cavy1

Our History

I'm Chawn Santana and I live in N. California. Guinea pigs have been in my life since I was in first grade. Nutmeg and Milkshake were the two classroom pets and each weekend a student would get to take one home and care for it until Monday morning.

I think after that experience it was several years before I actually acquired my own pigs. I was probably about 10 when I was given a huge outdoor rabbit hutch with 2 boars and 2 sows. The lady who owned them had gotten tired of trying to find homes for the constant stream of new babies. Why she didn't separate the boars and sows, I'll never know. I was now the new owner of Daddy, a huge red American, and Mama and Grouchy, American-Aby mixes. I can't remember who the other sow was.

From these four I started a very small-scale breeding operation. I sold babies to all the local pet stores for the top-dollar amount of 75 cents each. I also used my pigs to complete a special animal husbandry project in Campfire Girls. I didn't have a clue about the genetics but, thinking in retrospect, I guess the Aby coat must have been dominant over the American coat. (But they were pet shop pigs to begin with, so who knows what was behind them.) Out of probably 15-25 litters I got three smooth-haired babies which were my pride-and-joys. Two of them actually turned out to have the longer Silkie-type coat. Winky was a cream Silkie boar and Honey was a white sow with light orange head markings. Wish was a sow who was also white with light orange markings and a wishbone shape in white on her head. At about 5 weeks old she was killed by a poodle who belonged to a visiting family friend. I was devastated and basically ended my "guinea pig farm" at that point. Winky died not too long after, but Honey was with me for almost 10 years. I think I was in my early 20's when I finally had to have her put to sleep due to some kind of huge abdominal tumor.

After Honey's death it was a few years before I decided I had to have another pig. I walked into a pet store in S. California and saw a silver agouti and white sow with a half white crest and fell in love with her. She was adorable. There was also a huge silver agouti and white Aby boar but he was already sold. I took my new pig home and named her Squeakers (how original!). At this point I still had never seen a book of standards and didn't know that Squeakers was a mismarked White Crested, but I knew I wanted more that looked like her. I found an ad for pigs for sale in the paper and went to see what was available. This lady had at least 30 pigs, many with babies. I had never seen so many in one place. She had some blue roan boars that I wanted to buy, but they weren't for sale. I ended up coming home with a young golden agouti boar that I named Tiger. Tiger and Squeakers were the two pigs that made the move to N. California with me. I think I bred them 4 or 5 times and nearly always got babies that I called calicos, like the coloring in calico cats. I guess they were actually agouti/cream/white. Some had crests, some didn't. The one time I actually got some SA & white crested pups, they were born dead. I stopped breeding after that litter. It had become too hard to find pet stores that wanted to buy babies.

After Tiger and Squeakers died I bought my first Teddy, who actually turned out to be a Teddy mixed with something else. That was Fuzzy, a black boar, and he was the pig from hell. His temperament left a little something to be desired. I think his biggest pleasure in life was to bite someone when they were least expecting it. After Fuzzy died I bought another pet store boar -- a black and white American, or so I thought. This was Skunk and he grew up to have hair longer than an American but shorter than a Silkie. I thought Skunk was pretty cute so when I saw a little black and white sow in a pet store one day I bought her as a "girlfriend" for Skunk. I named her Oreo and she really was an American. BUT.... then I entered the world of purebred cavies and Skunk and Oreo were never bred together, though Oreo contributed to the start of my broken color breeding program.

Currently

After years of wanting shorthaired pigs and White Cresteds, I've finally got them. The ARBA Standard Of Perfection is always handy. I belong to a few cavy clubs and have been showing for several years. I have a sizable herd now and always strive for quality over quantity. I show as often as I can, but cavy shows frequently conflict with the dog shows my husband and I are involved with.

I have some wonderful people to thank for helping me get started in cavies, and for their continued help and support.

First, I have to thank Kelly (Hogan) Stewart who sold me my first pedigreed cavies. She sold me three pregnant agouti sows and a silver agouti boar. Ginger was a golden agouti American who was bred to a lemon agouti and presented me with a litter of golden agoutis and golden solids. Then there was Merle, the silver agouti American boar who sired the other two sows' litters. One of those sows was Cinnamon, a daughter of Merle and Ginger. Bred back to her father, she had two golden agoutis and a silver agouti. Finally, there was Lila (or Lily as my husband called her), a lilac agouti, who produced two silver agouti pups.

Next I have to thank Tracy Iverson for selling me my first two American dalmatians. I had loved this variety in pictures for years but had never seen a real live one until I went to my first show and saw Juliet Barrera's. Then I knew I had to get dals!

In June '00 I made the trip to Sally Meyer's in Utah to pick up a really nice boar. A few other pigs just happened to jump into my carrier while I was there. I'm so grateful for the kindness of the breeders I encountered who were willing to help a beginner get started.

Then there's a big thank you from the bottom of my heart to Ron Reed who shared lots of great tips and hints with me and provided me with my first silver solids and blue roans. I no longer breed blue roans, but silver solids are a main variety in my caviary.

I offer a HUGE thank you to Jacqueline Wade in Washington who did everything she could to start me off on my cavy adventure with decent stock and helpful advice. I hope we continue to swap stock for many years to come.

A big thank you goes out to Michael Edsel in Oklahoma for selling me some wonderful White Cresteds. Talk about a challenging breed to work with!

Thank you to Ron Roach for giving me the opportunity to purchase his American/Satin silver agouti breeding program.

And last, but not least, an ENORMOUS thanks goes to my husband who finances my cavy hobby, does a lot of grunt work around the caviary, takes a mild interest in the critters, and even comes to shows with me sometimes.