Ruby's second litter to Liam = gorgeousness x 3!

I had been obsessively checking Ruby all day yesterday (Friday). I just had a feeling. She wasn't acting any different, but she was on day 69 of her pregnancy, and she just seemed ready. I walked past the cage at about 10:50pm, and noticed a lot of licking behaviour - and spotted a soggy little bundle of curls! I rushed to her compartment and got to see the delivery of the last placenta.

Three not-so-little bubs had already been safely delivered into the world by a very competent mumma.







This is Zeus, the bigger boy at 100g. He is a mix of white, cream and 'cream agouti', but with much more white. He will look spectacular if his coat grows out like daddy (Liam). ('True' cream agouti is a chocolate base colour with a cream tip. These guys have a black base with a cream tip. So it's probably more of a dilute gold agouti, but that just sounds confusing!).






And this is Zachary. The smallest of the litter at 95g. He too is white, cream and 'cream agouti'.





This is the only little lady of the litter - Miss Zoey. She weighed in at a healthy 100g and is a 'cream agouti' and white.




And these are two of the boys born in Ruby and Liam's first litter back in October 2011 (they're 3-4 weeks old in the first pic). They're now 7 months old and have grown full texel coats. It really is just a genetic lucky dip though. These babies all have a 50/50 chance of inheriting Ruby's short 'rex' gene, or her long 'texel' gene. Liam only has texel genes to pass on - so the babies will either end up genetically rex/texel or texel/texel. Only time will tell!

Baby updates

Both new mums and their 7 new babies were all looking really good this morning, so they got promoted to 'mansion-living'!

The babies were very excited, and it was just little popcorning balls of cuteness everywhere for a while. Until they tired themselves out and took a nap in the hay anyways!



Alice seemed a little stressed by the re-introduction and took out a lot of her frustration on poor Ruby. Meanwhile, Galaxy and her four 10-day old boys thought it was great fun, and did lots of bum-sniffing. Alice ended up sulking up the back of the cage while her babies sampled milk from both Ruby and Galaxy. It's fortunate that I've got two excellent mum's in those two ladies. Hopefully this was just a minor hiccup in Alice's new role as mum...

I thought I'd let you all know that I've published the information from my care-booklets given out with the adoption piggies, and it can all be found right here on my page. I've got a page on general care, and one on breeding. Let me know what you think? Too much info? Not enough?

Birth Videos

This is a video of Ruby delivering Rollo. At about 1:25 she contracts and delivers one of the placentas from the other boys, then at about 2:50 she contracts again to deliver a second placenta. Then at 3:30 you can just see Rollo emerge - and then Ruby blocks the rest of the view with her big bottom! :P (you can hear Rollo's first little gasp for air at 3:42).



And this video is just Ruby cleaning Rollo up, after I'd put down the camera to make sure his airway was clear.

*** Just as a word of warning - it is a birth video, and is a bit messy! You might want to take that into consideration if you're showing your kids, or eating lunch! ***

Ruby's four very healthy baby boys!

Yep, you read that title right. Ruby has finally had her babies. Four very fat and healthy little boys. All four have incredibly dense, curly coats. It's impossible to say at this stage what they'll grow into, but I'm betting they'll get longer hair than a rex. How much longer is the question though!?

Ruby did very well. Another textbook mum. Her boys are all tucked in around her having a nap at the moment. To see them like that makes me wonder how on earth they all fit inside of her!?



This little guy is Rollo. He weighed in at a very healthy 100g. He is the lightest coloured out of the brothers, sporting a white nose, cream agouti eye patches, a cream band across his shoulders with a splash more of white, then a white band across his back and finished with a cream agouti rump. Gorgeous colours, and gorgeous patterning.


Rollo has a stunning thick curly coat. Whether or not he ends up looking more like a rex or more like a texel is the biggest mystery. Ruby's mum was a pedigree texel though, so with that in mind, I'm thinking we're probably going to get a bit of length to those curls!



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This little cherub is 'Rudy'. He has a big white nose like mum (with a bit of birth goo still on it!), a splash of chestnut on the side of his face, a splotch of white behind his ears (also like mum) and the rest of him is a lovely rich chestnut agouti.


Rudy weighed in at 90g. A very healthy runt of the litter! He had a bit of trouble keeping his eyes open for the photo shoot!

Rudy from the top, his curls are probably the loosest out of the four boys, but at this stage that doesn't mean much. It may mean he ends up with longer fur, or it may mean nothing.




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This little guy is very similar to Rudy, but is actually 'Ryder'. He weighed in at 95g. Ryder has more of the white on his face, and less behind his ears than Rudy.


He also has a chestnut splotch on his rump and a little white foot. The rest of him is the gorgeous chestnut agouti.




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And this is the last little man - Romeo. Little poser!


Romeo weighed in at 100g. He has the craziest curls at this stage. He has the white blaze up his nose, with mostly chestnut agouti (golden agouti is probably more the correct terminology), and some chestnut/ginger splotches on the other side of his face and on his rump (also with a little white back foot).

Ruby

I know a lot of you are waiting with anticipation for Ruby to have her babies (I know I am!). So I thought I'd quickly let you know that we're STILL waiting! It feels like she's been pregnant forever! Probably didn't help that she dilated soooo long ago as well.

The babies are fine - lots of good, strong movement. Ruby is fine - eating like a horse and very cheeky! So it's just a matter of waiting now.... and waiting.

And waiting!

A surprise pregnancy

Ruby has been getting quite fat lately. And by quite fat, I actually mean REALLY fat!!! She is very quickly catching up to Subi for the status of fattest piggy at our stud!

Rex guinea pigs are inherently bigger than other breeds, so this didn't really strike me as too odd. Until I thought to just check Ruby's pelvic bone today, just in case she might be pregnant. [the bone just above the genitals on a female guinea pig will start to open anywhere from about 2-7 days before birth. It will reach about 2-fingers width apart when the guinea pig is ready for delivery. Birth should happen within 24hrs once full dilation is achieved]. Sure enough, pelvic bone is just starting to open, suggesting she's about a week away from delivery of her baby/s. Babies I didn't even know were cooking away in there! :P



The reason for this sooner-than-expected delivery is due to a little moment of anxiety on my behalf a few weeks ago. I was watching time ticking by with the girls getting older and older, and not seeing any evidence to suggest that Liam was doing his job of stud. [With young female guinea pigs you only have a limited window of opportunity for them to have their first litter, or they will not be able to be bred again. It's best to aim for their first 'sleepover' with a boy after 4-6months of age (or after 600g weight), but before 8-10 months old. Once a guinea pig has passed 10-12months old with no previous births, there is a high possibility that their pelvic bone will be fused, making future delivery impossible.]

So, with the time pressure in the back of my mind, I decided to let all the 'of-age' girls have a few garden parties with Liam in the grass run. One day here, one day there. Not really knowing if the encounters would coincide with any of the girl's fertile days, but figuring it was better than not doing anything.

When Sheba finally delivered, and the dates/appearance of the boys linked back to being that of Liam's handiwork, I was able to relax - and we've now gone back to single-girl sleepovers. But I have a feeling those garden parties may result in a few litters in the next 4-5+ weeks, with slightly chubbier tummies on Beeno, Sparrow and maybe Alba as well. I'll keep you posted on preg-watch over the coming weeks.

A piggy weigh in on my birthday

The weigh in for Monday 18th July 2011 (my birthday!):


Sprout is 400g (lost 110g) - 14wks
Sparrow is 695g (gained 65g) - 14wks
Liam is 670g (gained 3g) - 15wks
Ruby is 810g (gained 55g) - 17wks
Ginger is 800g (gained 50g) - 17wks
Kobe is 685g (lost 25g) - 20wks
Alice is 725g (gained 75g) - 22wks
Beeno is 725g (gained 50g) - 20wks
Alba is 735g (gained 70g) - 20wks
Custard is 965g (gained 40g) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1.065kg (gained 35g) - 2yrs
Bonnie is 575g (gained 80g) - 7wks
Galaxy is 755g (gained 35g) - 29wks
Sheba is 770g (gained 105g) - 25wks
Crumble is 1020g (gained 80g) - 33wks
Yeti is 320g (gained 65g) - 7wks


Total piggy weight 11.715kg (total weekly gain of 690g across 16 guinea pigs)


So, as you can probably see, poor little Sprout has dropped further to a low of 400g. He's been sitting at this weight for a few days now without dropping any further so I'm hoping to see an increase soon. He is eating spontaneously, though not as much as usual. And he doesn't seem as listless. He has a decent set of lungs on him too, and scream/squeals when I take Kobe out to weigh her as well. These two are quite bonded I think. I'm a little worried at her second weight loss this week though. That's 30g lost over the last fortnight (which doesn't seem like much in comparison to Sprout's loss of 150g, but is still a bit concerning). She seems physically fine, so I'm hoping it's just a stress thing because her buddy isn't well and that she'll pick up when he does.







The rest of the pigs seem really good. They all spent the day on the grass again today, enjoying the winter sunshine. The babies (Yeti and Bonnie) gorge themselves on the grass! Come the afternoon when it's time to put everyone back in the mansion, their little bellies feel like they are bursting at the seams! Yeti's fur is getting longer and crazier. I have honestly never seen anything like her before. Liam's fur (my pedigree Texel) grows in long, soft ringlets/spiral curls. Yeti's fur is like black wool, growing in clumps/clusters. It's quite funky.



(I had to pop this photo in here too... I love it when the pigs all squish up. And yet again, Galaxy manages to get in the shot!)

I've been keeping an eye on Custard too. Her hair got quite sparse last week, but is growing back now. With her colouring, the new hairs start out a darker shade of cream, then get lighter as the hair gets longer/older. So the new patches of hair are quite visible. I've done a bit of reading about it, and I think she probably has an ovarian cyst. That would explain the hair loss, her continually doing the 'horny dance' to the other girls, and her pudgy belly. At this stage she seems comfortable and happy though, and the others tolerate her eccentricities, so I don't think it is worth stressing out an old girl like her to get it removed. We'll just keep an eye on her too.

Fat Fat piggies

Here's the weigh in for Monday the 4/7/2011:

Sprout is 570g (gained 15g) - 12wks
Sparrow is 635g (gained 85g) - 12wks
Liam is 605g (gained 20g) - 13wks
Ruby is 730g (gained 30g) - 15wks
Ginger is 740g (gained 10g) - 15wks
Kobe is 715g (gained 10g) - 18wks
Alice is 680g (gained 55g) - 20wks
Beeno is 685g (gained 60g) - 18wks
Alba is 670g (gained 25g) - 18wks
Custard is 985g (gained 50g) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1.015kg (gained 15g) - 2yrs
Bonnie is 495g (gained 100g) - 5wks
Galaxy is 725g (gained 75g) - 27wks
Sheba is 635g (gained 50g) - 23wks
Crumble is 910g (gained 65g) - 31wks
Yeti is 225g (gained 15g since wed) - 5wks


Total piggy weight 11.020kg (total gain 890g across 16pigs, with one newby addition!).

Wow, the pigs gained a fair bit of weight this week! Thats quite amazing. A special mention needs to go out to Bonnie who went from 395g to 495g in one week! That girl is going to be a big mumma when she's fully grown.



Ruby is looking heaps better too. Her eye is basically back to normal, and it was good to see her gain a little this week after nearly staying the same last weigh in.

Sprout is looking so much better too. All of his hair has grown back, and the scabby skin stuff (assumed fungal infection) has almost disappeared after his last bath in malaseb shampoo. I decided to give him another bath today, just for good measure, and because the weather was quite warm. He's currently rugged up in his bright green towel on my lap at the moment. He's stopped shivering now, and is just sitting there looking up at me with his big ruby-black eyes. There's something special about this boy... not sure quite what yet. But there's a bit more behind those eyes than the usual guinea pig...

We're back from the vet

We just got back from the vet trip. Ruby's eye was close to rupture, but not quite there. So it looks like it can be saved. She'll be on antibiotic eye cream and paste for the next week. (which is surprisingly expensive!)



This is her good side.



This is the sore side. It looks a little green due to the stain the vet used. Apparently there is an ulceration on the eye itself, and the red bit is the flesh trying to grow over it to heal.



A bit of special treatment for a while and we should have her looking good in no time!

Ruby's Sore Eye

The good news: Subi's sore eye from this post is looking great. A couple of squirts of breast milk over the last few days and it's cleared up nicely.

The bad news: Ruby's has gotten worse. Much worse! I actually think the eyeball itself has ruptured... I've popped a pic up, so be warned, it's pretty yucky. The poor little thing is acting perfectly fine (in true guinea pig form!). But we will definately be making a trip to the vet first thing tomorrow. With toddler and baby in tow... not what I had in mind for my monday... thank you very much produce place that sold me crappy straw!



Mind you, I can't blame the produce place entirely. I did see that it was crappy quality - and still bought it. Then I saw just how crappy it was when spreading it out in the cage - but still left it there. So this is just as much my fault.

Oh, and I was giving little 3.5 week old Bonnie a cuddle today and noticed she had a tiny sharp shard of it stuck right in one of her eyes too! Luckily the eye wasn't damaged yet, and I managed to get it out. But that was the final straw for me (pardon the pun).

So the girls have been upgraded to fleece, towels and newspaper! I have no idea if this set up is going to be practical. And I'm a little sad that I have to take away the straw. They really loved burrowing under it. But I think with the addition of a few more hidey things, it will be just as much fun for them. And a hell of a lot safer!

Oh! And - in that same produce shop trip we bought a bail of 'Prime' hay. I went to pull some off to feed the pigs this morning and promptly got a hand full of prickles. On closer inspection the whole bail is riddled with some kind of prickle/burr weed. And the prickles are huge, and sharp. In the photo below you can see a small scattering that I went through by hand, pulling out all of the burrs. That took about an hour! So as much as I hate to waste things, I think this bail is going to need to be binned. The last thing I need is the guinea pigs getting prickles stuck in their mouths!

I had Custard and her 3 sisters for four years without any hay issues. And I used to buy a bail every month and pack the cage full of it!

Anyone else had any experience with a hay product that won't injure guinea pigs!?

Damn straw!

On the weekend we took the kids to the local produce place to buy another bail of hay, some straw and some more piggy mix. The bag of straw we picked up looked a little inferior, but we were in a hurry as kids needed sleeps, so we just paid for it anyway.

When I was cleaning out the mansion on monday, and scattering the new straw down in the lower level (the pigs just LOVE making tunnels through it, and hiding in it!), I got to see just how crap it was! Instead of the lovely big fat pieces of straw we usually get, it looked like it was just the dregs that had been swept up off the floor! All the pieces were short and spiky and there were lots of bits of rubbish - dirt, leaves etc all through it as well. I was a bit pissed off, but it was all I had so I had to leave it. (It was either dodgy straw or dirt!)

This morning while I was checking the girls over, I noticed that both Ruby and Subi had one sore eye each. I am assuming they have had straw-poke incidents, and the eye has gone all weepy and opaque (exactly like the photo above of a piggy called 'Cookie' I found on google). So far it's only those two. I took them inside, checked the eyes for foreign objects and applied some antibacterial eye cream. I have no idea if this is going to help them, or if the damage has been done now, but I figured it was worth a try. If that doesn't work I'll try breast milk. I managed to clear up a nasty case of conjunctivitis in Custard a few months back with a few squirts of my milk! :P Sounds really gross, but it actually works!

Here's Monday's Weigh in:

Sprout is 515g (gained 50g) - 10wks
Sparrow is 520g (gained 20g) - 10wks
Liam is 550g (gained 15g) - 11wks
Ruby is 695g (gained 25g) - 13wks
Ginger is 670g (gained 10g) - 13wks
Kobe is 630g (lost 10g) - 16wks
Alice is 580g (gained 10g) - 18wks
Beeno is 575g (stayed the same) - 16wks
Alba is 620g (gained 5g) - 16wks
Custard is 895g (gained 20g) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1.035g (lost 35g) - 2yrs (Nursing Bonnie)
Bonnie is 330g (gained 60g) - 2.5wks old
Galaxy is 625g (gained 25g) - 25wks
Sheba is 510g (gained 20g) - 21wks
Crumble is 830g (gained 35g) - 29wks (?)


Total piggy weight 9.850kg (total gain 530g across 15pigs, average gain of 35g per animal. Some had double that, some had losses)

Weight overview for the last 5 weeks

We've had the full 11 guinea pigs for 5 weeks now. 10 weeks since we got Custard back from our friend's place and adopted Alice to keep her company. We've come a long way from two girls in a little cage to the whole gang in the mansion and surrounding hutches!

I was curious to see what the overall weight gain has been like over the last 5 weeks because there was a week there where a few girls lost weight. I tallied it all up last night and between them, the 11 guinea pigs have gained 1.85kg in 5 weeks! That's not a bad effort really. Most of the younger ones have gained about 200g in those 5 weeks. Ruby has been our little porker and has gained 245 in that time. I'm keeping an eye on her as her belly is getting a little larger than you would expect. So I'm wondering if she was impregnated just before she left her last owner as well!? Hopefully it turns out that she's just living up to the 'pig' aspect of her name.

Subi, who actually is pregnant, gained 130g over the last 5 weeks. If she delivers in the next few days that will mean she was about 4-5weeks pregnant when we got her. I am curious to see how much her bubs weigh when they are born too. From what I've read most newborn guinea pigs are about 80-100g. I'm also interested to see how much she weighs when not pregnant too! And here we were contemplating naming her 'fatso'!

The pigs made pigs of themselves!

Today's Weigh in:

Sprout is 280g (gained 40g) - 5wks
Sparrow is 305g (gained 70g) - 5wks
Liam is 330g (gained 30g) - 6wks
Ruby is 470g (gained 95g) - 8wks
Ginger is 470g (gained 80g) - 8wks
Kobe is 480g (gained 75g) - 11wks
Alice is 465g (gained 65g) - 13wks
Beeno is 435g (gained 35g) - 11wks
Alba is 480g (gained 35g) - 11wks
Custard is 890g (gained 25g) - 4yrs
and Subi is 1130g (gained 60g) - 1-2yrs

Total piggy weight 5.735 kg! (total gained 610g!!)

We had a good week this week. Everyone gained. And most of the gains were huge!!! Little Ruby packed on a massive 95g! That's a 25% body mass weight gain. Or in human terms, like an average 60kg woman gaining 15kg in one week! (Granted - some of that may have been a full bladder/full tummy). Still - one pretty good weight gain, and over half a kg of extra piggy mass this week. It feels good to know all those fruit and veg and hay and grass are going to good use :).

A bigger run for the girls

After the last cramped attempt at having the girls on the grass in the little run, I decided to buy them a more spacious one. This is actually a puppy pen, but works really well for the pigs!



I sat with them for a while and managed to catch some lovely shots of Kobe and Ruby together. They're really similar in colouring, only Kobe has the gorgeous straight, shiny fur, while Ruby's is matt and curly. Ruby is supposedly a texel, but at this stage she is looking more like a soft coated rex. (which, from all the reading I've done, is what the US breed 'Teddy' is supposedly like).