Grab Your Opportunity to Treat Guinea Pigs in Style
Online, July 23, 2014 (Newswire.com) - With the advent of the Internet, people can live vicariously through activities on many websites. That's the principle behind HappyCavy.com, a website devoted to guinea pigs, their daily activities, and, with the discrete placement of webcams around the cage, the ability to watch the animals go about their daily routines. And now, with the introduction of treat feeders controlled by the public, viewers can directly interact with the pigs by feeding them through a simple treat-delivery system with the click of a button.
"Within about a year of installing the webcams, we began to get e-mails from viewers wanting a way to get more 'up close and personal' with the pigs," said Brian Balla, founder of HappyCavy.com. "If they couldn't hold them, they wanted at least to be able to feed them. The HappyCavy Treat Feeder, or Treater, gives them a way of doing that."
The HappyCavy.com website has been operational since 2009, when Balla, affectionately known to the public as Human #1, went on vacation and built a one-page website with a webcam trained on the cage so he could monitor his girls while he was away. Once he returned, Balla didn't think he'd keep the site up, but he found he was checking it over and over again, even though the guinea pigs were right in the next room. Other people, he figured, might be just as enthralled. So he redesigned the layout, added more webcams, and HappyCavy.com was officially born.
At the same time, he started a guinea pig blog on the site (now "written" by Hammy, the senior pig). "I had to figure out what people wanted to know about guinea pigs. It grew to be a big part of sharing the guinea pigs' lives. It was also a way to pass on information about how people can take care of their own guinea pigs, and it was the perfect complement to the webcams," Balla said.
The Treater was the next logical step for HappyCavy, giving people who don't have their own guinea pigs (and even those who do) a way to enjoy acting directly with Balla's. Users need to access the Web app on their mobile device (http://www.happycavy.com/treats) then pay for a 24-hour pass, which costs only 1.00 USD. The feeder dispenses timothy hay-based pellets at the user's command, but only at preset intervals, to avoid over-feeding the animals. Users are alerted when pellets are dispensed by a sign that says "Watch the Webcams!" and lights that flash in the cage's feeding tubes, viewable from webcams #1 and #3. A percentage of the fee goes to fund guinea pig rescue groups.
For more information on HappyCavy.com, contact Balla at 4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #172 Portland OR 97206, website@happycavy.com, or (971) 533-3185. To view the HappyCavy Treater in action, and to treat the pigs yourself, access the mobile app then visit www.HappyCavy.com and look for the blue "Treater" button just above the webcams.
