Litter of five, a well made nest. From first quick glance looks like chocolate babies. Time will tell. She made a well-made nest! She had me a bit worried since she was trying to build a nest in the corner, but in the end, she used the nestbox and I couldn't be more pleased. Watch Me Grow
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 Hi! You have purchased at least one of my guinea pigs as a pet or breeding animal. Congratulations. Whether you are a long-time Cavy owner, or a first time lover of guinea pigs, I find it’s good to learn how the breeder has kept their animals, as it helps in the transition of a piggie to new home. I focus on raising piggies for health and temperament. I do my best to give you the best guinea pig I can.  Basics of CareGuinea pigs cannot manufacture their own Vitamin C and therefore need you to supply it for them. You can do this is a few different ways. 1. feed them a made for guinea pigs food that is JUST pellets. This feed will contain a shelf stable vitamin C. 2. feed them rabbit pellets, and them give them 1/4 chewable vitamin C every day. I find they like the orange flavours the best. Pregnant or sick guinea pigs need more vitamin C. 3. feed them copious amount of high vitamin C content fruits and veggies. They require more than you think they might, so it's best to not aim for this as being your sole method of providing Vitamin C. Beyond Vitamin C they require clean water daily, fresh feed, some hay, and some fresh feed. Guinea pigs will get to know the time of day you feed them and start "encouraging" you to hurry up with the goodies. :)  Guinea pigs get mites from it seems like everything. It's part and parcel of raising piggies. I find once they have it and are treated for it, though don't get it again. The mites they get are specific to guinea pigs so you don't need to fret about catching mites from them. ALL my guinea pigs are treated preventatively against mites a couple days before they go to new homes. I use ivermectin. Guinea Pigs and Fresh FoodMy piggies are used to eating a variety of lettuces, carrots, some apple, parsley, and broccolini. They tend to be somewhat suspicious of new feed and it may need to be offered to them several times before they recognize it as food. I alternate between hay and fresh food in the evenings. They get pellets and vitamin C in the mornings.
 These boys are off Pip (dad) and Taffy (mom). Mom is a pet quality guinea pig with a sweet temperament. Pip is a show type guinea pig with a kind demeanour.
These kiddos were born Feb. 8, 2025 as part of a litter of four. They are black/orange tortoiseshell and white for their colouring. They are small lads and I expect them to stay more momma's size. Treated preventatively for mites with ivermectin on March 9. Stress, change in diet, bedding, etc can all cause an outbreak of mites. It's very easy to treat them.
Hopefully we will get to watch this litter grow up. Six kits born to this duo. LIVING kits. Not like first litter of dead kits and the subsequent missed litter. Sasha does not seem to have milk yet, so starting tonight I will see if Flame will feed them at night. Hopefully Sasha will start to produce milk! But Flame should be able to handle her remaining two and these six babies. I may have wean her litter a bit early, but time will tell for sure. A mixed litter of I think chocolate and black, might be wrong since momma is blue. Watch Me Grow
Arnold gave me a hard time when he was born. when I discovered him he was AMOST dead. He just had a slight head quirk that alerted me to his aliveness. A warm rice bag and lots of heated time sitting snuggled in brought him back to life. By the time I left for work his feet were moving, but he wasn't coordinated enough to move. I call home at 3 p.m. to learn that he was moving a little bit but not much, but was mostly snuggling under mom. Today (the 19th) he's a happy little camper moving around nicely. He was part of a litter of three, his two siblings (large for a litter of three) looked like they were born dead. Lying between them had sucked all the warmth out of him. I am SO relieved that I got him going!! He'll be nurseried in my office until the cold weather is not quite so frigid. Penelope, his momma, is a bit freaked being away from her small herd. Therefore, I'm hoping their medical house-arrest will be a short stay. All pups were black and white. Watch Me Grow
Six kits born to this lovely duo. I knew that Flame was getting close to kindling as she wasn't eating a whole lot in the past week. So when I came out and saw a huge pile of fur in the nestbox, I just knew we had babies. Six of them! Mostly white, expecting tricolours for the most part. There is one that is very light so might be white, cream, or just a pale orange. Time will tell for sure eh? Watch Us Grow
So I had to do some sleuthing when I went out to the rabbitry tonight. I checked on my baby guinea pigs from Taffy, and noticed we had a fifth! Who was mamma???? Taffy wouldn't let any of the other girls near her brood, so I couldn't play the game of who is following whom? Process of elimination led to it being Tiny. Tiny never really showed that she was pregnant, and only carrying one pup that makes sense. :) Isn't he just freaking adorable??? Watch Me GrowShake is a young doe I had living with a young buck when I was short on cage space. I was hoping to find Digger a home before I needed to make harder decisions. :) Shake started being interested in nesting a couple weeks back so I thought...hmm... false pregnancy maybe but left the box in anyways. Anyways, she gave up three babies today.  this morning I had the joy of welcoming four brand new to the world (still wet in fact!) guinea pigs into the world. Taffy, a pet quality guinea pig, was partnered with Pippit (Pip for short) who is a first generation boar of my breeding. so to have four babies born... that's a good thing yes? One has very much a pet'ish nose, the others I have to evaluate as they grow up. Hopefully all the boys will find homes, and I'll hopefully find the girl of decent quality and keep her back and find Taffy a new placement. Watch Me Grow So an ad was placed on kijiji this morning that kinda got my goat and I was tempted to send off a less than friendly email to the poster, but decided not to. 1. it wouldn't have been a particularly godly response and I'm called to be something more than an irate person responding to a nameless person. 2. I don't know enough about what spawned the commentary The ad: Super friendly and loveable, best personalities around! Best food and litter trained , they do not come with a cage, but are pedigree bunnies!! I dont care to hear about the price :) it is firm, they are trained! And well taken care of much better than any who " machiene breeds" so i believe they are worth more, i cant stand that breeders dont care about their pets . So here are some beauties! Inbox if interested and are willing to be a forever home . The person selling them is asking lots of money for them. And it's great if they are able to get that but the main breeder of blue eyed holland lops around here is often selling them for significantly less for each fully pedigreed so I'm not sure how good the chances are. Time will tell, I continue to watch the ads on Kijiji as it's good to know who all is out there. BUT ANYWAYS, as I let myself calm down from the "argh" this ad gave me it made me think about the assumptions of breeders and pet people. 1. Backyard breeders are horrible. I'm sorry. but WHY? Seriously. if you have a house and two dogs, two rabbits etc... and you let them breed... are you not a backyard breeder? If you have a farm and a certified kennel are you a backyard breeder? If you are licensed or not licensed what makes a person a backyard breeder? Is it one person's perception or is there a standard of care involved? And if someone is, is right to assume that they are a horrible backyard breeder? Just what makes a person who breeds two animals together a backyard breeder? I get it. In some ways. Backyard breeders are too often people who seem to be irresponsible when they breed x-dog to y-dog. I personally despair of all the designer breeds out there for dogs (and starting more for cats and rabbits). A doodle is still a mixed breed dog with one parent a poodle and the other a retriever. So still technically a mutt. And many of these small breeders don't do all the vet tests one would wish to have. But do these people need to be vilified? I don't think so. 2. You breed animals, you must be a _____ mill. Again why? What makes a person a puppy/cat/bunny miller? Is it standard of care? Number of animals? Frequency of breeding? Is one form of breeding better than others? If it's frequency of breeding... then what's the standard? If a farmer breeds his cows (9 month gestation) is he a cow miller if he manages to get two calves off more than one cow a year? A dog can come into heat a couple times a year... so if you breed her that often... are you then a mill person? OR is standard of care the only standard by which one is judged? Rabbits can breed every four weeks... and there are many breeders who will allow their rabbits to breed that often as they know their own standard of care (cause they breed for it) and healthy rabbits will reproduce that often. So if one allows an animal to breed as often as it can, does that mean one is a rabbit mill person???? Or how about with cats? Cats can have litters twice a year and if you let them... what does that make you? WHO decides? Certainly can't be just the animal rescue people deciding can they? Whose voices are being heard in all this?  Two Basic Assumptions3. Breeders are horrible people who don't care about their animals. Raising them and keeping them so differently than people having them as pets. Culling unthrifty animals rather than continuing to medicate them. 4. Pet people are idiots who end up with sick animals all the time cause they don't know how to care for them properly. Housing them poorly OR letting them run rough-shod over their caretakers. It's the flipside of the same coin right? My question is WHY? Why are breeders horrible people who don't care about their animals? Have you met a lot of breeders? Is it just that their standard of care is different than what you would do? Or have you truly met more than one breeder who really doesn't care about their rabbits/Guinea pigs/cats/dogs? Or are you just mad about the never-ending rescue that needs to happen? Are you lumping all breeders together because you've met some truly deplorable ones? Pet people are idiots with sick rabbits... Well...being a person who monitors the pet rabbits boards I can TOTALLY get where some rabbit raisers are coming from. My goodness the sheer lack of knowledge and "I know better than the breeder" thoughts out there. It totally astounds me. And I very much understand why some rabbit raisers will not sell to pet people ever. Totally get it. BUT you know what...I've met some phenomenal pet people. People who know ALOT about rabbits. It amazes me how, even through their standard of care differs from mine (and that's fine), they pander to their bunnies and keep them healthy by being smart about how they make changes and care for their critters. Really neat nice people. (I've met the opposite but I try not to dwell on those folks). :)  We are All Guilty Right?The thing is.. we all make assumptions don't we?
We think others are wrong because they do it differently than we do. We think others are wrong because we've met one bad apple. We think others are wrong because we don't know any better. We think others are wrong because it makes us feel better about what we do. We need to STOP and ask why before we make assumptions. We really do. Especially before we make blanket statements to the world. Breeders... at least the breeders that I know... truly care about their animals. They may care for them in a different way than say a pet person would... it is generally after all a different relationship. But that doesn't mean they don't care about their animals, they just care differently. Doesn't mean lack of care, love or devotion, it's just different. Those who raise animals for food care about their animals. They want their animals to be healthy and happy.. it makes for better food, easier to care for animals, and better productivity all-round. Those who raise animals to sell for whatever purpose, care about their animals. You want to sell animals that are well-balanced, able to deal with stress, health and content animals. Those who raise animals to be their companions care about them as well. If you want a good companion you have to treat it right....and often times that means doing some good research and asking solid questions. So how's about we stop making assumptions about each other and just try to work with each other. If we don't...the folks that don't want us to have animals will have won the battle..the whole divide and conquer aspect you know? |
AuthorI have been breeding rabbits for a quite a few years. I thoroughly enjoy them as animals and think they make great pets. I also like to take some of them to rabbit shows to see how they measure up to the standards. 
For the BEST rabbit forum I've ever found. Go to Rabbittalk.com. Good for the pet rabbit owner as well as the breeder for meat or show.
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