last year. Now that was a wild night! Lola was a whole 8 years old! Sometimes I don’t think that humans realise that we live that long!

I hope my brother and I have helped you learn a lot about guinea pigs today. If you are

thinking about keeping one of us as a pet soon then please treat us kindly and handle us gently. We

can be great friends as long as you treat us with respect

SEE YOU- NOM NOM NOM-SOON!!!

NOM NOM NOM