Male Piggies Ready To Go

Here's an update on the males we currently have available to sell.

Show Quality Piggies: 1 x red-eye white Short-Hair and 1x dark-eye Crested Short-Hair. These are from Pedigreed Purebred Show winners and are "satin-carriers" - which means you breed them with a full-satinised pig to produce translucent shiny satinised coats. They are $25 each. Brothers, born 31.3.2010 (3months)







1 x Cream Abyssinian Male with Dark Eyes: Born 1.4.2010. He's nice and quiet and is a good-natured little piggy. $15.









1 x Cream & Grey Short-Hair with Ruby Eyes. You can't get the eye colour very well in these photos, but they really are astonishing. He's also very quiet and well-mannered. He and the above piggy have been housed together from a young age and are cage buddies. $15.






Golden Agouti Short-Hair - price reduced as these last two are older: 5months


Golden Agouti Abyssinian - price reduced because he's older and not "pretty" ;)

New Sheba Cuties

These two little girls didn't last long here - they are already sold, even before they were weaned.

They were born on May 23, 2010. Parents are Pixie and Pippin - purebred pedigreed Sheba Mini Yaks. These photos were taken on 6 June, when they were 2 weeks old. I love how gorgeous their big black eyes are. They are both going to their new homes this weekend.

Baby Himalayans!

Zag and Schumman, my purebred Pedigreed Himalayan couple, have had their first litter. It's small, only two males, but they are so delicate and pristine.

They are born all white and red-eyed. The markings on their noses and feet and ears will come later, at about two months. It's for that reason that I probably won't sell them until they are 8 weeks old because I need to see their markings before knowing if they are Show quality. I'd assume they will be because both the parents are multiple award winners themselves.

I will be selling both of these Purebred Himalayans with papers for $25 ea and they will be ready after 19 June, 2010.

Cinnamon and Pippin have their first litter

April Fools Day and I have a brand new litter from my Sheba Mini Yaks. Cinnamon and Pippin are both purebred Pedigreed piggies, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what's happened to their babies!

I have a cream male, looks rather like an Abysinnian atm, although I won't know until it's hair starts growing at around 8 weeks. His hair will likely become even lighter as he grows up.

The other is a smooth haired piggy with Ruby eyes. It's coloured grey and cream, and is very attractive, but nothing resembling a Sheba Mini Yak! They are both boys, and I'll be selling them both.

If you would like to view or buy these babies, contact me on phone (02) 6227 0228 or email me at katharyn.brine@gmail.com No spammers please.

Midge Mothers My First Satin-Carriers

It's finally happened!

I've bred my first generation of satin-carriers. I put Midge in with Aldo (both Show pigs and in such great form!!) as soon as I brought them home.

Midge is a Self Dark-Eyed White and she is the matriarch of my brood. She is an excellent mother, and is known to behave like a mother to other piggy's litters as well. She just can't help herself. She's a mum through-and-through. She even breast-feeds babies that aren't hers ....!

I particularly love the double chin. Very grandmotherly!

Aldo is my one and only satin pig. I entered him in the Canberra Royal Show and he came second, with good, even satinisation and type, great ear size (floppy) but lost points because he wasn't yet big enough. So now I need to fatten him up some more. Apparently, when you put males in with females in a love shack, the males always eat first, so he should be getting bigger as we speak.

I just love the translucency near his nose.

 

Beautiful big verandah ears.

The genetics behind satin breeding is complicated and tricky. I need to do more research on it before I understand it myself, but generally, breeding a satin with a satin-carrier, produces 100 per cent satin babies. I'll get back to you on that one when I have my first little satinised babies in my hands!

So, pairing Midge and Aldo produced 3 babies who are all satin-carriers (Ss). I got 2 crested dark-eyed whites, and one red-eyed smooth coat white. Two boys and one girl. I'm definitely keeping the female satin carrier. The boys I think I'll need to sell, as I'm running out of room.

They were born on the eve of our holiday away, 31 March 2010  - of course! Unfortunately, it was a colder night and when I checked on Midge, she was still giving birth. The pink-eyed runt baby must have been fairly squashed in-utero, because it looked quite mangled and was cold and lethargic. The female was the biggest, by far more than her brothers. Not wanting to lose any, I kept them all inside on a heat mat for the night. The pink-eyed runt perked up a bit after several hours and luckily, lasted through the night. But I have no doubt we could have lost him had he stayed in its outside cage. Midge was concentrating on the other two as if she had already resigned herself to losing little pink-eye.

But it all turned out well, and to look at the three now, you'd never guess they came out all different sizes.  Unfortunately with all the drama, I didn't take a photo of them at birth to show you.

Eclair has her first litter

Eclair, my favourite Sheba Mini Yak piggy, has had her first litter! Eclair is my favourite Sheba because of her completely buff hair, and her dark, dark eyes and feet. She looks so much like a chocolate eclair lolly, I get hungry just watching her. She's also quite good about keeping her hair long too. Her younger sisters tend to chew theirs off quite short. And when they are done with their own, they start on Eclairs!

She had three happy, healthy babies, all tortoishell in colour, and all with perfectly placed rosettes.

The two boys have already been sold together and gone to a loving home as pets. The sister is still here and awaiting a new home. Her birthday is March 23, 2010, so she is ready to go now. Her hair has grown to about 2cm long all over now, and is a couple of shades lighter.

Eclair - isn't the sweep of her hair delightful???

If you would like to buy the girl from this litter, drop me a line on (02) 6227 0228 or email me katharyn.brine@gmail.com

Introducing Himalayans

I love the look of Himalayans. They are ivory with black ears, feet and snouts, and red eyes. Well, to be more accurate, there is the "black" variety, with black noses / feet / ears, or the "chocolate" variety, with brown et al.

I just got me some Chocolate Himalayans from a Victorian breeder and exhibitor I met at the Canberra Show, Mindy Roach.

She took home a swag of ribbons and trophies and bottles of wine for her exhibits in the show, so I think I'm laughing in terms of purchasing some high-quality purebred pedigreed guinea pigs for my farm.

*Incidentally, the curved posture here is what they were looking for at the Show. You need to train your pig to sit with pronounced shoulders and a dip in its back and a round rump. Hhmmm.

They cost $50 and I am hoping it will be money well spent. They are both quite skittish - Schumann in particular is giving me heart attacks each time I peek into the cage because he darts around so consumed by fear and flight that I fear he'll break his neck if he collides with something mid-flight.

It will take a lot of nursing and cuddling to tame this pair. But I do love the look of them, so that won't be such a big ask!

Here they are:

Zag

Schumann

Mindy said they would be ready to begin breeding together straight away, so here's hoping for a lot of romantic days ahead for this pair ...

Babies for Sale!

Jake's lot are now eating grass and vegetables and even tucking into the food pellets now, and they are only two weeks old!

Just thought I'd post some pictures of them up here, as I've had 3 people on the waiting list to purchase them (if they like the look of them - no obligation of course!)

The smooth short-haired Agouti is male.

The 2-rosette Abyssinian is male.

The 3-rosette Abyssinian is male.

The tortoishell Crested Abyssinian is female.

They will be ready for release on 14 March, 2010.

Rose's New Brood

Rose is my favourite pig. Out of the lot, I just find her soooo attractive with her huge black eyes, wide even crest and Roman nose (nicely rounded, not pointy).

She has a strong personality and yet she comes across as so dignified and elegant.

Anyway, I mated her with my Silver Agouti Abyssinian, Abigail.

The pairing did not disappoint!

Rose gave birth to four babies early this morning! One was stillborn :( The other three are so regal looking - they look like they will grow into delightful looking show pigs.

Two are crested and one is a smooth-hair. A grey and cream crested appears, at this early stage, to be a boy. The other two, a Crested cream Agouti and Smooth Coat cream and grey, appear to be females.

I am thinking it worthwhile to keep one myself. We'll see ...

What's interesting is how Midge, the oldest mum in the Mansion cage, is looking after the new babies. She's taken them under her belly to keep warm, and seems to fuss over them much more than Rose does when I open the cage lid to peek.

I have researched about this and found out some females share responsibility of the offspring amongst the group, even sharing the nursing. I think this may be the case here. I have no males in the Mansion at the moment, so the home is quite a peaceful, happy creche.

I hope Rose is ok. She is quite messy on her rear, but I can't see evidence of post-partum bleeding. Fingers crossed! She's acting a tad more skittish but is eating and grazing and behaving as per usual.

These babies will be ready to wean in four weeks - 30 March,  2010.

Oink's Sneaky Delivery & RIP

Oink, a Peruvian Cross  has been housed with Gus, my Full long-haired Peruvian, since July 2009 and not a single thing has happened. No afternoon delight noises, no tail waggling or dancing - no sign of a successful mating whatsoever. So I just kept them together as cage buddies and anything else that happened would be a bonus.

So imagine my surprise when I recently discovered Oink heavily pregnant! She's always been a tad on the obese side, so the only reason I detected a pregnancy was her usually squishy stomach had become quite firm and bloated. I had no idea when she would be due, but I thought from her size she would have about another month to go.

But she gave birth to two stillborns on 26 February, 2010. She was very quiet and was obviously mourning the loss of her little piglets. I could see where she had attempted to "wake" one of them by chewing it's foot.
I was so sad for her.

The follwing day I went out to exhibit Aldo at the Show and came home to find Oink had  just died, from what I suspect was a haemorrhage.  It was an unexpected blow, to lose all three piggies so close together.

I don't know what went wrong, but Oink was a feisty pig who knew what she wanted. She called all the shots in that cage. If she didn't want Gus near her, she let him know.

I hope she can now RIP with her babies.

:(

Jake's Finally Popped!

Well, Jake had five babies on Valentine's Day (February 14, 2010). Sadly, one was a stillborn. The other four are so tiny it's very difficult to tell their sex.  Even with a magnifying glass ;p

There has been a mixture of siblings: one Tortoishell Abyssinian, one Golden Agouti Smooth-Hair, and two Golden Agouti Abyssinians.

At first count, three are boys and I've got one girl.

Jake (Mum) tore off all the hair on her backside straight after the birth - what's that about?

Here are some pix.

Vaccination Time

I never used to vaccinate my guinea pigs as a child - in fact, I don't remember doing much except playing with them for hours on end inside their cage :)

But now I am constantly updating my breeding program and introducing new stock, I am accutely aware of the dangers of bringing in diseases and pests to those beloved pets I already look after.

So when I realised 2 new Abyssinians had been sold to me with Manage Mite (gggrrrrr!), I got to work smothering them with Vaseline and Bepanthen Ointment and kept them in "quarantine" away from my other piggies. Yes, they looked funny and were quite difficult to hold, but it did work. Their hair grew back and they stopped scratching themselves into welts.

But I wanted to be completely sure I had eradicated everything, for good. Manage Mites are microscopic and attack beneath the skin.  So I took the affected piggies to the vet. Twenty syringes and $40 later, I was in my garage injecting all my flock with 0.05ml of  Ivomectin. I dosed the smaller piggies with 0.025ml. My vet assured me I wouldn't "overdose" them.

The treatment will take four weeks of weekly injections. Sigh. But you know what? I love the feeling of taking care of my cavies. I will keep the affected piggies in quarantine until the end of the treatment, but already they are a lot less disturbed.

Rusty about to get his shot.

On anoter note, Jake STILL hasn't given birth. She's a lot fatter than last time but can still move like a flash of lightening when she feels vulnerable. I've got her in a separate cage to help her get some much needed rest before the big event. I check on her every hour or so. I am getting quite anxious, as her "sitting bones" have still not parted and I've read that they should at least 48 hours before birth is imminent. She looks like she's going to explode! C'mon Jake, what's the hold-up????

Happy trails!

Welcome to PiggyWink! Stud Farm

This website is updated once a month with all the latest news, births & photos of our gorgeous guinea pigs.