Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everybody!

This is our attempt at a Jack o'Lantern... nice and creepy! The pigs got the cut out bits (the seed and mush went straight into my vegie patch), and there was nothing left in just under 10mins. Which is good - because they'll be getting the rest of it over the course of the next week!

Weigh in and some confirmed pregnancies

The weigh in for Sunday the 30th October 2011:

*** Liam's Love Shack ***
Liam is 920g (same) - 29wks (7m)
Sparrow is 980g (gain 5g) - 30wks (7m)
Yeti is 825g (gained 15g) - 21wks (4.5m)


*** Sprout's Pad ***
Sprout is 950g (gain 35g) - 30wks (7m)
Subi is 1190g (same) - 2.5yrs


*** Malakai's Quarters ***
Malakai is 710g (gained 75g) - 13wks (3m)
Millicent is 605g (gained 45g) - 13wks (3m)
Peppa is 1010g (gained 75g) - 1yr
(Leilani has been taken out, as I discovered that her background is more suited to breeding with Liam (she has a pedigree texel father!), and Milli has taken her place. She's reached the 600g mark early).


*** Violet's Arrangement ***
Violet is 595g (gained 25g) - 15wks (3.5m)
Pooh Bear is 1020g (first weigh in) - on loan


*** Girl's Mansion ***
Alba is 875g (gain 10g) - 35wks (8m)
Beeno is 970g (gained 15g) - 35wks (8m)
Bonnie is 1060g (gained 55g) - 22wks (5m) - (Pregnant, due approx 2nd Dec)
Crumble is 1040g (gained 15g) - 48wks (11m)
Custard is 950g (lost 15g) - 4.5yrs
Demi is 285g (gained 30g) - 5wks (1m)
Elodie is 630g (gained 55g) - 13wks (3m)
Galaxy was 855g (gain 30g)- 43wks (10m)
Ginger is 1095g (gained 70g) - 32wks (7.5m) - (pregnant, due approx 2nd Dec)
Ivy is 345g (gained 50g) - 5wks (1m)
Jasmine is 280g (gain 15g) - 6wks (1m)
Lavender Mist is 580g (gained 50g) - 11wks (2.5m)
Leilani is 835g (gained 15g) - 19wks (4.5m)
Lotus is 325g (first weigh in) - 5wks (1m)
Molly is 550g (gained 20g) - 11wks (2.5m)
Phoebe is 1005g (gained 45g) - 28wks (6.5m)- (pregnant, due approx 17th Nov)
Sheba is 945g (gain 35g) - 40wks (9.5m)
Tigerlily is 330g (gain 30g) - 5wks (1m)
Twizzle is 365g (gain 40g) - 5wks (1m)
Zinnia is 330g (gain 55g) - 5wks (1m)


***Re-homing/Foster Pigs***
Rafia is 505g (gained 55g) - 8wks (1.5m) - (pregnant, due approx 8th Dec)
Ripley is 650g (lost 15g) - 19wks (4.5m) - (possibly pregnant)


***New Mumma's***

Kobe is 790g (gain 20g) - 35wks (8m) (nursing)
Otis is 210g (gain 60g) - 3wks
Onyx is 200g (gain 50g) - 3wks
Olivia is 190g (gain 50g) - 3wks
Oscar is 200g (gain 55g) - 3wks

Ruby is 910g (gain 60g) - 32wks (7.5m) - (weaning)
Romeo is 290g (gain 65g) - 4wks


Alice is 735g (gain 35g) - 37wks (8.5m) - (weaning)
Cricket is 225g (gain 55g) - 4wks
Chloe is 200g (gain 50g) - 4wks

[Chloe, 4 week update pic]


The babies are slowly heading off to their new homes... Cleo left with her lovely new family on Saturday. Oscar will be going home with his family tomorrow, Olivia will be leaving on wednesday and Onyx and Cricket will be flying down to Sydney on Friday! I will admit that it can be a bit hard to say goodbye to the babies, but meeting such incredible people in the process of finding them wonderful new homes makes it totally worthwhile.

[Ginger]


[Bonnie]


We have some exciting pregnancy news as well. I was starting to get a little concerned that Liam was taking an extended holiday from his position as main stud here at the caviary, especially as we hadn't had a confirmed pregnancy sired by him since Ruby's! But he has come through after all, and I can confirm that both Ginger and Bonnie are approx 5 weeks pregnant, due somewhere around about the 2nd Dec 2011.


[Rafia and her mum Ripley]

On a slightly less positive note, it also appears that tiny little Rafia (the foster/rehoming baby that came in with her mum about a month ago) is pregnant to her father. If she is (swollen belly, enlarged nipples), then she'll be due approx 8th Dec, and this will only just make her 3 months old herself. I'm hoping for a nice small litter, 1-2 babies of an average size - or we may face some complications come delivery day.



[Galaxy and Eloide in a brief moment of calm this afternoon. Galaxy took a particular liking to Elodie actually, and the two of them spent a lot of time doing laps of the cage!]

Another interesting thing I thought I might mention today is that of 'odd' female guinea pig behaviour. I noticed a persistent 'horny dance' rumble coming from the ladies mansion this afternoon, and quickly spotted Galaxy chasing around her cage-mates. If I didn't know without a doubt that she was female, it would be easy to assume she was a male trying to mate. She made the same rumble noise, did the same wiggly-bottom strut, and had the same perseverance as any love-starved male!


[Custard - still 'Rumble-Struts' when on heat, and she's nearly 5yrs old!]

In my observations I've noticed that some females become very demonstrative when they come on heat - chasing their friends, and for all intensive purposes behaving like a male. Most girls will come on heat without you even noticing, but Galaxy is one of the special ones who lets you know. (Actually, out of all of my girls only she and Custard act out like this when on heat). Females will come on heat approximately every 16-17 days. So I'm curious to see if that will be the case for Galaxy again come mid november! I thought it was also worth mentioning if you have noticed similar behaviour amongst your group of girls - it may also be where the 'guinea pigs changing sex' wives tail might have originated from too!

Violet's new friend

I decided a little while ago that I didn't want to partner Violet to Liam due to the fact that they were almost full brother and sister, just born a litter a part. So I've been busily trying to track down a second pedigree texel male, unrelated to my girls, to join our caviary. This has actually proven to be quite a tricky thing to do! (as I'm sure a lot of you also searching for texels are aware!).



However, in an incredibly fortunate turn of events, Maureen from the Cavy Cottage had a male Texel that I could borrow on 'stud duty'! His name is Pooh Bear, and he's a gorgeous big boy in tri-colour ginger, golden agouti and white markings. He's been clipped for summer, so you can't really get an idea of his full coat - but the last time I visited the Cavy Cottage I got to meet him fully-furred. And he was magnificent.



So he and Violet are bunkering down together, and hopefully we'll have some gorgeous pedigree texel babies resulting from the pairing due early next year.

Lotus

The kids and I decided to pop into our local pet store (Pet Goods Direct at Wynnum Plaza) before we did our shopping yesterday. Normally we walk in, say hello to the puppies and the birds and the fish, check the piggy cages and see that they're empty, then walk out.

We followed the same routine this time, only when it got to the guinea pig bit - there were actually guinea pigs in there! The first one I spotted looked EXACTLY like Demi, our new black rex. I asked to have a look at the rest, and I spotted a stunning tri-colour roan rex girl. The decision was made in about 3sec flat: I had to take her home!



So this is Lotus. She's approx 5 weeks old, has the roan markings in slate, white and cream, and has the most frizzy, crimped rex-like coat ever. She's surprisingly friendly for a pet shop piggie. I think she and her siblings (who were still there when I left yesterday afternoon if anyone is interested in them) had been well looked after. They did have a considerable amount of lice though - so Lotus is currently being treated and quarantined while we make sure she's healthy and get to know her a bit better.



(check out that frizzy rainbow butt! Too Cute!)

Grass Time!

I sat with the girls while they had some time on the grass yesterday. I find that the more grass time I can give them, the less messy they make the mansion! Win-win situation really. We haven't had to mow in months either!


This was little Rafia saying hello. She was one of the foster girls I got in last month. Her hair is growing back beautifully, and her skin is all cleared up - but now her belly is starting to swell. If she is pregnant, she must have only gotten pregnant in the last few days before we collected her. The father will either be one of her siblings, or her own dad - all who were housed together. We should know in a week or two if the swelling is babies - or just a bit of overindulgence!



And this was Galaxy, now baby-free and enjoying her time back in the adult girls-pen, rather than being constantly hassled for milk. It's amazing to see her behaviour chance now that the responsibility of motherhood has passed. When the boys were still around she never went upstairs, even though she could have if she wanted some time away from them. Now, she spends nearly all day up there lazing about on the cushions!



And Violet is just looking more and more 'cotton ball' like every day. The good thing about this shot is that you can't see her rear end... super soft, super long white curls do not mix well with an animal that is cms from the ground at all times! She's due for another trim soon, as she'll be hopefully having a rendezvous with a pedigree texel stud I'm bring in specifically for her. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan!



And here we have Alba caught 'popcorning' - usually a behaviour the babies do when they're excited and have too much energy: they pop around the cage like they're walking on hot coals. Very cute, and very funny. It's nice to see the adults do it occasionally as well. Alba has just come back from a visit with Liam. She is now past her window of opportunity to get pregnant, so if this visit didn't work there will be no babies for Miss Alba. As much as guinea pigs can breed quite profusely if allowed to co-mingle, sometimes they can be really difficult to get to pair up when you want them too!


And lastly - Miss Molly. Good golly Miss Molly. She's only 10 weeks old, and is already a super star! She leaves me speechless!

Kobe and her babies

I managed to capture some lovely photos of Kobe and her babies yesterday as well. I just love the contrast of the silver agouti of her babies against the crisp golden agouti of her coat...





Oscar:

The babies are just over 2 weeks old now, and growing fatter every day! Little Oscar is such a pretty boy! I still struggle to tell him and Olivia apart!




Olivia:



Onyx:

Onyx is officially the hardest guinea pig to photograph! But look how stunning his coat is getting!




Otis:

And Otis is actually quite fluffy at the moment - you can see how windswept he looks (he was trying to hide under his siblings before I scooped him up for a photo).

Alice and her babies - 3.5wks

I got really lucky this afternoon and managed to capture this beautiful moment between Alice and her babies - now 3.5wks old!




Cleo:

Cleo is just growing into a super fluffy puff ball. She's such a little lady too. Very gentle, and very sweet. Much more like her daddy Liam than her mum.




Cricket:

And check out Mr Cricket! Little fluffy Bum! He's such a cheeky cheeky boy! He's certainly got his mum's spunky personality. But in a much nicer, more fun way - must be Liam's influence! And he's ending up with a rather 'peruvian' look too, which is kind of cool.

Jarvis

*** Thank you to everyone, but little Jarvis has now gone to his new home! ***


Poor Jarvis is available again! lol - some piggies just don't have much luck do they. On the plus side though, it means he gets lots of extra attention inside with us, and lots of extra photos!



(and a bit of extra parsley all to himself! Which he gobbled up in a few seconds flat)





And some special cuddles as well.

Curly Girls

Today was the day three little curly girls were scheduled to arrive all the way from Gympie. The adoption was arranged a week ago, but as an extra bonus, two more of litter suddenly became available this morning, so I was able to offer them a home here too.



The photo above shows the mums of the 5 new girls. Olive is the cream agouti rex (a clone of Bonnie if ever I saw one), and Willow is the silver agouti and white Merino. The dad was a black and gold texel x.



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This little lady is 'Zinnia'. She's jett black with a big band of gold around her middle. Very similar colouring to her daddy. As both mumma piggies gave birth at the same time, in the same box - it's tricky to tell which baby belongs to who. But my guess would be that Zinnia is Olive's daughter, as she has a much more rex-like coat.




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And this is Twizzle. I was considering pretty, girly, floral names for her as well.. but in the end 'twizzle' just popped into my head, and it just seemed right!

She's a bit of a spunk this little girl. Most probably Olive's daughter again, due to the shorter, more rex-like curls. She's a tri-colour mix of golden agouti, white and tan.



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This little lady is the star of the group! She is almost certainly Willow's daughter, as she has the long, soft curls of the texel/merino. She doesn't have the crest like her mum, but isn't completely flat on her forehead either... kind of a hint of a crest. I would say that she'll probably end up looking more texel-like as she grows up though.



I've called her Tigerlily, and she has the classic tri-colour markings in black, tan and white. She's a cheeky little monkey too, pulling the best poses for me while I took her photos.




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This little lady is Ivy. Her mum is probably the trickiest to work out because she has Willow's colouring, but the rex-like coat of Olive. She's a gorgeous silver agouti and white.



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And lastly we have Demi. She's also most probably Olive's daughter, with a jett black rex coat, with just a tiny hint of tan by her ear.