The True Beginning of Samsara!

As I type Ebony and Edmund are sitting next to me, burbling away. It is so lovely to have cavies again!

Yesterday was taken up with making sure they'd all be ready for the move, packing food, washing bedding, clipping nails and recording weights.

But I've got a few minutes spare now so thought I'd share some pictures of my new babies for my avid (but currently non-existent) readers.

So to start with we have Pipsqueak Ebony Charm, she is 17 months old and is a lemon agouti, cream and white texel. She has a gorgeous white blaze. Great pedigree as well going back to quite a few well known longhairs, virtually no inbreeding either in the pedigree which is interesting. Her sire is Pipsqueak Panhandle (Golden Agouti & Gold Texel) and her dam Pipsqueak Ebony Eyes (Lemon Agouti, Cream & White Texel). Her coat is gorgeous lovely and dense with great curl. Her conditions just off but with her post-partum litter just weaned it's to be expected. I'm hoping three months in eight foot cages with plenty of grass should turn her into a lovely lean muscly sow.

Pipsqueak Edmund is her son. He's just four weeks old and seems to share the same lovely dense hair as his mother. He's a golden agouti, gold and white boy. I'm hoping to keep him in show coat and breed him to Ebony before he reaches five months and is in need or wrappers, thus (perhaps) making it possible to show him even after he's been bred. He's a golden agouti, gold and white and has a lovely striping pattern going on down his back. I'm still waiting on his pedigree. He's a bit skinny and doesn't seem overly fond of solid food so he's spending half his time with Mum and half his time on his own for now.

Pipsqueak Feather is an adorable sheba boy. We met him at a show awhile ago and my Mother fell in love with him, when she found out he was still available she just had to have him. He has a congenital defect and is missing an eye. However it doesn't seem to stop him and he's certainly a personality filled pig. He's destined for the pet class and I hope I have as much fun and success with him as I did with my darling Ccino the first sheba I ever owned. He's a hefty boy already at just four months old.

And finally Pipsqueak Fortinbras is a darling six week old sheba. He's a bit scruffy and skinny at the moment having had a toxic mother as well as being exposed to this awful heat. However he eats enough for three and should soon be as fat and plump as Feather. I'm hoping his coat will grown in and I can show him in the pedigree class, but if not he's certainly going to make a striking display in the pet class. He has the most amazing eyes. I'm used to the typical brown, ruby or red eyes but Fortinbras' eyes are like deep indigo, or a deep blue slate. I'm fairly sure cavies can't have blue eyes, so I guess they are just a true black but it's still certainly a startling quality. I couldn't really capture there color on camera unfortunately. He's eating like a horse but has had a bit of diarrhea unfortunately which can be attributed to stress and overeating so we'll see how he goes with the long drive the day after tomorrow.

Far Too Excited.

So I'm lying in bed twitching like a toddler on Christmas Eve. I've missed having cavies, the last time I even held one of my own was in February two years ago before I left for college. I still don't even know what colours Edmund and Fortinbras are. Just 15 and a half hours till I see them!

Apart from mounting excitement life continues as normal in a half packed house. We've ended up with soooo much stuff, there's at least eighty boxes as well as all the bulky hand made furniture my mother absolutely had to have. Most of the boxes are parts of her studio as well, apart from the animal cages my worldly possessions still fit in three boxes, I haven't really bought much since college. So I'm rather worried that it all won't fit in the truck. God knows what I'll do if we end up having to leave the cages behind, only the rabbits cage is collapsible the others are all huge and bulky and even the rabbit has his own huge and bulky out door cage. I'm not sure if I just fail at tetris or if I'm right and we have no hope of fitting this all on even the largest moving truck, thirty small boxes and fifty large are a huge amount of boxes. Then there's a huge American couch (shipped back when we moved from America), two arm chairs, two 2.5 x 1.5m wrought iron hand painted tables, two small versions of the aforementioned tables, an oversize kitchen dresser, various other small tables, a queen bed, a single bed, a bedroom dressing table with mirror, two sets of book shelves, four bedside tables, three large hand carved cupboards, a treadmill and about forty of those stackable plastic drawers. Then we have the eight foot bank I had built, the eight foot outdoor cage, a five foot outdoor cage, a four foot indoor cage and god knows what else.

So I'm panicking about that. I know if it doesn't all fit it's not the end of the world. If it doesn't fit we pay extra for the movers to store it and drive it up another day, or worst case send it to my Dad's house and then have the movers drive it up from there. But for some reason it's causing me acute worry. All the essential animal items are packed into the banks and I'll be carrying enough to keep everyone happy for at least a few days in the car with the travel cages. Even a week or two stuck in travel cages will harm none of the animals, and there is a massive Bunnings when I can easily get supplies for emergency cages. I'm purchasing food when I arrive so even that isn't an issue. There's a huge chemist just 6 minutes away from our new home so I can get supplies if anyone falls ill, and right next door is a vet. So I really really really need to take a deep breath and get over it.

Hmmm deep breathes aren't quite so nice when your bed is next to a rabbit cage that currently reeks of vinegar (I thought I'd give it a good scrubbing out before we moved).

Okay I am now going to calm down and stop stressing about things that are out of my control. I think I just have a problem with owning too much stuff. I feel like I'm being overwhelmed by piles of crappy useless materialistic items. I can usually ignore it, except when it's all been dragged out to be boxed.

Five Days.

Life has reached the stage of beyond hectic. we're living in a half packed house and attempting to organize a thousand things for our move on Tuesday.

Since this blog is about cavies, I'll restrict myself to simply posting an update about my babies.

Since I last posted things have changed a bit. On Saturday we'll be collecting Pipsqueak Ebony Charm, a golden agouti, gold and white texel sow, Pipsqueak Edmund, a texel of currently unknown colour, Pipsqueak Feather, the aforementioned half blind, golf, black and white sheba and Pipsqueak Fortinbras, a three week old sheba of unknown colour.

Various circumstances have meant that I won't be getting the merino and the gold and white sheba that I'd thought I'd be getting. I'm a tad disappointed about the merino as I would love to breed some merinos as well as texels, but I'll see if I can hunt one down next year, and if not a merino I should be able to get hold of a coronet to breed in.

So I'll update again on Saturday when I have piccies of the lovely new arrivals.

Thoughts of the Day.

So life has reached the point of being beyond hectic. Everything turned to chaos when the seller of the house we're buying up and died. The family intend to dispute the will but still want to sell the house to us first since it's easier to squabble over cash then an unsellable house. However all assets are frozen while the executor is named and it appears that we'll be moving into a house we don't own.

Add to that our internet connection dying and the start of the November heat waves, as well as exams and assessments for both of us and life has been beyond insane. So I'm typing this from a computer at my Mother's uni, since we have no other way of accessing internet apart from the slow and annoying Mcdonald's wifi.

Disaster has unfortunately struck in other ways, the breeder emailed today to let me know that the lil baby sheba I'd named Fortinbras died in the latest heat wave and Edmund decided to eat his coat.

Anyway I'd already figured that I'd most likely be breeding Ebony in February so at most Edmund would have made it to one show so I'm content to take him anyway, although she very kindly offered me a little texel instead. She's also offered an unweaned sheba boy who could be placed with Ebony (who's still nursing her own litter) to replace Fortinbras. So all should be well with the wheekers.

I'll be glad to leave this heat though, we were hoping to be gone before the scorchers hit, but twasn't to be so. Unfortunately I'm a bit spoiled, we always had air conditioning at home and school so I'm not coping well in this melting heat without any sort of cooling. Though the animals are even worse off. However in 11 days we'll be gone for good and I will never have to live through another 45 degree summer, I hope.

In the next eleven days we'll somehow pack a house while trundling back and forth between Newcastle, Sydney and Gosford. I'm trying not to think about everything I need to do.....

Expensive Pets, Parrots.

You know, when I bought Atti I couldn't believe how much I was paying for this little 100g bird, even at the discounted price the breeder gave me. I had originally ordered a green cheek conure from him and not a single clutch hatched, so he instead offered me a sun conure he'd been hand rearing for someone else at a discount, though it was still three times the price of a green cheek.

What I didn't realize was how much the ongoing costs were for a bird like a sun conure. They are intelligent and veraciously curious, they need new things, new ideas and constant mental stimulation. They also tend to stash/lose whatever toys you give them. This year alone I've spent over $300 on toys for him, that doesn't include the $500 cage.

Of course he's gotten bored and upset again so I've dropped another $150 on toys, and I truly hope these last more then a few months. At our local bird store I picked up a new basic foraging system to see how Atti does before I spend money on the more elaborate systems. It's just a container on a spring that has to be tipped forward in order to access food. I also bought a new ladder (he ate the last three) and a curious foot toy a bit like a spinning top which he's fallen in love with. Thankfully it's the cheapest so I'll go back and buy the shops stock of them. So that was $35 right there. Then since he's eaten/lost all the toy making supplies I've also ordered from the parrot rescue centre:

4 x wood shape cut outs
1 x 'Lolly Bag' of Pine chews
18 x Wooden Stars (his absolute fave toy)
12 x Large Macaw sized wooden spools (the conure size only lasted 0.2 seconds)
4 x Macaw sized cardboard bangles (as above)
1 x Oversized green plastic chain
1 x Small Green Plastic chain
25 x Plastic Crazy Shape Links (well loved as is or can be used to attach toys)
4 x Plastic Pacifiers
5 x Plastic Jewel Rings
2 x Large Bangle shapes
12 x Chain Links
4 x Plastic Tops
2 x Cow Bells
3 x Vine Hearts (to be shared with the rabbit)
4 x Vine Sticks
2 x Fiddler Cubes
1 x Vine Lily
1 x Vine Star
8 x Metal Pear Links
1 x Small Yellow Plastic Chain

All for the princely sum of $110, I dearly hope these last more then a few months, as I ended up using clothes money to pay for them. The moneys also for my own sanity, a bored parrot is a loud aggressive parrot and the rabbit bites and scratches me enough, I don't need to be pierced and deafened as well.

I still need to cut new perches but since I don't feel like going to my Father's property that'll have to wait till we move. At least perches are free.
 
I'm afraid I have no recent pics of Atti in his adult (well almost adult) plumage but I'll leave you with a pic of his cage (which, as with everything else is macaw sized). If I ever remember to charge the camera I'll post up some current pics of Atti & Lu, who are both looking rather handsome.

Countdown

So it's just 15 days till Edmund, Ebony, Feather and Fortinbras join my menagerie. I'm rather excited, I've missed my babies so much and it'll be lovely to hear wheeking again.

So in other news today I finally got my plasti-dip. I've had it on order for months now and it finally turned up. A few months ago I was able to purchase buccal pad separators and dental rasps however they are the old style ones with sharp piece sin the cheek depressor bit. There's been some horror stories about how when this sort is used incorrectly it can rip and animals cheeks to pieces leading to abscesses and often death from the infection. Anyway if you coat the ends in plasti-dip it makes them totally safe and easy to use. Plasti-dip is inert liquid latex that dries to a strong inert rubber. So since it's finally arrived I can finally fix the seperators so I then have a kit for checking cavies teeth. The other use is also you can use the seperators when an animals choking to remove the food etc that they're choking on. I've lost animals to both malocclusion and choking so it'll be great to have a way to prevent/treat both.

Other than that I had my law exam today, which sucked but now I just have one last exam to go and then we pack everything up and move the menagerie to Armidale. The heat here has been awful, the rabbit's gotten heat stroke twice already and needs constant attention to get him through days over 35 degrees so I'm sure he'll appreciate the move to a cooler climate.

Crazy Wabbit....

Ever tried syringe feeding a rabbit?

I kind of assumed it's the same as guinea pigs, get them into a headlock, shove the syringe in diagonally and slowly press the plunger, uuuuh no.

Today got quite hot and we were both out tonight. Gave the bunny an ice bottle and turned a fan on him and figured that was enough. Came home to shriveled poos and a dehydrated bun. So out comes the gastrolyte and I start attempting to syringe feed it. He knew just the angle to place his tongue so the whole lot dribbled out and down my front. He can also turn into a very slippery boneless lump when needed as well, so it's near impossible to get a grip on him.

With a lot of coaxing we got 30mL in and he's now under a chair growling at me. He did deign to have a big slurp at his water bowl though, so I'm confident I didn't kill him.

I pray to god I never have to hand feed, I'm covered in gastrolyte he even got it on my glasses, I'd hate to see what he could do with pellet slurry.

Travelling

Today I've been trying to work out the logistics of moving the animals five hours North. They'll be stuck in travel carriers for at least nine hours, but could end up in them for up to 48 hours as we try to get cages etc sorted.

So I own a mazda 2, a tiny car that can fit a surprising amount of things.

On moving day it'll need to hold

A sewing machine
An overlocker (type of sewing machine)
An iMac
A Macbook and accessories
My bedding for the night
A large cat carrier containing a rabbit
A small bird cage housing a parrot
3 picnic baskets housing 4 guinea pigs
Food and water for all animals including the human for 48 hours
An emergency kit for the animals

So that should all fit but god knows what I've forgotten, thankfully my mother will drive up with her parrot so I only have to cope with one crazy bird.

Our things are currently spread between two houses so while Mum's at my Dad's with moving truck I'll be collapsing and packing everyone's cages and making sure they're all settled in their cages.

Then we'll pack our own house into the moving truck and hopefully start heading North. Stops are going to be a total pain as there's no way I can leave so many animals in the car alone for any amount of time, so will be relying on my Mother turning up to watch them while I take a break.

When we finally get there first priority will have to be the rabbit as he can't cope for long periods in a small cage, so I'll need to set his cage up with it's litterbox as soon as we arrive. The parrot will stay in his travel cage overnight with me so he doesn't totally freak.

The guinea pigs will be living in their travel cages from the 26th so hopefully won't mind another night in them and I'll just make sure to pack bedding for them so they can go into their cages in the morning.

I have to say that moving really won't be fun, hopefully it'll all go smoothly though.

A Caviary, an Avairy and a Rabbitry....

Life has been a special kind of hectic recently. University is racing towards the end of the year and I'm not really keeping up my major assessments. However with just two exams to go I thought I'd take a break and finally get around to sharing some pictures of the soon to be animal room.

Now in the pictures I've shared before I'm sure it's plainly obvious that the house we are moving to is unique, so unique that not only does it have turrets, but every single wall both inner and outer are pierced with stained glass.

So the animal room sits next to my bedroom and is equally tiny, only 3.5 m x 3 m. It needs to house a caviary, my parrot, the rabbit and all the rest of the required paraphernalia. Design wise though it's just about perfect.

It opens onto the loungeroom and is the door on the left in this pic.

Next to it is the keyhole entryway. You can just see the animal room door on the far right. My own room opens into the entryway.

When you walk in you have a lovely big window looking out to the river and the *ahem* garden shed. The blinds will be removed and the beam above the window painted lime green. In front of/underneath the window will be Lu's dog crate with my divided wire cage on top.

On the left is the only blank (ish) wall, which adjoins my bedroom. Against this will be all the feed and the big bank of cages with the pet store cages on top.

On the right is the wall adjoining the laundry. This wall'll be a nuisance as it has a big pipe at near the bottom that can't be moved, but I can at least remove the clothes rack. Atti (aka the Brat) my parrot will have his up against this wall so he can see out the door and the window. Paraphernalia will be stored against the stupid pipe.

Then finally looking towards the door. This wall will be painted a lovely lime green. As you can see the door is stupidly positioned.