Chloe, Cleo and Cricket

This man is 'Cricket'. The sole surviving boy of Alice's litter. He weighed in at a very normal 70g. His stillborn brother was 90g, so bigger, but not crazy big.


Cricket also has Alice's rosette placement, making him look a lot like a peruvian baby. With Liam's long-hair genes, he will probably end up looking a little peruvian when grown up, or possible a little mini-yak?

Cricket has a big cream agouti face and a cream agouti bum. one side of his body is white, and the other cream.




_________________________


This is one of the girls - little Cleo. She weighed in at 75g. A little better, and within normal newborn weight-range. She is mostly cream with a white nose, cream agouti eye patch, cream agouti bum, and a white stripe over her right front arm/shoulder.



Cleo has a very similar coat to her mum with the funky rosette placement. With the addition of Liam's long-hair genes, this little lady is going to be gorgeous! (think 'Molly'!)



_________________


And this is little Chloe. She will most probably end up staying here - she's just too cute! She was the tiniest bub, weighing in at a very petite 55g. She is white with one cream eye patch, one cream agouti eye patch and a creamy bum. It appears that she will end up with curly fur, possibly quite texel looking. Only time will tell how long her hair gets. I might get lucky and get my half-length coat!



Chloe is probably the bub I'm most worried about too. She's still very wobbly, but is still managing to wobble after Alice when she moves around the birthing suite.

You can just make out the soft little curls on her fur. I'm very excited to see how Chloe grows. The curl's don't appear very tight at this stage - nothing like my rex Bonnie when she was born... so it's a bit of a 'wait and see' situation as to how her coat develops.

Alice has delivered

Alice has surprised me by delivering a day earlier than her estimated due date. I checked her at 1:30pm this afternoon and found 4 babies, a lot of mess and 4 uneaten placentas. One of the babies was dead, and the others didn't look as strong as I'd like to see.

We cleaned up the (bright pink) birth suite and settled them back in with some clean bedding, fresh veg and a big bottle of water. At a quick glance it appears that we have two girls and 1 surviving boy (the still born was also a boy). I'll leave them for a few hours now to settle in with mum, and to let Alice adjust to her new mother-role. And hopefully they'll be looking a lot better this evening.

The boys - 6 days old

Just had to share some more photos of the boys today. They are growing so well!



This is the two fluffy boys Jonah and Jethro. Jethro must be hogging all the milk because he is just huge! Even just picking them up today I could feel how much fatter his little belly is to his brothers. Cheeky little monster!



Jethro is also becoming my new favourite (Grandmas aren't supposed to have favourites though are they :P). His coat is just stunning. I don't know how clear it is in these pictures, but there is just the tiniest hint of a wave to his and Jonah's fur (most noticeable in the picture right at the bottom of this post. Click on it to enlarge it if you want even closer detail!).



I don't know if this is just because the fur is getting longer? Or if it suggests there will be a slight wave as they grow? I still pretty sure my smoothie-two are going to be sheltie-look-alikes, they're developing much the same as Sheba's boys and Crumble's boys. But as for the two fluffy boys... I'm just not sure what they're going to end up like! And it's so exciting not knowing!

Galaxy's boys - 4 days old

Weekly weigh in

[Ben and Mika together]

Here's this weeks weigh in, for Sunday the 25th September 2011:


*** Liam's Love Shack ***
Liam is 890g (gain 10g) - 24wks (6m)
Ginger is 945g (loss 5g) - 27wks (6.5m)
Alba is 805g (same) - 30wks (7.5m)


*** Sprout's Pad ***
Sprout is 865g (gained 45g) - 25wks (6m)
Subi is 1160g (lost 25g) - 2.5yrs


*** Malakai's Baby-Sitting Service***
Malakai is 440g (gained 55g) - 8wks (2m)
Mika is 395g (gained 65g) - 6wks (1.5m)
Ben is 350g (gained 70g) - 4wks (1m)


*** Girl's Mansion ***
Alice is 1030g (gained 65g) - 32wks (8m) (Heavily pregnant, due approx 1/10/11)
Beeno is 910g (gained 20g) - 30wks (7.5m)
Bonnie is 870g (lost 10g) - 17wks (4m)
Crumble is 945g (gained 25g) - 43wks (10m)
Custard is 925g (lost 50g) - 4.5yrs
Eloide is 430g (gained 60) - 8wks (2m)
Kobe is 990g (same) - 30wks (7m) (Heavily Pregnant, due early October)
Lavender Mist is 385g (gained 40g) - 6wks (1.5m)
Leilani is 710g (first weigh in) - 14wks (3m)
Millicent is 400g (gained 50g) - 8wks (2m)
Molly is 380g (gained 35g) - 6wks (1.5m)
Peppa is 940g (first weigh in) - 1yr
Phoebe is 755g (first weigh in) - 23wks (5.5m)
Ruby is 1260g (gained 60g) - 27wks (6.5m) - (Heavily pregnant, revised due date now end of September/early October)
Sheba is 770g (gain 30g) - 35wks (8.5m)
Sparrow is 910g (gained 5g) - 24wks (6m)
Violet is 460g (first weigh in) - 10 wks (2m)
Yeti is 695g (gained 25g) - 17wks (4m)


Petal is 420g (first weigh in) - 14wks (3m)
Pixie is 655g (first weigh in) - 28wks (7m)


Galaxy was 1300g before delivery, now weighs 890g (loss of 410g, 375g of that was baby!)- 38wks (9m) - nursing
Jethro is 100g (newborn)
Jonah is 75g (newborn)
Jax is 105g (newborn)
Jarvis is 95g (newborn)


[Molly at 6 weeks]

Wow - we now have 33 guinea pig residents. That's more than I ever imagined having here at any one time. Purely due to the recent re-homing pigs, new additions, babies waiting to go to their new homes and babies just born. Good thing we've got lots of space, lots of food and lots of time for cuddles.

Another good week of weight gains for all the young ones. Even Sheba gained this week - finally! We will not be breeding with her again. She did not seem to handle the whole experience very well, and will probably need many months to recover. Some girls take it in their stride (Galaxy is doing so well!), yet others struggle. Very much like human mum's too (I struggled, and won't be doing that again!). I think it's important as a breeder to know your animals, and know when enough is enough. That being said, she did do an excellent job of raising her boys, who are just the sweetest little men. Bear and Bodie are settling into their new home, and Ben will be going to his new home with Mika next week.

We're now just waiting on the last three heavily pregnant ladies to deliver. I'm actually not sure who is going to go first!


[Lavender Mist on the grass]

Ben - 4 weeks old

I thought I'd quickly upload some recent photos of Ben. He is one of Liam's boys born a month ago. You can see how much his hair has grown in those four week. And how much like the four boys born yesterday he is! This gives a fairly good indication of what the newest boys will end up looking like in a few weeks too.

Ben also has the sweetest, most placid personality on him. Exactly like Liam. So I'm hoping the strong agouti genes, the strong long-hair genes and the strong personality genes all come as a package deal!

Jethro, Jarvis, Jax and Jonah

Lamington Galaxy and Liam's instant family of four boys are doing so well! She is an awesome mummy! Altogether the bubs weigh in at 375g. Galaxy got to about 1.3kg at the end, and now weighs 890g. The individual photos are below:

____________




This little sweetheart is 'Jethro'. He is one of the two Abyssinian looking boys out of the litter of four. He will most probably grow up looking a little Sheba Mini Yak-ish and has one of the sweetest little faces around! Jethro weighed in at a very healthy and neat 100g exactly.





____________




This little guy is 'Jonah', the other Abyssinian looking boy who will also likely end up growing a bit of a Sheba Mini Yak looking coat. He has the most cream out of the four boys. Jonah is also the runt of the litter weighing in at a very healthy 75g. (Jonah is SOLD)





___________




This is 'Jax' - he's a smooth coat that will grow into a sheltie-lookalike. He is the only bub to have any physical resemblance to his mum with his little half/half facial colouring. Jax was our biggest baby (and I'm pretty sure the fourth one born that I had to assist), weighing in at 105g.





____________




And this little guy is 'Jarvis'. He is the second smoothie boy that will most likely end up growing a sheltie-lookalike coat. He has the sweetest little 'bunny' face and weighed in at a very healthy 95g.




______________

Galaxy delivered today!

I had only JUST gotten home from collecting the newest three girls (see last post), and put the kids down for their afternoon nap, when it occurred to me to check on Galaxy. I noticed she was hunching a little, and on closer inspection noticed two messy little bubba's being cleaned up right there on the grass in the puppy pen! I sprinted back inside for my camera and managed to capture bub no. 3 emerging. Galaxy quickly set about clearing up the sack away from it's face, but was distracted by bub no. 4 emerging about 30 sec later. She then ignored the fourth bub and went back to cleaning no. 3.



I gave her about 60 seconds to help her last baby breathe (which feels like an ETERNITY in this situation!), but she was too focussed on her current cleaning job, so I had to reach in and help. I don't have terribly long finger nails, so holding the bub gently but firmly and getting the sack to break was a little tricky, but once it was off, and baby had a bit of a rub down to help get the gunk out of his air way, he seemed to be breathing quite well. I popped him back in with his brothers and Galaxy eventually made her way over to him and quite vigorously licked him clean too!



Once the delivery was over and Galaxy has passed the last placenta I placed the little family back into the birthing box... kind of the wrong colour for a family of boys though! :P

They're all dry and so so gorgeous now. Galaxy is doing a brilliant job. All four babies are a mix of cream and cream agouti - very much Liam's sons. Two of them have rosettes and will most likely end up looking like Sheba-mini-yaks, and the other two are smooth, so will resemble Shelties as they grow up. I'll get some individual photos in the morning light tomorrow. They are definitely all boys though and will be named Jonah (the runt), Jarvis, Jethro and Jax!

Finally - some pedigree texel females!

A fellow piggy-loving friend needed to part with her guinea pigs today, so I took on three more girls. (because there's always room for one more... or three more... or six more in two days as has been the case this week! :P). This little lady is a three month old chocolate Himalayan coronet (crested sheltie). I've called her Leilani, which means 'heavenly flower'.





I also bought home this lovely lady. Her pedigree name is 'Cambent Princess Leyah', but I'll be keeping her last owner's name of 'Phoebe'. She's a black and cream 5 month old pedigree texel. She has links to Liam's original stud (Glenjolie) as well as Krisdar, Pipsqueak and Hedon heritage. She has been living with a buff texel male for the last month or so, and is most probably pregnant. So we will keep her on pregnancy watch for the next few weeks. She will also be on trial for her personality as well - she has a bit of a mean streak. We're not sure if this is a pregnancy related aggression, or an inherent trait. If she doesn't end up being able to co-habitate with my other ladies, she will need to find a special 'no-other-pesky-piggies' home. But we'll see, she will get a good chance to find her place in the hierarchy.


And lastly, this sweet little bundle of gorgeousness is 'English Rose Violet', but we'll be calling her just 'Violet'. She is from similar stud stock as my Liam, but through a different stud owner, and she and Liam do share some ancestors. She was born on the 18th July this year (my birthday!) and already has a lovely coat.

Grandma, Daughter and Granddaughter

These three gorgeous ladies came to stay at our caviary today. Their previous owners were unable to keep them, and needed them to find new homes as soon as possible. So we took them back here, gave them a bit of a health check. They are all in excellent condition and have been well loved.


The self-black Abyssinian is the Grandma of the bunch and is about 1 year old. She is in perfect health, weighing in at just under 900g. I've just fallen in love with her, so she will be staying here. Her name is Peppa.




Peppa's daughter Pixie is mostly black with a big fat stripe of brilliant ginger-gold over her shoulders. She is a slightly longer-haired Abyssinian x and is in perfect health as well. She has been treated for mites, lice, worms and fungal just in case. Her weight is a little lower than I'd like for a 7 month old (weighing in at just over 600g), but considering she is the mum to a 3 month old... that's probably not surprising!

Pixie has a very mischievous personality on her, and I actually considered naming her 'Trouble' instead of Pixie! :P She is available for adoption for someone who can offer her a longterm home.




And lastly, this is Pixie's daughter Petal. She is a white, buff and slate Abyssinian x with semi-longhair. Her hair is actually surprisingly soft, much much softer than her mum and grandma. She has the prettiest eye patches, and the slate colouring on her rump actually appears to be roan (a mix of slate grey and black hairs). This makes no effect to her health and wellbeing, but does mean that she would be best NOT bred to another roan guinea pig to avoid serious genetic issues in the resulting offspring. She is 14 weeks old, and weighs 400g, again a little lighter than I'd expect for a 3 month old. She is in good condition, but does have some minor hair loss that she is being treated for, and will be adopted out once she is all better.


If you have any guinea pigs that you can no longer keep, or need re-homed, feel free to let me know (eleb2000@hotmail.com). Alternatively Maureen from the Cavy Cottage is always happy to take in guinea pig surrenders too.