My curly baby updates - 4 weeks old

So seeing as the babies from Lavender and Zinnia's litters turn 4 weeks old this weekend, I thought it might be nice to show off how their coats are doing. We've gotten quite a variety of coat types from these two litters too. Kaleb is going to be rex-coated through and through (the only short coat of the 6 babies!), Ace and Ambrose (both still looking for home too) are going to end up with long texel coats, Karma is probably going to be my mid-length coat, Abbie is going to be texel coated too, and Knox will be somewhere between mid-coated and texel.


Ambrose (Lavender x Romeo)

Newborn


1 week


2 weeks


3 weeks


4 weeks (photo taken today. Currently available for adoption as well)




_______________


Ace (Lavender x Romeo)

Newborn



1 week



2 weeks



3 weeks



4 weeks (photo taken today. Currently available for adoption as well)




_______________


Abbie (Lavender x Romeo)

Newborn



1 week



2weeks



3 weeks



4 weeks (photo taken today. Currently on hold.)



_____________________________


Kaleb (Zinnia x Romeo)


Newborn



1 week



2 weeks



3 weeks



4 weeks (photo taken today. Currently on hold.)



_________________________


Knox (Zinnia x Romeo)


Newborn



1 week



2 weeks



3 weeks



4 weeks (photo taken today. Currently on hold.)



_____________________________



Karma (Zinnia x Romeo)


Newborn



1 week


2 weeks



3 weeks



4 weeks (photo taken today. Staying here.)

Ivy's gorgeous baby girl - 'Posy'

I had been expecting Ivy to deliver her baby all day yesterday, following Xeraphina's birth yesterday morning in the cage above her (the smell/pheromones/something about the birth of one guinea pig mum often sets of any other pregnant mums in the area), but she held on to that bub all day. I said goodnight at about 10pm last night, expecting to find a new addition this morning.

And we did! One gorgeous little lady we've called 'Posy'.



Posy weighed in at at very reasonable 95g. I had been a little concerned that she was getting too big in there, being an only baby!

She's a lemon agouti (black base, lemony ticking and a lemony belly) with the classic thicky curly coat that could either go the way of the texel or end up more like a fluffy rex. She is technically 3/4 texel though, and my last litter of 3/4 texels all ended up with long curly texel coats, so I'd say this is what we can expect.




This is Posy posed next to Verity from Xeraphina's litter born yesterday morning. You can see just how similar these two half-sisters look! Same colouring, same curls. Only Verity has the merino crest.



And this is Velvet (also from yesterday's litter) next to Posy. These two girls are both texel-coated, but Velvet has the darker 'cream agouti' colouring.

Xeraphina's babies and the arrival of Cherub

Xeraphina FINALLY had her babies yesterday morning. I'd sprung out of bed at 6am to check her - but there was nothing to see. So I went about our morning routine of breakfast and nappy changes, when at approx 8am I noticed some 'licking' movements coming from her cage... I popped my head out of the door, and sure enough, she'd delivered 3 gorgeous agouti bubs who were alive, alert and well, and was just doing the final cleaning.

Liam is the dad of this litter, and I actually got to see the conception. Her pregnancy was exactly 69 days long. So not over the expected time, but I was just impatient!





Here we have the little man of the litter - 'Venice'. He was the biggest weighing in at 85g. He's a dilute cream agouti (black base, cream ticking) - a 'real' cream agouti has a chocolate base, cream ticking. And he will end up looking like a merino when he's all grown up. He's inherited Xeraphina's rosettes in the form of a crest. This was surprising for me actually. I know rosettes are dominant, so I was expecting to see them in the bubs... but was thinking they'd be across the body like Xera, not on the forehead! But at the end of the day, a crest/rosette is there. And these guys are going to be super cute!




This is Verity, the little lady I very, almost decided to keep! She's a Lemon agouti (black base, lemon ticking). And she weighed in at 75g. She is also a merino, with the forehead crest.


And lastly, little Velvet. She has her brother'c cream agouti colouring, but no crest - so will grow up to look just like her daddy liam. She weighed in at 75g like her sister.

(All babies now have new homes lined up for them).






And then, a few hours after the excitement of the birth, my newest addition to the girls group arrived - Miss 'Cherub'.




Cherub is the granddaughter of Liam and Galaxy, daughter of their son 'Jonah', who sadly passed away shortly before she was born. She was born at Clover Cavies caviary in Hervey Bay, and has the most stunning dark cream coat. I am hoping that she carries her granddfather's recessive curly gene, and that she might produce some curly sheba-mini-yak babies for us in time!

Delilah's Progress

It was four months ago that Miss Delilah arrived at the caviary. She had been found, heavily pregnant in a pet store, delivering her bubs only days after she was taken home by a fellow piggy lover. Two weeks after this, Delilah and her baby daughters arrived here so they could be cared for and rehomed. Delilah was in pretty good condition, but was quite thin. I was just blown away by how unusual her coat was... and now even more so!



Four months of conditioning has meant that her coat is now Super thick and considerably longer than before too.





It kind of has a soft, dense under coat, with a longer wirery top coat. She's the closest thing to a 'Swiss' guinea pig that I've seen here in Australia. And I really wish I knew what her origins were!



If any other Aussie guinea pig people have any other experience with coat's like this, I'd love to hear from you!

Galaxy's second litter - fathered by Malakai

Lamington Galaxy and Malakai welcomed their first litter together (Galaxy's second litter) into the world sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning (11/3/12).





Galaxy snuggling with her bubs.


Here we have Xakery, the only dark bub. He's a stunning mix of gold and black and he has the funky rosettes. Four evenly placed across his back. He weighed in at 90g.



This is Xander (ON HOLD). He is a very pretty cream boy with a white nose. He too has the rosettes, three across his spine, and one lower on his side. He weighed in at 85g.



And the little lady of the litter, miss Xanthe. She's a self-cream smooth coat with dark eyes. She weighed in at 90g. If she inherits a long-hair gene from mum (mum carries long-hair genetically), then she'll end up looking like a sheltie. If her brother's get the long hair from mum as well as dad, they'll be spectacular sheba-look-alikes too.

Lavender Mist's litter

I had been keeping a close eye on Lavender lately, she just seemed to be acting a little odd. She was spending a lot of time almost sleeping on top of Zinnia and her bubs. Like one big pile of pig! Then I happened to glance out the window and noticed Lavender in the hunched over position, and knew exactly what that meant. A quick assessment of the situation found one bubs already delivered (and being cleaned by Zinnia), and one on it's way out. While I watched she then delivered the third bub. Three gorgeous, healthy and ALIVE babies! I actually think she would have been fine even if I'd missed this litter as Zinnia was such a help. More often than not any 'midwife' pigs stay away from the delivering mum, or can accidentally crush the newborns if kept in the same cage - but Zinnia did an excellent job.




Zinnia and Lavender really do seem like best friends, and a few hours later this was the gorgeous scene we found.

Lavender's litter were also fathered by Romeo, and again we got 2 boys and a girl:


Abie was first born, and was also the smallest weighing in at 65g. She's a mix of mostly gold agouti like her daddy, with a patch of white down her side.




Ace was born second. He's a classic tri-colour in black, white and gold. He weighed in at 85g.




And gorgeous Ambrose was third. He weighed in at 75g and is an incredible mix of white, gold and lilac/gold argente (lilac base with gold tips).

Zinnia's Babies, a late night surprise!

I feel like I've been checking on Zinnia every hour for the last week. And it probably has been that frequent! Last night I checked her at about 10:30pm. I was just about to go to bed. Then I got side tracked watching TV and sewing a bear I'd been working on earlier. Some noises distracted me about 11:15pm and I went to check Zinnia once again. Only this time there were three newbies in the cage! Three gorgeous, wet little bundles of curl. A quick cuddle told me that we had two boys and a girl. I gave Zinnia some extra treats to keep her energy up, tucked them up for the night then eventually went to bed myself.




And these are the gorgeous little creatures that were waiting for me in the morning. All dry and fluffy and so so cute! From left to right we have Karma (the girl), Knox (white/agouti) and Kaleb (lilac and gold).



This shows off the incredibly different colours on these bubs. I never imagined we'd get a lilac out of the pairing between Romeo and Zinnia. I was expecting lots of dark agouti and black! Little Kaleb is a real surprise.


Kaleb:


Kaleb weighed in at a very healthy 100g. He looks to have a very thick curly coat, and I'm so excited to see how this develops. Daddy (Romeo) was texel (Liam) x Rex/Texel (Ruby), and mum (Zinnia) is rex x texel x... so these bubs have a good blending of both the texel and rex genes. Fingers crossed we get the right balance for mid-length curly coats.





Karma:


Karma is the only little girl of the litter weighing in at 90g, and has stunning black and gold brindle markings to her curls. If this coat grows long, she's going to look a little like a bumblebee! Her colouring actually resembles her mum the most, and her grandfather (mum's dad).




Knox:


Knox surprised me with how much white he has in his coat. He has the white, gold agouti and gold. He too weighed in at 100g.