Weigh in

The weigh in for Saturday the 12th November 2011:

*** Liam's Love Shack ***
Liam is 930g (gain 35g) - 31wks (7m)
Sparrow is 1025g (gain 70g) - 32wks (7.5m) (possibly pregnant, waiting to confirm)
Yeti is 870g (gain 45g) - 23wks (5.5m)


*** Sprout's Pad ***
Sprout is 910g (gain 5g) - 32wks (7.5m)
Otis is 335g (gain 125) - 5wks (1m)
Romeo is 400g (gain 70g) - 6wks (1m)


*** Malakai's Quarters ***
Malakai is 730g (gain 40g) - 15wks (3.5m)
Millicent is 650g (gain 80g) - 15wks (3.5m)
Peppa is 1090g (gain 140g) - 1yr (possibly pregnant, waiting to confirm)


*** Violet's Arrangement ***
Violet is 605g (lost 20g) - 17wks (4m)
Pooh Bear is 1000g (lost 50g) - on loan


*** Girl's Mansion ***
Alba is 950g (gain 60g) - 37wks (8.5m)
Alice is 850g (gain 85g) - 40wks (9m)
Bonnie is 1250g (gained 160g) - 24wks (5.5m) - (Pregnant, due approx 2/12)
Chloe is 320g (gain 60g) - 6wks (1m)
Crumble is 1100g (gained 45g) - 50wks (11.5m)
Custard is 1010g (gained 20g) - 4.5yrs
Demi is 420g (gained 50g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Elodie is 715g (gained 35g) - 15wks (3.5m)
Galaxy was 950g (gain 95g)- 44wks (10.5m)
Ginger is 1355g (gained 260g) - 34wks (8m) - (pregnant, due approx 2/12)
Ivy is 465g (gained 75g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Jasmine is 365g (gain 45g) - 8wks (1.5m)
Lavender Mist is 665g (gained 25g) - 13wks (3m)
Leilani is 875g (gained 15g) - 21wks (4.5m)
Lotus is 455g (gained 70g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Molly is 615g (gained 25g) - 13wks (3m)
Ruby is 970g (lost 10g) - 34wks (8m)
Sheba is 1010g (gain 20g) - 42wks (9.5m)
Subi is 1195g (gain 30g) - 2.5yrs
Tigerlily is 430g (gain 35g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Twizzle is 465g (gain 60g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Zinnia is 440g (gain 60g) - 7wks (1.5m)


***Re-homing/Foster Pigs***
Rafia is 685g (gained 100g) - 10wks (2.5m) - (pregnant, due approx 8/12)
Lulu is 720g (gained 80) - 11wks (2.5m) - (pregnant, due approx 5/12)
Olivia is 305g (gain 45g) - 5wks (1m) - (On Hold)
Tabitha is 205g (first weigh in) - 2wks - (treating for mites)
Xeraphina is 340g (first weigh in) 5wks - (treating for mites)
Flick is 590g (first weigh in) - 10wks - (On Hold)

***New Mums***
Phoebe is now 725g (lost 360g) - 30wks (7m)- (gave birth, nursing)
Noah is 90g (gained 15g in the last two days!) - newborn
Nixie is 95g (gained 5g in the last two days) - newborn

Delilah is 735g (first weigh in) - approx 1yr (nursing)
Sadie is 175g (first weigh in) - 2wks
Suri is 190g (first weigh in) - 2wks


And, we're almost at capacity again! It seems that as quickly as my babies find wonderful new families, and my foster pigs waddle off to new homes, more piggies end up taking their place! I can't claim innocence there though, I do love to meet new pigs, and help those that need a bit of assistance.



The two new girls from yesterday's intake are doing a lot better this evening than they were this morning. I woke up to find this mess on Xeraphina's back - she was compulsively biting into herself. The most logical explanation for this is simply that the ivermectin treatment I administered yesterday has exacerbated the mange mites, and she's now itchier than ever. Hopefully the drug will start killing off the bugs very soon and some of that itchiness will subside. I must admit she's been very good this afternoon, and the wound doesn't look so raw any more.

So while my quarantined newbies stayed inside in air-conditioned comfort, the rest of the pigs were getting some grass time. I've moved Sprout and Malakai's cages and positioned them behind the mansion cage to try and avoid whatever it was about their old position that seemed to be stressing them out. So far so good too - both cages had good gains this week - making up for lost time!



I also gave a select few girls a taste of supervised free-ranging while our puppy dog was locked in the now empty side-yard with a big bone to keep him happy. Bonnie loved it - and is getting quite large now! Not as large as Ginger though, who gained an incredible 260g this week. That is a new record for us. You can feel every last gram of that too when you pick her up. Either she's a little further along than I guessed, or there are a LOT of babies in there...



Lulu's really bulked out in the last week or so too. Her fungal infection has completely cleared up as well. All she needs to do now is feed those growing babies of hers!



Oh - and I couldn't end this week's weigh in without this awesome shot of Bonnie and her mum Subi together! Colour-contrasting fat bottoms!

Sprout and Subi

Sprout and Subi are living together now (after Kobe's return to the girl's mansion).


Sprout is VERY happy about this new arrangement. Subi... not so much! :P She's so much bigger than him too, she lets him know who's boss. But, I think they have come to an understanding: as long as Sprout gives Subi her space when she wants it (she has claimed the entire upstairs of their cage), they'll get along just fine! :P

Piggy Updates and weights

Here's this weeks weigh in, for Sunday the 4th September 2011:
(this week everyone (except the little babies) were treated with ivermectin as a preventative worming/lice method, especially with the weather warming up, and with the addition of newbies!)

*** Liam's Love Shack ***
Liam is 890g (gained 5g) - 22wks (5.5m)
Ruby is 985g (gained 70g) - 24wks (6m)


*** Sprout's Pad ***
Sprout is 765g (gained 25g) - 21wks (5m)
Kobe is 835g (gained 35g) - 27wks (6.5m)


*** Girl's Mansion ***
Alba is 835g (gained 30g) - 27wks (6.5m)
Alice is 965g (gained 100g) - 29wks (7m) (pregnant, due approx 1/10/11)
Beeno is 890g (gained 70g) - 27wks (6.5m)
Bonnie is 860g (gained 70g) - 14wks (3.5m)
Custard is 955g (gained 5g) - 4.5yrs
Galaxy is 1030g (gained 80g) - 35wks (8.5m) (pregnant, due approx 23/9/11)
Ginger is 935g (gained 10g) - 24wks (6m)
Sparrow is 905g (gained 45g) - 21wks (5m)
Subi is 1180g (gained 65g) - 2.5yrs
Yeti is 580g (gained 60g) - 14wks (3.5m)

Crumble is 880g (gained 30g) - 40wks (10m)(nursing)
Molly is 255g (gained 60g) - 3 weeks
Mason is 280g (gained 70g) - 3 weeks
Mika is 270g (gained 70g) - 3 weeks

Sheba is 790g (loss 30g) - 32wks (8m)(nursing)
Bear is 165g (gained 40g) - 1 week
Bodie is 155g (gained 55g) - 1 week
Ben is 145g (gained 35g) - 1 week

(and the newbies!)
Malakai is 310g (first weigh in here) - 5 weeks
Millicent is 270g (first weigh in) - 5 weeks
Eloide is 275g (first weigh in) - 5 weeks


Wow... weighing everyone is quite a job now! I love seeing how well they're all doing though. We've had some pretty big gains this week! Our current pregnant girls, Alice and Galaxy are doing really well and putting on a nice amount of weight. I have felt movement from Galaxy's tummy, but not Alice yet. There is no doubt in my mind that Alice is carrying bubs though. She most likely just has a little bit longer to go than Galaxy.





Sheba and her boys are doing really well. Sheba is the most relaxed little mummy I've had in a long time. Her little men are so gorgeous too!

Crumble's Babies - 1.5weeks

This week's weigh in

Here's the weigh in for Monday the 27/6/2011:

Sprout is 555g (gained 40g) - 11wks
Sparrow is 550g (gained 30g) - 11wks
Liam is 585g (gained 35g) - 12wks
Ruby is 700g (gained 5g) - 14wks
Ginger is 730g (gained 60g) - 14wks
Kobe is 705g (gained 75g) - 17wks
Alice is 625g (gained 45g) - 19wks
Beeno is 625g (gained 50g) - 17wks
Alba is 645g (gained 25g) - 17wks
Custard is 935g (gained 40g) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1kg (lost 35g) - 2yrs (Nursing Bonnie)
Bonnie is 395g (gained 65g) - 3.5wks old
Galaxy is 650g (gained 25g) - 26wks
Sheba is 585g (gained 75g) - 22wks
Crumble is 845g (gained 15g) - 30wks


Total piggy weight 10.130kg (total gain 280g across 15pigs).


You can see how much Bonnie has grown in the last month as well. Here is a photo of her at only hours old, followed by one of her at nearly a month old. She's catching up to her mum so fast!

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)

And some more new additions!

Oh My Goodness - do I have some news to fill you all in on!!!



We adopted two more lovelies today! Meet Sheba (the Peruvian)


and Crumble (the Sheltie).

Sheba is just gorgeous, with a really spunky personality.





Crumble's personality is just like the Sheltie 'Flower Power Rouge' I had a few years back - gentle and sweet. When I put Crumble in the mansion, and the first thing she did was walk up the ramp and curl herself up in a cuddle sack!








I decided to try hanging the cuddle sacks so that the openings stayed open (idea courtesy of The Cavy Cottage where we adopted the funky black and white pig yesterday). You can see how much better this works for the girls too. Not all of them like the cuddle sacks, so we have 5 in there, so those who do can curl up in one, and those who don't can burrow under the hay or sleep in the igloos.



Oh, and after a combined effort by my hubby and my step-mum, the new black and white pig (see the last post) is now known as 'Lamington Galaxy'! A crazy name for a crazy pig! And goodness me does that girl have a fun personality. She is by far the most friendly of all the girls - actually seeking me out while I was sitting in the cage taking photos of them all so she could nibble my toes! The other's much rather keep their distance.




Here you can see Galaxy meeting all the ladies. She caused such a fuss! The noise from all the grunting and squeeking and wining was incredible. But it only lasted a few minutes, then they all lay down for a nap in the straw warmed by the winter sun. It was so nice in there I think I could probably have gone for a nap too!




I managed to capture a really sweet moment between Subi and her bub Bonnie as well. After all the excitement of meeting the new-comers, they lay down in the hay and Bonnie had a little feed. Subi is just the best mum. Some guinea pigs seem to get really stressed by pregnancy/birth and nursing (totally understandably!), but Subi has just taken it in her stride. Bonnie has packed on yet more weight too, nearly doubling her birth weight in 12 days!

More on the weight in the next post though :)





And I'll finish this massive post with a sweet photo I captured of Bonnie munching on some grain. I am constantly blown away by how independent guinea pig babies are... none more so than this little lady.

Bonnie on film

Just some quick little Baby Bonnie videos...



Bonnie and Subi on the grass yesterday.



Bonnie and the girls in the big cage!

Bonnie Butterscotch

Oh my goodness, I am smitten! Isn't she just the most darling little cherub! The two name suggestions were Bonnie (from my hubby) and Butterscotch (from a friend). So I decided she shall make use of both of them and be 'christened' Bonnie Butterscotch!



I put her out on the grass with Subi when it warmed up enough today. The other girls were very curious. I left Subi and Bonnie in the smaller cage inside the puppy pen though, because as big as she is, I think she'd be able to squeeze through the bars on the puppy pen if she wanted. And there would be a not-so-friendly real puppy waiting for her on the other side...




I got some really cute 'grass cam' videos of her first grass experience too. I'll pop a link up to them once they're online.

I contacted the original owner of Subi to see if I can find out any information about who Bonnie's dad might be too. More out of curiosity than anything. Oh, and I discovered on the Australian National Cavy Council that I'm still a registered breeder under the prefix of 'Sirroco' Cavies, 20202S1. I just need to find another pedigree Texel to partner up with Liam, and I'll be back in the swing of things again!

Subi had her baby!!!

Last night was only the second night I'd brought Subi inside to keep her warmer if she gave birth. And give birth she did!

When I checked on her this morning there was a little bundle of fluff nestled up next to her in a different colour. One massive wiggly haired bundle of baby goodness! The bub has her mum's hair - really thick and course and wavy. (I'm assuming this is what rex babies look like because it was hard to find a picture online for comparison.) She is an agouti as well, but by the looks of things, she's a rare cream/cinnamon agouti. Very very pretty colouring. And, being a girl - she's staying right here with us! No re-homing for this little princess!



She weighed in at a massive 150g as well! (average weight - according to Google - is 85-95g!). Sprout and Sparrow weighed 105 and 110g respectively when I adopted them at Easter. And they were supposed to be 4 weeks old. (Realisticly, I think they were probably barely a week old, but that just goes to show how huge this little lady is!). Subi weighs in at 1.075g now. She was 1.235kg on monday, so is only 160g lighter now. Which is basically ALL BABY!



Mother and Baby seem to be doing really well. I was a bit worried about Subi, having to push a monster bub like that out - but she looks really well. The photos aren't the best, but its way too cold here still to go outside for clearer ones. But I hope to take some more later on in the day. And hopefully have a name for bub sometime today too. Suggestions are more than welcome!

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'!

Another weigh in and an update on Sprout

(Little Ginger all tucked up in her cuddle sack!)


Today's Weigh in:

Sprout is 370g (gained 55g) - 7wks
Sparrow is 420g (gained 65g) - 7wks
Liam is 460g (gained 65g) - 8wks
Ruby is 585g (gained 65g) - 10wks
Ginger is 590g (gained 60g) - 10wks
Kobe is 600g (gained 70g) - 13wks
Alice is 525g (gained 40g) - 15wks
Beeno is 515g (gained 50g) - 13wks
Alba is 565g (gained 45g) - 13wks
Custard is 905g (gained 10g) - 4yrs
and Subi is 1.235g (gained 50g) - 1-2yrs (Pregnant)

Total piggy weight 6.770kg (total gained 575g!!)

Another pretty good week for my piggy pals. It seems that putting on 60-70g in a week has become pretty standard now! I can feel the weight when I pick them up now too. I plan to do an overview on the weight gain since we adopted them all. But that will be in a future post.

Subi is getting fatter and fatter as you can see by her weigh in result for today. Still, she only gained 50g, yet some of the younger girls gained more than that and they're not growing babies! :P Subi's estimated delivery date has been brought forward as well. Her pelvic bone started opening during the week and is at full width today. I'll bring her inside tonight as she could deliver any time from now. Very exciting stuff!

And my Quarantine Pigs are doing better. I'm still slathering Beeno's ear in anti-fungal cream. I stopped for a few days and it started to come back. So I might just keep it up for another week to make sure. Sprout's hair is growing back, but he's still got crusty spots. So I gave him a fourth mite treatment today. That boys has cost me a fortune in treatments! It's a good thing he's so damn cute!

You can see in these photos his original hair when we first got him:



Then how his hair started to get scruffy and patchy and fall out with the mites about a month ago:



Then this is him today. It's still an uneven coat, but it's thickening up again:



You can see where the hair has grown back in one of the crusty bald spots too:



It's a bit of a shame though. He started out with such gorgeous thick curls. And now it's kind of just a fuzzy mess!!!