Wiebke's Tribe: Sows and the City Boars

There was someone who said they had seen a black one? The only black one we saw dash into some bushes was a rat, so not sure. This woman was selling piggies a few months before by all accounts so I assume these three might have been the last lot which she dumped, but we will never really know A sad start but a happy ending!

I am very sure that there is no black piggy in play in the narrow genetic pool that the pups are displaying and that must go back a few more generations before they were dumped.

Both Millyn and Baeddan have unusually small eyes; they are technically half-siblings as they share the same mother (Modron).
The four pups are showing a very limited palette of coat colours and markings; they are also all halfway breed mixes between aby and smooth. In the first one or two generations babies tend to look like one parent or grandparent in terms of breed appearance.

A good example of a first generation mixed breed baby is my Tegan, who has come out fully on her peru inheritance in terms of breed, coat colouring and markings and not one bit on the short-hair smooth side of her lilac coated and ruby-eyed dad. Although she is much looking more like her aunt Ffwlbri than her buff mother Tesni!
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True halfway mixes - like all babies - tend to appear usually much more in later generations with both parents having an increasingly mixed inheritance themselves and the gene mix that is passed on is therefore more and more hodge podge. You would by then also see a wider variation in the new offspring with a wider gene pool in their ancestry; they wouldn't look as similar as my four do.
My Rainbow Ark Triplets (Morwenna, Myfina and Myfina) were even a bit further down the line in the breed mixing process in terms of each girl being a different combination of two of three breeds in play with Myfina displaying markers of all three - which is rare. But they also clearly illustrate the greater variation you get with a less limited gene pool.
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PS: It could have been a rat or an unrelated piggy. Poor sod if the second was true! :(
 
I am very sure that there is no black piggy in play in the narrow genetic pool that the pups are displaying and that must go back a few more generations before they were dumped.

Both Millyn and Baeddan have unusually small eyes; they are technically half-siblings as they share the same mother (Modron).
The four pups are showing a very limited palette of coat colours and markings; they are also all halfway breed mixes between aby and smooth. In the first one or two generations babies tend to look like one parent or grandparent in terms of breed appearance.

A good example of a first generation mixed breed baby is my Tegan, who has come out fully on her peru inheritance in terms of breed, coat colouring and markings and not one bit on the short-hair smooth side of her lilac coated and ruby-eyed dad. Although she is much looking more like her aunt Ffwlbri than her buff mother Tesni!
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True halfway mixes - like all babies - tend to appear usually much more in later generations with both parents having an increasingly mixed inheritance themselves and the gene mix that is passed on is therefore more and more hodge podge. You would by then also see a wider variation in the new offspring with a wider gene pool in their ancestry; they wouldn't look as similar as my four do.
My Rainbow Ark Triplets (Morwenna, Myfina and Myfina) were even a bit further down the line in the breed mixing process in terms of each girl being a different combination of two of three breeds in play with Myfina displaying markers of all three - which is rare. But they also clearly illustrate the greater variation you get with a less limited gene pool.
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PS: It could have been a rat or an unrelated piggy. Poor sod if the second was true! :(
That quite interesting, they are all very similar. Modron is the most unalike of them all. I suspect what someone saw was a rat too. We never saw any more piggies and we went down a few times afterward to make sure. I did doubt that the granddaddy would be black anyway
 
Sadly, yet another loss although this one has not come as a surprise. Brathlys 'Scarlet Pimpernel' has needed medical support for over a year and has become very, very frail in the last few weeks. I found Lissie in her forever sleep still with a little hay in her mouth and a belly full of fresh grass - her favourite - yesterday morning. She was around 6 years old and just days away from celebrating her 4th Gotcha Day (adoption anniversary).

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Brathlys was a severely traumatised piggy that was found abandoned by a neighbour in a winter garden in the Northeast weeks after the neighbours had moved out and taken the hutch with them. In nearly half a year in rescue she refused to accept any boar and continued to bite any hand. Her adoption went along the lines of: 'Oh, you admire our newly arrived abys? We have the perfect piggy for you: your favourite colour and breed and the perfect problem piggy for you, too. We can home deliver her to you next week on our way to our holiday in the Southwest.'

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Needless to say, Brathlys did arrive, stopped drawing blood when tweaking my hands within two weeks and was bonded with a neutered boar within 3 months. And promptly changed her coat colour from bright orange to dark brown in a matter of months. It has taken lots of patience to gain her trust but she found new happiness after Alan's 'Coltsfoot' sudden death with young widow Melangell 'Sweet Angel' and later with also widowed neighboar Llelo 'Little Llewelyn' joining the two sows in a proper little group which has given her a feeling of security and comfort that she had never known, even when she went fully blind with cataracts in her last years. It didn't impact on her inner clock and her loud voice reminding me that dinnertime had come and passed...

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I have laid Lissie to rest today with a bright bouquet of flowers, orange crocosmia (in lieu of scarlet pimpernel), a highly fragrant white rosa rugosa bloom, some yellow cinquefoil and buddleia x weyeriana.

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PS: This is the little wildflower I have named Lissie after
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Her full tribute (written by her companion Melangell for Gertie's Lonely Guinea Pig Rescue) is in this link here: Brathlys (Lissie)
 
How lovely that Lissie found her forever home with you and your tribe - the chance for her to grow and be who is she really was.
She was living her best life ever with you.
Popcorn freely at RB lovely Lissie
 
So sorry for your loss of Brathlys. I can't imagine how relieved and grateful she must have been to find herself in your capable hands after her difficult life and able to trust a human to fully understand and provide for her piggy needs. I'm sure you will miss her a great deal. 🌈
 
So sorry to hear about Brathlys. She must have been delighted to find her forever home with you. Someone who loved and understood her.
Sending you massive hugs.
Sleep tight little one.xx
 
A bit of a baby update - only they are no longer baby at nearly 10 months of age (11 months in Blodyn's case) and are all coming close to their adult size. Neither of them will be ever large but Baeddan as the biggest baby is now in the same league as his dad Barcud.

When Baeddan 'Boar' took a sudden fright during roaming/cage cleaning time and squeezed into his tunnel with Blodyn 'Flower'. Baeddan has now overtaken his half-sister in both weight and dominance. Blodyn and Brangwyn are roughly comparable in size and weight.
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And a summer shoot with Brangwyn 'White Raven' and his two older ladies Beti (Betty) and Begw (Peggy/'Little Pearl').
Beti is now 3 years old and Begw is coming up to 5 years.
Brangwyn has got all the mischief of a Raven - don't be deceived by his cute looks! He is now running both his wives and is trying to move up the Tribe boar hierarchy by starting feuds through the bars... But he was the baby boar who was rumble-strutting at just 24 hours of age.

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I can't believe it's been 10 months already!

It's actually just about a week short of their parents' rescue by @Bill & Ted down in Cornwall and about the first anniversary of the boys' conception.

Modron (the two boys' mum) must have fallen pregnant in the days before they were found while Millyn (Blodyn's mum and Modron's daughter) was 6 weeks ahead of her with her two pups born at Maria's Sanctuary.

Anyway, on good care, all babies have fully caught up and have made up the difference at birth that resulted from Millyn giving birth soon after her rescue while Modron did spent pretty much the whole length of her pregnancy in good care. Millyn, Modron and Barcud are also as fit and (healthily) plump as can be one year on from their ordeal.

The two sets of babies are a good example what difference good care does make and how smaller babies can still maximise on their own genetic potential before they are fully grown adults on normal good care. :)
 
It’s been delightful to follow this journey …..from the rescue to the thriving of these gorgeous piggies 🥰
 
It would have been Brathlys' 4th Gotcha Day (adoption anniversary) today but she has sadly departed from the Tribe just 10 days ago. I still miss her badly. Lissie has been one of the more outstanding characters of the Tribe and she leaves a very noticeable gap whenever you come into the room.

This is her making herself at home straight away after her long journey South from Gertie's Lonely Guinea Pig Rescue in Newcastle.

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Happy 4th Gotcha Day, Dryw!

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Just two days after Brathlys' rather unplanned arrival in August 2019, another piggy came here courtesy of her fosterer @Flutterby - little Dryw 'Wren' (baby name Wren, Salem's sister for those who remember) from The Potteries Guinea Pig Rescue. She was going to join my old (Potteries) gent, large Pioden 'Magpie' (my largest ever piggy) to see him out since was about to lose the last of his 4 wives in just over a year. Hedydd 'Skylark' was coming up to 8 years and was extremely frail with advanced arthritis, so an older sow trying to dominate her was not an option if I wanted to avoid Pioden being on his own. Pioden was clearly delighted with his new little wifelet and so was Hedydd in the few weeks she had with Dryw - the two formed a loving bond.
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Sadly, Dryw (nickname Deedoo) didn't gel with any of my three Tribe widows in Autumn 2021 and was very fear-aggressive with them, so a trip to Hazelcroft Rescue it was in November 2021 for two dinky baby sows that would not be able to challenge her. Pioden had become very frail and died only 3 weeks later, aged ca. 8 years but he took to cousins Llinos 'Linnet' and Lleian 'Smew' who at just around 600g are my smallest ever piggies. She's quite a madam! More recently, she has refused to fall to Baeddan's boarly charms.
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Happy gotcha day beautiful Dryw
So lovely that you have found your forever loving home ❤️❤️❤️❤️
 
It's actually just about a week short of their parents' rescue by @Bill & Ted down in Cornwall and about the first anniversary of the boys' conception.

Modron (the two boys' mum) must have fallen pregnant in the days before they were found while Millyn (Blodyn's mum and Modron's daughter) was 6 weeks ahead of her with her two pups born at Maria's Sanctuary.

Anyway, on good care, all babies have fully caught up and have made up the difference at birth that resulted from Millyn giving birth soon after her rescue while Modron did spent pretty much the whole length of her pregnancy in good care. Millyn, Modron and Barcud are also as fit and (healthily) plump as can be one year on from their ordeal.

The two sets of babies are a good example what difference good care does make and how smaller babies can still maximise on their own genetic potential before they are fully grown adults on normal good care. :)
What a delight to see hem all looking so healthy and happy, it’s made my day!
 
It would have been Brathlys' 4th Gotcha Day (adoption anniversary) today but she has sadly departed from the Tribe just 10 days ago. I still miss her badly. Lissie has been one of the more outstanding characters of the Tribe and she leaves a very noticeable gap whenever you come into the room.

This is her making herself at home straight away after her long journey South from Gertie's Lonely Guinea Pig Rescue in Newcastle.

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So sorry you lost Lissie x
 
I can’t believe it’s 4 years since Dryw’s arrival in your family.
It seems only yesterday we were welcoming her.
She’s such a beauty.
Happy Gotcha Day 🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕
 
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