Update on Gizmo and Rocket

I was looking back through the blog today, and lately all I've been managing to post are the litters/newborns! I've been crazy slack on the updated pig pictures - which are seriously fun! 

Gizmo and Rocket (the son's we brought home along with their mum Cleo a few weeks ago) are 8 weeks old now and looking great! They're currently bunked in with Granddad Liam and a little friend, 4 week old Atticus. I was worried all 4 boys would bicker - but Liam keeps them in line with gentle discipline. 

Gizmo has great density, and his coat still has a good deal of lift too. I was a bit worried we'd begin to loose that as the coat gets longer. It may still do that, but so far so good. 

Rocket is looking brilliant too. Just look at those chops! His coat looks a lot longer than Gizmo purely because it's the straight version. 

These two are the funniest little duo! We're so lucky to have them here with us!

Hannah and Tex's muchly awaited litter

This is our very cute little Hannah. She's nothing 'special' genetically - not pedigree/purebred, just a cute little cross breed with a full on attitude. Her dad was an alpaca and her mum was an aby. 

And this is our Tex. I'm sure you're all pretty familar with him by now! He's our silver agouti pedigree texel. He is the dad of Hannah's bubs. In placing them together I was expecting a litter of all bubs with rosettes (Hannah should carry two dominant rosetted genes) and I was hoping one might end up with curls (as Hannah should be carrying the alpaca curl gene.

We didn't get curls, but we did get lots of rosettes! And more 'silver' too. Thank you Tex!


Meet 'Magnolia. She was the third born bub, and is stunning in a mix of a 'silver' agouti and white. (non of the bubs are true silver, nor true cinnamon agouti - but somewhere between these two colours).

And this is Meadow (she was first born). She's slightly more like a cinnamon agouti (with a touch of chocolate warmth to her colouring), but still very similar to silver. All bubs ended up with beautiful ruby eyes too.

And this is Mirage - second born bub. She too is this weird not-quite silver/not quite cinnamon colouring. All three are staying here for the time being so I can see what those gorgeous coats are going to do. In time they will be partnered back to 'Gizmo' our curly-coated sheba boy. But that's many months away yet.

Tigerlilly's bubs

Our gorgeous Tigerlilly delivered two big, healthy bubs sometime between 9am-1pm on Saturday morning (I was out... there's definitely something to the phenomenon of the pigs 'holding on' until you're not around!). 

I opened her cuddle sack (which she'd refused to give up/come out of), and was greeted with two still damp, white curly bottoms!

Meet 'Eden'. He weighed in at 115g and is a mostly white texel boy with a bizarre 'silver agouti' face. (I don't actually think this is 'real' silver agouti. It has a lilac tone to the outer colour, with a black base, white ticking then the lilac hint. Some dilution perhaps?) 

His colouring sparked an afternoon of cavy colour research (which didn't actually help!), but spawned this new page on Cavy Colours, which is where I'll compile any new info as I get it. 

And this is 'Elia'. She weighed in at 110g and is also predominantly white (thank you Daddy Sebastian!) with a big black eye patch on this side and a hint of gold on the other. She too will end up with the full texel coat.

Sad news and Beautiful news

This is the last photo I took of the gorgeous Sirocco Adelina. She was 1 day away from turning 2 weeks old. This was Saturday afternoon. By Sunday morning she had passed away. We're not entirely sure what took her life so young. But from experience, and in observing her symptoms (rapid, noisy breathing) - it was either a URI (upper respiratory infection - like a cold/flu) or a heart condition. (We lost Little Dante in similar circumstances at the start of the year at nearly the same age!)

Her mum and sisters were quarantined with her as soon as we discovered the symptoms, but so far no one else in any cage, including the rest of Adelina's family have shown any symptoms. We are having some miserable freezing cold and drizzly weather at the moment, which is not ideal for piggies. They all have as many cozy beds, hidey houses and blankets as I can cram into the cages - as well as cuddle sacks for those in the tower cage. But if I'm honest, THIS is the kind of weather that will bring on an attack of respiratory illness. So now we play the waiting game - analyzing every sneeze, every breathe... and hoping! 

To shed a bit of light into the gloom that has been the last few day, this find made my day! Giselle delivered one HUGE baby girl this morning (26th June 2012). Liam is the father, and this will be the first pedigree texel female from Liam that we've had born here! We called her 'Sirocco Arabella' (which means 'little lion'), and she will be staying here! 

Sirocco Arabella. Weighed in at 140g! (I thought Giselle had two bubs for sure! lol). 

Giselle and Arabella are separated from the main herd, which is standard for mums about to deliver - but with the current situation they will stay separated indefinitely for their own safety. Babies, new mums, pregnant mums and older pigs are the most vulnerable to winter illnesses. 

A week in litters.

This is Leilani, a choc himilayan coronet from Hazelron cavy stud. 

This is Bella Donna, one of our home-bred pedigree texel x purebred rex girls. 

And we all know Sebastian - the gorgeous pedigree texel. 

Sebastian has been busy, and both of these girls delivered his babies this week. Leilani on Wed the 20th June in the early hours of the morning, and Bella in the early hours of Friday the 22nd June. 

Leilani's babies. Two little boys and one little girl.

This is Sirocco Genoveva. She is a pedigree texel in P/E white. She may develop mum's himi points, but we won't know for a while.

This is Sirocco Gideon, he is a P/E white pedigree sheltie. He is going to have a beautiful beautiful coat. I actually haven't seen a fully white sheltie in person before... he's going to be hard to keep clean! lol

And this is Sirocco Galahad. He is a mix of white and gold. There may be some roaning to his coat, but I'm not 100% sure. It looks more like the gold on his body has white tips rather than solid white hairs mixed throughout... but I'm going to wait until his body is a little bigger to get a better look.




Bella's bubs - she deliver 4 good sized babies, 3 girls and 1 boy. All bubs are 3/4 texel, 1/4 rex. Which doesn't really mean anything in cavy terms - mostly that we won't know what these coats are going to do at this stage. It'll be another 'wait and see' situation. We should have some idea by 4 weeks, and know exactly by 3 months. There will be some bubs who end up looking texel, some will look rex and some might be somewhere in between.

This is Taylee. She is a gold agouti, gold and white curly coated girl. 

This is Tosca. She's a funky mix of gold, dilute chocolate agouti and white. 

This is Tiana, she's a pretty little D/E white (dark eyed white) with a hint of colour on one ear. 

And this is Tundra. He's also D/E white with a touch of cream by his ear. 

Cleo is home! (and she's bought two son's with her!)

This stunningly beautiful piggy you see before you is Cleo. She may seem a little familiar - or maybe her name seems familiar? If so, that would be because Miss Cleo was born here late last year to Alice and Liam. Her sister Chloe is one of my resident females (and one of my favourites!).

I can see Cleo becoming a favourite quick smart too! Look at that soft little face! Oh. My. Word!

This handsome man has been Cleo's friend for a little while (his name is Greg, and he is a stunning black/white sheba-coated man from unknown origins), and together they've recently had their first litter of 4 funky little baby boys.

Two of the four bubs came home with mum. I couldn't help myself! Check out these coats!

This little guy is 'Rocket'. He has mum's colouring with the cream/lemon agouti, cream and white, and the awesome funky rosettes from both mum and dad. His coat will keep growing upwards until it becomes too long and heavy, then it will start to cascade back to the ground giving him a kind of 'walking toupee' that sheba pigs get! 

Rocket from the other side. His little face and his coat-type remind me a lot of Beetlejuice actually - just without as much white!

And this is 'Gizmo'. He has the exact same coat as his brother Rocket... only he comes with curls as well!!!!

This is EXACTLY the kind of piggy I've been trying to find/breed for sometime now. He has about half a dozen rosettes that I can locate in all that fluff, and his curls really do head out in all directions like a sheba. The curls hide the direction of the coat a bit, so that it just looks like one big fluff ball - and he actually doesn't look that much different to an alpaca here... but I'm curious to see what he looks like all grown up. Will he just look like a messy alpaca, or will we get something totally unique?!

(if you have a pig with the sheba rosettes/length AND the curls like this - I'd love to see pics! - email me at eleb2000@hotmail.com).

These two were the bubs we had to leave behind. They're all currently 5 weeks old and will all have the funky, long crazy hair of mum and dad. If you're interested in either of the two remaining boys, please email me at eleb2000@hotmail.com and I'll forward on your details to the family who own them. (Pick up is from Brisbane/Goldcoast area).

Violet and Blaise welcome two Pedigree Sheltie bubs

This is Violet. (Pedigree Texel)

And this is Blaise. (Pedigree Sheltie)

And this is what you get when you mix Violet with Blaise! Two super sweet pedigree sheltie bubs. 

This cheeky little man is Sirocco Chase. He is a gold agouti and white boy, and weighed in at a very healthy 110g. 

This is Sirocco Charlotte, she is a lemon agouti and white sow, and weighed in at 105g. Two very good sized bubs! They just look so sweet together. 

They reminded me a lot of Violet's first litter back in January - two little boys - again, one darker, one lighter! (Texels that time as the daddy was a texel).