Getting closer...

I've been working on the sow run portion of the bank some more. It's now had one coat of undercoat/primer and two coats of aquanamel. The paint needs a week to cure so while it does that I've been installing more hardware.

I've never found a cage catch I actually like, they are ugly, awkward and a total pain at feeding time. So I'm trialling magnetic catches, they are pricey at $4 a catch but I think they'll work. I've just installed two in the sow run, one per door and I think I'm definitely going to need more. Probably two at the top and bottom at the end of the door and one more on the hinged section. So I need to head to Bunnings and buy two more sets of catches (two in each set) as well as door handles for all of the cages.


If the catches work in the sow run with a a nosy houdini cavy (Ebbie) I'll install them in the bottom level as well and have slightly more aesthetically pleasing cage locks.

Cages, Bedding and all things nice.

I've been taking advantage of the wonderful post-Christmas/half-yearly-clearance/summer-sale bargains. Mainly of course for the pigs.

I've been reviewing the bedding situation and although the compressed newspaper pellets are like the absolute perfect bedding, the price tag means that it's not economically viable to use it in all the cages. Now, I know there's a lot of controversy about fleece but I have to come down on the side of the 'fluffies'. I love fleece. I love that it's so cheap, that it last forever that it looks neat and clean. However I'm also the daughter of a textile artist. I quite literally learned to sew before I could walk and own three sewing machines and an overlocker. So sewing bedding just comes naturally for me.

I took advantage of Lincraft's 30% off sale and bought 3.5m of hot pink homespun ($17.12) and 3.35m of Fuchsia polar fleece ($23.42). I also saved a fortune on new curtains for my bedroom but that's another story.

Anyway up until now I've always made fleece cage liners with cotton wadding. Which to be honest worked amazingly. However cotton wadding ordinarily costs a fortune but my Mother and I bought a bulk amount of 100m a while ago. That's unfortunately almost gone now so I'm looking at alternatives.

Americans are inordinately fond of using mattress pads (what we call mattress protectors) in cavy bedding. So I figured I'd give it a try. I bought a king size dry touch waterproof mattress protector. It has an 80% cotton 20% polyester toweling center with a waterproof PU backing ($39.99). The king size is just large enough to make two changes of bedding for the wire cage and the pet store cages. Once I've finished washing the fleece to death I'll be able to sew the pads with fleece on top, mattress protector in the middle and a cotton base. Hopefully this will work and be lighter and dryer then the cotton.

In other news I've been shopping at Bunnings. I finally bought the enamel for the banks. I gave in and bought a soft pink called 'soft satin'. I thought it was the perfect calming colour for a maternity cage and should help keep boars calm. Yeah right, the only thought behind the colour choice was 'oooooh pretty!'.

I also bought a set of magnetic catches to test out which are perfect. So I'll head back again soon and buy three more sets as well as four handles. Since the doors are hinge din the center I'll use a magnetic catch on either half so I can open just one half to throw food in.

Oh and I've been working on designs for a travel cage/show box/carry cage, so more on this and pricing later.

An Update on the Darlings

I figured it was about time I post up another random update. Cagewise I finally finished restapling all the bl**dy wire to the new doors and reattached the doors. So the cages are totally built now and the eight foot sow run is waiting for it's first coat of paint tomorrow. I ended up deciding to leave the outside of the cages raw. I might oil them at some point, or even paint them but am too poor and not in the mood to do the outside. I'll find some sort of nice pastel pink for the interior aquanamel.

So onto the babies.

Ebony Charm is getting fat and is up to 902g. All though I'm happy for her to put on a little pudge I do want her to stay in breeding condition hence the push to get the sow run done so she can run the flab off. Don't worry I'm not limiting her food in anyway. But she's in a 60 x 60 cm show pig cage and spends her days sitting between the food bowl and water bottle. I've stopped torturing her with wrapping now and given her a bit of a trim. It's still incredibly cold up here so I've only given her a bowl cut to keep her hair off the ground. I'll trim it back to rex-ish shortness when she's ready to breed but till then I'll let her keep her coat.

Edmund is gorgeous as always and his coat is amazing. So far he's an absolute joy to handle and has just reached the eight week mark. His coat seems a bit too soft but well I don't have enough experience to really tell. All I can say is that Ebbies hair is thicker and denser, but it could just be that this is Eddies baby coat. He's gaining weight well but is a bit light on. He's currently at 372g. I'd like him to be closer to 500g at eight weeks but maybe he's just not going to be a big chunky adult. He's gained 140g in four weeks, so he might just be at the 500g mark by the time he reaches twelve months.

Fortinbras does concern me. He's two weeks older then Edmund but 10g lighter and he still has the weird body shape thing going on. He has however gained 150g since I collected him. He's got a nice little potbelly and a big fat bum but the skinniest shoulders. I'm not sure if it's because he had a bad start to life losing his Mum or if it's something else. He certainly eats well. A couple of weeks ago Feather took a small chunk out of Fortinbras' ear which seems to have turned necrotic or fungal or something and got bigger. It's healing now though with constant applications of Quit-itch. His coat is also growing back now I keep it well coated in chew stop bitter spray. I'm hoping if I can get him and Feather out of the habit of chewing their coats over time I can stop using the chew stop.


Feather is doing well. He's up to 762g and doesn't seem to show any sign of stopping. So that's a 200g weight gain in four weeks and it just keeps climbing. He's six months now but I'm confident that by the time he reaches adulthood at nine-ish months he'll be a huge fat cuddlebug of a boy. I'm constantly astonished at how much the two sheba boys consume everyday. Between them they eat two cups of feed, a huge lump of hay and 3-4 cups of veggies everyday. It seems it doesn't matter how much food I load into their cage at night by morning they've totally cleared the cage of edibles. At least I don't have to worry about their vitamin C intake.

Anyway in other news we may be having a new boy joining us temporarily or permanently in February. The breeder my babies came from has offered to loan me a boy for Ebbie while Eddie does the show circuit, or I may possibly purchase a texel boy from her.

My Lovely Longs

Finally uploaded some pics to share.

So we have Pipsqueak Edmund at seven weeks, all blow dried and pretty. Those white 'fly-aways' are growing out and are flying away a lot less.

And Pipsqueak Ebony in wraps. She'll never be in a pedigree class but she gives me a chance to practice wrapping. She's a lovely docile pig, doesn't seem to care what I do to her. I'm toying with trying braids.

Such Fun!

We went shopping today (yes I'm a shopaholic) and purchased lots of fun things for the pigs. So I got the materials needed to convert the current awkward doors on the banks (1.2m way too long) into bifolds (8 hinges, 2.4m wood and staples for the staple gun). Plus I finally started buying tools (which makes me extraordinarily happy), so we bought the ryobi base pack with an impact drill (great idea, all additional tools are wonderfully cheap), a huge set of drill bits and drivers as well as a portable vise with it's own stand. I also bought the base coat for the cages.

So tomorrow I'll be working on the doors and turning them into wonderful folding doors. Then I can at the very least paint the sow run and move Ebbie into her proper cage. She's a total houdini and has so far been banned from the floor of the animal, two separate grass cages and the pet store cages. But I'd like her to move and run and stay in breeding condition.

I'm seriously debating on placing her with Eddie earlier then I'd originally planned. Summer is fricking freezing up here and we still haven't even reached 25 degrees. The pigs are spending all their time in cozies shivering.

Eddies coat is so soft and long I'm thinking if I wait till Feb he'll be five months old and will need wrappers soon, and Eb might eat his coat. So I'm thinking I might pop them together at the start of January. So he can stay with her till the show in Feb by which time she'll hopefully be preggers. And then he can go in wrappers without a prob.

That's if his coat stays in tact, I'm a bit suspicious I'll actually get that far.

In other news I've been practicing wrapping on Ebony and I seem to be doing well, the wraps are staying in well and she seems comfortable.

In other news I'm toying with joining the ACA. They are apparently having shows in Coffs Harbour, Cessnock and Gosford in 2012. I'm particularly interested in the Coffs shows. Coffs is only three hours from here so I can do those shows in a day which would be great. The Sydney shows are wonderful but they mean I spend all of Monday traveling. Except my uni schedule means I absolutely no questions asked have to be sitting in class at 11 am on Monday mornings. So I'd have to get up at like 3 am and race home, dump the pigs off and race to uni. Since the shows themselves are exhausting and since I've recently developed the new fun concept of migraines it's not something I'm very enthusiastic over.

Anyway I have some great new pics of Eddie with his gorgeous coat and Ebbie's new wrappers so I'll load them up and post them tomorrow.

Wash Day

So my new shampoos arrived today. I bought Groomers Edge Alpha White and Groomers Edge Ultimate.

Since the Sheba boys were once again mucky and the longs had yet to be washed everyone had a bath.

I'm not sure what I think of the alpha white. On the backs of the shebas where they were a bit off white but not too mucky it turned the coat a gorgeous sparkling pure white. It also left the coat nice and dense and coarse still, which is good. However on the pee stained bellies it didn't quite live up to it's claim. Their bellies are certainly many shades lighter then they were, but they are still quite clearly yellow.

The ultimate seems a decent shampoo/conditioner however I think it's softened the coats a wee bit too much, so probably shouldn't be used less then a week before a show. But I'll see how Ebbie and Eddies coats rebound. The wash certainly did wonders for Eddie, till now he's just been a scruffy baby but the wash and a good blowdry made him look like a long, he's going to look absolutely amazing if I manage to coat him out. He has a great temperament to, he happily sat patiently on the grooming stand while I dried his coat, unlike the other he never attempted to walk backwards or climb the wall. I would've grabbed pics but my camera battery died, so pics will come later.

So I'll see how Eddies coat rebounds and then work out when it'll be best to wash him before the show. For the Shebas I think a really good scrub and destaining a week before the show and then a second wash two days before the show, to remove whatever stains they've built up.

Settling in.

Everyone is still getting used to their new home, humans included. Life has certainly been interesting since we moved. Some highlights have been arriving at five in the afternoon on moving day to discover the road was gone. Literally it had become a giant ditch that could destroy our cars at will. So we kind of did an uncontrolled slide down that to our new house and began hoping and praying that the movers would be able to get back up the giant ditch once they'd unpacked.

Then we've had major storms, water pouring in through the roof, a mould coated guest room... the list goes on.

Anyway the animal room is up and running, though still not the prettiest site. And I've begun bonding with my new darlings.

Weight wise all four pretties are worrying me. Fortinbras is as least 200g below what he should be, having just reached 300g at eight weeks old. Feather too has a lot of catching up to do, he's coming up to six months old but is only 700g. They are however eating a lot, and drinking a lot. They are amazing poop machines. Feather has great condition even if he is a bit skinny but Fortinbras is well funny shaped. He's got a lovely fat belly and butt and the skinniest shoulders you've ever seen. Both of them have white tummies and butts and have worked really hard to turn them yellow *sigh*.

Because of this I've just placed an order at Clipper World for their alpha white stain removing shampoo and their ultimate shampoo. Hopefully I'll be able to return the boys to sparkling whiteness by February.

Ebby's doing well, for her I'm hoping I'll be able to keep her at the 820ish grams she's sitting at now over Summer. She was getting daily exercise running around the floor of the animal room for an hour or so but she's discovered she can fit in the 4cm gap below the banks so that activity has stopped. I do have a 2m grass cage for her but the torrential down pours have turned our 'yard' into a lake, we've got a plumber/handyman coming on Monday to dig a trench to drain it. Eventually she'll move into the eight foot sow run as well which should help keep her slim. but that still needs to be painted. And I currently don't have $150 to spend on paint, I'm hoping next Monday (payday) I'll be able to pay for it since I've now bought all the Christmas gifts etc. Ebbi's a lovely animal though, so active and full of personality. Her coat is amazing as well. I'm using her as a practice animal, since she's clipped it doesn't matter if I ruin her coat again. We might even try wraps in a month or so. Once February comes round though she'll be clipped off and placed with Eddie. I'm hoping if I breed Eddie at four months old his coat might stay in tact for the show season. If not well I'll wrap him anyway and show him in the pet class.

Eddie is also doing well. I'm proud to say that in the two weeks I've had him I haven't ruined his coat, yet. I need to remember to hit him with the blow dryer before I comb him out, which I tend to forget. I'm trying to keep combing minimal to a quick thirty seconds go over once a day with the metal detangler comb (rotating pins are a god send). He's also started learning how to sit pretty on a show board. I'm in love with his colouring the stripes are sooo adorable. And his coat seems lovely and dense and crinkly. He's six weeks old now so we'll see if he and I make it to February. He's a tad light on as well and should probably be a 100g heavier but we'll see, his mother seems to be a more dainty delicate sized cavy so maybe Eddie is to.

Show wise my current goal is the Summer show on the 12th of February. I'd like to enter Eddie in The Texel Class (No. 50) and Feather in Members Pets (No. 53). I'm still not sure about Fortinbras. If he's grown out of his scrawny scrappy stage and has a decent coat I may enter him in the Sheba class. If not I might take him along and get a few peoples opinions on him. He has great lineage and amazing type, so I'm half toying with breeding either him or Feather and having a go at showing some shebas. I have a feeling showable shebas need constant attention from the day dot to get them to the show table in one piece.

Yummy, Yummy feed!

So we're still working on settling in. The animal room is pretty much set up and everyone is settled in their cages but it still needs a lot more work. The banks still need to be painted and the psych ward yellow wall needs to be repainted lime green.

Anyway one thing I did do was go feed shopping today. I think I've fallen in love with my new ag store. The owner is lovely, he is very big on buying local and is also happy to order in whatever I want.

So today I bought

20kg of Mitavite Formula 3 for $28.90
20kg of Oaten Chaff for $23.50

I've ordered Extruded Lupins in which are $22.50 a bag and lucerne hay is $16 a bale.

These prices are fantastic! Hay was up to $25 a bale back home and was icky and dry and scratchy as well. So I'm very very happy. It works out to about $90 for the whole lot, the stud mix, chaff, lupins and hay which will last for like ever..

So until the lupins arrive the mix is going to be lacking in protein, but they are eating lucerne hay as well so hopefully they'll still get what they need. It'll certainly be better then the crummy pellets they have now.

The animals are overjoyed at the mix. Even the rabbit got his own tiny handful.

So the current cavy diet is:
Unlimited "mix" (12% protein, 17% Fibre, 6% fat & 0.5% Calcium)
Unlimited Lucerne Hay (18% Protein, 26% Fibre, 2% Fat and 1.4% Calcium)
Veggies to make up 20mg Vitamin C per cavy plus some extra for bulk
A large handful of either herbs (oregano etc) or grass (depending on availability)

When the lupins come in and the grass grows back it'll be

Unlimited "mix" (19-23% protein, 16% Fibre, 6.5% fat & 0.4-0.8% Calcium)
Unlimited Lucerne Hay (18% Protein, 26% Fibre, 2% Fat and 1.4% Calcium)
Veggies to make up 20mg Vitamin C per cavy plus some extra for bulk
Several Large Handfuls of grass per cavy

So I'm happy with it. The weathers really cold at the moment so I may also feed extra lupins to boost the protein levels a bit as well as some rolled oats for heat.