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.
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