ACBA Youth Responses. ACBA Youth Committee Report

Transcription

1 ACBA Youth Committee Report I would like to congratulate ALL the youth that participated in the Youth Royalty contest. Everyone conducted themselves with professionalism and a maturity that was a real treat and actually everyone was a winner in my book. I thank them for making it a FUN event! Countess was Keegan Reeder Duke was Nathan Bonde 1 st runner up was Nolan Bean 2 nd runner up was Aaron Mahaffey Duchess was Victoria Hickman 1 st runner up was Rebecca Paxson 2 nd runner up was Ashley Mahaffey 3 rd runner up was Noelle Adams 4 th runner up was Lindsay Hiatt Princess was Taylor Menezes 1 st runner up was Hannah Mowry 2 nd runner up was Carrie Nolan 3 rd runner up was Raini Bisson 4 th runner up was Courtney Ballard 5 th runner up was Miranda Menard Queen was Rehanna Stepnoski 1 st runner up was Devon Bean Congratulations to them all! It goes without saying that this event was not possible without a lot of help and cooperation from a wonderful group of people. Without their selfless donation of their valuable time there would not have been a royalty contest. Each and every person was an important piece of the puzzle that was needed to be put together to make it a success. A huge thank you goes to Steve Lussier for stepping up to help with the Showmanship contest portion at the last moment. Kudos to Kevin Neilson and his charming fiancée for helping proctor the tests. Joe and Sara Buchanan for supplying the area, tables and the animals for the tests. Joe DeHaven for helping tally the scores to make sure there were no mistakes. I also want to thank Ellen Gallagher for assisting me back at home in grading all the entries in Youth Royalty and the Achievement and Management applications. Also a huge thank you goes out to Tractor Supply Company in Quakertown, who donated $50 gift cards for the winners, also Martin Cages in Columbia, PA for making and getting carriers out to California for the winners. Each youth participant received a silk screened back pack that had ACBA Youth Royalty Participant on it. They were filled with an assortment of goodies, pens/sticky pads from Mazuri, $5 McDonalds gift card, and other treats. Also a big thanks to the Buchanan s for allowing me to ship all my stuff out to them and bring it to the show room. It was greatly appreciated. We also announced the winners of the Youth Management and Youth Achievement awards in California at the banquet. They are as follows: District st place in Achievement and Management was Noelle Adams st place in Achievement and Management was Hanna Mowry st place in Achievement and Management was Wayne Heath District 2 8 and under 1 st place in Achievement was Keegan Reeder st place in Achievement was Lindsay Hiatt 2nd place in Achievement was Nathan Bonde st place in Management was Nathan Bonde 2 nd place in Management was Lindsay Hiatt st place in Achievement was Vonni Araya 2nd place in Achievement was Taylor Menezes st place in Management was Taylor Menezes 2nd place in Management was Vonni Araya st place in Achievement and Management was Devon Bean District st place in Achievement and Management was Rehanna Stepnoski Every youth and their parents should think about participating in this event. The wonderful thing about the Achievement and Management contests are they are mailed in and the youth does not have to be present at the Specialty to win. If they do not attend the banquet we will make sure that their plaque gets to them. It gives them memories that will last a life time. If you know of a youth that might be interested, by all means, encourage them to consider trying out in Karen DeHaven Ellen Gallagher A C B A ACBA Youth Responses Youth responses were published in the Summer 2006 and 2008 JACBA issues. These were such a big hit that we are doing it again in Yes, our youth are the ACBA s future. You d be surprised to know how many of our judges and club leadership, including me, were ACBA members as kids. Thus, JACBA is proud to display our next generation of judges and leaders have to say. Adults, take notice! These kids are pretty sharp. NOELLE ADAMS Kennewick, WA, age 10 you cavy project, and how will they help you in the future? I have set three goals for my cavy project this year. They are: 1. To add more varieties of American cavies to my caviary. This will help me to be able to have more choices for breeding and showing. I am going to do this by talking to breeders to see what would make a good match with the chocolate boar that I have. 2. To learn more about American cavies. This will help me with breeding and caring for my cavies. It will help me to help other American cavy owners. It will help when I do Fitting & Showing contests. I can do this by talking with my 4H leader and by talking to breeders who raise them. I am also going to use the internet to find out more about them. 3. To learn how to table write for cavy shows. This will help me to learn more about all of the cavies and to help others. I am going to take a class by a cavy registrar on table writing this month (March). I am going to talk with the show superintendant at the next few shows I attend to see if I can work with JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 24

2 someone who knows how, so I can learn and practice. Management #1: Describe your caviary: cages, location of animals, equipment used for feeding and water, any special equipment used for care and transport of animals, and why you chose these things. My caviary is in my room. I use clear plastic tubs without a lid. They have plenty of air, easy to clean, and don t let the bedding fall all over the floor. I use water bottles instead of a dish because I think it is easier for the cavies to drink from and their water stays cleaner. I use shallow ceramic feeding dishes. They are easy for the cavies to eat out of and don t tip over easily. I use toenail scissors to clip their toenails, because they are easier for me to use. I use small animal shampoo for bathing. I think it is gentle on their skin and makes them smell good. For transportation I use a smooth bottomed metal carrying cage. It is safe for them and easy to clean. Management #4: Describe everything you consider when breeding your cavies. Do you keep track of bred sows and their litters? What do you do with your surplus cavies? When breeding my cavies I consider these things: *If the sow is a good mom or a nice cavy if she hasn t been a mom yet. *The age of the cavies. *Their variety and type. *Do I want to use the sow for showing or breeding only? *What will I do with the non-showable babies? No, I do not keep track of bred sows and their litters yet. I have only bred one sow before. I plan to improve on keeping track of my litters this year. I sell or give away my surplus cavies. VONNI ARAYA Santa Rosa, CA, age 14 To raise a pure line of Teddy cavy that are all registered and to continue to improve body and coat to the best I can. I have learned a lot about genetics and breeding to improve traits with my cavies and used this in several science projects in school. Sharing my cavies with the public has given me a lot of happy memories and helped me get over my fear of public speaking. Going to shows has taught me a lot about being patient. My future goal is to continue to share my animals whenever I can and educate people about cavies. I also want to enjoy all the shows and the friends I have made with both my cavies and rabbits! Management #3: Do you take any preventative measures to ensure a healthy caviary? Have any diseases, illnesses or conditions affected your caviary? If so what did you do about it? I keep my caviary as clean as possible by cleaning everything at least once a week. I treat for mites with a monthly dose of ivermectin. I had mites once and had a hard time getting rid of it completely, so now I treat regularly to prevent an infestation. It took me several treatments to get rid of the mites including the tropical treatment for cats. I have not had any other disease but have had a sow absorb her young once and another sow had two still born pups out of six. Management #4: Describe everything you consider when breeding your cavies. Do you keep track of bred sows and their litters? What do you do with your surplus cavies? I breed my cavies with the goal of brillo hair and brick bodies. I keep only the best of each litter and line breed back for improvement. It is really nice to have my boar and sow only beaten by their offspring at a show. I have improved the white hair on my teddies a lot! If a pair produces pups not as good as they are, I never breed them together again. If they breed a fault like a rosette, I cull them from my caviary. I am striving for perfection and with only four cages I do not have the space for problem breeders. I try to keep records and even show results on show offspring I have sold. I sell non showable cavies to a pet store for $15. COURTNEY BALLARD Richland, WA, age 13 Royalty #1: If you should win your age category, how will you promote this achievement? If I should win my age group, I would promote this achievement by helping other kids study and work harder for this and other contests. I will also share with others what I did and how I did it. And I will explain what needs to be done to compete in the royalty contest. Royalty #2: What are your goals for next year with your cavies? My long term goals for next year are related to the fact that I have long hair cavies. I have coronets, who have long hair, and it keeps on growing! To stop them from chewing on their coat, you wrap them with rubber bands. I really want to get better and wrap my coronets every day instead of every 3-4 days. Royalty #3: Do you plan to continue with your cavy project in the future? Yes, I do plan on continuing with my cavy projects in the future. 4-H has taught me so much in the last 5 years. I can t see my life the same without 4-H. 4-H has taught me responsibility, study skills, work hard, achieve, skills, service, etc. I also plan on continuing my project because I love animals. I simply love the company of my cavies. DEVON BEAN Norco, CA, age 15 Management #4: Describe everything you consider when breeding your cavies. Do you keep track of bred sows and their litters? What do you do with your surplus cavies? One thing I consider when breeding is the heat. I try not to have babies born in summer because it gets about 100 degrees Fahrenheit or over for prolonged periods of time. It is very hard to cool a pregnant sow so I try to avoid having one. If I do, I use frozen water bottles and bring them it to the air conditioned house. Another thing I consider is the age of the cavy because they need to be bred before a year but I also want them to JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 25

3 be at least six months, and I don t want to breed cavies that are too old. I think about good times for selling pets or babies that I do not want to keep, like Easter or Christmas. Something else I consider is my show schedule because I don t want my show cavies or rabbits due any where near shows unless they have to. The next important thing to consider is the health of the female. I keep track of bred sows by writing the day they are bred and the day they are due on a calendar. Also I bring in sows that look pregnant one to two weeks before they are due. I also have a large white board that has the sow, the boar, the date put together, date due, date they would need to go inside and then I write in the day the babies are actually born. When thinking about what Abyssinian or Abyssinian Satin cavies to breed, I consider ridges, rosettes, and color. If any Abyssinian cavies have any double rosettes or rosettes out of alignment they will not breed to any cavy with that same rosette problem. Any cavy that has bad ridges cannot breed to any other with bad ridges. If I want red babies I breed a red to a red, a strawberry roan, or brindle with a lot of red. Any other color I can just get by breeding one that is the color that I want to any other cavy. I never breed roan to roan unless it was an accident. On my American and American Satin cavies I consider size, color and body type. I have to consider size in my American Satins because my American Satins tend to be small. For color I mostly breed black to black, Himalayan to Himalayan, and broken to broken unless I want to improve the points on my Himalayans then I breed in a black. I also consider body type like roman noses and broad shoulders. I do track the quality of the offspring when breeding animals. If a pair of animals has show quality babies I will breed that pair again, but if the babies are not show quality I find a different animal to breed to each. I have a computer program that allows me to keep track of the quality of the offspring. I try to keep only the best offspring, and I keep photographs of all the babies born, that way I can constantly evaluate the quality of the offspring. When I have babies I will keep any sows that are at least breedable. Boars though, I only keep the ones that are the best or ones that are desirable colors. I want ones that have pin point centers on the rosettes and good alignment. The rosettes are the most important part of an Abyssinian cavy and they are worth 25 points, so ¼ of the Abyssinian points are based on the rosettes according to the ARBA book of standards. I keep ones that have a good back ridge because that is harder to get. In the ARBA book of standards the ridges are worth 20 points so it is something I focus on. Then I look for one that have a good mane, sometimes they tend to get to fluffy in this area and it messes up the ridges. I also look for ones that have good texture because that helps the ridges stand up straight, but because there is satin in my line sometimes they tend to get a little soft so I have to be careful. Any cavies that I do not keep are sold to brokers, sold at shows, sold in ads online, and in the paper or put in raffles. Royalty #4: How can we make the program better for the future youth? In the future I would like to see ACBA along with ARBA try to promote becoming a registrar as a youth because they must be registrars before becoming judges so if there are more registrars there can be more judges. I also think it would be nice for ACBA to try to push the royalty more and maybe send letters to youth to get the word out because most people I talked to did know what royalty was. I believe this would help the youth because doing the royalty really helps youth learn more about the cavy fancy and it build important life skills NOLAN BEAN Norco, CA, age 9 Royalty #1: If you should win in your age category how will you promote this achievement? If I win I would encourage other people to do it. I would share at my 4-H project meetings and at cavy shows about how I won. Royalty #2: What are your goals for next year with your cavies? My goal is to practice more. I plan on showing and doing showmanship. I plan to do royalty. I also want to learn all the cavy breeds. Royalty #5: What would you like us to know about you and your caviary that has not been asked? I have two cavies right now but my sister has lots, like 115. My first cavy was an American Satin Himi named Snow White. She won lots of ribbons and prizes, but she died last year. Now I have one black American named Buttercup and one Abyssinian named Bebe. They win sometimes. I am responsible for helping my sister feed and water her cavies and taking care of my two. I enjoy cavy shows. My hobbies are soccer, running, acting, 4-H, piano, and basketball. I have one sister and one brother. I live with both and my parents in California. I have a good life. RAINI BISSON Kennewick, WA, age 13 Royalty #1: If you should win in your age category how will you promote this achievement? I would first talk to others about how fun royalty is. I would try to explain that it is very rewarding. I would help my younger sister, as well as others, study for royalty too! By doing this it will make people more aware of what they can do if their interests fall on cavies. I could also call the local radio station or the news to talk to them about cavies. Plus, by being more aware, people can learn more so cavies are noticed even more! Royalty #4: How can we make the program better for the future youth? Devon Bean and Rehanna Stepnoski JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 26

4 It would be nice if at every show there was a fitting and showing contest for kids. That way you could compete with your cavy and fit and show with them at the same time! It would be fun to do this so you could learn more at each show. It might also increase the chances of more youth and their cavies entering the show. More cavies mean that the judge s time was really well spent. It would also boost my confidence near the judge. It would be really nice too if there was a show were you brought all the cavies in your caviary and had them judged against one another! You could also do a cavy bowl. Kids could learn a ton from doing this, I know I have. Side note: Free ice cream to all who entered wouldn t hurt either! Royalty #5: What would you like us to know about you and your caviary that has not been asked? Hi, my name is Raini. I m 13 years old and in 7 th grade. In my free time I enjoy doing track, and cross country. I also love to sew. I have one sister, younger than me, so I m the oldest one. My family and I have five dogs, two corgis and three German shepherds! Aside home life, I go to public school. I also really love chickens! This is my first year in cavies but my fifth year in 4-H. I ve been in two different clubs and I have eight cavies. Their names are Rosary, Ollie, Ivy, Meria, Razz, Cheeto, Gally, and Mermi. I take them to community service when I go to the retirement home. I got my first cavies from Roy Colver. My cavies are located in my room against my wall. Every year my club puts on a show called the April Seminar. I ve been to quite a few shows. I recently just learned how to table write and I found that it s pretty fun. NATHAN BONDE Menifee, CA, age 11 Achievement # 3: Describe any cavy activities that you participated in and/or develop. I am working on agility with my cavies so that I can help put together an agility show. I also show my cavies at five different fairs in 4H every year. I do showmanship with my cavies and have won multiple 1 st places. Management #1: Describe your caviary: cages, location of animals, equipment used for feeding and water, any special equipment used for care and transport of animals, and why you chose these things. I want to continue showing and breeding my cavies. As I continue breeding, I will learn more about animals that will help me in the shows and in my future job. I want to show other how to raise great cavies for themselves. It makes me feel proud for them and I will get community service hours as well. Management #2: What types(s) of feed(s) and or supplements do you give your cavies and why? How often do you feed and water your cavies? Do you give treats and if so how often? I feed Furry Friends Guinea Pig Food. It is affordable, and it is easy to get where we live. I give Calf manna supplement to the Satin cavies for extra vitamin C. I give 4way grain to help with extra nutrients for the babies, pregnant sows, and underweight pigs. I give Wheat Germ Oil for their coat. I give Bermuda hay once a day so that they have healthy teeth and don t get bored. I give alfalfa hay cubes as needed for them to chew on. I feed and water them everyday keeping everything full. I give them fruit and vegetables once a day. Royalty #1: If you should win your age category, how will you promote this achievement? JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 27 I am the 4H Club Reporter and would put an article about it in several newspapers and the county 4H Newsletter. It would also go in my record book to earn a gold star and in the club reporter book that would go to county for judging. WAYNE HEATH Kendrick, ID, age 15 Achievement #2: List any cavy related office, committee positions, or volunteer work you have participated in. Each year I work in the Rabbit and Cavy barns at the Nez Perce and Latah County Fairs. I help with general clean up and answer questions about cavies. My 4H group started a cavy and rabbit rescue in 2005 after local shelters and pet stores started asking us to take unwanted animals. I have been the treasurer from 2005 to 2009 and am again the treasurer. The group has taken in over 60 animals and placed all in homes. Some of the sows were pregnant when we got them, so we have placed 67. Part of my responsibilities in the rescue program are to help assess the health of the animals, care for the animals and get them used to being handled and finding homes for the cavies. I also participate in the county s Operation Challenge. Handicapped individuals are brought to the fairgrounds to ride horses, hay rides, and eat a barbeque lunch and other activities. Our 4H group provides a petting zoo, including cavies. My 4H group goes to local pet stores three or four times a year to teach about cavy care. Each summer I attend the Moscow Summer Come For Fun Program with several of my cavies and again teach about cavy care. I want to become a cavy registrar and judge. I breed tortoise, shell and white Americans. I am trying to increase the size (to 3 pounds) and get better distribution and patching on the TSWs When I become a judge and registrar, I will get to travel, something I like to do. I will also be able to teach others and promote the cavy fancy. I am building my self confidence and meeting new people. I have learned responsibility for the care of animals. I am better at public speaking and have more confidence. I am a better listener and like to read and study on my own. I plan on becoming a veterinarian when I grow up. I am taking the study skills that I am developing now and can use them for studying in high school and college. My experience with the cavies has increased my knowledge about their care. I have also become interested in other exotic animals. I raise rabbits and have 3 land hermit crabs and a Russian Tortoise. Management #2: What type(s) of feed(s) and or supplements do you give your cavies and why? How often do you feed and water your cavies? Do you give treats and if so how often? In December we switched to a new brand of cavy feed that another breeder recommended called Payback. The feed has 18% protein, 2.2% far and 15% fiber. The cavies like it much better. We had been mixing two bags of Nutrina brand guinea pig feed with one bag of Missuri Feed. I lost 8 cavies this winter. We addressed any sanitation concerns, but the animals kept dying, so we decided to change feed. We have not lost any animals since switching over. We don t give any supplements on a regular basis.

5 Before a show I may add some oats or show coat to their diet if I think they need to improve the coat. We will add vitamin E to their feed if they seem to be getting dry skin. Carrots and spinach seem to be the preferred treat of my cavies. I only give treats about once a week. Management #5: Explain your system for keeping records and what information is kept on each animal. Please attach an example. Explain any profit or loss from your caviary last year? For keeping track of breeding, I use tags made out of dry erase plastic that hook on the cage. I do one for each sow in the pen. I list the sow s ear tag, the boar s ear tag and when I put them together. After 45 days, I move the animals into separate cages and move the tag with them. When the sow delivers, I note the date on the tag. I also write down the date that the boar pups should be pulled out of the cage (28 days after birth). When the pups are a week old I sex them. At 28 days I pull the boars out and put them in another cage with a second tag with the same information. I use a 4H animal health record form for each cavy that I keep in my caviary. This lists the sire, dam, date of birth, medical problems and treatments and breeding information. As with last year, I lost money on my caviary. Feed prices went up and I bred fewer animals, because fewer people are buying pets. VICTORIA HICKMAN Colton, CA, age 11 The goals I have set are to breed my cavies. Right now I only have one sow and boar that I can breed. I think this will be a good start. The boar is still too young and I m not sure how well things will go, but this is something I would really like to do. I think the babies are really cute. I d like to sell the babies. This will help me keep proper records, talk to people about my cavies, and manage my own business and monies. Another goal I have is to gain more knowledge about my cavies. This will help me in showmanship when the judge asks me question and when people ask me about my cavies that I want to sell. Management #1: Describe your caviary: cages, location of animals, equipment used for feeding and water, any special equipment used for care and transport of animals, and why you chose these things. The cages I am using are homemade 14 X 14 inch metal grid panels, ziptied together, sitting in an under-the-bed storage container. I put two on the sides and one on the other two sides. I use wood pellets and shavings for bedding. The wood pellets have good absorption and keep the odor down. My caviary is in my garage. I use feed ups or hanging water bottles for water and feed cups or bowls for food. For transporting, I use a rabbit travel cave filled with hay to keep their feet off the wire. The other equipment I use are toenail clippers, grooming tables, Q-Tips, wipes, ear tagger, ear tags, brushes, and combs. I use these because they are affordable. Management #5: Explain your system for keeping records and what information is kept on each animal. Please attach an example. Explain any profit or loss from your caviary last year? I designed a cavy inventory form for record keeping. I keep track of the breed, variety, sex, ear tag #, date of birth, name and date that I purchased each cavy. I also have a place for comments in case anything weird happens to my cavies. I also created a breeding record form to keep track of which sow and boar I breed. I will list the sow and boar by ear tag #, breed and variety. I will keep track of how many are born in each litter, their date of birth and the bred date and any comments. My caviary currently has a loss since I just started it in December I have only been buying cavies and I haven t sold any. Royalty #1: If you should win your age category, how will you promote this achievement? If I should win then I would start by being really excited. Then I will go home and give my report at the 4-H county council meeting, my 4-H general meeting, and at my 4-H cavy project meeting. I will tell everyone at these meetings how I prepared for the contest and what I did while I was there. Even if I don t win I will still give a report at these meetings about what I did. I am so excited to be going that I really want to tell everyone everywhere what and how I did. LYNDSAY HIATT Hemet, CA, age 9 Achievement # 3: Describe any cavy activities that you participated in and/or develop. Some cavy related activities I participate in is the showing of my cavies. I go to as many shows that my mom and dad can take me to. I like to go to them because it lets me know how my cavies rate among the other exhibitors. I learn where they are good and where they are week. I also clerk at some of the shows when they need someone; I enjoy doing that very much. I also like to participate in Royalty contests I have only done 3 so far and I really enjoy them and getting the results back to see how I have improved from the last one. Management #3: Do you take any preventive measures to ensure a healthy caviary? Have any diseases, illnesses or conditions affected your caviary? If so what did you do about it? Weather is a problem in my area so to protect my animals from the heat they are in my garage where it is insulated and has a portable air conditioner unit. When it gets really hot here I have frozen water bottles ready to go out into the cages. I don t have to really worry about the cold because it doesn t really get below 50 degrees. I have been very lucky so far that I have not had any bad infections or mite in my cavies. I keep them wormed with Ivermectin once a month and I spray them with Adams mite spray before we go to any show. I also spray the bedding when I replace it with fresh just to ensure that I don t have or get a mite problem. Management #5: Explain your system for keeping records and what information is kept on each animal. Please attach an example. Explain any profit or loss from your caviary last year? I use Kintraks Software to keep track of all cavies, and a series of lists and charts. I keep records of the dates I bred them, who I bred them to, and how many babies were born, how many girls and how many boys, how many died, if I can show them, and if I kept them. I also am using a paper system I got from a friend of mine named Devon Bean. It keeps track of the date bred, when due, how many born, and how many died. I like this system because for me it is easier to use. I have to have my mom s help with the computer program. Last year I did not have much for profit because I am just getting started. My parents cover all of the costs of my cavy & rabbit projects. JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 28

6 Nathan Bonde, Lyndsay Hiatt, Victoria Hickman, Rebecca Paxson, Noelle Adams AARON MAHAFFEY Pasco, WA, age 9 Royalty #1: If you should win your age category, how will you promote this achievement? I have completed one year of 4-H with guinea pigs as my project, and I learned how great guinea pigs are. I will tell people what I ve discovered so they can learn more about guinea pigs too. Royalty #2: What are your goals for next year with your cavies? To learn how to table write and how to breed better American cavies. Royalty #3: Do you plan to continue with your cavy project in the future? I have an American cavy and I named him Snowball. I like to show him a lot and I have bred him once. ASHLEY MAHAFFEY Pasco, WA, age 10 Royalty #2: What are your goals for next year with your cavies? My goals for next year with my cavies are to breed a better standard of Teddy cavy and to table write. Royalty #4: How can we make the program better for future youth? We can make the program better for future youth by inviting them to learn more about cavies and letting kids have fun while they are doing it. Royalty #5: What would you like us to know about you and your caviary that has not been asked? I really enjoy my cavies and learning how to show them and showing at the fair. I am still studying and learning more about cavies and hope to memorize it all. But until then, I will continue to be in 4-H to learn. MIRANDA MENARD Richland, WA, age 14 Royalty #2: What are your goals for next year with your cavies? I have several goals for my cavy project that I hope to accomplish in the next year. One is winning Best of Breed Silkie Satin at the 2010 ARBA Nationals and ACBA Specialty. But my biggest goal is to have a homebred animal that is good enough to beat some of the adult breeders, and to win Best of Breed again at the Washington State Convention. Also getting more youth involved in raising cavies, especially the longhaired cavies because not very many kids raise them. Becoming a cavy registrar is another goal that I would like to pursue in the next year. Royalty #3: Do you plan to continue with your cavy project in the future? Yes! I love cavies, and plan to continue my project through high school and college. But the amount of animals will be smaller so they are easier to maintain during my studies. I may also change the breeds I raise to a breed that is easier to maintain because of minimal time. Royalty #4: How can we make the program better for the future youth? Having more youth shows would definitely make the program better. Also it would be fun to have shows that are focused on the youth, with fitting and showing contests, in addition to the regular breed show. Another plus would be having the youth shows start later because a lot of the youth do not enjoy waking up early. Also helping kids understand all of the breeds so they have a better idea of deciding on what breed of cavy they would like to raise. JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 29

7 pups to responsible homes as pets or encourage other youth to purchase them for showing. Royalty #1: If you should win in your age category how will you promote this achievement? I have been giving presentations to my 4-H club trying to get members interested in the cavy project. I will prepare a presentation on achieving this award and present it at one of our club s community meetings. I will also promote this achievement proudly on my caviary website. I will explain the benefits and the opportunities of showing cavies to everyone that purchases one of my cavies as a pet, especially youth. HANNAH MOWRY Richland, WA, age 13 Top Row: Taylor Menezes Princess, Rehanna Stepnoski Queen, Bottom Row: Victoria Hickman Duchess, Keegan Reeder Countess, and Nathan Bonde Duke TAYLOR MENEZES Modesto, CA, age 13 Management #1: Describe your caviary; cages, location of animals, equipment used for feeding and water, any special equipment used for care and transport of animals, and why you chose these things. My caviary is very small. I have had my caviary for about a year now and am currently housing 20 Teddy cavies. It is made to house approximately 30 cavies. It is a tuff shed located on the west side of my home. It is fully insulated. It has air conditioning and heat. It has linoleum floors and even an alarm system. I keep my cavies in large clear plastic storage tubs. I do not use the lids so that there is plenty of air supply. I decided to house my cavies in the storage tubs because they are very easy to keep clean. All I have to do is dump the shavings, rinse, disinfect, and put fresh shavings, all done. The clear boxes are nice because I can see in and the cavies can see out. This way they can also see each other. I use Lix It brand hanging water bottles in each box and a ceramic crock for pellets. I use the Lix It brand water bottles because they seem to be the only ones that do not leak and I like them. The ceramic crocks are perfect for the pellets because the cavies can not knock them over. When traveling to cavy shows I use an 8 hole KW carrying cage. It keeps the cavies safe and secure while traveling. Management #4: Describe everything you consider when breeding your cavies. Do you keep track of bred sows and their litters? What do you do with your surplus cavies? I consider the color of the parents, their bloodlines, and their pedigrees. I keep track of when I put the sow in with the boar, when her expected due date is, and when to wean the pups. I usually keep all sow pups to see what kind of show animals they will turn into, and I normally sell all of the boar My goal for Royalty is always to study hard and place well. One of my longterm goals for myself is that I will ARBA queen one day. I plan to accomplish that by studying very hard so that I can work my way up to it. A short term goal is that I will win the Princess category this year. I hope to accomplish this goal by again studying and staying focused. Someday I hope to win Best in Show at ARBA Nationals one day, with a home bred cavy. I have set a goal to keep up with my brindle White Cresteds program and I would love to win BOB with a homebred one at a National level. I also want to work to continue to produce and improve my black Americans. I want to continue my recent Tan/Silver Martin American program, and then further my project with them by improving color and markings. A long term goal is for me to be an ARBA cavy registrar before high school, then eventually an ARBA Judge for cavies. Royalty #4: How can we make the program better for the future youth? An idea to make shows better for youth is to give each entrant a free McDonald s coupon or a mini candy or something like that. It would give everyone a small reward. This would be especially good for younger youth, who might not have been awarded anything with their prize piggy. It would also be fun to have a Breeders Choice where each entrant brings their choice of one animal to compete, and have them judged for Best Breeders choice, and Reserve Breeders choice. Another idea I have had is to have a small questions and answers time at the end of each show where the youth are given an opportunity to ask the judge about comments, etc. that they were unsure about. It would only have to be about half an hour, or less. It would just be something to help the youth clarify decisions, or placements made in the show. Royalty #5: What would you like us to know about you and your caviary that has not been asked? I am in eighth grade at Chief Joseph middle school, and am practically jumping out of my seat for high school. I am at a good place in my project, currently, but time is getting more difficult to manage as high school is closer approaching. I juggle church, music, 4-H, school, and a social life on a daily basis. It s a little crazy sometimes, but I enjoy it. There are four other people in my family, a brother sister, mom, and dad. My sister, now 20, is a former 4-Her, and people often expect very much out of me, because of how good she was at what she did with her project. My mom is our club s 4-H leader (our club consists of about 50 kids), and she has JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 30

8 always supported me and believed in me with my project. My brother and dad were never very into 4-H, but they always supported us. I often run local cavy shows without any adult help with a couple other 4-Hers, and we are getting better and better at it every time. My project has grown enormously since my one little cavy cage in my room at 5 years old. Since then, my cavies have gone into our main floor, then later down to our basement. Even since they have all been in our basement, we have remolded down there by painting the walls fun colors and building a runway for my tan rabbits, although it has come in handy as a useful holding place when going through the caviary. I love road trips on the way to and from shows, but I hate the chores and unloading once you get there. People often ask me why I do 4-H; what s the point? I say to them, It s fun! I love going to shows and contests, and always coming home, knowing more than when I came. It also helps in the long run, for job and college applications. It teaches responsibility, sportsmanship, honesty, and the ability to think practical. Thank you for reading my application! CARRIE NOLAN Pasco, WA, age 13 Royalty #2: What are your goals for next year with your cavies? Some of my goals next year are to breed my broken color cream and white American and American Satin cavies to get better patching, distribution of patching, and to get the cream patches not to fade. Also I would love to get some agouti American and agouti American Satin cavies. Royalty #3: Do you plan to continue with your cavy project in the future? Yes, I would love to continue with my cavy project in the future. Some ways I could do this are to become a cavy registrar and a cavy judge. Also if I have kids I would like them to be in 4- H, so they can have the wonderful experiences I`ve had. Royalty #5: What would you like us to know about you and your caviary that has not been asked? I have raised cavies for 7 years now and really love it. I started out with one broken golden agouti red and white American. Now I have 24 cavies, 2 different breeds, in 5 different varieties. The part I like the most is when we have new litters. I love the excitement of seeing what the new babies look like! I also love the travelling we have done in relation to the project. My most memorable trip was going to ACBA Specialty in I have had some great achievements too. The very first time I won Best in Show was at Fair, in Then at Fair in 2008 I won Best in Show again, with a homebred cavy. Those are great memories. There are some other things I would like you to know about me besides my cavies. My other 4-H projects are rabbits, goats, chickens, ducks, and horses. I have four brothers and two sisters. I`m in 7 th grade at McLoughlin Middle School in Pasco, WA. I play 4 instruments; clarinet and oboe in band, alto saxophone in our schools top jazz band, piano for fun, and I sing in the school choir. I also play soccer, basket ball, bowling, softball, and I`m on a swim team during the summer. BUT THE ROYALTY CONTEST IS ONLY OPEN TO BOYS AND GIRLS, NOT US PIGGIES! SO NOT FAIR... JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 31 REBECCA PAXSON Semi Valley, CA, age 9 Achievement #5: Explain what you do to make others aware of rabbits or cavies. I tell my friends about my cavies and have them come over and look at the different breeds. I have taken my cavies down to a local summer camp for two summers now and showed all of the kids the cavies. The kids got to hold and brush my cavies while I talked about them. I have brought my cavies to our community 4-H meeting and explained what our cavy group was doing and what we have learned about our cavies. I have brought all of my animals to Small Animal 4-H Field Days to exhibit them. I am the only 4-Her in our cavy group with 12 of the 13 breeds so I get asked to do many breed demonstrations. I always work showmanship with my 4-H group. Kids and adults come to me and ask me cavy questions. Most of the time I know the answers, but I keep the Book of Standards handy. Achievement #8: Explain how you have helped others learn new skills and increase their knowledge of this hobby. I have helped increase awareness of correct conformation by showing kids what is good and bad on a guinea pig, by taking them with me to shows, and by talking to the judges with other kids at the shows (after the show is over). I show EVERYONE I know cavy showmanship even my dentist came to see me show showmanship at the Fair!! I have donated several non -show quality guinea pigs to my elementary school as classroom pets. This lets kids learn to love guinea pigs and hear their precious noises. I go around every few weeks and clip the nails of all the guinea pigs at my school. Management #1: Describe your caviary; cages, location of animals, equipment used for feeding and water, any special equipment used for care and transport of animals, and why you chose these things. I have my caviary in my garage and I have named it Chitter Chatter Cavies because my cavies chitter chatter all of the time. Since we live in Southern California, we do not have to heat the garage where the animals live, but we have put in an air conditioner for the summer time to keep them cool. We have 5 cages that are 5-tieres tall and my Dad made special stands for them with very solid bases. We use water bottles because my Mom does not trust the automatic watering system we bought some of the pigs play with the sipper tubes and they get stuck closed. We have individual dividers in between the cages because I have several long haired guinea pigs and we discovered that the pigs will chew on each others coats if they are not separated. When we go to shows we have many 6-hole carriers that stack nicely. We have set our caviary up this way because my Mom and I want our guinea pigs to have the best care possible and that starts with good, clean, safe equipment. KEEGAN REEDER Santa Paula, CA, age 8 Royalty #5: What would you like us to know about you and your caviary that has not been asked? My caviary name is Candyland Caviary and I chose it because I love sweets and candy and I love my cavies, so all of my cavies are named after sweets or candies. I breed Americans in Red and Black, TSW, and Broken colors. I also breed

9 Teddies in Broken colors, black, and I am trying to start breeding them in dilute (lemon) agouti. Achievement #4: What goals have you achieved to this point in your cavy project, and how did you achieve them? I have started a successful breeding program with the help of my mother. I am able to identify quality animals and determine which animals will produce the best offspring when paired together. our cavy project, and how will they help you in the future? I would like to be able to start showing animals that I have bred myself from my own caviary s line and breed animals that are up to standards and are competitive on the show table. This will help me to continue to breed animals that are better and better. I would like to breed animals that are competitive at the national level. REHANNA STEPNOSKI Doylestown, PA, age 16 The goals I have set myself for the future of my cavy project include: winning of Best of Breed at the ARBA national convention in Minnesota and at the ACBA specialty conventions in Monterey and New York; continuing to breed quality animals and improving the Texel breed; and holding my title as the first place ACBA and PASRBA youth sweepstakes winner. I hope to eventually become a cavy registrar, judge, and ACBA Queen, and to continue attending shows and volunteering as a writer and/ or secretary. I want to always encourage other youth to involve themselves in the cavy hobby, and to help them with showmanship skills and basic care for their animals. Additionally, I will educate the public about exhibiting and owning cavies. I would like to become a Master Breeder later in my career as a cavy breeder. Finally, I will strive to do my best in everything cavyrelated, be it exhibiting animals or competing in educational competitions. with no course of treatment; therefore, I have not had to cull any of my cavies. Royalty #4: How can we make the program better for future youth? With the deficit of judges in the cavy fancy, it is important that the American Cavy Breeders Association focuses on youth so they become interested in judging, raising, breeding, and learning about cavies. If we do this, our future judges will be well-educated and enthusiastic. New youth members who want to show may feel intimidated by the more competitive adult members at open shows. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the ACBA and other local cavy clubs to offer even more youth shows in conjunction with the preexisting open shows: this way, members will feel more comfortable showing, will participate more often, and will eventually become open cavy exhibitors. 4-H can also be used as a gateway to new members. If the ACBA works to promote their shows through 4-H clubs and activities, it can reach a wide audience of potential exhibitors, thus increasing numbers at shows. An interest in cavies at a young age is the key to developing a good judge. A THANK YOU NOTE Rehanna, 2010 ACBA Queen As many cavy exhibitors know, the 2010 ACBA specialty show was both successful and enjoyable. Kudos to those who made such a large event possible! One of the highlights for youth members was the royalty competition. On behalf of those who participated, I would like to thank several people: Karen Dehaven and her assistants for making the competition happen, as well as those who donated items to youth royalty winners. Each winner received a travel carrier in addition to a Tractor Supply Company gift card. Special thanks goes to Bob, the manager of the Tractor Supply store in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Not only did Bob provide the gift cards, but he also permitted Karen and I to set up a table in the front of his store in order to promote the ACBA. I met Bob in person and thanked him for his kindness. Truly generous people like him make the cavy hobby that much better. Rehanna Stepnoski and Karen Dehaven Management #3: Do you take any preventative measures to ensure a healthy caviary? Have any diseases, illnesses or conditions affected your caviary? If so what did you do about it? The preventative measures I take are: cleaning the cavies trays at least once a week (more frequently if necessary), disinfecting any cages and supplies before they are used for new cavies, and power-washing and disinfecting all cages annually. I also keep a very close eye on my cavies to watch for changes in behavior or physical symptoms. I recently experienced a sow with pregnancy toxemia. Unfortunately, the pups were stillborn and the sow died shortly after giving birth. This experience taught me never to stress a pregnant sow and to always put a spoonful of sugar in her water bottle for the week of her due date. If I do happen to find something wrong with one of my cavies, I research the symptoms in an attempt to find the proper illness. I often look to Raising Better Rabbits & Cavies, the ARBA Standard of Perfection, fellow breeders, and reputable online sources for information. This step helped in the diagnosis of pea eye in one of my animals: my research led me to the conclusion that pea eye is not contagious, and therefore I did not need to isolate the cavy. However, I did discover that this condition may be hereditary, so I sold the cavy as a pet to a young 4-Her. Fortunately, I have not encountered a contagious disease JACBA V14 I3 Summer Page 32