Self Chocolates

(Sassy (Imp UK), Revelation and Morning Glory)

I have been breeding self chocolates for a number of years now.  They have been the one consistent breed in my stud.  I do not keep a large number of them and am now beginning to see that as my weakest link.  I have relied too heavily on a small number of chocolates and am now beginning to pay the price for with the loss of 2 or 3 sows my stock has become alarmingly low over the last few years and trying to build numbers up is not always an easy process. However, one must look on the bright side - just have to figure out what that is!

I was very lucky when I started to be given great stock.  I also had some not-so-great stock and I was very strict as to what I did hold on to and what I moved on.  Remember that what you put into your breeding program WILL come out at some stage so there is no point in using sub-standard cavies in any breeding program.

My first chocies came from Sathra Stud which included a beautiful sow named "Roxie" who did extremely well on the show table and later on produced some very nice babies.  Soon after I acquired the bulk of the Takara stud chocolates when Linda Dickson decided to focus on  her PE Whites.  These lines melded very well and produced a number of lovely chocolates.  

However, the single biggest influence has been a chocolate boar I imported from England in 1998 from Pauline Avery (Silverdale Stud).  I imported a pair of chocolates from Pauline, a beautiful sow I named "Sassy" and the boar "Brittanicus".  Sassy was never to produce a litter and died during her only pregnancy.  She was unbeaten on the show table and excelled in colour and coat qualities.  Brittanicus too become a Champion on the show table but he left his mark more in the breeding pen.  I never had a dud litter from him and he appears in all my pedigrees multiple times. 

When Brittanicus died his son "Ramprakash" replaced him as my main breeding boar.  Ramprakash too became a Champion on the show table and proved as good a sire as his father had been.

We currently have 2 breeding boars - both sons of Ramprakash and completely different.

Trescothic	Evelyn & Birthday Girl at 7 weeks

Probably the best is "Final Fanfare" (named as he was the last chocolate born under the Caesar prefix)- son of Ramprakash and Bowled Over  has done very well both on the show table and has produced his first litter of babies which were 2 very promising sows which I have earmarked for shows careers. Fanfare won Best 5-8 month in Show at the 2002 Perth Royal Show and looks set to mature into a lovely boar. He excels in colour.

"Trescothic" - son of Ramprakash and Mayfair has a lovely broad head and good colour to boot.  Has yet to prove himself but I think he will be a late developer.

We also have a couple of promising young sows.  We have kept 2 aside to show as all our other stock has gone into the breeding pen.  When our next lot of litters hit the ground the 2 show girls will then be put into breed and hopefully we will have a lot of nice babies to choose from for the 2004 show year!