How to Look After Rambunctious Ruby

A Guide I Have Written For My Father Whilst My Mum and I Go to Holland For A Few Days

(thought it was worth sharing)

How to Look After Rambunctious Ruby

A Guide for Daddy Burstein

I will be giving her a thorough mucking out on Monday morning. She can cope until I next get the chance to muck her out on Friday morning. I think she likes the mess. She particularly likes sitting in her own poop. So she can enjoy herself for a few days.

Every morning check that she has hay in the manger, and that it is propped up properly on the cage. She likes to knock it down but that’s because she’s an anarchist. I always prop it back up for her in the morning. Her hay can be topped up as an when. Just make sure it’s not empty.

In the little brown bowl she gets her nuggets, to be found in the purple tupperware. A small handful will do. Ruby’s very good at not over-eating. Plum used to eat everything you put in front of him and that’s why he got so fat and died of cholic. You can just top up her nuggets whenever she needs them. 

In her grey bowl she gets her Salad Feast, to be found in the clear tupperware. She’s very selective on this and will leave the stuff she doesn’t like. This should be emptied into the bin and topped up every day. She is very fussy about what she eats out of the Salad Feast, but it is her favourite. She will waste some of it though. 

Check her water levels morning and night. I usually change it every other day, but if it gets particularly hot then change it every day with cool water. When you fill up the bottle, you put half a vitamin C tablet in with the water. I put in a whole one when I had two pigs, but half is fine for just little Ruby. They are like your Barocca tablets and gives her all the vitamin C she needs. 

Don’t worry if she makes a hell of a mess. She likes it that way. But the poop levels do tend to build up in her blue house. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but if you fancy you can chuck this out into a plastic bag, re-line the bottom with kitchen towel, and then put in some bedding hay before putting the blue house back. But you don’t have to. She really seems to like sleeping in her poop.

Don’t worry if you notice that her pee is particularly orange - this is usually because she has eaten some dandelion in her salad feast and is really really normal. 

Every evening before I go to bed I give her a treat. This is usually the core of an apple I have cut up for myself, but can be any fruit or vegetable. A little bit of carrot would be fine. She doesn’t like Pink Lady apples. Please do give her some form of treat at night because she is used to this and will cry otherwise. If you give her baby tomatoes, cut them in half first so that she can bite them. Lettuce is not wise to give - it’s a lot of chewing and water for very little nutrition so there is no real point to it. If in doubt, just give her some carrot. The length of a finger is perfect. 

Hope that covers everything, but I will be easily contactable if there are any problems. 

And she loves cuddles. 

Good luck, Nicole.