Elodie's Babies

Elodie delivered four big gold agouti babies somewhere between 1-1:30pm this afternoon. I walked in just after 1:30 and found them. One little girl hadn't survived birth. We do have two surviving boys and another little girl; Taye, Tallulah and Theo:


'Taye'

My scales are still broken at the moment, so I couldn't weigh the babies, but it is obvious that little Taye is the runt of this litter. He is significantly smaller than his siblings, but looking well otherwise. Liam is the father of these babies, so with Taye's crest, he will grow up to look just like a coronet with his gorgeous gold ticked face and long black hair that will grow to the ground.




'Tallulah'

Little Tallulah has the same colouring as the rest of her siblings, but with some patches of plain gold mingled with the agouti. She has her mum's rosettes and will end up looking quite sheba-mini-yak as an adult. At this stage I'm thinking she will stay here. She's just won me over!






'Theo'


And Mr Theo - also a coronet (with the crest on his head), and also the gold agouti. He has the gold band down one shoulder though, which will probably grow much like a streak of gold when his coat reaches full length.

So far everyone looks healthy and strong. Fingers crossed we've seen the last of the deaths for a while.

Weigh in

[Bonnie and her BIG 2 week old baby girls!]

The weigh in for Saturday the 10th Dec 2011:


*** Liam's Love Shack ***
Liam is 950g (gain 25g) - 35wks (8m)
Crumble is 1085g (gain 5g) - 1yr
Elodie is 750g (gain 20g) - 19wks (4.5m)


*** Romeo's Roost ***
Romeo is 525g (gain 55g) - 10wks (2m)
Lavender Mist is 705g (gain 35g) - 17wks (4m)


*** Malakai's Quarters ***
Malakai is 800g (gain 70g) - 18wks (4m)
Molly is 665g (gain 50g) - 17wks (4m)


*** Violet's Arrangement ***
Violet is 720g (gained 55g) - 21wks (4.5m)
Pooh Bear is 1040g (same) - on loan


*** Girl's Mansion ***
Alba is 940g (loss 15g) - 41wks (9.5m)
Alice is 890g (loss 10g) - 44wks (10m)
Chloe is 470g (gain 20g) - 10wks (2m)
Custard is 925g (loss 70g) - 4.5yrs
Delilah is 790g (gained 35g) - approx 1yr
Galaxy is 995g (gain 15g)- 48wks (11m)
Ivy is 590g (gained 25g) - 11wks (2.5m)
Jasmine is 480g (gain 30g) - 12wks (2.5m)
Leilani is 1125g (gained 95g) - 25wks (5.5m) -(Pregnant, due approx 30/12/11)
Lotus is 575g (gained 40g) - 11wks (2.5m)
Millicent is 785g (gain 75g) - 19wks (4.5m)
Nixie is 305g (gained 70g) - 4wks (1m)
Peppa is 1180g (gained 65g) - 1yr -(Pregnant, due approx 6/1/12)
Phoebe is now 750g (gain 25g) - 34wks (8m)
Ruby is 1020g (same) - 38wks (8.5m)
Sparrow is 1005g (gain 25g) - 36wks (8m)
Subi is 1160g (loss 10g) - 2.5yrs
Tabitha is 345g (gain 30g) - 6wks (1.2m)
Tigerlily is 525g (gain 65g) - 10wks (2m)
Twizzle is 600g (gain 15g) - 11wks (2.5m)
Xeraphina is 480g (gain 35g) 9wks (2m)
Yeti is 870g (loss 20g) - 27wks (6m)
Zinnia is 560g (gain 5g) - 11wks (2.5m)


***New Mums***

Rafia is 580g (lost 215g giving birth) - 14wks (3m) - (nursing)
Juji is 120g (gain 10g) - 1wk
Jairo is 130g (gain 25g - 1wk

Ginger is 935g (gained 90g)- 38wks (9m) - (nursing)
Gypsy is 115g (gain 35g) - 1wk
Grace is 120g (gain 40g) - 1wk

Lulu is 600g (gain 25g) - 15wks (3.5m) - (nursing)
Anthea is 175g (gain 50g) - 2wks
Amity is 160g (gain 40g) - 2wks

Bonnie is 935g (lost 35g) - 28wks (6.5m) - (nursing)
Bella-Donna is 245g (gain 60g) - 2wks
Bethanie is 235g (gain 50g) - 2wks


Another good week. Nearly everyone gained - and most importantly the babies gained. This is Ginger and her girls at 1 week old. I rarely actually see Ginger feeding them herself (which might explain why she gained so much even as a nursing mum this week!?), but it looks like Gypsy and Grace are finding other nipples nonetheless!

No new pregnancy confirmations yet. Millicent has been with Malakai for about 7 weeks now, and there's just the hint of a belly swelling at the moment, so I thought I'd pop her back in the mansion cage as I know she prefers it there. She climbed straight up the ramp and took over the upstairs section. I should know in a fortnight or so if that swelling is baby-related or food-related!




Malakai has proven himself with Peppa's pregnancy confirmed last week, so at least I know he's figured out what to do with his little 'weapon'. Having the girls pregnant during summer is definitely not ideal though, but when there is only a limited window of opportunity for a female to have her first litter, and that's when it falls, you have to weigh the risks of too early/too late first pregnancy versus the season. I choose to provide extra comforts/additional TLC - ie. have them live inside in aircon/constant access to cool water/trimming any excess coat as I personally feel the risk of pregnancy too early/late is greater than the risk of the weather. (Please keep in mind that this is just MY opinion though, and there are many who would disagree and prefer to breed later in the animals life).


And just for good measure - I thought I'd add an updated pic of Elodie (Malakai's sister), now 4 months old. She's growing up so beautifully!

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!

Weigh in

[Petal and Jonah went to their new home today!]

Here's this weeks weigh in, for Saturday the 15th Oct 2011:


*** Liam's Love Shack ***
Liam is 925g (loss 10g) - 27wks (6.5m)
Sparrow is 940g (gain 5g) - 27wks (6.5m)
Yeti is 750g (gained 20g) - 19wks (4.5m)


*** Sprout's Pad ***
Sprout is 890g (lost 20g) - 28wks (7m)
Subi is 1155g (gain 30g) - 2.5yrs


*** Malakai's Quarters ***
Malakai is 615g (gained 50g) - 11wks (2.5m)
Leilani is 815g (gained 35g) - 17wks (4m)
Peppa is 725g (lost 205g) - 1yr (I don't know what's going on here. Peppa's gains and losses over the last few weeks have had a range of over 200g... last week I thought the scales were off... but now I don't know what to think!? She is fine, happy, eating, playing, her teeth are clean, her eyes are bright... but my scales can't be consistently inaccurate for the one same piggy!? The plan is just to keep a closer eye on her).


*** Girl's Mansion ***
Alba is 850g (loss 5g) - 33wks (8m)
Beeno is 950g (gained 10g) - 33wks (8m)
Bonnie is 1000g (gained 50g) - 20wks (5m)
Crumble is 1040g (gained 15g) - 46wks (11m)
Custard is 990g (gained 15g) - 4.5yrs
Elodie is 565g (gained 45g) - 11wks (2.5m)
Ginger is 1040g (gain 35g) - 30wks (7m)
Jasmine is 230g (first weigh in) - 4wks (1m)
Lavender Mist is 505g (gained 60g) - 9wks (2m)
Millicent is 560g (gained 45g) - 11wks (2.5m)
Molly is 520g (gained 60g) - 9wks (2m)
Phoebe is 885g (gained 30g) - 26wks (6m)
Sheba is 895g (gain 40g) - 38wks (9m)
Violet is 545g (gained 20g) - 13wks (3m)


***Re-homing Pigs***
Petal is 565g (gained 55g) - 17wks (4m)
Rafia is 430g (gained 55g) - 6 wks (1m)
Ripley is 665g (gained 55g) - 17wks (4m) - (possibly pregnant)


***New Mumma's***

Kobe is 780g (same) - 33wks (8m) (nursing)
Otis is 105g (gain 30g) - 1wk
Onyx is 100g (gain 15g) - 1wk
Olivia is 95g (gain 20g) - 1wk
Oscar is 100g (gain 25g) - 1wk

Ruby is 910g (gain 15g) - 30wks (7m) - (nursing)
Rollo is 155g (gain 30g) - 2 wks
Rudy is 150g (gain 35g) - 2 wks
Romeo is 175g (gain 40g) - 2 wks
Ryder is 165g (gain 40g) - 2 wks

Alice is 700g (loss 10g) - 35wks (8m) - (nursing)
Cricket is 130g (gain 20g) - 2 wks
Chloe is 115g (gain 25g) - 2 wks
Cleo is 145g (gain 30g) - 2 wks

Galaxy was 850g (loss 20g)- 41wks (10m) - (nursing)
Jethro is 225g (gained 40g) - 3wks
Jonah is 150g (same) - 3wks
Jax is 230g (gained 40g) - 3wks
Jarvis is 215g (gained 45g) - 3wks

Another pretty good week for everyone. Jonah was my only concern, staying the same weight this week. He is probably the most relaxed out of his litter though, and I was wondering if maybe he was getting held back from the best food by all the other more boisterous babies. He left for his special new home today though, so will get lots of food all to himself!


I thought I'd take some progress shots of my sheba-look-alike girls too, before their hair looks any worse! This is Milli at 11 weeks old. She has a crazy, full fluffy coat a fortnight ago... then Ripley and Rafia moved in and the hair-chewing started!


Elodie (also 11 weeks) has probably been chewed on the most - and so looks the most ratty at the moment! You can just make out the occasional extra long strand of hair - that's how long it ALL was... before the wanna-be-hairdressers got to it any ways! :P

It's hard to say why some piggies chew hair, and other's don't. Some will constantly chew their own coat, while some just constantly chew the coats of those around them. It can be from boredom and/or stress, but I think in this case, for Rafia and Ripley anyways, it's more a case of curiosity. They were living with only other short haired piggies before, so to find themselves in a cage full of these crazy fluffy creatures is quite overwhelming. I suppose they've got no other way of exploring what all that hair is, other than to chew it! Thankfully they don't self-chew though. Short-hair piggies are usually pretty good like that.


And lastly, this is an update of Lavender Mist (9 weeks). Her hair hasn't gotten much more length, so I believe this is similar to what she'll look like as an adult. It's very much like a short haired texel: soft, cotton-wool-like curls. Rather than the more wire-like rex breed (he head is a little more rexish though).

Millicent

I am so naughty! I adopted another little sweet fluff-ball baby yesterday. This little lady is called Millicent, and she is a lilac Sheba Mini Yak. Or at least, should look very much like one when she's grown up.

Her daddy is a stunning lilac Sheba - full, thick crazy coat! And her mummy is a lilac, white and gold Sheltie. So she should have nice long hair - what it ends up growing like will be a bit of a mystery though! But I'm looking forward to being able to watch her grow and develop into a lovely little lady!

I thought I'd get a photo of the three fluffy girls together too. We have Millicent on the left (5 weeks old), Elodie in the middle (I finally named her!), also 5 weeks old, and Molly on the end (3 weeks old today).

Sheba Yaks

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been putting in a few rather late night (or early mornings, depending on how you look at it), changing this blog around a bit! I've added some new tabs up above to give you a look at how we're set up, and a bit about my history with breeding guinea pigs. While looking through old photo albums to find some 'historical' photos to add, I fell in love with the 'Sheba Mini Yak' breed again. We were unknowingly breeding these guinea pigs, just thinking they were awesome little fluff balls!



So I've been searching my networks trying to track some down, specifically a male to be another stud and add some genetic variance to the bubs. Look what I managed to find! This little guy is a lilac, white and ginger Sheba Mini Yak, and he's 5 weeks old. One of the things I love about this breed is that you never know how the hair is going to grow as they get older. It might get to mid-length and stop. Or it might get to ground length! I'll be sure to post progress pics of this little man. I've called him Malakai. I heard the name somewhere over the last few days and knew that I would use it when I found my next boy.



This is his sister. She's jett black with alternating white feet, a dash of white on her nose (almost exactly the same as Yeti!) and a splash of ginger on her back.



I still haven't thought of a name for her. Any suggestions!?