Took this quick photo this afternoon of our 'pet' girls (just meaning our cross breed pigs, without pedigrees who are just here for cuddles and love!). The two on the ends are Kobe's 'babies' - though they're nearly as big as her now! The two gold/white pigs in the middle are my daughter's pigs, and the cream aby looking girl is my oldest resident 'Custard' - who'll be 7yrs old in Jan 2014. 

I like to remind my daughter that Custard is actually older than she is! lol 

Updates on Amore and her rainbow curls

 (newborn)

 (10 days old)

 (3.5wks old)

 (6wks old)

 8wks old)

And finally - taken today at just over 4 months old - 'Sirocco Amore' is looking lovely. She either chewed herself, or one of her cages mates had a munch a few weeks ago - but the curls are evening out again and she's looking good.

*She's un-brushed in these photos

Sirocco Opal x Sirocco Sylvester's bubs - born 14/7/13

Our lovely texel sow Opal (above) delivered a stunning litter fathered by our boar 'Sylvester' (shown below) on the 14th July, sometime around 6am I'd say. We missed the birth, but found three very cute, slightly wet little curly bubs when we woke up.

This little stunner is 'Sirocco Sargent Spice'. He is mostly white with eye patches of agouti.

And this not-so-little man is 'Sirocco Salvadore Sundance'. No white on this boy, but lots of cream and gold agouti. He should be quite a handsome man when all grown up.

And this was our one little lady of the litter - Miss 'Sirocco Spun-Sugar'. We were very thankful to get a sow in the litter. She's quite a pretty mix of colourings as well, and looks like a completely different pig on each side! lol

*** on a sad note, we lost little Sargent Spice quite suddenly a day after he was born. We're not sure what from, but there was no lead up to his passing so we're assuming a possible internal deformity, or it may have just been that he got trampled by mum?

Piggy Paraphernalia

This cute little box arrived in the post last week. I totally forgot to get photos and show you guys!!!

This will give a little hint as to what lays beneath the business card...

... and ta da!! How CUTE is that!

I had to have it as it reminds me so much of one of our 'curly sheba' sows 'Blessing' (you can see her photo below for comparison). They pretty muchly cover every kind of animal in jewelery form at the website, but for JUST guinea pig stuff, click here!

(even the short haired pigs aren't left out! How gorgeous is this P/E white!!) 

Kobe's girls - now 6wks old

Remember this little cherub from 6wks ago - born to my daughter's pet rex sow 'Kobe'...?

...well these bubs are now 6 weeks old and we're getting a little hint as to what they'll look like as adults. They now have bizarre scruffy not-quite-rex/ not-quite-long coats but we love them for all of their awkwardness!

We ended up just keeping Chilli and Cocoa to live with their mum Kobe and their 'aunty' Cupcake. This gives Chels 4 pigs to choose from when it's cuddle time (spreading the love around!).

Meadow x Ashers's three boys

Meadow - mumma pig (above), and Asher - daddy pig (below) produced three stunning silver and cinnamon agouti boars, born 1st July 2013.

We have 'Hamish' a silver agouti and white curly-coated sheba boar. Harry a cinnamon agouti and white texel-coated boar and Heath, also cinnamon agouti but sheba-coated.

Really gorgeous babies. But, as the most observant readers might have noticed, we've decided to close the curly-sheba experiement. The 'breed/look' is quite spectacular, but in my opinion it's not different enough to 'alpaca' pigs to warrant it's own standard. Maybe if someone was able to continue on the experiement and source foundation stock with a much courser coat we might get something that looks distinctly different to alpacas. But for the most part the soft Australian curl is too heavy for the rosetting once the animal gets to 10-12months old, and the hair falls much the same way it would if there were only the two rump rosettes - defeating the purpose!

Here are some of our current examples of the breed/look - Blessing was by far the closest we got to producing a pig with tousled, curly long hair that stuck out in all directions - but she too has ended up with quite a flat look as she's nears her first birthday.

Bambi (below) has great density, but again the curl was too heavy and even at 7 months old the coat was laying flat. And Sarabi (far below) was showing great promise at 3 months old, but has also ended up with long silky curls that fall more like an alpaca.

It's a bit sad, as I've had a lot of fun working with this idea. One of the most important steps in starting a new variety of cavy is to make sure it is different enough to be recognised against other already established breeds though - and I just don't think this is the case. Yet.

As such, we will be finding new homes for our stunning curly-coated sheba pets. We have a few pigs listed on our available page at the moment, with more added as the last of our litters are born over the next few months. I would be more then happy to pass on all of my documentation/ancestry to anyone looking to continue playing with this breed - but am also happy to just see these guys end up as gorgeous, pampered pets.

And because a 'birth' post isn't right without proper pics of the bubs in question, here are Hamish, Harry and Heath's individual photos. These really are pretty little men! :)