Routine Care
We keep a bin of routine care supplies for our weekly health checks. Each week, we:
weigh them and record the number. Weighing is important because weight loss can be a first sign of illness.
assess their body shape and feel for any bumps and lumps or injuries. Piggies do have scuffles and arguments that can result in injuries, as we have learned first-hand.
see if their nails need to be trimmed.
More below about what’s in our kit and how we do weigh-ins. We bought everything with our own money or made it ourselves. No sponsored content here.
What’s in our Routine Care Kit?
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Scale
We like the style of scale with the pull out display, much easier with wiggly piggies. We bought ours at Amazon.
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Nail Clippers
We use people clippers and like the Tweezerman brand; we picked up a set to use just for the piggies at Target.
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Styptic Powder
A wet q-tip dipped in this can stop bleeding if a nail gets clipped a bit short. We ordered it from Amazon.
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Q-Tips
Useful for lots of things, and we always keep some near the styptic powder. Small boxes of these are easy to find in the Target travel section.
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Slicker Brush
Keeps fur tidy, especially longer fur (ahem, Stella). We bought this Kaytee brand one at Amazon.
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Storage Bag
A little bag that fits everything except the scale. This design we found at Amazon makes us smile.
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Storage Bins
Can never have enough of these. We add removable labels to each bin and line them up in our cabinet. We bought ours from Amazon.
How we weigh the piggies every week
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1. Prepare the scale
Extend the pull-out display on the scale and put our largest pasta bowl on top.
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2. Add a towel and zero the weight
The towel is nicer on their paws, and more importantly, means they aren’t walking all over our pasta bowl.
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3. Weigh a pig
Add a pig, and wait until they stop wiggling enough to get a stable weight. We like weighing in grams, and we record it every time so we know if there are future fluctuations.