The show Saturday was again a bust. I really didn't have anything to show so I took the motley group of semi-barbered Texels. I guess I'm too discriminating because no one said anything about the chew spots. They ARE hard to spot.

Paddy the piggy pig again slept under his water bottle Thursday night. The combo of water and pee and wet wood pellets made his butt stink, so I lightly shampooed it. I kept him in the ex pen all day and night Friday but he was till damp on Saturday. And crunchy, since I hadn't given him a full bath. Ugh. I asked them to do Texels towards the end and spent most of the show scrunching his coat trying to make it drier and softer. Needless to say we didn't win anything, but a couple got some nice comments and at one point it was close between my pig and a really nice other one.

OMG Ruby just had a baby! Just now next to me.

She wasn't very big so I thought she wasn't due right away. But just a few minutes ago I saw her sort of look up and then start a bit. Then she laid down and I thought, well maybe she just made a couple poops. (In hindsight early labor does feel like intestinal distress.) But she acted like she couldn't get comfortable and turned around several times like a dog. Ten minutes later i look over and here's a big wet baby! I didn't even palpate her--if she has more I'll be suprised.

His guy (gal?) is mostly black with a white ear and white leg and a bit of white on the belly. Not good distribution but so far his conformation is excellent and coat looks promisingly kinky. Not sure what I'll do with a broken, though. Breed it to roans I suppose. I need Ruby's (TSW) conformation in my roans. The bad distribution is no surprise. It's black Coal's baby. I should have bred her to a roan I suppose, but they're busy with other sows. I could use a couple more really nice roan boars.

I posted about this in a discussion group, but it's really more of a blog subject.

Had a good time overall at the show, everyone was joking around. Val, reordering pigs for the judge asked Linda, "Can you move up your chocolate or lilac or whatever that is?"

Linda replied in fake consternation: "Chocolate or lilac?! That's called bad black!"

I love our local cavy exhibitors, we have a good time and don't mind good-natured ribbing too. We do remember we all do this for fun! It certainly wasn't like that when I was showing dogs! And it's not like that in every region of the country either!

So, my one good boar got DQ'd for a lump I totally missed. The judge was very upset he had to DQ such a nice Teddy, he said. Too bad he doesn't judge cavies that often because I'd love to show that boar under him again soon! LOL.

My brindle sow was DQ'd for white toes, but she got a good evaluation by two judges and they've convinced me to keep her. I scratched another sow for what looked like a little chew spot, and my best showable-right-now sow is healing from a lump. Ugh.

We didn't win in Texels either, but we got beat by some really nice pigs. It was nice to see so many really nice Texels. The quality is really improving around here. You can't just have good curl and density, you have to have curl over the shoulders and an even coat. My two boys are disadvantaged because they got too big too quickly and are now Seniors in weight but Intermediate in age. But that's ok, I'm trying to add better size and heads to my line and these guys fit the bill.

Well after showing this motley crew, I'm still not sure who I'm gonna bring to this Saturday's show!

I usually feed the herd Cavy-lets from Nutritional Research Associates. They are based in Indiana I believe, but it might as well be on the moon since I'm in NY.

A breeder who lives about 75 miles from me buys a ton and then all the breeders in the region buy from her. We usually pick them up at shows. Unfortunately, personal obligations have made me miss the last couple shows, hence I ran very low on pellets.

I've checked our nearby Tractor Supply Company and their guinea pig pellets are all but covered in cobwebs. I had the manager read the Julian code for me last month. A couple bags were milled in January and some from November! I told him, well with pellets this old I might as well buy the fresher rabbit pellets. I said the Vitamin C in GP pellets, which makes them distinctive from rabbit pellets, quickly degrades and is probably gone within 3 months. He was suprised and said they were told the shelf life was 6 months on all feed. He also said there was no way to get a different brand or even fresher feed, that they sent him whatever.

BTW, we have no pet shops anywhere near, so that was out as an option.

Anyway, I again bought pellets at WalMart. While everyone loves to hate WalMart, they're just too handy sometimes with halfway decent stuff. I got a boatload of small plastic bags of pellets less than two months old at no greater price than the 50# bags of the good stuff.

I'm sure my pigs will be happy when I can finally get Cavy-lets again, though. They are smaller and harder with less fines and they even smell good to ME.