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)




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Ace (Lavender x Romeo)

Newborn



1 week



2 weeks



3 weeks



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




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Abbie (Lavender x Romeo)

Newborn



1 week



2weeks



3 weeks



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



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Kaleb (Zinnia x Romeo)


Newborn



1 week



2 weeks



3 weeks



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



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Knox (Zinnia x Romeo)


Newborn



1 week



2 weeks



3 weeks



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



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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.