Meeting Our Pets 🐶🐱 #2

[AlejaR]

Myles 🐹

Hey folks!

Welcome to our team "Meeting Our Pets 🐶🐱" blog series.

This week I'm happy to introduce to you Myles, the guinea pig cutie pie. Myles' loved owner is @AdamDamon, who's one of our wonderful Spotify Stars!

Let's go!

How did your pet become a part of your life? Is there a history behind it?

I had a pet guinea pig when I was growing up; and perhaps because I have fond memories of taking care of my late pet guinea pig, I decided to adopt guinea pigs again, more than a decade later. However, this time, I decided to take care of two guinea pigs instead of one, since I had read that they're social animals. The wild cavies (representing the genus of rodents that guinea pigs belong to) live in herds in the wild, such that it’s recommended to take care of two or more guinea pigs together. For these reasons, when I saw a re-homing listing for two guinea pig brothers living in my same zip code, I decided to adopt them from their now-previous caretakers.

What is he like? Are there any traits you like the most about him?

I think that Myles tends to be more reserved than his brother, Emilio. I’d say he spends more time in one of the hideouts (they have several, including a plastic “igloo” and small fleece hideouts, but their favorites seemed to be the wooden house-shaped hideouts, so they currently have these in their enclosure). Myles also tends not to like being petted, only sometimes tolerating it while he’s eating vegetables or hay, and he is more likely than his brother to dart into a hideout when he hears a sound that he perceives as a potential danger (vacuum cleaner, timer or car alarm, dishes clanking, etc.).

As for a particular trait that I like the most about Myles, I can mention this: when I take him and Emilio outside on the front porch or the backyard when the weather is nice, he is usually curious about the different houses or structures that I set up for them to hide and explore in, and makes “chutting” noises (which I’ve read is a sign of contentment for guinea pigs) while he’s exploring. This also sometimes happens when I clean the guinea pigs’ enclosure and put down new bedding, and in both cases I’m always glad to hear from Myles’ chutting sounds that he’s in a good mood.

What is his favorite treat/food?

Probably raw vegetables, which Myles gets roughly a half cup of, twice a day. I like to call the bowls of vegetables “salads,” because they’re usually comprised of lettuce (e.g. green leaf, red leaf, romaine), frisée, radicchio, and/or parsley. Carrots are also a favorite treat for Myles.

With respect to the hay that they have at all times, the pieces of hay with seed heads at the top seem to be Myles’ favorite; both he and his brother seek them out in particular when foraging in the hay racks.

What is his favorite activity? Does he have any special skills you want to share?

I’d say that Myles’ favorite activity is eating his “salads.” Myles and his brother often make “wheeting” noises (or “wheeking,” depending on how you choose to spell it), to draw attention to the fact that they'd like vegetables. Sometimes I hear “wheets” from the guinea pigs at a time other than their normal two times each day to get their salads, and in those cases I’m inclined to give them a small treat such as a baby carrot or a piece of an apple.

As for a special skill, Myles seems to have priority over his brother Emilio when they’re deciding who gets to be in their house. This often happens when I’m cleaning their enclosure each evening, and is usually accompanied by “rumbling” noises from both guinea pigs (which, from what I’ve read, likely means that they’re establishing which of the two is the dominant guinea pig and thereby presumably gets priority over the particular house that they both want to be in at the time).

Tell us some anecdotes (funny or special ones) about him.

When eating his “salads,” Myles sometimes steps on the inside of the bowl with his front paws and sticks his snout into it, knocking the bowl sideways and dislodging lettuce leaves onto the floor of the enclosure; he doesn’t seem to care that this way of eating the salad makes a bit of a mess. I’ve also noticed that when eating hay, Myles often looks for pieces of hay that are next to the hay rack on the ground, as opposed to his brother, who seems to more often reach for hay that’s at the top of the hay rack.

Share with us a song that make you think of your pet 🎶

https://open.spotify.com/track/7e692xCeY3ZJ3SsoWaV7ZP?si=3aeda8e4f47a4ef2

This song reminds me of Myles mainly because of how the synthesizers introduce it at the beginning, which to my ears, doesn’t sound too far off from the range of sounds I hear from some of Myles’ “wheeting” noises.

Isn't he a cutie pie? Send him some love 😍

That's all for this time. We'll be sharing more stories about our pets soon!