My two guinea pig sons were born 3 years ago, which also means that I’ve had them for almost 3 years, and that just can’t be true. What once were the tiniest babies that could fit in your hand, are now big, chunky, full grown men! While I am not sure of their exact birthday, the person we bought them from said it was at the beginning of October, so I just decided that I would say that their birthday is October 5th. I wanted to post this along with the scheduled time of all of my Blogtober posts so I celebrated a few days after!

I never would have imagined that time would pass this fast and that Donut and Apollo would grow so rapidly. From traveling back and forth to college with me, multiple cage layouts and changes, many toys chewed through, and lots and lots of hay, my guinea pigs have had one adventurous life so far.

Last year’s birthday theme was “Happy Campers”, and I set up their cage with a camping themed fleece bedding and bought them some green absorbent mats that kind of resembled grass. This year I want to go with a historical theme, since their names are based on my historical interests. I decided to go for “The Three Pigsketeers”. There’s only two of them though, so would it be “The Pigsketeers Turn 3”? I’m not sure I just thought it was cute haha. This theme highlights their adventurous spirit and strong personalities. I think they’d also wield a sword if they could!

While The Three Musketeers was set in the 1600’s, it was published in 1844 by Alexandre Dumas. If you have been following along with my recent blog posts, you will know we briefly visited the 1800’s and that time period’s part in the history of the postcard.

The most applicable historical event would be Napoleon’s step in politics, Donut’s namesake, becoming France’s First Consul in the year 1800, but the 1800’s are the origins of my favorite historical events and literature, as well as my favorite time period for any historical based shows or movies. There is just something that draws me into this period more than any other, maybe it is worth exploring in the future.

Alright, back to the Pigsketeers! When I think of the Three Musketeers, I think of reds, blacks, dark blue, swords, leather, and a feather in a cap. I decided to decorate the outside of their cage with some fabric, weaving it around so that I kind of resembled curtains. For their little cover, I cut out a square garland out of construction paper. They love sleeping in and chewing boxes so I kept their house for some comfort, even though it kinda messes with the theme haha.

I went out to Target and Pet Smart to get their birthday gifts. While Target doesn’t have much in terms of Guinea pig toys, they do have an essential for their cage: absorbent bath mats. There are a few ways you can set up a Guinea pig cage, and I decided to go for the fleece bedding route, and absorbent bath mats are a great cushion for bedding and absorb all their mess. I tried to get a color they don’t have yet, I’m pretty sure they have almost all of them now.

However, when I went, the mats i always get weren’t there, so my boyfriend ordered one for me as his gift to the pigs, thank you! At Pet Smart I got their toys. They love the compacted hay treats with dried carrot chunks and anything with cardboard. The last thing I wanted to pick up was another water bottle because they like to spill all the water out of the one they have and I’m hoping a new one will help? I’m not sure haha, but I totally forgot to get one.

As a gift to both myself and them, I plan on spending time today washing all of their bedding at once. It will be a job and a half, for sure, and I don’t even have room for all of their bedding to be stored away. I decided that after 3 years, I can retire some of their less fortunate fleece blankets.

They may not know that it’s their birthday, but they were definitely happy to be celebrated. They loved their new toys and treats.