Welcome to our Class Pets Page!
I would like to introduce you to our class pets. We have two guinea pigs and
one "visiting" rabbit.
The guinea pigs are vegetarians and will eat just about anything you put in
front of
them. They love fruits and vegetables, especially apples and parsley. They
love to chew on cardboard and paper. We like to give them toilet paper and
paper towel tubes. The bathrooms here at school use industrial size toilet
paper with the big tubes, they love these because they can crawl through them.
They are cute and cuddly and rarely bite. If they do bite it's because they
are testing to see if your food and it feels like a hard pinch with fingernails.
The "visiting" rabbit is also a vegetarian, but doesn't eat quite like the
guinea pigs do. He is does eat veggies and fruits, but we haven't
experimented too much with them yet. We let him hop around our room freely
while we are in the classroom. He stays hidden most of the time though. He
will return to his cage to rest, drink water, eat and take care of his private
business. I encourage the children not to chase or try to catch him, but it
is still a learning experience.
The children are responsible for feeding them and the position changes each
week. By the end of the school year each child will have had a chance to feed
the "pigs." I encourage the children not to stick things or fingers into the
cages, so they will not be bitten accidentally.
The two guinea pigs that we currently have are Cleo (blonde & white smooth
hair) and Daisy (black & white crazy hair). They are both females
(hopefully). Cleo was purchased during the summer of 2009 to replace Pip, who
had passed away. Flip needed a friend, and he got one! Cleo gave birth to 4
babies at the end of October 2009. One of the babies did not survive, but the
other 3 did very well.
The class did weekly weigh ins of the 3 surviving babies and at the end of
November they were sent to live elsewhere. Baby 2 and Baby 3 (both girls)
went to live with a 5th grade teacher at Prince of Peace in Olathe. The class
there named them Chloe and Zoe. Baby 1 (a boy, all white) went to live with
Frankie Lopez and his family and was named Rexie. We also found a good home
for Flip (the daddy) with Juliana Sanchez and her family and he was renamed
Rudolph.
Well, I didn't want Cleo to be lonely, so I purchased a new girl (hopefully).
The class voted on 8 different names and decided on the name, Daisy. She is
black and brown and has wild hair. She is much more social than Cleo, and
quite the cutie.
The rabbit's name is Snuggles and actually belongs/ed to Mr. Mel Reiff's
daughter. She was unable to continue caring for him, so me being a big softie
has offered to house him in the meantime. He is a real sweetheart.