Where it all began

Many of you are probably wondering what Whiskers in a Dream is and who I am.  Looking at the blog it's easy to see that this page hasn't been around all that long but what the blog effectively is is the reincarnation or rather the next step on from a website I ran between 2001 and 2011, and that was CavyCapers.com.

Cavy Capers back in the glory days

Cavy Capers was a huge part of my life and it was all about guinea pigs: the breeds, how to look after them and what to do when your piggy falls ill.  It was a successful advice website which was repeatedly named in the Good Website Guide year after year and we appeared in some of the industry's top magazines.  I found myself really busy with so many daily enquiries, questions about basic care to panicked emails about dying guinea pigs.  I then set up a shop within the site where I sold pet wares such as Vetbeds and water bottles and guinea pig mugs and greeting cards.  Ten years on from its inception I felt the website had run its course, my life had moved on in certain ways and I decided to close the site down.  It was actually a huge relief and welcome break when it all came to a stop.

In the past year I've worked on various parts of my life and career but my passion for guinea pigs - and now rabbits since my first, Bobby, came into our lives in 2007 - remained.  After getting into the blogging scene it felt like a natural progression to start this blog up, in a way, in loving memory of Cavy Capers.

So here I am, still adoring my guinea pigs and having fun with my rabbits.  I love them all to bits and although I admit I'm still a novice rabbit owner, I still have a wealth of knowledge for keeping guinea pigs and I'd like to think I can still help fellow owners out.  I'm hoping you'll help me out too, because life is one long learning process and we're all small furry loving friends at the end of the day.

Becky x

Welcome to Whiskers in a Dream!

This is a new journal that I'm dedicating to the world of guinea pigs and rabbits as a spin off from a website I ran called Cavy Capers. CavyCapers.com was born in 2001 and lived online until this year, 2011, and to mark it's anniversary I unconventionally decided to close it down and move on to the next chapter in this constantly evolving digital age. Blogging has recently become a big thing in social media and is a rapidly growing area for quick and up to date information which is why I feel this is the best way to continue the education of the proper care of guinea pigs - and now including rabbits. I would also like to talk about my own clan of piggies and buns too, so Whiskers in a Dream will be a nice little social place to hang out and celebrate all that's great about these furries!

To make you aware, I also currently run a Facebook page called 'Campaign to ban guinea pig and rabbit muesli' which is a cause I personally feel strongly about. I am getting a lot of positive feedback from many rescues and guinea pig and rabbit owners who agree with my thinking, that feeding these animals the muesli mix type feeds are a poor dietary choice as opposed to the extruded pelleted or nugget food, but there are still lots of people out there who don't quite understand the meaning behind the page. It is simply to re-educate owners and provide evidence that muesli is not a healthy feed. It encourages selective feeding which means the guinea pig or rabbit will pick out what it likes and gives it the option to leave what it doesn't like. This can lead to malnutrition because all necessary nutrients in the food are not eaten. Also many of these feeds contain contain colours and are very sugary. Another reason why they are not a good feed is their low fibre content, which is important for a normally functioning gut. This is the page to be to discuss this cause and I urge you to check it out and join in if you haven't yet.

Becky