Yet more piggies!

Today was quite a busy day! ALL the pigs got grass time, which meant my lawn was a scattering of puppy pens, shade blankets and hidey houses! ALL the cages got cleaned out... which is quite a mammoth task. Sprout's cage and Malakai's cage got re-located to behind the mansion cage (as we've had a bit of trouble with noise, smoke, and heat on the other side of the yard). AND - 6 new girls were dropped off!

We have a rescue mum and her babies (Delilah, with Suri and Sadie): mum is staying here but the two week old babies will be looking for new homes. We have two new curly babies from a local breeder who need a little TLC due to a mange mite/fungal skin condition (Tabitha and Xeraphina). And another little rescue girl who will be travelling up to Hervey Bay next week to meet her new family!


Delilah, mumma piggy:

I am so bewildered by Delilah, she looks like she might be a texel x, but her coat is incredibly course, much more like a rex than the softer fur of a texel. She is quite unusually coloured as well. She's a blend of ginger and beige/gold, in what looks like an argente patterning (most noticeable around her face).

[Argente is a similar coat marking to the Agouti. Where the agouti is a darker hair base colour with a lighter tip (black base, white tip: silver agouti), the argente is a lighter base with a darker tip, or two very similar tone colours (beige base, gold tip)]


Then, on top of all that, I think she might be satin. Or at least carry some satin ancestry. She definitely has a real shimmer/satin effect to her coat, and it has the same hollow-shaft look as I've seen on other Satin-breed guinea pigs I've owned in the past. I will admit that I don't have as much experience with the satin, and it has been over a decade since I've owned a satin rex. So I could be mistaken - just going by my observations!


Delilah really does have some awesome colouring, and some unusual fur though. I'm unsure of her age/origins due to her rescue status, but it will be interesting to see what happens as she re-gains a bit more condition here, and if her coat thickens out even more!?




Suri:

Suri is one of Delilah's daughters. She is a cream agouti and cream smooth coat. Her fur does have a distinct wiggle through it (mum's influence I'd say), but I don't think it will get curly. It may end up with a bit of length to it though. Daddy pig is unknown. (It's probably safe to assume he was agouti though!).


Suri will be available for adoption from the 25th November. Email me at eleb2000@hotmail.com if you think you have a spot for her in your family.





Sadie:

Sadie is Delilah's second daughter. She is a very richly coloured golden agouti and gold Abyssinian girl. I'd say that she probably looks a lot like her dad (considering the agouti colouring for both her sister and her, and the funky rosettes had to come from somewhere!).


It's impossible to tell what her coat is going to do in terms of length. Delilah is a mid-length pig though, so it's quite possible that her babies will have a bit more length than usual as well. Sadie is looking for her new home too, and will be available to meet her new family from the weekend of the 25th. Email me at eleb2000@hotmail.com if you think you have a spot for her in your family.






Xeraphina:

Xeraphina is the most interesting colour and the most interesting coat-type! It's a little tricky to say what she'll look like once her mites are treated (she's missing a fair bit of hair), but I'm pretty excited to watch her get better, and for her coat to grow back in. Her hair really does look like a pretty blonde colouring. Not quite cream, not quite buff...






Tabitha:

And this is Tabitha - also suffering from a bit of hair loss, most likely due to mites. She's been treated as well and we now play the waiting game to watch her coat grow back in. If the curls on her rump are anything to go by, she will be stunning.


She's a golden agouti and gold texel x. So it will be interesting to see how much length she ends up with as well.





'Flick' - Little Abyssinian x that will be heading up to Hervey Bay:

Lulu's ear - 5 days later

These are some photos of Lulu's ear that I took yesterday. You can see how much the fungal infection has cleared up since we first got her. And that was only 5 days worth of treatment.



All I did was bath her in Malaseb, used a bit of betadine on the ear for the first day or so - it didn't seem to be responding to that, so I pulled the big guns out - canesten cream! I think the skin was quite dry/sore/damaged too, and the canesten has moisturiesed it a bit as well. She'll need the cream for at least another week or two, even after the skin looks normal again. Just to make sure the last of the fungal spores are killed and it doesn't come right back again.

She's starting to calm down a bit more too, which is nice to see. She's so patient with me while I fumble around trying to get cream on both sides of her floppy little ear. Her babies are among the most active I've felt in a mumma piggy too (which could also be due to the fact that she's so little, and the skin is so stretched already that there's not much between my hand and their little feet!).

She's a lovely little girl and will make an awesome, gentle pet when the whole 'baby thing' is over! ;)

Lulu - pregnant pet shop rescue pig

I had avoided going into our local pet shop over the last week after my impulse purchase of Lotus last wednesday... but curiosity got the better of me today, and I had to have a peek and see if they still had pigs. The first ones I noticed were some stunning long haired boys. Then I spotted a lonely little girl in the other cage. When the assistant lifted her out, I knew it was the same girl who'd been there last week - and I'd thought she was pregnant then too.

A quick belly check and I confirmed my suspicions - she was maybe 5-6week pregnant, and only about 10-12 weeks old at most. I decided it was one of those moments when I'd been given a second chance to help out, and to walk away again would have been wrong. So we scooped her up and brought her home.


I've called her Lulu, and she's a dark blue/grey (not quite black) and cream classic smooth coat. She is riddled with lice and has a nasty fungal infection on her ear that goes right into the canal. She's quite a timid little thing, and really protested at being fungal washed and treated. But I had to weigh up the risk of not treating her before she gives birth, versus the risk of the stress of the bath. Hopefully I made the right choice.



She will be in quarantine for quite a while I'd say, but once she's looking healthier and her babies are born/weaned, she will need a new permanent home herself. Feel free to let me know (eleb2000@hotmail.com) if you're interesting in offering this little lady a place to call her own.