Oops

Guess I've been neglecting my blog rather a bit. So a brief summary of the last six weeks, I went to three NSW Sydney shows and won a few awards most notably Laertes won BOB against five other dals, Shemelle Charmer won Best Pet and at only one show were all of my sables refused BOB.

So not too bad. Ayanna has gotten huge and is now due any day. She looks as if she's dragging a VW Beetle along inside her belly. She's due any day now and is very close. I cannot wait to see what babies she has! The sire of this litter is Shemelle Charmer.

Both Beatrice and Eugenie are also pregnant and even though it's just seven weeks since they went in with a boar they are already filled with squirmy movement. I'm not so sure Tina is pregnant though.

So I will post pictures as soon as Yanna has the grace to pop and once the Sables litter I'll share heaps of pics of the bubs.

ANNNNNDDDD!!!! One satin sheltie sow, one satin carrier texel boar and two possible satin carrier sows (one sheltie, one texel) are all flying to me from Western Australian. However they are doing a detour to Brisbane first in order for the satin sheltie girl and a texel girl to spend six weeks with a buff satin merino boar. EEEEEEEE!!!!

I think my two breed groups are now nicely set. Longhairs in Texel, Merino, Coronet and Sheltie (with the possibility of Peruvian & Alpaca) in Satin and Normal and Dark Sables in Normal, Crested and (eventually) Satin.  That gives me a full four breed groups to show in (Marked, Satin, Crested, Longhair). I've no interest in coarse coat or self, and I recently acquired a chocolate agouti for the ticked classes, so I'm quite set to have nice full shows now.

But the sable fact for the day: Up until now it's been assumed that sables are a type of Himalayan, however the English have proven they can breed true and do not necessarily require Himalayan to be created. Interestingly sables do not colour up like Himalayans either, at two months old the first hints of shading appear at the bottom corner of the eyes, at three months a small piece of shading occurs above the nose, by five months the shading has filled in and by seven months has fully darkened. So it would seem Sables best show period is after that seven month stage. So far I've seen no evidence that the shading muddies or lightens at all as they age or the temperature changes, which is very different to Himalayans.