Sprout's new home, and Romeo's growing hair

I had to make the decision to re-home Sprout recently, as he's not quite what we're looking for in terms of the direction we wish to take with our breeding program. He produces stunning babies, but lacks the coat length we're trying to work with. Thankfully he was very quickly snapped up and went to his new home this morning. Little Olivia went home too, in separate carry-cases! I'll be excited to see Sprout in his new home. He's come so far this year, from his rocky start as a tiny baby, to his infestation with mites and fungus, then his mystery illness that saw him loose nearly half his body weight/almost pass away... to the stunning, muscular big man he is today.

So with Sprout's departure, that leave young Romeo in charge of his own cage. He will be getting to live with a lady friend from today as well - though I doubt he'll figure out what to do with his appendage for a bit longer yet (it took Liam a good three months!).



These are some photos of Romeo's coat at the moment. He's 7 weeks old and just stunning!

Kobe's babies have arrived!

Yep - MORE babies! lol. The last litter for a while now though. No one else is confirmed pregnant yet, so at least a good month's rest for us all!

This morning, at about 6am, Kobe delivered four beautiful big babies.



This is the only lady of the litter, and she has already been claimed. Little Olivia is a dilute 'silver' agouti (instead of having the black base colour and white tip, it's more of a slate base colour and palest cream/white tip. Very unusual and pretty!).


Olivia weighed in at 80g, and has the cute little crest like her Aunty Sparrow and her mum. She will be a classic smooth coat, but will be a rex carrier.



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This little man was the real surprise from the litter - a stunning jet black rex! I've called him Onyx, and he was the biggest bub at 95g. He has just the tiniest hint of chocolate on his toes, and a tiny tiny spot on his shoulders.


Onxy will very likely grow up to look like his daddy Sprout, with the frizzy, curly rex fur. He is a lovely little man and is as yet unclaimed! (All the unclaimed bubs from the last fortnight are now over on the available page).



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This little guy is Oscar, and is almost identical to Olivia! He even weighed the same - 80g. He has the same agouti colouring, and the crest on his head.



Some of the bubs appear to have the blue-cast to the eyes (known simply as blue-eyes in guinea pigs). I've never actually had this in a litter before, so am a little excited about it. You can just make it out in these photos of Oscar, but it's a little more obvious on Otis below...



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And this is Otis. He is the dilute 'silver' agouti as well, with palest cream/white patches. (I still can't decide if the light colour is white or very pale cream... in some lights it has the faintest cream tinge... like an off-white! It could be because the babies were still a bit messy from birth... but it seemed pretty uniform). And you can also see the blue tone to the eye on this close up of Otis too. Most noticeable on the 'whites' of the eye.



Otis weighed in at a healthy 80g as well, so we didn't really get a runt in this litter. He is going to be a classic short haired smooth coat. Seriously gorgeous, and seriously low maintenance!




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So, after checking over the babies, I decided to let the four new mums and fifteen (!) babies have a run on the grass (which meant I had to make some surprisingly time-consuming alterations to the cage to make sure tiny bodies couldn't escape between the bars!). It was cuteness overload!








We also has some sad news this morning as well. After I'd checked over Kobe's babies, I was in the mansion cage when I noticed a lone placenta sitting in a patch of blood on the hay. No one had even been confirmed pregnant, so I was seriously baffled for a good 30sec or so. I looked around expecting to see a new baby in there - but nothing. So each girl got checked, until I got to Ripley... she had blood staining on her bottom and mouth. The most logical conclusion is that she has had a miscarriage. At most, she would have been 5 weeks pregnant (about half way), with her second back-to-back litter. I'm thinking that her little body just couldn't handle it. She seems fine now, no further bleeding, running, eating, playing. But she still feels more pudgy than I'd expect for a girl her size. So we'll just have to keep a close eye on her for the next few weeks. I'm not sure if guinea pigs can have a partial miscarriage, then go on to deliver healthy full term bubs... this will be something new for me if it happens! (She could also just be perfectly healthy and fat too! Time will tell :P).

Sprout and Subi

Sprout and Subi are living together now (after Kobe's return to the girl's mansion).


Sprout is VERY happy about this new arrangement. Subi... not so much! :P She's so much bigger than him too, she lets him know who's boss. But, I think they have come to an understanding: as long as Sprout gives Subi her space when she wants it (she has claimed the entire upstairs of their cage), they'll get along just fine! :P

My Cheeky Boy - Sprout

You may remember this cute little bundle of curls... This was Sprout on the day we bought him home earlier this year. He's been through some tough times: fighting off mites, then a persistent fungal infection, then the mystery illness when he stopped eating and nearly died!




But look at him now! He's the cheekiest, funniest little character ever! And I don't think I can wonder about what breed he is any more. If that's not a silver agouti rex, I don't know what is! :P He's definitely a bit more 'bits-and-pieces' than my purebred rex girls Subi and Bonnie - you can see how much shorter and broader their faces are as 'proper' Rex's should be.



But while Sprout might not have a different shaped face to a usual rex, his coat is one of the best I've seen. It's incredible dense, and quite long too. Considering he's still only 5months old, I'm intrigued to see what he will look like as an adult with a bit more meat on his bones!

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!)

Sprout is on the mend

I think Sprout might finally be feeling better. His weight has slowly been creeping back up and is now sitting at about 430g. Even Kobe put on a little bit. I let the two of them have the day on the grass in the puppy pen so they could fill their bellies to the brim.





I also think Miss Crumble might be pregnant. She gained the most out of all the pigs at the last weigh in, and her belly is definitely ballooning. I can't feel anything hard, or anything moving yet. But we'll keep an eye on her. We've only had her and Sheba 5 weeks now, so I'm curious to know whether these are Liam's bubs or some unknown pigs bubs. I'm leaning more towards the possibility that she was pregnant when we got her though. She's one of my more demanding personalities, standing here at the door way to the mansion cage, asking to be let out on the grass.



This is a little glimpse of the mess they make over a few days! I think they're all pretty keen to get outside.



As soon as the door was open, they all made a mad dash for the best grass...

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.

An update on Sprout

If I'm completely honest with you, I expected to find Sprout dead this morning. He did not look good last night at all. His weight had dropped to 460g (a further 40g in two days on top of his 60g loss the previous week), and he was just still and introverted.



This morning he looked much the same at first. I left him be for a little while, then I decided he was due for his antibiotics. So I got him out and weighed him. He had actually gained 15g. And his lumps have disappeared. He even walked around the scales, fought me a little harder than usual when I tried to get him to eat the antibiotic paste, then squeaked like crazy when he heard the bag for the salad greens rustle. Then he had a bit of a go at eating some food.





I checked on him just before, and his tiny hard mouse-like poo has been replaced by large, dark mushy poo, so I don't know it that's a good thing or a bad thing. Or even 'a thing' at all (or something you really wanted to read! :P). And I'm trying not to get too excited. Guinea pigs are notorious for looking like they're getting better, then taking a turn for the worse! So just in case, I took a few extra photos today... not much consolation, but better than not having any at all.