Another Newbie - Malibu the Sheltie

While we're on the roll for introducing new piggies... I thought I'd show off our newest boar to join the gang. This is 'Malibu'. He is a lilac/gold argente sheltie boar with streaks of gold, a solid gold nose and a gold tummy! 

Malibu comes from Ohana Cavy Stud, and is going to be a valuable edition to our pet-lines, hopefully bringing through some lilac to our curly pigs. 

You're probably wondering why he would be useful in adding to our curly stock... and the value is in the genes that he is carrying recessively... his daddy is a texel. One of our texel bubs actually - and Liam's son. So Malibu is actually Liam's grandson, which is kind of cool. 

So this is Malibu's dad  - he was born 'Ryder' here at the stud back in 2011. He was re-named Jasper by his new family at Ohana. This was him in full coat - he was stunning! Sadly he died not long ago, so Malibu is only one of two of his sons to survive him.

And this is Malibu's mum - a stunning gold purebred sheltie. You can see where Malibu gets his colouring from!

Ruby's second litter to Liam = gorgeousness x 3!

I had been obsessively checking Ruby all day yesterday (Friday). I just had a feeling. She wasn't acting any different, but she was on day 69 of her pregnancy, and she just seemed ready. I walked past the cage at about 10:50pm, and noticed a lot of licking behaviour - and spotted a soggy little bundle of curls! I rushed to her compartment and got to see the delivery of the last placenta.

Three not-so-little bubs had already been safely delivered into the world by a very competent mumma.







This is Zeus, the bigger boy at 100g. He is a mix of white, cream and 'cream agouti', but with much more white. He will look spectacular if his coat grows out like daddy (Liam). ('True' cream agouti is a chocolate base colour with a cream tip. These guys have a black base with a cream tip. So it's probably more of a dilute gold agouti, but that just sounds confusing!).






And this is Zachary. The smallest of the litter at 95g. He too is white, cream and 'cream agouti'.





This is the only little lady of the litter - Miss Zoey. She weighed in at a healthy 100g and is a 'cream agouti' and white.




And these are two of the boys born in Ruby and Liam's first litter back in October 2011 (they're 3-4 weeks old in the first pic). They're now 7 months old and have grown full texel coats. It really is just a genetic lucky dip though. These babies all have a 50/50 chance of inheriting Ruby's short 'rex' gene, or her long 'texel' gene. Liam only has texel genes to pass on - so the babies will either end up genetically rex/texel or texel/texel. Only time will tell!

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!

Hair cut

Liam and Yeti got their summer hair cut yesterday. This is what was left by my feet when we where finished! Once I've recovered from having to cut back all those awesome curls I'll get some photos of the actual pigs. But for now, it's just a pile of fur!

A video of Liam

I took this little video of Liam with my 2yr old last month. Liam was having a bit of a sulky day and didn't want to eat the parsley Chelsea kept picking for him - despite her best efforts!

It does show how chilled out he is though. He's sitting only metres away from a cage full of females, has a small child poking parsley in his face, has me inspecting his coat and a dog running around in the background! And despite all this can still enjoy a good chin rub!

Sheba finally delivered!

My 6month old woke me for a feed at about 5am this morning. I sat there half asleep while he fed just wanting to crawl back under the warm blankets, when I remembered about Sheba. The last time I'd checked her was 11:30pm. No babies then - but she was looking a little restless.

So once my little man was safely tucked back into his cot, I snuck in to check on Miss Sheba. And sure enough there was a cute little face snuggled in next to her.



I didn't want to wake the kids, so I tried to stifle my excitement while I checked Sheba was ok and lifted out the babies. Three BIG boys! My hubby came in while I was checking them over (he knew they must have been born when I hadn't come back to bed!). They were dry and so so clean, so must have been born in the early hours of this morning, Sunday the 28th August 2011. (It always astounds me how clean the mumma guinea pigs keep themselves and the bubs during birth.)


I tried to go back to sleep, but just lay awake thinking of names for them. When it got light enough I got a better chance to check them over and get some photos (see posts below). We've called them 'Bear', 'Ben' and 'Bodie'. These are just their name's while they stay here with us though, and their new families are totally welcome to change them!

First impressions suggest that these guys will be more Sheltie-like than anything, no curls unfortunately. I shouldn't really be surprised though as the curly gene in guinea pigs is recessive, so unless Sheba had texel/alpaca in her genetic history the bubs were never going to have curls. They will carry the curly gene though, which means that if they were mated to another curly carrier, or a curly pig, the resulting babies would be a mix of smooth and curly (and/or maybe even tufted like the peruvian!).

(The happy parents are shown below, Sheba is the peruvian and Liam the texel.)

Sheba's Baby Boy - Bodie

This little bundle of gorgeousness is Bodie, the runt of Sheba and Liam's three new baby boys. Bodie weighed in at a very healthy 100g though, so when you consider that that an average newborn guinea pig weight is about 85g, we probably can't really call him a runt!



Bodie is predominantly white, with cream and cream agouti eye patches, then cream and cream agouti rump patches as well. Really pretty colour combination.



He will most likely end up looking like a Sheltie when he's older (long straight hair that grows to the ground (very much like Crumble), but genetically he has the peruvian and the texel background. Makes for an interesting mix!

Sheba's Baby Boy - Bear

This is Bear, he's the biggest of the three babies weighing in at 125g. He has a big cream face like his daddy, white and cream patches down one side and cream agouti patches down the other side.



Bear's fur is extra thick. And just that little bit longer than you'd expect on a newborn. I don't know if this is because he's bigger/fatter than his brothers, or if he'll end up with a thicker coat as an adult.



Bear will most likely end up looking a lot like a Sheltie, but is genetically a cross between a Peruvian and a Texel. (genetics are weird!). With his slightly longer/thicker/fluffier fur though, he may end up with a little more unusual coat than a regular Sheltie would have.



If I'm allowed to choose a favourite baby it would be Bear. He's so quiet, calm and chunky. Just my kind of pig. That could all change in a few weeks though as the babies come out of their shell a bit more!

Sheba's Baby Boy - Ben

This is Sheba and Liam's third little man - Ben. He weighed in at a very healthy 110g and is the wriggler of the three!



He is predominantly cream agouti with his big white nose stripe and a patch of white and cream on his side/rump. He too will most likely end up looking like a Sheltie, but will have the genetic background of the Peruvian and the Texel.

Home grown parsley

Almost exactly a year ago we moved into our current house, and I decided I wanted a vegetable patch! We knew we had to fence it off from the toddler, and the puppy - which we did. But it kind of meant that the garden got left to it's own devices a bit. One of the few plants that is still growing really well is the parsley. Which is so handy because the guinea pigs LOVE it. And it has heaps of vitamin C, which they need every day. (and it doesn't get cheaper or easier than picking your own home-grown 'organic' parsley!).


Liam was quite partial to it this afternoon. He gobbled down his piece in about 20sec!





Alice is a little more cautious. She still ate it. But wanted to keep an eye on me and that strange black contraption in my hands.



I thought I'd show off her crazy backside hair-do too. It's like a guinea pig mullet - business at the front, party at the back!

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!)

Liam's amazing hair

I thought I'd share some photos of Mr Liam and his super dooper crazy long hair! (And it's not even a full coat yet!).

This is him at 3 weeks old, when he first came to live with us:





And this is him now! Check out those curls!





He is probably my most vocal, and my most placid piggy I'd say. As soon as I pick him up he surrenders and just sits in my hands. Most of the other's put up a bit of a fight before they just sit still!



And the boy can SQUEAK! I have this little video from his first days with us, and he hasn't changed at all. I had him inside one day during the week while the kids were having their nap, and he started his noise. I had to rush back outside and take him back to his ladies before he woke up the house!!!