Clover only had ONE baby!!!

Clover was SO FAT! I could have sworn she had a week or so to go, and that there would be at least 3 babies.... 

But no. Just one. A large one mind you - weighing in at 130g. But just one! 

He's the perfect blend of his mum (above), and his dad (below)... 

This is little 'Oreo'. A black and white roan sheltie boy. He was born on the 13th September and is already running and jumping and pop-corning around the place! 

April Updates

I've been a little CRAZY busy lately, and this poor blog has been neglected in favour of my facebook page because of it. So even though it's nearly midnight, I thought I'd share some random photos I snapped over the course of today.

Above is my 14month old chewing on a branch (!?) while Galaxy looks on from the safety of the yellow rocker!



And I couldn't resist this shot - Pollyanna after munching down on a celery stalk while I felt her babies move! (yes, I can confirm she is pregnant to Liam, due approx 6/5/12). I turned her around to look at her little face and found bright green celery juice dripping in a puddle at her feet! She made a right mess of my table! But how cute is that pose - foot on the stalk like she's making sure I know it's hers!




And this is what became of the rest of the celery! lol





This was Ruby at her weigh in. She is the first female pig I've had pass the 1.5kg mark! Granted she is in the last week/s of her pregnancy... but still, this is one BIG girl!


And lastly, the exploring trio - Cherub, Pollyanna again and Crumble. The girls never used to venture as far as the patio, but now that the tower cage is there they're constantly walking over to say hello! So cute. And so brave!

No weigh in this week.

After last week's drama's with three births, and multiple deaths, it was decided that the less contact I had with the main group of girls (especially while hand-feeding/medicating Yeti's boys every few hours) the better. I can't risk transferring pneumonia to the mansion cage - the girls would be wiped out within weeks. At the moment it's strictly feeding via sterilised containers and no lap time/cuddles. A bit sad, but I'm not risking it!

So far so good with little Dante and Dash. I've seen them both suckling from Crumble (shown above having a snooze with little Safari), but Dante still thinks I am his mum.

I've never seen anything quite like it. All I have to do is walk into the room and he's standing on his back legs, nose in the air, squeaking like a maniac and following my every move. I sit next to his enclosure and pull back the cover and he comes sprinting, squeaking all the way and just about tumbling over himself in his hurry to get to me. Usually I'll pop my hand in to give him a boost, and he'll launch himself into my lap. But yesterday he managed to scale the side of the cage on his own and flop head-first into my skirt! It didn't even slow him down... he was frantically chomping on the syringe within seconds.

He has come such a long way from the sleepy, still, dehydrated little baby of a few days ago. I don't know why Dash doesn't do the same behaviour, as he's getting the same amount of contact with me - but he does the normal 'run away' thing when I attempt to scoop him out for a feed.

All I can say is that little Dante has stolen a piece of my heart. I'll try and capture his enthusiasm on film to show you if I can. In all my years I have never witnessed this kind of behaviour from a guinea pig before in my life... he's more like a teeny, tiny little puppy dog!

Two litters in 12hrs!

A LOT has been happening here over the last 24hrs or so. We've had two litters (Crumble yesterday, then Alice this morning), we're dealing with all the flooding (which has meant trying to find temporary homes for all the pigs inside the house), almost running out of food (due to the constant need to change bedding/clean cages with all the soggy rain), Dante failing the thrive/suckle and needing hand feeding, Yeti not seeming herself (I'm yet to put my finger on what it is, but if she makes it through the night we'll be off to a specialist vet first thing in the morning), and the rest of my every-day life with two small kids and a household to keep together!


These are Crumbles two little men - Simba (sheltie) and Safari (texel). Both purebred, both agouti, both gorgeous! They were born at approx 8:30pm last night (thursday the 26th Jan 2012) - I walked in halfway through and had to help get Simba out of his sack!


Simba:

Simba is the runt, weighing in at only 65g. He's a mix of red and golden agouti and will have the long, thick sheltie coat of his mum when he's all grown up. He's still a little wobbly at the moment, but will stay inside with me until I'm confident he's ok.


Safari:

And this is Safari, the bigger of the boys weighing in at 85g. He is a cream agouti texel, and will look a lot like his daddy Liam when he's all grown up.




Then, I woke up this morning to find three BIG gorgeous babies running around after Alice. She did a brilliant job, and they were all clean and very active. Malakai makes some incredible babies.


We have two little boys and one little girl, Monty, M.J. (short for Michael Jackson) and Mirella.


Mirella:

Mirella weighed in at a decent 105g, (and wasn't the biggest of the litter). She's a gorgeous tri-colour girl just like her mum.



M.J.:

This is M.J. - the biggest of the bunch weighing in at 115g. He is almost exactly half black and half white! Very funky little dude.





Monty:

And Monty is the 'pretty' boy of the litter with his gorgeous cream and white fur and big dark eyes. He weighed in at 85g.

Crumble's Babies - 1.5weeks

Piggy updates and a new bale of hay

The bubs are doing so well. I wasn't sure if they'd be a bit daunted by all the big girls in the mansion cage, but they love it! The popcorn around the place, darting in and out of all the soft hidey houses and tunnels. For the most part the other girls ignore them, but Custard and Yeti have taken a particular interest in them. I knew about Custard's affinity for babies, but Yeti surprised me. She kind of treats them like a bossy older sister - ordering them around to different locations in the cage.




I took a couple of pics of Molly at 4 days old too. You can see the little ginger spot right on her bottom! So cute (and practical!). Ginger joined in for some of the photos, as a fellow 'ginger' coloured piggy. I don't think she was particularly impressed at being taken away from the feast in the cage though and didn't cooperate for long.





It was piggy-food-shopping-day today too, so I headed off to the produce place to buy some more hay. I learnt my lesson about hay-buying earlier in the year, so now I always inspect the hay out in the hay shed before going to the cash register. They didn't have any prime Lucerne available (my personal preference because most of my girls are still young/suckling young/possibly preg etc. and Lucerne has higher calcium content. And it's just so nice and soft with no sharp bits for damaging eyes!), so the next best thing was Barley Hay. I'd never used this before, but the girls love it! It's like sweet-smelling, soft, green straw. Hopefully there aren't any sharp shards hiding in the strands. But so far so good. I pulled a chunk from the middle of the bale to check it out, and the girls LOVE it! I suppose it's nice for them to have something a bit different to munch on too.

Weekly weigh in - now with 19 guinea pigs!

This is just a little video I took of Crumble's babies following her around in the 'birthing cage' (which is actually our bath tub!) yesterday morning before they upgraded to the mansion. I just love how wobbly and fast the babies walk. It's like they have to sprint to keep up with mum!

Here's this weeks weight in, for Sunday the 14th August 2011:

Sprout is 610g (lost 5g) - 18wks
Sparrow is 800g (gained 15g) - 18wks
Liam is 825g (gained 50g) - 19wks
Ruby is 865g (lost 15g) - 21wks
Ginger is 855g (gained 20g) - 21wks
Kobe is 775g (same) - 24wks
Alice is 800g (gained 15g) - 26wks
Beeno is 815g (gained 10g) - 24wks
Alba is 735g (lost 30g) - 24wks
Custard is 945g (same) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1.085kg (gained 10g) - 2.5yrs
Bonnie is 720g (gained 25g) - 11wks
Galaxy is 840g (lost 5g) - 33wks
Sheba is 955g (gained 65g) - 29wks (pregnant)
Crumble was 1250g (gained 75g), then gave birth, now 940g (lost 310g) - 37wks
Yeti is 410g (lost 15g) - 11wks

Molly born at 105g
Mason born at 105g
Mika born at 85g (total of 295g of baby!)

Total weight for all 19 guinea pigs is 13.335kg - gain of 200g over the week.

Not the best week with weight gain this week... quite a few pigs have dropped slightly or stayed the same. This does tend to happen though I've noticed. If one has a bad week, its likely that they all will. I wonder if something scared them, or they don't like the vegy selection as much or something... who knows! No worrying drops though, so we'll just see how this next week pans out.

Crumble's new babies!

Crumble FINALLY had her bubs! It always feels like it takes so long right at the end - which is my fault really for bringing her inside so early. I was just a little concerned this time round as Sheba is quite heavily pregnant as well, but her pelvic bone hasn't started to open yet which means she still has a few weeks to go. What can happen when two guinea pigs are pregnant at the same time, but a few weeks apart is that when the first one delivers, the smell/hormones/helping lick clean the babies induces premature delivery in the other guinea pig. So I wanted Crumble far away from Sheba for this week. I even predicted last sunday that she'd deliver in the next 7 days - and she did. She just wanted to make it right on 7 days!



There are two black and gold boys (Mason and Mika) and a little white and ginger girl (Molly). I've popped some close up's of the babies in some other posts below.



Crumble has handled birth and instant motherhood really well so far. She is a very protective mum, but not too over the top. I relocated her new little family out into the mansion this morning to allow Crumble to show the bubs around while the rest of the girls have time on the grass in the puppy pen. I left Custard in the cage though, as she showed a surprising interest in baby Bonnie a few months ago. And true to form, Custard was right in there with the bubs cleaning them up, and cuddling in next to them. Crumble didn't even seem to mind the interference either. I think Custard would have made a wonderfully mummy. But she's WAY past baby-rearing age now. She'll just have to content herself to honorary Grandma duty!

Crumble's Baby Girl - Molly

This is little Molly, daughter of Crumble and an unknown dad. Crumble has been living with us for 63 days, so little Molly could possibly be the daughter of Liam - but I would place my bets otherwise.

Molly is a surprisingly big baby, weighing in at 105g. She was born sometime in the early hours of Sunday the 14th August and has two brothers - Mika and Mason.



I'm a little thrown by Molly's colouring. If I didn't know better, I would have thought Sheba was her mummy! (But Crumble was in her birthing cage all by herself!). Molly will most probably end up with Peruvian hair, or somewhere half way between Peruvian and Abyssinian. It really depends on what her daddy looked like - which is a mystery! I am in love with her sweet ginger and white patches though - what a heart breaker! So far she's the most boisterous out of the three bubs. She did NOT want to sit still for her photos!

Crumble's Baby Boy - Mika

This is little Mika, son of Crumble and an unknown dad. Crumble has been living with us for 63 days, so little Mika could possibly be the son of Liam - but I would place my bets otherwise.

Mika is the runt of the litter weighing in at a still very healthy 85g. He was born sometime in the early hours of Sunday the 14th August and has two siblings - Mason and Molly.



Mika will probably end up with a coat just like his mum - long and silky, which is going to be stunning with his big ginger nose and black body. We'll know over the next 3-4 weeks what his fur is going to do. So far he's the clown of the litter, and the only one who tried to suckle from my finger while we took some photos!

Crumble's Baby Boy - Mason

This is little Mason, son of Crumble and an unknown dad. Crumble has been living with us for 63 days, so little Mason could possibly be the son of Liam - but I would place my bets otherwise.

Mason is a stunning big boy weighing in at 105g. He was born sometime in the early hours of Sunday the 14th August and has two siblings - Mika and Molly.



Mason will probably end up with a coat just like his mum - long and silky. We'll know over the next 3-4 weeks what his fur is going to do. So far he's the most relaxed out of the three bubs. And just such a stunner!

Pregnant Pigs, Crazy Curls and a Super Sprout

The weigh in for Sunday 7th August 2011:


Sprout is 615g (gained 105g) - 17wks
Sparrow is 785g (gained 25g) - 17wks
Liam is 775g (lost 5g) - 18wks
Ruby is 880g (gained 50g) - 20wks
Ginger is 835g (gained 10g) - 20wks
Kobe is 775g (gained 65g) - 23wks
Alice is 785g (gained 20g) - 25wks
Beeno is 805g (gained 25g) - 23wks
Alba is 765g (gained 35g) - 23wks
Custard is 945g (lost 5g) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1.075kg (same) - 2.5yrs
Bonnie is 695g (gained 40g) - 10wks
Galaxy is 845g (gained 15g) - 32wks
Sheba is 955g (gained 80g) - 28wks (pregnant)
Crumble is 1175g (gained 55g) - 36wks (pregnant)
Yeti is 425g (gained 25g) - 10wks

Total weight for all 16 guinea pigs is 13.135kg - gain of 530g (exactly the same as last week).



Here's a random fact for you, my guinea pigs almost weigh the same as my 2 year old! :P





Liam's curls are so beautiful now! The top layer of his fur is a little frizzy, but if you lift that up you find perfectly formed soft ringlets. How beautiful is that!


Crumble and Sheba are getting fatter and fatter. Crumble has a very full belly, with at least three distinct little bubs bumping around in there. While Sheba is a little more compact, and I'd guess that she maybe only has 1 or 2. Or isn't quite as far along as Crumble. I worked out this evening that I've had the two girls in my possession for 57days. According to google the average guinea pig gestation can be anywhere from 59-73 days. So it is going to be very hard to tell if these bubs are Liam's or not! Crumble's pelvic bone is just starting to open, which should mean that she delivers within the next 7 days. Which will also put her due date right in the middle of the gestational estimation!

At this stage all I can do is take a guess at the paternity once the bubs are born. If they look like Liam then chances are they're his. But genetics can be tricky, and they may not look anything like him, but still be his. It's not the end of the world if I don't know for sure, it's more about my wanting to know if he is actually able to produce babies! Alice and Alba lived with him for about a month and there's no sign of wiggly bellies on them! :P A little frustrating as I know I only have a small window of opportunity to get the younger girls pregnant before their pelvis tightens and older pregnancy becomes a death sentence. I know many people have strong opinions about guinea pig breeding, which I acknowledge and understand. But the plan for my girls is simply to have one litter each to reduce the pelvic bone fusing later in adulthood. With subsequent pregnancies a very minor possibility for the following year, and depending heavily on how the individual pigs handle pregnancy/delivery/suckling. Some mum's thrive, some don't. Very much like humans I suppose!



Talking about thriving, Sprout is doing incredibly well at the moment! He gained the most out of ALL of the pigs this week. Even beating the pregnant girls! He even had a little go at making the horny noise to Kobe while I was taking their photo this afternoon. I figure that's a fairly good indication of his well being! Even Kobe seemed happier though, and she's put on a bit of weight too. I am still amazed by Sprout's recovery. I've never had a guinea pig look that sick and then get better again in all of my years of owning them. This little man is a fighter! (in the best possible way!)

Yeti

Yeti is by far my most unusual guinea pig. And by far the most challenging to photograph! Especially as she is not just black. She has that tiny bit of white on her nose, and a hint of chocolate by her ear... just enough to throw off my camera!

She is packing on the weight at the moment too which is awesome to see. And I think the illusion of her size is increased due to all that fur! It just explodes in every direction with cottony-wooly-puffy goodness.





She's a bit of a loner personality-wise though. She tends to be found having a snooze on her own in one of the igloos, perhaps avoiding confrontation with the bigger girls? But she handles being caught and cuddled a lot better than some of the others (the worst at this is probably Ginger! She has a wiggle technique that makes it ridiculously hard to hold onto her!). She has an appetite to rival that of the bigger girls too. She's always right there at dinner time, right in the middle of the food. Usually sitting on something someone else wants to eat!



I was showing some of the pigs to my hubby and bubby Byron this afternoon while they had tummy time on the trampoline. He was blown away by her crazy hair too. (He doesn't see them every day like I do). Byron was only mildly interested in the little black ball of fluff. I handed the heavily pregnant Crumble to hubby to hold while I took Byron for a moment. He was amazed to feel the babies moving around in there. And not the least bit worried about it. Yet, when I was pregnant it freaked him out to feel the kicks and rolls! Go figure hey. Pregnant guinea pig = OK. Pregnant wife = freaky!