This is about me and my pigs

My name is Susan J. Wise, I live in Darlington which is in the north east of England

I kept "guinea pigs" many years ago as a young girl, these were only the pet or "heinz 57" of the pig world and loved every minute of what I thought was a lot of guinea pigs to look after - ten.

Many years later with a family of my own, my second daughter Victoria wanted a guinea pig and this rekindled the feeling I had for these little animals and finally when the children left home I bought myself a couple from the local pet shop and these two boars were the start of the Rexcetra Stud. I then went looking for a periodical that I could read to keep up with the cavy scene of the day, 'Cavies' was the obvious choice and this led me to join the National Cavy Club and my nearest local club - Durham and Northumberland Cavy Club. One day in March 2002 I went along to a show to see what happened at such meetings, people there were very friendly I was absolutely amazed at all the varieties of cavies, they were only a few breeds in the 1960's, and this is where I saw my first Rex Cavy and fell in love immediately. Duncan McRobbie the secretary was very kind and managed to obtain my first Rex a lemon agouti bi sow. Since then I have been very lucky and obtained some good breeding stock off various well known studs that breed Rex, and I would like to thank at this point Linda Monk, Melanie Bell and Mary Jaffa, for starting me off with some good pigs that have become the basis of the Rex in the shed today.

The colours in rex which I prefer to breed are silver agouti, silver/white, golden agouti,  and most of all my favourite, various colours of roaning.

In 2010 I wanted a new Golden Agouti Rex boar for my shed, and found it very difficult to do so, not many  of the top breeders had golden agouti Rex in their sheds any more, however I was very lucky to get a young boar from Anne Banner, he is turning out to be a fab breeder and show pig. In January 2011 at the Bradford Small Animal Show, Harrogate, I managed to pick up some more golden agouti's from Linda Monk (Pickersleigh Stud) from Worcester, Mary Jaffa, from Paignton, Devon and Melanie Bell from Manchester, many thanks go to these ladies for supplying such lovely cavies.

I now have plenty of Rex Golden Agouti Stock to go forward a promote this poor relation of the Rex World and hopefully bring it back into the limelight. I have decided to specialise in this colour, so that at least one breeder of Rex can supply any other breeders that are interested in helping this coloured Rex!!

In the early months of 2003 I saw my first Teddy cavy, very much like the rex with hair that stands erect, but the hair on the teddy is straight and thick, where as on the rex it is a 'kinky' course hair.

At the Doncaster show in 2003 The Rare Varieties Cavy Club had a stall with a Teddy on display, after talking to Caroline Smith who was in charge of the desk, I agreed with her that I would purchase a Boar and Sow as soon as a pair became available. A few months later I had my first Teddies in the shed a Teddy boar and Teddy carrier sow. and later on in May I purchased another pair of full teddies from Gerry Harvey, Gerry was the first person to import Teddies from Scandinavia. I have to thank Caroline and Gerry for the excellent pigs that I obtain from them, they have produced some really lovely animals for me

In June 2010 I decided to stop breeding teddies, I have seen this breed become more and more popular over the years, and now have friends breeding some very fine examples of the breed.

In 2006 I saw my first Swiss cavy at Keighley show, Heather Henshaw, let me hold and have a close look at her cavies that she had entered in the show, I was amazed by their lovely soft long coats. Early in 2008 I had decided that I would like to breed some swiss cavies, as we were going to Devon for a holiday I decided to contact Gina Skinner of Pedrina Cavies in Barnstaple, I managed to bring home some beautiful stock from her stud, some she had bred herself others from Callias Cavies and some foreign stock.

I have become quite smitten with these very gently, big framed cavies and the colours are fabulous, the colours in particular that I like are the Himalayan type, tri-coloured and black and white combinations, which I hope to concentrate on, I hope to have some in the shed for many years to come.

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Rexcetra won Non Self Adults Points for 2009 at the Durham & Northumberland Cavy Club

also won

  Rare Variety Any Age Points for 2009 at the Durham & Northumberland Cavy Club

Rexcetra won Non/Self Adult points for 2010 at Durham & Northumberland Cavy Club