Another Newbie - Malibu the Sheltie

While we're on the roll for introducing new piggies... I thought I'd show off our newest boar to join the gang. This is 'Malibu'. He is a lilac/gold argente sheltie boar with streaks of gold, a solid gold nose and a gold tummy! 

Malibu comes from Ohana Cavy Stud, and is going to be a valuable edition to our pet-lines, hopefully bringing through some lilac to our curly pigs. 

You're probably wondering why he would be useful in adding to our curly stock... and the value is in the genes that he is carrying recessively... his daddy is a texel. One of our texel bubs actually - and Liam's son. So Malibu is actually Liam's grandson, which is kind of cool. 

So this is Malibu's dad  - he was born 'Ryder' here at the stud back in 2011. He was re-named Jasper by his new family at Ohana. This was him in full coat - he was stunning! Sadly he died not long ago, so Malibu is only one of two of his sons to survive him.

And this is Malibu's mum - a stunning gold purebred sheltie. You can see where Malibu gets his colouring from!

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!

Rollo and Ryder - 9 days old

Ruby's boys are 9 days old now. And in that 9 days, their little coats have really started to thicken up. You can see the difference in the quality of the coat/density of the facial fur already (compared to the pedigree texel I bought home yesterday).


This is Ryder (who is already spoken for), and he is just looking more and more like his daddy Liam when we first bought him home, every day. All of the boys are actually.


I'm going to struggle to say goodbye to them. I keep re-checking their little bottoms, hoping I some how made a mistake and one of them is actually a girl... oh how I wish there was a girl I could keep! lol


I thought I'd try and show off his belly curls too - how gorgeous is that!







And just so Ryder didn't get too big of an ego, I thought I'd scoop up Rollo quickly and take some photos of him too. Again - excellent density and curl. And length already too. For 9-day old babies, these guys are pretty special.



Oh - and I'm very pleased to report that all signs of the entropion/eye irritation has cleared up, and all four boys are thriving!

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).