Waiting and pictures of 'little squirts'

Princess is killing me with waiting for the babies.  I felt them jumbling around last night.  There has to be atleast two.  I am sooo excited for her to have them.  Here is a picture of Princess

And here are some pictures of my little squirts.

From left to Right.  Romulus, Black Beauty, and Remus.

And my Beautiful Blizzard.  I think she is Gorgeous.  I am planning on showing her when she gets older.

A Bug's Life- Memoir of a Bug

One of my chinchillas that I bred passed away yesterday afternoon.  Bug was a Standard gray chinchilla born to my favorite chinchilla Pepper that I have owned for 7 years, and Bernard.   He was supposed to be Pepper's last baby because I wanted something to replace her if anything ever happened to her but unfortunately it seems like Pepper turned out to be Bug's replacement.  I do not have an exact prognosis for why he died but I soon will.  I tried hard to save my little guy but you can't tell God He is wrong for his descisions. 
Bug was born on October 2nd, 2010 and he was one of the cutest babies because he had huge eyes and even bigger ears!  I was planning on taking him to a show for fun and to get comments on him even though he was just going to be my pet.  He was the cutest thing and I had been training him to sit on my shoulder and do other things.  He would do ANYTHING for a treat.  :)
I am glad I had him while I did rather than not ever owning him at all.  Although it is hard, everything that happens at my little ranch is a learning curve.  I have learned many things through trial and error, hazards, accidents, and in tragedy and confusion, but in the end I have learned from it to change or do things differently or what a symptom could be and how to treat it. 
I loved Bug and he is not forgotten. 

I will get pictures of him soon as the computer with all the pictures needs to be fixed.

Surprise!!!!!

Some really nice friends of mine got me a few things at the National Show. 
Here is what I got.

A rocking horse with chinchilla fur as a mane and tail.

A note book with chinchillas on the cover.

And a place mat-on the right is a breeding chart and on the left are all the members of ECBC (Empress Chinchilla Breeders Cooperative, empresschinchilla.org)

There is my name on the list!  Number 21.

Spinning....or atleast trying

Tonight I tried to spin....needless to say it didn't go as well as I would have liked.  Here are some fiber pictures.  :)

English Angora and Chinchilla fiber salad!

Spun Chinchilla

English Angora and Chinchilla....Half spun. 

Knit Chinchilla

I will post more soon......

More News-

I got my business cards today so I wanted to share with everyone what they look like.   I am so excited about them.  Also, I have put several females in breeding in the last two weeks.   I put Rex (Standard), Lilac (Standard), Daisy (Standard), and Cloud (Standard) with my White Male that I bred (YEAH!) -Diamond.   To my Ebony Male Bear,  I put Hazel (Tan), JC (Tan), and Muffin (White).  -Bear also has Panda (TOV Ebony) but she has been with him for several months.  And to my Standard male I introduced Sassy (Standard).   I usually try not to do so many Mutations (especially Mutation to Mutation) but I am currently re-arranging things so that I can get some better Standards going and this is just the way it kinda turned out until I can get my Standards going more.   I do put allot of time into who I pair.  When choosing the pairs I usually look at the flaws of the particular chinchilla and find a chinchilla that will make up for those flaws. Takes alot of time....but I love it!
Anyways on to the pictures....

Picture DAY!!!!

I took some pictures today (sorry they aren't the best pictures) at my little ranch here in Northern CO.   Let me know what you Think!

My work area.  :)

Here are some pictures of my pretty tan females!

JC -don't ask how she got that name.  :)

Hazel

Here are some new pictures of the Triplets.  Their names are Romulus, Remus, and Black Beauty.

And Finally- My carrying cage.  I hand painted it this past January (January 2011).

All Better

I have two chinchillas (they are sisters) and whenever they have been out of breeding for a while the won't eat as much and act lethargic.  I was thinking one of them (Daisy) was ill so I checked on her and was treating her for what I thought she was ill with. Well I came inside to hand feed her last night  and  my mom checked her and we decided that maybe she just wants to be with a male.  Well it seems like we (or my mom.  :)) was right because she is acting normal and eating fine.  She just must be lonely.  :)

                                         Daisy, She doesn't look that great in this picture.

News from my ranch-

Spring is a fun time of year around here with all of our critters.  Sweet Pea is due on the 18th to Fudge for some beautiful baby English angora bunnies!  However this is her first litter so they probably won't make it....but I am hoping she is in the small number for caring for her first litter!   I am hoping to bring a few bunnies to County fair this year and that is always exciting.  
I am expecting a litter for sure in April from my Pink White female chinchilla.  She was bred to a Standard.  I am also expecting from a TOV ebony female and possibly a Standard female.  I am very excited because I am going to put my two tans into breeding with and ebony.  Diamond (he is my profile picture) just got his first female and I am going to open him up to another female soon.  Muffin, a white female, just got introduced to my Ebony male, Bear.   I am so excited to see what some of these babies will look like, especially Diamond and Rex's (standard female), and Hazel (tan female) and Bear's.
Here are a few pictures of my mutation boys, AKA the studs.  :)

                                          Bear- My ebony

                                          Diamond- My white male.  He is a nutcase.
                  

New to this. :)

This is my first blog and I have to admit it is kinda fun!   I will post some news soon!
Thanks!
MMCR