So Ebbie has returned to the land of breeding condition. Her new 'regime' involves a diet of unlimited lucerne hay, unlimited chaff and hefty amounts of grass and veggies. The real 'secret' though is her runs. She now gets two hours a day on the animal room floor while Lu is locked in his cage. With all the different interesting areas to play in and things to scramble over and under she stays extremely active. And of course she has to do mad runs around the room popocorning wildly. So she's now sitting at just over a kg but feels like she's in good condition, not too fat but quite fit.
Everyone else seems to also be benefiting from my tweaking their diet. Edmund is at the very comfortable weight of 660g. He's quite a hefty pig actually considering he's only three months old.
Feather is seven months old today and is up to 890g. He's still lightweight but he hasn't gone backwards at least, he's been gaining at the same rate as Eddie has. So hopefully he'll eventually hit a proper weight of about 1200g. I do want to show him in pet classes so would like him to be a bit heftier.
Fortinbras is now at 560g so is gaining okay but at three and half a months old I'd like him to be bigger. I've also discovered he has a dropped shoulder coat so he won't be attending any pet classes. I'm hoping it'll grow back in by the time he's an adult but am not sure. This also means that I won't be breeding him. I've been toying with breeding a couple of sheba litters maybe next year or the year after but I'll use Feather if I do, he has a magnificent coat and fantastic colouring. But we'll see, it depends on how the sheba standard progresses.
An endless journey in the pursuit of cavies, knowledge and joy.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Considering wrappers.
So I've been asking advice about wrapping Eddie and have found there are two main groups of thought. One goes for the wrapping as early as possible to conserve hair and the other believes in wrapping as late as possible to prevent upsetting the animal.
This is obviously an educational journey for me, but unfortunately I only have one in coat texel so had to pick.
I went with wrapping Eddie early because firstly he's a grot. Even living on fleece with a hay rack he gets gunk in his coat constantly. Wrappers should lessen the need for frequent butt baths because he discovered he could pee on himself.
Secondly Eddie will be traveling, a lot. With a coat that's already touching the ground, in a 30cm x 30cm fleece travel cage for four days that's just asking for trouble. The bedding will of course be changed frequently but I can't remove each and every poo as he does them. I am hoping to take Eddies cage with me so while at Dad's he'll have his usual amount of space, but there is still 15 hours of driving involved.
Starting wrappers now gives him time to get used to them before we leave on the great excursion to Sydney, where he gets to spend time at my fathers. We leave in just 13 days from today, the show is in exactly two weeks.
Also I am still learning, it's going to take time to discover my own preferences for keeping longs and I need to start somewhere. I'll cheerfully admit I'm a bit too obsessive about talking about him and it probably seems like the poor boy is never left alone but I am careful. I keep combing and washing to a minimum but I also need to prevent tangles and Eddie lives by the motto that if there's something dirty he will get it all over himself.
Anyway this being my blog that is very rarely read by anything but googlebots I thought I'd post this. In 2013 I can look back and go God I was naive, or wow I was right. Doesn't really matter it's all about the journey here at Samsara.
This is obviously an educational journey for me, but unfortunately I only have one in coat texel so had to pick.
I went with wrapping Eddie early because firstly he's a grot. Even living on fleece with a hay rack he gets gunk in his coat constantly. Wrappers should lessen the need for frequent butt baths because he discovered he could pee on himself.
Secondly Eddie will be traveling, a lot. With a coat that's already touching the ground, in a 30cm x 30cm fleece travel cage for four days that's just asking for trouble. The bedding will of course be changed frequently but I can't remove each and every poo as he does them. I am hoping to take Eddies cage with me so while at Dad's he'll have his usual amount of space, but there is still 15 hours of driving involved.
Starting wrappers now gives him time to get used to them before we leave on the great excursion to Sydney, where he gets to spend time at my fathers. We leave in just 13 days from today, the show is in exactly two weeks.
Also I am still learning, it's going to take time to discover my own preferences for keeping longs and I need to start somewhere. I'll cheerfully admit I'm a bit too obsessive about talking about him and it probably seems like the poor boy is never left alone but I am careful. I keep combing and washing to a minimum but I also need to prevent tangles and Eddie lives by the motto that if there's something dirty he will get it all over himself.
Anyway this being my blog that is very rarely read by anything but googlebots I thought I'd post this. In 2013 I can look back and go God I was naive, or wow I was right. Doesn't really matter it's all about the journey here at Samsara.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Eddie- Thirteen weeks
So Eddie has just arrived at the three month mark so I figured I'd share some pics.
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Wrappers!
Eddie started with his wrappers this week. He didn't even notice the bum wrapper but we did have some issues with the side wraps. Eddies a pretty calm boy and I know him well enough to know when he's not happy. In this case he was burbling in a high 'whinging' annoyed tone as I tried to get the wraps in. So we took a break and I put some thought into what to do. The next time he got a few pieces of grass to chew while I put the side wraps in as quickly as possible. I was careful to make sure they were fairly loose and not pulling on any hairs. Then he got an all overspray in stop chew bitter spray and was returned to his cage with two piles of hay. One was of the freshest greenest bits of hay could find, the other left over stalks from a sows cage. All together it seems to have totally made him forget about the wraps. Because his coat is only just long enough for wraps the side wraps tend to fall out rather often. But now that Eddies used to it he has been as good as gold for the last three times I've redone his wraps.
So I'm looking forward to the Summer show. I sent my single entry in today. I've only entered Eddie in the texel class for now. To be honest I'll be ecstatic if we don't come last and if we do I hope the judge can give plenty of critique on why we came last.
In other news I finally got my paws on a book I've been searching for for ages. I bought The Sex Life of The Guinea Pig by Peter Gurney for $25. So it should arrive in the next few weeks and hopefully be good reading. It'll certainly be a worthwhile addition to my cavy library.
So I'm looking forward to the Summer show. I sent my single entry in today. I've only entered Eddie in the texel class for now. To be honest I'll be ecstatic if we don't come last and if we do I hope the judge can give plenty of critique on why we came last.
In other news I finally got my paws on a book I've been searching for for ages. I bought The Sex Life of The Guinea Pig by Peter Gurney for $25. So it should arrive in the next few weeks and hopefully be good reading. It'll certainly be a worthwhile addition to my cavy library.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Getting Fat
Well on the plus side I'm glad to see that the mix I'm trying out is doing it's job and Edmund is lovely and plump and definitely in show condition. The shebas would be too if they actually ATE the mix instead of picking the chaff out.
On the downside Ebony loves her mix and is rapidly leaving the land of breeding condition. So Ebony has gone on a diet. She'll still have unlimited hay, and large amounts of grass and veggies but I've swapped her mix out for oaten chaff. I'll keep an eye on her weight and I may still give her a small handful of mix in the mornings if she does drop weight rapidly. However I'd say all that will happen is she'll maintain at 1005g rather then continually gaining.
It'll mean Sterling might lose a bit of plumpness while he lives with her but as soon as I'm sure she's pregnant she'll get her grain back. Once I'm certain she's pregnant I'll also add glucose to the water to help prevent toxemia and giver her calcium daily to prevent hypocalcemia.
I'm still hoping to find her a sow companion at the Summer show. I'm not really sure on my plans though. I'd love a sheltie/coronet/texel/merino sow but can't say I've seen any available when I've visited the shows. It seems to always be peruvians. At the same time I wouldn't mind a short hair sow who I could show. So then I'd have more then one class to enter.
My plan for the year is basically to Breed Ebbie to Sterling (who'll be collected early Feb) which will hopefully give me a litter around late April/early May which I could table by August. And then if I'm managed to find another sow, breed this sow to Edmund in August to give me a November litter ready for the 2013 show season. If I don't manage to find another sow by then Ebony should be ready for a final litter. Longhairs typically have small litters so I would probably have between 2-8 babies for 2012. Which would leave me with four adult boars, one or two adult sows and two to eight babies. So seven to fourteen pigs. Eddie and Sterling can live together once Eddies show career is over, Ebbie and a companion can continue to share the sow cage, I can keep up to four babies in single cages to see how their coat grows and any others can live with Ebbie or the boys. So if I do by some miracle have eight babies born then I can spend the summer building additional cages for the 2013 litters.
I'm a little doubtful that I'd be lucky enough to have eight babies between two litters though. My luck with breeding has not been good. I do blame this partly on the fact that as a thirteen year old I had no idea what I was doing and really did leave everything up to mother nature. I bred five litters between 2004 and 2006 and had one 'accidental' litter.
I bred a cream boar to an older overweight cream sow. There were three babies in the litter, two were still born, the third died within twelve hours. The sow went toxic and died soon after. Wrong food and too small housing did not help.
I bred a young buff sow to a buff boar. Four babies were the result. Two snipey sows were as healthy as can be. One sow has severe cleft palate and died at 28 days even with constant care. The last was a boar with slight cleft palate. He survived and even won me my first Glimmer BOB. Worried about genetic issues he was neutered soon after to ensure the trait did not carry.
I bred the same cream boar to a petite cream bred PEW sow. One oversized 165g DEW sow. The baby was fine but too large and the mother died from internal issues.
I then sent an unrelated satin carrier cream sow to a friends to bred with a satin PEW. She was put with the satin as well as a satin carrier cream boar. She gave me a healthy litter of five bouncing babies, three were pet quality, one was a snipey PEW and one cream sow was breeding quality.
I bred the cream sow to the aforementioned cream boar. This time a litter of four stillborn creams. By this time I'd cottoned onto such things as glucose and the sow came through with flying colours. I started wondering whether there was something wrong with the boar. (As it turned out there was).
And the final 'accidental' litter occurred after I'd sworn off breeding. A rescue sow I was adopting was flown down to me. Turned out she was pregnant and delivered two gorgeous boars while I watched. It was the closest to an issue free breeding I'd had. There were genetic issues involved as the sow carried Demodex but they didn't come to light till the babies were a year old.
So basically I had a really bad run of it. If does go as badly as before this time round I do have a back up plan. I know enough longhair breeders that I can instead arrange to purchase babies just to show instead of breeding my own. However I'm confident that this time round I can do things properly. I've researched the cavies I'm taking and have many plans in place in order to prevent pregnancy related illness. I now have a car and a large vet fund and access to a variety of vets as well as an emergency 24 hour service.
On the downside Ebony loves her mix and is rapidly leaving the land of breeding condition. So Ebony has gone on a diet. She'll still have unlimited hay, and large amounts of grass and veggies but I've swapped her mix out for oaten chaff. I'll keep an eye on her weight and I may still give her a small handful of mix in the mornings if she does drop weight rapidly. However I'd say all that will happen is she'll maintain at 1005g rather then continually gaining.
It'll mean Sterling might lose a bit of plumpness while he lives with her but as soon as I'm sure she's pregnant she'll get her grain back. Once I'm certain she's pregnant I'll also add glucose to the water to help prevent toxemia and giver her calcium daily to prevent hypocalcemia.
I'm still hoping to find her a sow companion at the Summer show. I'm not really sure on my plans though. I'd love a sheltie/coronet/texel/merino sow but can't say I've seen any available when I've visited the shows. It seems to always be peruvians. At the same time I wouldn't mind a short hair sow who I could show. So then I'd have more then one class to enter.
My plan for the year is basically to Breed Ebbie to Sterling (who'll be collected early Feb) which will hopefully give me a litter around late April/early May which I could table by August. And then if I'm managed to find another sow, breed this sow to Edmund in August to give me a November litter ready for the 2013 show season. If I don't manage to find another sow by then Ebony should be ready for a final litter. Longhairs typically have small litters so I would probably have between 2-8 babies for 2012. Which would leave me with four adult boars, one or two adult sows and two to eight babies. So seven to fourteen pigs. Eddie and Sterling can live together once Eddies show career is over, Ebbie and a companion can continue to share the sow cage, I can keep up to four babies in single cages to see how their coat grows and any others can live with Ebbie or the boys. So if I do by some miracle have eight babies born then I can spend the summer building additional cages for the 2013 litters.
I'm a little doubtful that I'd be lucky enough to have eight babies between two litters though. My luck with breeding has not been good. I do blame this partly on the fact that as a thirteen year old I had no idea what I was doing and really did leave everything up to mother nature. I bred five litters between 2004 and 2006 and had one 'accidental' litter.
I bred a cream boar to an older overweight cream sow. There were three babies in the litter, two were still born, the third died within twelve hours. The sow went toxic and died soon after. Wrong food and too small housing did not help.
I bred a young buff sow to a buff boar. Four babies were the result. Two snipey sows were as healthy as can be. One sow has severe cleft palate and died at 28 days even with constant care. The last was a boar with slight cleft palate. He survived and even won me my first Glimmer BOB. Worried about genetic issues he was neutered soon after to ensure the trait did not carry.
I bred the same cream boar to a petite cream bred PEW sow. One oversized 165g DEW sow. The baby was fine but too large and the mother died from internal issues.
I then sent an unrelated satin carrier cream sow to a friends to bred with a satin PEW. She was put with the satin as well as a satin carrier cream boar. She gave me a healthy litter of five bouncing babies, three were pet quality, one was a snipey PEW and one cream sow was breeding quality.
I bred the cream sow to the aforementioned cream boar. This time a litter of four stillborn creams. By this time I'd cottoned onto such things as glucose and the sow came through with flying colours. I started wondering whether there was something wrong with the boar. (As it turned out there was).
And the final 'accidental' litter occurred after I'd sworn off breeding. A rescue sow I was adopting was flown down to me. Turned out she was pregnant and delivered two gorgeous boars while I watched. It was the closest to an issue free breeding I'd had. There were genetic issues involved as the sow carried Demodex but they didn't come to light till the babies were a year old.
So basically I had a really bad run of it. If does go as badly as before this time round I do have a back up plan. I know enough longhair breeders that I can instead arrange to purchase babies just to show instead of breeding my own. However I'm confident that this time round I can do things properly. I've researched the cavies I'm taking and have many plans in place in order to prevent pregnancy related illness. I now have a car and a large vet fund and access to a variety of vets as well as an emergency 24 hour service.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Pictures at last!
I finally got around to taking some pics of the caviary.
My bank all pretty with piggies moved in. I'm in love with the pink, depending on the lighting it can move through lavender pink or an almost white shade. Ebbies in living in splendid isolation upstairs (but not for long, a boar has been found!). The left hand bottom level is empty and the right hand one houses Feather and Fortinbras (who are newly washed today). Edmund lives in the top left pet store cage.
My awesome doors. They are hinged at the centre so they can be easily opened without needing 120cm of space. The middle first partition is closed with two magnetic catches and the second (near the hinges) has one. At meal time the pigs climb up the doors and the doors haven;t budged so I'm very happy with them.
Eddies cage with the new fleece bedding. I am in love with the stuff. I've never used an inner lining that is so absorbent. The fleece stays perfectly dry and clean. This should last two weeks as long as the poos are kept cleaned up.
The rabbit tower looking rather empty and forlorn. I still need to replace the corflute in the cages and sew their fleece pads.
And my supply station. Grooming stand and combs all lined up. Beneath is my new secret weapon. The constant migraines make the constant bending up and down as I clean the floor all but impossible. So I now have a dust buster to make cleaning quicker. It also makes cleaning the fleece cages much simpler which is what I'm after at the moment. Then we have a small bin (always useful) my 'show kit', the feed bin and the bedding all neatly tucked away.
My bank all pretty with piggies moved in. I'm in love with the pink, depending on the lighting it can move through lavender pink or an almost white shade. Ebbies in living in splendid isolation upstairs (but not for long, a boar has been found!). The left hand bottom level is empty and the right hand one houses Feather and Fortinbras (who are newly washed today). Edmund lives in the top left pet store cage.
My awesome doors. They are hinged at the centre so they can be easily opened without needing 120cm of space. The middle first partition is closed with two magnetic catches and the second (near the hinges) has one. At meal time the pigs climb up the doors and the doors haven;t budged so I'm very happy with them.
Eddies cage with the new fleece bedding. I am in love with the stuff. I've never used an inner lining that is so absorbent. The fleece stays perfectly dry and clean. This should last two weeks as long as the poos are kept cleaned up.
The rabbit tower looking rather empty and forlorn. I still need to replace the corflute in the cages and sew their fleece pads.
And my supply station. Grooming stand and combs all lined up. Beneath is my new secret weapon. The constant migraines make the constant bending up and down as I clean the floor all but impossible. So I now have a dust buster to make cleaning quicker. It also makes cleaning the fleece cages much simpler which is what I'm after at the moment. Then we have a small bin (always useful) my 'show kit', the feed bin and the bedding all neatly tucked away.
Friday, 20 January 2012
As life goes on.
Today Edmund turned twelve weeks old. Which okay in the grand scheme of things, no biggie, but it makes me happy. He's been with me for eight weeks now and I haven't ruined his coat!
This week has been a terror migraine wise so not much has happened for the furkids. However I have been slowly and steadily working on the cages. Fortinbras and Feather have moved to their new permanent cage in one half of the bottom bank and seem to be quite content. Edmund is now living on fleece in one of the pet store cages (more on this soon) and Ebony continues to live it up in her 16 square foot of apartment.
Weight wise Ebby is still gaining even with all the running she does and is up to 970g. I'm hoping she doesn't put on much more as she's a chubby miss now and I need her to stay in breeding condition. If she keeps on like this she'll be beyond show condition pretty soon. Edmund is doing wonderfully and is now 580g. He looks like he'll be turning into a very solid adult boar. Feathers a bit light on at 840g and Fortinbras is starting to really worry me at 495g. But he is gaining and he is growing so maybe he's just a runt. I'm going to start giving the sheba boys a bowl of straight Formula Three as well as their usual bowl of mix to see if I can boost there weight at all. They won't eat their lupins either so maybe adding molasses or something might help. I don't want to kill their stomachs either (too much sugar can lead to an overgrowth of bacteria in the gastric system which then leads to bacterial enteritis) so will just try straight grain first.
I made the first fleece pad for Edmund the other day and I have to say I am in love! The bed pad stiffens it and takes it from cushy comfy surface that's impossible to run on to a hard flat surface with enough give to be comfortable but also easy to popcorn on. The absorbency is out of this world as well. Atti (the parrot) destroyed Edmund's water bottle the other leading to 500ml of water to be dumped in his cage and the liner easily dealt with it. It didn't even feel wet!
So I need to make three more to fit the pet store cages. Then I'm going to replace the corflute in the wire cage and make two changes of pads for that cage as well. Sewing is very slow because of the aforementioned migraines but I'll get there eventually.
I was also thinking about housing the new addition/s. I'm still waiting on a reply from the breeder about buying/borrowing a boar but hopefully that is all go. But I'm thinking that after a good wash and clip I'll pop him straight into Ebony's cage. Once he's done his duty so to speak I'll move him to the cage next door to the sheba boys for now. Then eventually either he or Eddie will be neutered (once they've provided heirs) and allowed to leave long peaceful lives in the sow run. I will admit I am rather fond of boars. If I do find a sow (unlikely but you never know) she can live in one of the show cages until Ebbies pregnant then move in with Ebbie to help with the babies.
This week has been a terror migraine wise so not much has happened for the furkids. However I have been slowly and steadily working on the cages. Fortinbras and Feather have moved to their new permanent cage in one half of the bottom bank and seem to be quite content. Edmund is now living on fleece in one of the pet store cages (more on this soon) and Ebony continues to live it up in her 16 square foot of apartment.
Weight wise Ebby is still gaining even with all the running she does and is up to 970g. I'm hoping she doesn't put on much more as she's a chubby miss now and I need her to stay in breeding condition. If she keeps on like this she'll be beyond show condition pretty soon. Edmund is doing wonderfully and is now 580g. He looks like he'll be turning into a very solid adult boar. Feathers a bit light on at 840g and Fortinbras is starting to really worry me at 495g. But he is gaining and he is growing so maybe he's just a runt. I'm going to start giving the sheba boys a bowl of straight Formula Three as well as their usual bowl of mix to see if I can boost there weight at all. They won't eat their lupins either so maybe adding molasses or something might help. I don't want to kill their stomachs either (too much sugar can lead to an overgrowth of bacteria in the gastric system which then leads to bacterial enteritis) so will just try straight grain first.
I made the first fleece pad for Edmund the other day and I have to say I am in love! The bed pad stiffens it and takes it from cushy comfy surface that's impossible to run on to a hard flat surface with enough give to be comfortable but also easy to popcorn on. The absorbency is out of this world as well. Atti (the parrot) destroyed Edmund's water bottle the other leading to 500ml of water to be dumped in his cage and the liner easily dealt with it. It didn't even feel wet!
So I need to make three more to fit the pet store cages. Then I'm going to replace the corflute in the wire cage and make two changes of pads for that cage as well. Sewing is very slow because of the aforementioned migraines but I'll get there eventually.
I was also thinking about housing the new addition/s. I'm still waiting on a reply from the breeder about buying/borrowing a boar but hopefully that is all go. But I'm thinking that after a good wash and clip I'll pop him straight into Ebony's cage. Once he's done his duty so to speak I'll move him to the cage next door to the sheba boys for now. Then eventually either he or Eddie will be neutered (once they've provided heirs) and allowed to leave long peaceful lives in the sow run. I will admit I am rather fond of boars. If I do find a sow (unlikely but you never know) she can live in one of the show cages until Ebbies pregnant then move in with Ebbie to help with the babies.
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Getting closer.
I'm still stuck in the throes of a four day migraine, which has been much fun however I did manage to make some headway on the cavy set up.
After literal hours of work I finally finished painting and installing hardware on the second bank and the two banks were returned to the animal room. Ebbie is now residing in the eight foot long top bank, however the sheba boys will need to wait for the paint to cure on their half of the bottom bank and won't move in till Friday.
Edmund is horrified that Ebbie has moved away from him and has been crying for her all day.
I also took advatange of vet-n-pets $1 postage sale and bought 2kg of my parrots pellets (Vetafarm's South American pellets) and The new Critta Care for Herbivores. It cost me all of $11.50. I'm still overjoyed there is an Australian made product, Critical care by Oxbow costs $28 a packet and is really not a viable option. Critta Care on the other hand is perfect.
And a general update on my babies.
Pipsqueak Ebony Charm has been enjoying life and getting fat in her little 60 x 60 cage and has now been plopped in a 240 x 60 cage. She'll have a month on her own to hopefully get her into breeding condition. I should 'hopefully' either be borrowing or buying a boar for her at the Summer Show on the 12th of Feb. She weighs in at 935g now. I'm hoping in the next month she'll maintain her weight somewhere between 900-930g which should keep her at a healthy level. I also clipped her a few days ago as we had the one hot day of the season (at 30 it was classed as a scorcher, god I love living here).
Pipsqueak Edmund is doing amazingly well. He is 11 weeks old today and weighs in at 537g. The way he's eating he should just make 600g by the time he reaches three months. His coat is gorgeous and so far totally in tact. He does need to move off the kitty litter bedding though. He's quite good at getting god knows what in his coat and at least on fleece I can keep him a bit cleaner. Right now the migraine won't allow for sewing but hopefully tomorrow I can finish washing the fabric and draw up the patterns for the pet store cages at least.
These pictures were taken recently after a wash and blowdry.
Pipsqueak Fortinbras continues to worry me. He weighs in at 450g and is far too light weight for his age. He feels visibly skinny. He eats plenty and drinks plenty and I guess it's because he had a bad start to life but it still worries me. He'll be getting additional oats etc when the weather cools off for sure. Other than that he's happy and healthy and shows no sign of illness.
Pipsqueak Feather is doing well and is bulking up nicely however I would also like him to be a bit fatter. Both he and Fortinbras are in constant motion which would also contribute to the muscly vs fat physique. He's quite adept and doesn't seem to notice the missing eye. I have noticed he often has crusties on the lids of his missing eye but it could be from the tear duct having nothing to moisten as such.
So next on my list is to make the bedding for the show cages, which at this rate may take some time but I'm certain will be done by the time Ebbie babies are ready for their own cages. I hope.
After literal hours of work I finally finished painting and installing hardware on the second bank and the two banks were returned to the animal room. Ebbie is now residing in the eight foot long top bank, however the sheba boys will need to wait for the paint to cure on their half of the bottom bank and won't move in till Friday.
Edmund is horrified that Ebbie has moved away from him and has been crying for her all day.
I also took advatange of vet-n-pets $1 postage sale and bought 2kg of my parrots pellets (Vetafarm's South American pellets) and The new Critta Care for Herbivores. It cost me all of $11.50. I'm still overjoyed there is an Australian made product, Critical care by Oxbow costs $28 a packet and is really not a viable option. Critta Care on the other hand is perfect.
And a general update on my babies.
Pipsqueak Ebony Charm has been enjoying life and getting fat in her little 60 x 60 cage and has now been plopped in a 240 x 60 cage. She'll have a month on her own to hopefully get her into breeding condition. I should 'hopefully' either be borrowing or buying a boar for her at the Summer Show on the 12th of Feb. She weighs in at 935g now. I'm hoping in the next month she'll maintain her weight somewhere between 900-930g which should keep her at a healthy level. I also clipped her a few days ago as we had the one hot day of the season (at 30 it was classed as a scorcher, god I love living here).
Pipsqueak Edmund is doing amazingly well. He is 11 weeks old today and weighs in at 537g. The way he's eating he should just make 600g by the time he reaches three months. His coat is gorgeous and so far totally in tact. He does need to move off the kitty litter bedding though. He's quite good at getting god knows what in his coat and at least on fleece I can keep him a bit cleaner. Right now the migraine won't allow for sewing but hopefully tomorrow I can finish washing the fabric and draw up the patterns for the pet store cages at least.
These pictures were taken recently after a wash and blowdry.
Pipsqueak Fortinbras continues to worry me. He weighs in at 450g and is far too light weight for his age. He feels visibly skinny. He eats plenty and drinks plenty and I guess it's because he had a bad start to life but it still worries me. He'll be getting additional oats etc when the weather cools off for sure. Other than that he's happy and healthy and shows no sign of illness.
Pipsqueak Feather is doing well and is bulking up nicely however I would also like him to be a bit fatter. Both he and Fortinbras are in constant motion which would also contribute to the muscly vs fat physique. He's quite adept and doesn't seem to notice the missing eye. I have noticed he often has crusties on the lids of his missing eye but it could be from the tear duct having nothing to moisten as such.
So next on my list is to make the bedding for the show cages, which at this rate may take some time but I'm certain will be done by the time Ebbie babies are ready for their own cages. I hope.
Monday, 9 January 2012
Bedding and other random thoughts.
The new bed pads arrived today. They are exactly what I wanted, ultra absorbent, ultra thin. Unfortunately they are a bit smaller then I expected so I need to order a couple more. Since pillowtalk has set postage I figured I'd ask my mother if there was anything she needed so we could split postage. Big mistake, she has a list of about twenty things she now needs from the website. Soooo hopefully the bed pads are still on sale by the time she works out exactly what she wants.
But I thought I'd put the recommendation out there. Safe and Dry replacement mats are absolutely perfect for fleece bedding. A double bed pad measures 80 x 136 cm and can absorb up to 2000mL of liquid. They are quite thin and very well quilted. Their RRP is $39 however I purchased them on sale for $12 each. Since they are a rather ugly beige colour with exposed stitching I'll quilt them between a layer of fleece and a layer of homespun to make neat looking cage pads for my four 'show animal' cages.
I've also been working on designs for the eventual expansion of my caviary. Right now having all of four cavies and housing for up to 18 cavies and four in coat longhairs it's not needed. However I hope to expand as the numbers rise.
On top the current two level bank I'll add another level of four 60 x 60 cages for my show animals. Then I'll build a new stackable bank for where the rabbit cage now stands. This will consist of a 75 x 120cm bottom level for the rabbit (though he also has free run of the animal room) and then two stacked 120 x 60cm cages. This should take capacity up to 26 cavies with four in coat longhairs which is honestly as much as I probably would ever have. Even then I'm doubtful I'd have four longs in wraps at any time, but four cages gives me a chance to run on a few babies and then select which I'm going to show.
I'm still intending to stick to two litters a year so the numbers will only increase slowly.
At the summer show in February I'm also hoping to collect a new boar. Hopefully I'll be able to purchase one, but if not I've been offered the chance to borrow a boar. Borrowing end sup more expensive then buying a boar though as it's a fourteen hour round trip and I'd have to go down to collect him and then return him six weeks later.
I'm also hoping to purchase another sow at some point. I really want to introduce crests into the line so I'd be after a coronet or merino sow, preferably not agouti. Don't get me wrong I like agouti, but I also really like the surprise of different colours, but golden agouti is so dominant in a few generations that would be all I was getting, golden agouti longs.
But I thought I'd put the recommendation out there. Safe and Dry replacement mats are absolutely perfect for fleece bedding. A double bed pad measures 80 x 136 cm and can absorb up to 2000mL of liquid. They are quite thin and very well quilted. Their RRP is $39 however I purchased them on sale for $12 each. Since they are a rather ugly beige colour with exposed stitching I'll quilt them between a layer of fleece and a layer of homespun to make neat looking cage pads for my four 'show animal' cages.
I've also been working on designs for the eventual expansion of my caviary. Right now having all of four cavies and housing for up to 18 cavies and four in coat longhairs it's not needed. However I hope to expand as the numbers rise.
On top the current two level bank I'll add another level of four 60 x 60 cages for my show animals. Then I'll build a new stackable bank for where the rabbit cage now stands. This will consist of a 75 x 120cm bottom level for the rabbit (though he also has free run of the animal room) and then two stacked 120 x 60cm cages. This should take capacity up to 26 cavies with four in coat longhairs which is honestly as much as I probably would ever have. Even then I'm doubtful I'd have four longs in wraps at any time, but four cages gives me a chance to run on a few babies and then select which I'm going to show.
I'm still intending to stick to two litters a year so the numbers will only increase slowly.
At the summer show in February I'm also hoping to collect a new boar. Hopefully I'll be able to purchase one, but if not I've been offered the chance to borrow a boar. Borrowing end sup more expensive then buying a boar though as it's a fourteen hour round trip and I'd have to go down to collect him and then return him six weeks later.
I'm also hoping to purchase another sow at some point. I really want to introduce crests into the line so I'd be after a coronet or merino sow, preferably not agouti. Don't get me wrong I like agouti, but I also really like the surprise of different colours, but golden agouti is so dominant in a few generations that would be all I was getting, golden agouti longs.
Monday, 2 January 2012
New plan.
My 'absorbent' waterproof mattress protector arrived today that I intended to use for the cavy bedding. Well the waterproof part was correct anyway. Unfortunately there's no way that the uber thin layer of terry towelling would cope with a week of cavy pee (which I now know from my research is 175ml).
But then I was saved by the Christmas/Summer/half yearly sales. Pillowtalk.com.au sells double sized bed pads that can absorb 2 litres of liquid for all of $12 down from $40 a piece. Of course the only glitch was they didn't give measurements, so I went with what the standard size of a double bedpad is (90cm x 136cm) and ordered three. Will let my non existent audience know how these fair. If not I'm at least well set up should I ever suddenly start wetting the bed.
I washed the polar fleece as well which improves to be impressive fleece which started wicking after just one wash. I now need to give the homespun a good wash and then see how much they've all shrunk.
My blog posts may also become more periodic as it was recently discovered that I inherited my fathers propensity for debilitating migraines. I've suddenly begun spending much more of my life in a room with blockout curtains wishing I could chop my head off with an axe, or at least gouge my eyes out. It certainly should make shows interesting. So far the only thing that's helped is caffeine. I have a very low tolerance to caffeine so my choices are often to be spazzed out and hyper, but pain free or with a throbbing head but at least feeling calm.
But then I was saved by the Christmas/Summer/half yearly sales. Pillowtalk.com.au sells double sized bed pads that can absorb 2 litres of liquid for all of $12 down from $40 a piece. Of course the only glitch was they didn't give measurements, so I went with what the standard size of a double bedpad is (90cm x 136cm) and ordered three. Will let my non existent audience know how these fair. If not I'm at least well set up should I ever suddenly start wetting the bed.
I washed the polar fleece as well which improves to be impressive fleece which started wicking after just one wash. I now need to give the homespun a good wash and then see how much they've all shrunk.
My blog posts may also become more periodic as it was recently discovered that I inherited my fathers propensity for debilitating migraines. I've suddenly begun spending much more of my life in a room with blockout curtains wishing I could chop my head off with an axe, or at least gouge my eyes out. It certainly should make shows interesting. So far the only thing that's helped is caffeine. I have a very low tolerance to caffeine so my choices are often to be spazzed out and hyper, but pain free or with a throbbing head but at least feeling calm.
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