Grayrose Cavies

New Abyssinians

I have added pictures of some of my new abyssinians and abyssinian satins to my Abyssinian photo album. I'll keep adding pictures there until I get all my abbies up. Enjoy! And unless it says otherwise, these are not for sale. But if you see something you absolutely love, let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

Cream Cavies: Americans, Teddies, and Abyssinians

Got an email last night from Leslie Freeland. If you breed creams, then check out her fantastic site. She has articles on creams, buffs and saffrons, genetics, comprehensive cream breeder lists, advice from top cream breeders on what to select for, and tons of photos. Millions of photos. If you like looking at pigs, then check her out. Leslie breeds lovely American creams. Someday I hope to have some of my own in that delicate color. I do have a couple of American creams myself, but I'm selling out of them. If I'm going to have enough room for the cream Abbies and Teddies, I need the space.

I am really proud to be included on Leslie's lists, and especially proud that my baby cream abby is there and is, apparently, the first cream abyssinian she's seen. The one on the left is the buff sow. The one on the right is the cream boar.These little guys are part of a work in progress. But I'm still proud of them.

Because there isn't anyone eles around here, or apparently anywhere, working with this great color in abyssinians, I've had to sort of start from scratch. Fortunately my first raw material initially were abyssinians: a chocolate, buff and white sow; a buff, agouti, and white sow; and a DEW boar. Unfortunately they were all essentially pet quality. I also had for a short time a PEW boar. From these initial breedings, I got a pair of broken cream and white sows, and a lot of other stuff that when right to the pet store. These two sows were close to having all the rosettes and ridges in about the right places. So it was time to start working with a pedigreed boar. The closest I had is my spectacular red roan satin Abyssinian that Claire and Rich Bragonje where kind enough to sell me last year. I bred the older of the two sows to him several times and finally got a fairly good self boar. I knew he had to carry either the "cd" gene or the "cr" gene. Turns out he carries "cd". I bred him to the younger of the two sows this spring and got these two.

Now I have a breeding pen with six red abyssinian sows in various stages of pregnancy. They all carry either the "cd" or "cr" gene. And they are all satin carriers. A very small percentage of the babies will be creams, I hope. And I'll just keep going, breeding back and forth to get the color I want, but also the rosettes and ridges that make a great abby. Check back in a year or two and see how I'm doing. What I would love to find is a great white aby boar. No luck so far.

I also wanted to share a picture of my latest cream teddy litter. These are all boys. The one on the left is a standard teddy cream. The middle one is a satin cream. The one on the right is a pink eyed buff, also known in some countries as a saffron.
–Did I get that right, Leslie? ;-)–
The satin will stay here. The cream boar and the buff will be for sale. If you want to breed creams and have a good white sow, then get this guy. Excellent teddies in PEW and DEW are readily available. He'll breed nothing but creams. A cream boar bred to a white sow will give you half creams and half whites. A cream boar bred to a cream sow will give you 25% buffs, 50% creams and 25% whites. Over time. My last cream to cream breeding with my americans yielded a pair of large, healthy, and hungry PEW boars. By the time they weaned, they were already too big for the pet store. I just don't have room for a lot of white boars. Anyway, my point is that if you want to build up the number of creams you have to work with, then start with a buff and a white. The buff won't be showable, but all his babies will be.

Announcing Cream Abyssinians

Yesterday morning Daffodil, a cream and white aby sow delivered two pups. One is a lovely cream boar the other is a very nice dark cream/buff sow. This little sow can be bred to a white aby boar to produce nothing but creams. The little boar can be bred to a white sow to produce white and cream. Both babies will be staying here. So now I am looking for white abbies.

Agouti Abbies

Last night, Rocky finally had her babies. Rocky is a pet quality abyssinian, but she is also mostly dilute agouti with a bit of cream and white. Someday I will have silver agoutis from her line, as well as creams. What I really need, of course, is an decent sliver agouti abby to start with, but I'm not going to find one around here. Next on my wish list would be a really nice, big white abby boar. Drop me a line if you have one. I actually did have such a boar for a while, but he was a lousy breeder.

Back to Rocky. From a previous litter with my black boar, she gave us Donald Gordon, a golden agouti boar. He's not quite show quality yet, but he's not bad. This time no agoutis, but a really promising red sow. She's got all her rosettes and ridges in the right places. There is also a lovely TSW roan sow, and a pet quality tortoiseshell boar. Pictures soon.

Abby Ears

I saw a question on the Abyssinian Yahoo group list about young abyssinians with ear sticking up. I thought I knew the answer, then realized maybe I didn't. So, I went to my trusty ABRA Standard of Perfection to look it up. If you don't have an official ABRA Standard of Perfection and are serious about breeding,get one asap. Otherwise you're breeding in the dark.

The question was about a young abby with ears sticking up. Is it bad? Will it go away?
The ABRA Standard of Perfection says The ears are to match the variety description, be shapely and slightly drooping, but not fallen."

This abby is a month old here. Click the little picture for a big one.

And here he again, two month later. His ears no longer stick up and back, but more out and a little down. As he matures, his ear will continue to droop, but not hopefully won't fall. There are some excellent pictures of abbies in the ABRA Standard of Perfection, also on the American Cavy Breeders Association (ACBA) site

I hope this helps and answers the question. Remember, please however, that there are cavy breeders out there with far more experience than I have. I just try to pass on what I've learned, but would be thrilled to hear what the true experts have to say.

My Abyssinians

Abbies were our first pigs and still our favorites. But our main boar, a PEW, just was not producing. So I replaced him with two lovely foundation boars. Both are from Claire and Rich Bragonje of C-R Cavies.

Sam Spade is a awesome black. He carries satin and lilac. Travis McGhee is goregous red satin roan.

My sows include a rainbow roan satin carrier and a brindle satin carrier, both from Claire and Rich. I also have a lilac and a black satin carrier from Cindy Land. From Holly Lewis I have a brindle and a TSW. Finally I have a dark cream/DA/ Wh, a chocolate, 2 cream/white, and a dilute agouti (lemon) sow of my own breeding.

The next generation:
Travis (Red Roan) X Lucky (Lewis Brindle) = Tri Roan Boar.
Traivs (Red Satin) X Buttercup (Cream) = Red Boar, Red Roan Sow.
Travis (Red Satin) X Godiva (Chocolate) = Black Boar, Black Roan Boar.
Travis (Red Satin) X Iris (C-R Brindle) = Brindle Boar, Tri Satin Roan Boar.
Sam (Black) X Peaches (C-R Rainbow) = Red Satin Boar, Tri Roan Sow.
Sam (Black) X Natasha (PP Lilac) = Black Boar, Lilac Boar.
White Guy (Lewis DEW) X Apricot (Dk Cream/Wh) = Cream/Wh Sow.

Some of these boars I’ll sell. I am keeping all the sows, the red boar, the brindle boar, and one of the black boars. Oh and my husband has dibs on the black roan boar.

Coming up in the next month:
Travis (Red Satin) X Lucky (Lewis Brindle)
Travis (Red Satin) X Mrs. Puff (Lewis TSW)
Travis (Red Satin) X Godiva (Chocolate)
Travis (Red Satin) X Melba (Cream/Wh)
Sam (Black) X Rocky (Dilute Agouti)

Lovely Aby Boys

A pair of satin abyssinian roan boars. The red roan is 4 weeks old and the tri roan is a couple days older. Click on the pictures to see bigger images.

Thanks to Rich and Claire Bragonje for their lovely parents. The red satin roan is from a rainbow roan sow and a black boar. The tri roan is from a brindle sow and a red satin boar. There is also a brindle boar and a tri roan standard sow, but I'm not posting their pictures because they are staying here. I haven't decided yet about these two. They are stunning.