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!

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.

Weigh in

The weigh in for Saturday the 12th November 2011:

*** Liam's Love Shack ***
Liam is 930g (gain 35g) - 31wks (7m)
Sparrow is 1025g (gain 70g) - 32wks (7.5m) (possibly pregnant, waiting to confirm)
Yeti is 870g (gain 45g) - 23wks (5.5m)


*** Sprout's Pad ***
Sprout is 910g (gain 5g) - 32wks (7.5m)
Otis is 335g (gain 125) - 5wks (1m)
Romeo is 400g (gain 70g) - 6wks (1m)


*** Malakai's Quarters ***
Malakai is 730g (gain 40g) - 15wks (3.5m)
Millicent is 650g (gain 80g) - 15wks (3.5m)
Peppa is 1090g (gain 140g) - 1yr (possibly pregnant, waiting to confirm)


*** Violet's Arrangement ***
Violet is 605g (lost 20g) - 17wks (4m)
Pooh Bear is 1000g (lost 50g) - on loan


*** Girl's Mansion ***
Alba is 950g (gain 60g) - 37wks (8.5m)
Alice is 850g (gain 85g) - 40wks (9m)
Bonnie is 1250g (gained 160g) - 24wks (5.5m) - (Pregnant, due approx 2/12)
Chloe is 320g (gain 60g) - 6wks (1m)
Crumble is 1100g (gained 45g) - 50wks (11.5m)
Custard is 1010g (gained 20g) - 4.5yrs
Demi is 420g (gained 50g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Elodie is 715g (gained 35g) - 15wks (3.5m)
Galaxy was 950g (gain 95g)- 44wks (10.5m)
Ginger is 1355g (gained 260g) - 34wks (8m) - (pregnant, due approx 2/12)
Ivy is 465g (gained 75g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Jasmine is 365g (gain 45g) - 8wks (1.5m)
Lavender Mist is 665g (gained 25g) - 13wks (3m)
Leilani is 875g (gained 15g) - 21wks (4.5m)
Lotus is 455g (gained 70g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Molly is 615g (gained 25g) - 13wks (3m)
Ruby is 970g (lost 10g) - 34wks (8m)
Sheba is 1010g (gain 20g) - 42wks (9.5m)
Subi is 1195g (gain 30g) - 2.5yrs
Tigerlily is 430g (gain 35g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Twizzle is 465g (gain 60g) - 7wks (1.5m)
Zinnia is 440g (gain 60g) - 7wks (1.5m)


***Re-homing/Foster Pigs***
Rafia is 685g (gained 100g) - 10wks (2.5m) - (pregnant, due approx 8/12)
Lulu is 720g (gained 80) - 11wks (2.5m) - (pregnant, due approx 5/12)
Olivia is 305g (gain 45g) - 5wks (1m) - (On Hold)
Tabitha is 205g (first weigh in) - 2wks - (treating for mites)
Xeraphina is 340g (first weigh in) 5wks - (treating for mites)
Flick is 590g (first weigh in) - 10wks - (On Hold)

***New Mums***
Phoebe is now 725g (lost 360g) - 30wks (7m)- (gave birth, nursing)
Noah is 90g (gained 15g in the last two days!) - newborn
Nixie is 95g (gained 5g in the last two days) - newborn

Delilah is 735g (first weigh in) - approx 1yr (nursing)
Sadie is 175g (first weigh in) - 2wks
Suri is 190g (first weigh in) - 2wks


And, we're almost at capacity again! It seems that as quickly as my babies find wonderful new families, and my foster pigs waddle off to new homes, more piggies end up taking their place! I can't claim innocence there though, I do love to meet new pigs, and help those that need a bit of assistance.



The two new girls from yesterday's intake are doing a lot better this evening than they were this morning. I woke up to find this mess on Xeraphina's back - she was compulsively biting into herself. The most logical explanation for this is simply that the ivermectin treatment I administered yesterday has exacerbated the mange mites, and she's now itchier than ever. Hopefully the drug will start killing off the bugs very soon and some of that itchiness will subside. I must admit she's been very good this afternoon, and the wound doesn't look so raw any more.

So while my quarantined newbies stayed inside in air-conditioned comfort, the rest of the pigs were getting some grass time. I've moved Sprout and Malakai's cages and positioned them behind the mansion cage to try and avoid whatever it was about their old position that seemed to be stressing them out. So far so good too - both cages had good gains this week - making up for lost time!



I also gave a select few girls a taste of supervised free-ranging while our puppy dog was locked in the now empty side-yard with a big bone to keep him happy. Bonnie loved it - and is getting quite large now! Not as large as Ginger though, who gained an incredible 260g this week. That is a new record for us. You can feel every last gram of that too when you pick her up. Either she's a little further along than I guessed, or there are a LOT of babies in there...



Lulu's really bulked out in the last week or so too. Her fungal infection has completely cleared up as well. All she needs to do now is feed those growing babies of hers!



Oh - and I couldn't end this week's weigh in without this awesome shot of Bonnie and her mum Subi together! Colour-contrasting fat bottoms!

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!

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!

Baby updates

Both new mums and their 7 new babies were all looking really good this morning, so they got promoted to 'mansion-living'!

The babies were very excited, and it was just little popcorning balls of cuteness everywhere for a while. Until they tired themselves out and took a nap in the hay anyways!



Alice seemed a little stressed by the re-introduction and took out a lot of her frustration on poor Ruby. Meanwhile, Galaxy and her four 10-day old boys thought it was great fun, and did lots of bum-sniffing. Alice ended up sulking up the back of the cage while her babies sampled milk from both Ruby and Galaxy. It's fortunate that I've got two excellent mum's in those two ladies. Hopefully this was just a minor hiccup in Alice's new role as mum...

I thought I'd let you all know that I've published the information from my care-booklets given out with the adoption piggies, and it can all be found right here on my page. I've got a page on general care, and one on breeding. Let me know what you think? Too much info? Not enough?

Galaxy's boys - 4 days old

Galaxy delivered today!

I had only JUST gotten home from collecting the newest three girls (see last post), and put the kids down for their afternoon nap, when it occurred to me to check on Galaxy. I noticed she was hunching a little, and on closer inspection noticed two messy little bubba's being cleaned up right there on the grass in the puppy pen! I sprinted back inside for my camera and managed to capture bub no. 3 emerging. Galaxy quickly set about clearing up the sack away from it's face, but was distracted by bub no. 4 emerging about 30 sec later. She then ignored the fourth bub and went back to cleaning no. 3.



I gave her about 60 seconds to help her last baby breathe (which feels like an ETERNITY in this situation!), but she was too focussed on her current cleaning job, so I had to reach in and help. I don't have terribly long finger nails, so holding the bub gently but firmly and getting the sack to break was a little tricky, but once it was off, and baby had a bit of a rub down to help get the gunk out of his air way, he seemed to be breathing quite well. I popped him back in with his brothers and Galaxy eventually made her way over to him and quite vigorously licked him clean too!



Once the delivery was over and Galaxy has passed the last placenta I placed the little family back into the birthing box... kind of the wrong colour for a family of boys though! :P

They're all dry and so so gorgeous now. Galaxy is doing a brilliant job. All four babies are a mix of cream and cream agouti - very much Liam's sons. Two of them have rosettes and will most likely end up looking like Sheba-mini-yaks, and the other two are smooth, so will resemble Shelties as they grow up. I'll get some individual photos in the morning light tomorrow. They are definitely all boys though and will be named Jonah (the runt), Jarvis, Jethro and Jax!

Weighing in 22 guinea pigs!

(2 week old Mika posed next to brand-new little Bodie, only hours old)

Here's this weeks weigh in, for Sunday the 28th August 2011:
(I've just popped on the age of the pigs in months (in brackets) for my own ease of keeping track of the as yet un-mated females)

*** Liam's Love Shack ***
Liam is 885g (gained 20g) - 21wks (5m)
Ruby is 985g (gained 85g) - 23wks (6m)


*** Sprout's Pad ***
Sprout is 740g (gained 35g) - 20wks (5m)
Kobe is 800g (gained 15g) - 26wks (6m)


*** Girl's Mansion ***
Alba is 805g (gained 65g) - 26wks (6m)
Alice is 865g (gained 40g) - 28wks (7m)
Beeno is 820g (same) - 26wks (6m)
Bonnie is 790g (gained 50g) - 13wks (3m)
Custard is 950g (gained 5g) - 4.5yrs
Galaxy is 1030g (gained 105g) - 34wks (8m) (pregnant, due approx 23/9/11)
Ginger is 925g (gained 75g) - 23wks (6m)
Sparrow is 860g (gained 40g) - 20wks (5m)
Subi is 1115g (gained 45g) - 2.5yrs
Yeti is 520g (gained 35g) - 13wks (3m)

Crumble is 850g (same) - 39wks (10m)(nursing)
Molly is 195g (gained 60g) - 2 weeks
Mason is 210g (gained 65g) - 2 weeks
Mika is 200g (gained 65g) - 2 weeks

Sheba was 1200g (gained 100g) - gave birth, now 820g (loss of 380g - of which 335g was baby) 31wks (8m)(nursing)
Bear is 125g (newborn)
Bodie is 100g (newborn)
Ben is 110g (newborn)

A pretty good effort by everyone this week with a total piggy weight of 14.7kg! No wonder we go through SO much food!!!

We also have a confirmed pregnancy for Galaxy, and possible pregnancies for Alice and Ginger, but's its a bit too early to say for sure yet. The girls are big and chunky and healthy anyway, so I won't class it as confirmed until I feel actual movement.




Crumble's babies are doing SO well! I am loving watching them get braver and faster and more cheeky each day. Their hair is really starting the lengthen now too. It's a bit tricky to see on the boys because they have smooth coats, but you can see it on Molly due to the rosettes that make her hair stick up. The boy's have hair this length too. Considering they're only 2 weeks old, this is a pretty good sign of some beautiful coats to come!



(trying to show the length of Mason's fur... he didn't want to play the taking-photo-game. He wanted to nibble my finger!)

A piggy weigh in on my birthday

The weigh in for Monday 18th July 2011 (my birthday!):


Sprout is 400g (lost 110g) - 14wks
Sparrow is 695g (gained 65g) - 14wks
Liam is 670g (gained 3g) - 15wks
Ruby is 810g (gained 55g) - 17wks
Ginger is 800g (gained 50g) - 17wks
Kobe is 685g (lost 25g) - 20wks
Alice is 725g (gained 75g) - 22wks
Beeno is 725g (gained 50g) - 20wks
Alba is 735g (gained 70g) - 20wks
Custard is 965g (gained 40g) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1.065kg (gained 35g) - 2yrs
Bonnie is 575g (gained 80g) - 7wks
Galaxy is 755g (gained 35g) - 29wks
Sheba is 770g (gained 105g) - 25wks
Crumble is 1020g (gained 80g) - 33wks
Yeti is 320g (gained 65g) - 7wks


Total piggy weight 11.715kg (total weekly gain of 690g across 16 guinea pigs)


So, as you can probably see, poor little Sprout has dropped further to a low of 400g. He's been sitting at this weight for a few days now without dropping any further so I'm hoping to see an increase soon. He is eating spontaneously, though not as much as usual. And he doesn't seem as listless. He has a decent set of lungs on him too, and scream/squeals when I take Kobe out to weigh her as well. These two are quite bonded I think. I'm a little worried at her second weight loss this week though. That's 30g lost over the last fortnight (which doesn't seem like much in comparison to Sprout's loss of 150g, but is still a bit concerning). She seems physically fine, so I'm hoping it's just a stress thing because her buddy isn't well and that she'll pick up when he does.







The rest of the pigs seem really good. They all spent the day on the grass again today, enjoying the winter sunshine. The babies (Yeti and Bonnie) gorge themselves on the grass! Come the afternoon when it's time to put everyone back in the mansion, their little bellies feel like they are bursting at the seams! Yeti's fur is getting longer and crazier. I have honestly never seen anything like her before. Liam's fur (my pedigree Texel) grows in long, soft ringlets/spiral curls. Yeti's fur is like black wool, growing in clumps/clusters. It's quite funky.



(I had to pop this photo in here too... I love it when the pigs all squish up. And yet again, Galaxy manages to get in the shot!)

I've been keeping an eye on Custard too. Her hair got quite sparse last week, but is growing back now. With her colouring, the new hairs start out a darker shade of cream, then get lighter as the hair gets longer/older. So the new patches of hair are quite visible. I've done a bit of reading about it, and I think she probably has an ovarian cyst. That would explain the hair loss, her continually doing the 'horny dance' to the other girls, and her pudgy belly. At this stage she seems comfortable and happy though, and the others tolerate her eccentricities, so I don't think it is worth stressing out an old girl like her to get it removed. We'll just keep an eye on her too.