Avians
Breeding
Canines
Caprines
Felines
Foaling
Herdbeasts
Ovines
Porcines
Runners
Basic Info
-Four types of primary avians: wherry, chicken, goose, and duck. Domesticated and all are
fairly rare *esp the last 3.
Wherry
-No feathers, but a 'proto-feathers', multi-tufts like a *marabou*.
-Cartilaginous wings with membrains under thick down.
-6 limbs, 2 wings, 2 frontfeet, 2 hindfeet. Frontfeet are smaller. One claw with 2 rigid
claws to grasp and rend. Back legs are well-muscled and kick powerfully. Three toes cant
backwards to keep animal from being captured.
-Big animals turn canibal when one of the # is injured or killed.
-Nest in caves or rocky outcroppings and eat fish, carrion, tunnelsnakes, insects, offal,
and garbage.
Ducks
-Raised primarily for meat.
-Approx. 160 eggs a year.
-Generally marketed at 7 to 8 weeks of age.
Geese
-Used for weeding, get rid of uncultivated growth immediately.
-Raised primarily for meat.
-Let to fatten a few weeks after a harvest, then marked for meat.
Chickens
-Egg producers or broiler producer.
-Broilers: larger than egg-layers. Broad breasted and heavily muscled.
-Egg-layers: body conformation is of little consequence. Larger breeds produce larger
eggs. Older hens produce more eggs.
-Flocks have a high percentage of females to males.
-Maturity differs but is typical sold at 5 1/2 to 6 months.
Eggs: hen produces an egg without mating with a male bird, but such an egg will not
hatch.
-Good signs: 20 eggs per bird per month.
Eggs
-Gather eggs 3 to 5 times a day.
-Keep clean and cover shell with mineral oil (thin, odorless, colorless) for more
protection.
-Cool eggs, and candle them: bring to a light to examine them.
-Ship eggs as quickly as possible.
-Incubation: Chick: 21, Duck: 28, Goose: 30. Wherry/?...figure about 30 days or so.
Basic Info
-Warning! Breeders have an /enormous/ responsibility as they consider a creation of a new life.
What is being done is basically dictating what the outcome of a mating is to be, from blood and
bone to the offsprings very character.
-Need a practical knowledge of the creatures that will be mating , care of the litter and of the
mother.
Genetic Laws (Mendel's Laws)
-Traits -everyone has traits, be them black hair, hazel eyes, a hairy chest. The traits of a
creature are what you consider when breeding a pair for offspring of a certain type.
-There are dominant and recessive aspects to all traits. Where being dominant is when one is
the most powerful and recessive is one who is ruled by another power (ie,the dominant). When mating
a pair with contrasting traits, the chances of getting an offspring with one specific type of trait
differs. Dominant traits have a /much/ better odds of appearing then recessive.
-The difference lies in if the trait is pure or hybred. Pure is that the trait is either totally
dominant or totally recessive. Hybred is if it is a mix of dominant and recessive traits.
-Yes, it is confusing...but for a visual reference use #3657. The Trait's Parchment. Capital
letters are dominant, lower case are recessive. One trait is represented per box, with the male's
trait on one side and the female's to the side of it. The boxes represent a one in four chance and
the possible outcomes. AA is dominant purebred, aa is recessive purebred, Aa is hybred.
Breeding Outcome and Creating Them
-Visualize the outcome you require, study the breed's background, bloodline, back to the
grandparents is the most efficient way, physical and mental characteristics, character itself.
-As a couple of examples:
To breed an excelent guard canine: size, temperment, intelligence, agility, build.
To breed a great hunter runner: size, strong limbs, agility, able joints, all over sturdiness.
To breed a strong harness herdbeast: stamina, strong chest, stout legs, easy temperment
-You can't make a racing runner froma pair of narrow chested standard breds ;)
Basic Info
-Canine breeds and their types differ in training, size, activity, and shedding.
-Mixed breed: roll of the genetic dice. Don't know how big, look like, etc...
-Eat just about anything, meats and grains, Rawhide: made from bone and skin /bones/ hoof
parings.
Types
-Sporting: hunting, flush game, retrieve, helpers that aid the blind. Also good in
locating people in cave ins. Most are large but not too much, for size would overburden,
with stamina and agility though.
-Hounds: Scent and sight hounds. Attention to senses so they may not often follow
commands.
-Working: protectors and load pullers. Both small and large. Powerfull, intelligent, make
own decisions, unless training sinks in. Best for experienced dog handlers.
-Terriers: dig and go to the ground. After vermin.
-Toy: Enjoy breed, no real work reason, except to enjoy, small.
-Herding: Very intelligent and biddable. Work in partnership with handler. Work thru
intimidation and a harassment to control animals larger then them. Also good for
protection.
-Non-sporting: Catch-all group. Doesn't classify into the others.
Breeding
-Females come into season for 2 sevendays a year. Spaying or neutering an animal tones
them down.
-Males are generally larger thatn females.
Males are early bloomers, 6+ months
-Females come into season before 1st birthday, they bleed.
-Usually breed after 2 turns, so they are more mature.
-In heat every 21-30 days... 5-7 months.
-Gestation is 58-70 days, prepare a whelping box
Basic Info
-Female: doe, Male: buck or billy, Young: kid.
-Agile creatures
-Feeds on greens in mountains or pastures, shrubbery.
Caprine Itself
-Cloven-hoofed, horned, closely related to ovines, but tail is shorter and hallow horns are long,
directed up, back, and outward. Males have beards.
Breeding
-Puberty @ 6 months
-Heat periods in fall and early winter.
-Gestation of 5 months, producing 2 kids usualy.
Value
-Uses of milk, meat, burden beast, skin, pelt.
-Pelt: Some pelts are used by weavers: mohair, cashmere, /very/ fine material...leather, pelt for
rugs and robes..
-Milk: More easily digested then bovine milk, recomeneded for infants and invalids.
Basic Info
-Small carnivarous animal used as a popular pet, killing tunnelsnakes and
other vermin.
-Retractable claws, keen sense of hearing, excellent night vision, compact
and muscular supple body.
-Long haired and short haired varieties, though very few short haired
kinds still exist on Pern.
Feline Itself
-Discriminating taste, acute hearing and can learn to recognize certain
words like their name and tone of voice.
-Whiskers act as antennae to avoid objects when dark.
-Hunter sight with wide-angle view.
-Body is designed for maximum speed with minimum of effort. Coordination
for climbing, jumping, and balancing. Strong hindlegs, balancing tail.
-Purring is a sign of contentment and relaxation.
Breeding
-Female is mature at 6 months (Queen), Male at 10 months (Tomcat).
-Female comes into heat in 2-week cycles with a period lasting 2-4 days.
-Gestation is 65 days or 9 seven-days.
-Average litter is 2-6 kittens.
-Castrate a male and spay a female
Southern Cats
-Created off a Terran Cheetah. Long animals that are yellow brown with
black spots. Attacks at a run, not a leap. Very fast, short claws. Large
and extremely deadly.
-Wild and in numbers in the Southern Continent (jungle areas).
Try to teach this through an actual birthing *preferably a runner foaling seeing as how this lesson is mostly tailored to such.
Pregnancy
-Runner gestation period: 320-380 days (340 ave.).
-Mare's abdomen gets larger, near end udder gets swollen and firm.
Foaling Indications
-Mare is antisocial, then nervous.
-Secretion at the teats of her udder.
**But these can happen often, a large margin of error. Though you can
typically trust that she will foal during the evening hours.
Labor
-Don't confuse with colic -discomfort, sweating, frequent passing of
water.
1. First Stage
Basic Info
-Three basic types of bovine: meat, dairy, and burden.
-Also a source of leather, glue, and fertilizer.
-Young: calf, young female: heifer, female: cow, male: bull, Some castrated males are called steers for meat purposes, burdenbeast are oxen.
Physical Bovine
-Cloven.
-Dairy have large udders and produce milk in excess than required for
nursing purposes.
-Beef are far larger, heavily covered with flesh, rectangular in profile with shorter legs.
-Short head and neck, great width of chest, straight legs, level under, strong hooves, straight top.
-Ruminant (chews cud).
Breeding
-Gestation at 283 days.
-Heifers calve at 2 turns.
-The animal should be 'serviced' during the late summer, so that by the
time the calves are born, there will be plenty of fresh grasses to
consume.
Keeping the Herd
-Beef bovines can be tagged for slaughter at weaning.
-Feeder bovines are typically slaughtered in the fall after the grazing season.
-Beef bovines are fattened on last that is rough, broken, nontillable but at a better quality then that for ovines.
Basic Intro
-Successful ovine production depends upon a healthy and highly productive flock that is managed
well.
-Uses of wool, meat, skins, and milk.
-Ovines tend to be more efficient foragers then runners or herdbeasts and are typically given
lands unsuitable for the other beasts -though they should be given their fair share often.
Ovine Itself
-Short neck, short and broad head, straight back and level rump, wide chest, forelegs straight at
outside corners of body, full and plump rearlegs with a block-like body formation.
-Ruminant: grazes, lightly chewing food then swallows, when finished grazing regurgitates and
chews further -cud. Finally is swallowed and digested.
Breeding
-Puberty: rams @ 5 months/ ewe lambs at 8 months, and can be bred fall of first year.
-Estrus (heat/proddiness) is brought on by cold weather in ewes, come late in summer and in fall.
-Birth happens 144-152 days after conception. some ewes will be needing help at birthing time,
especially the first timers, but don't disturb her unless it is obvious she is introuble.
Wool
-Tagging: trimming the wool.
-Crutching: tagging about the posterior.
-Facing: tagging about the face (above and below the eyes) to avoid wool blindness.
-Wool is the natural covering of ovines with an elastic and waxy appearance.
Sheering
-Fleece is not removed until danger of cold rains and snow is past.
-Sheer only when wool is dry.
-Good sheering is a technique that must be developed.
-Use handsheers and take off fleece in one piece to give the Weavers the best quality.
Basic Info
-One of the most efficient animals in terms of converting grain to meat and nearly all of the
porcine's carcass is used in some way.
-The require little labor and small space.
-A sanitary animal which prefers cool, clean, and well kept quarters.
-Mud farrows: no efficient way of distributing body heat, so they lay in or against something
cooler then their body.
Porcine Itself
-Short trim head, smooth blending back and shoulder, strong smooth arch back, neat rump, curly
tail, plump full hams, strong feet, short legs, and smooth shiny hair.
-Simple stomach.
Breeding
-Puberty: boars (males) reach puberty at about 6 months / Gilts (females less then 1 turn oled)
at about 5 months.
-Estrus (heat/proddiness) periods seem to happen the early summer and late autumn.
-Birth happens 3 months, 3 seven-days, 3 days after conception: farrowing with litters reaching
from 6 to 18 in size.
-Typicaly, porcines do not need help when birthing, only that the newborns should be freed from
the enveloping membrain after birth, but one should be around in case help is needed, and be ready
to assist.
-Always be careful around a sow, especially if she has a litter. They can get /very/ protective.
Basic Info
-Used for many different things: travel, burden, sport.
-Variety of breeds and purposes from small runners to riding: harness, racing, hunter, travel, to heavy runners.
-Terms: Stallion is a male over 3 turns, Stud is a male used for breeding, Filly is a young female up to 3 turns, Mare is a mature female, Colt is a young male up to 3 turns, Gelding is a castrated male of any age, Foal is a under 1 turn, Weanling is just weaned from dam.
-Require a high degree of care, attention, excercise, etc...
-Apprentices deal with care of average runner. Senior apprentices care for the high-strung and more costly animals.
Physical Runner
-Weighs as much as 2 men, up to 7 men.
-Height is measured in hands, usually between 14 and 17 hands tall measured at the withers.
-Covered in a coat of hair which gets very rich and shaggy come winter. Has a mane and tail.
-Large head and long neck help runner to keep balance when moving. Moves head up and down when walking, as we do with arms when walking. Can see
forward, both sides, and a bit in back. Can see better in the dark, sharp sense of hearing, sharper smell. Ears show where attention is. If mad, ears will flatten.
-Legs: Hoof, just above hooves /pastern/, join above hoof is /fetlock/. Next to join in middle is /knee/ in frontlegs, /hock/ in rear. Joint where
forelegs meet body is the /elbow/. Withers are at the base back of the neck.
-Simple stomach.
Breeding
-Sexually mature at 2 turns, but we usually wait 'til 3.
-Gestation is 336 days or 11 months with typically single births.
-Mare can be bred 9 days after birth if she appears healthy.
-Generally, births are during late night and someone should be present to
be sure all goes well.
Tack
-Halter: wore on head and used as a means of leading without the use of a more restrictive bridle.
-Bridle: fits on head and a rider's means of control.
Bit: mouthpiece placed in a runner's mouth.
Noseband: part of bridle that arches above muzzle.
Headpiece fits over ears, browband before ears. Throatlash underneath.
Reins: rider's direct contact with the bit.
-Saddle: buckled on runner's back and gives rider more comfortable seat than bareback.
-Deepest part of saddle should fit on lowest part of back of animal's spine.
-Girth is buckled under chest, firmly
-Pommel is center front of a saddle, often pronounced.
-Cantle is the extreme rear of the saddle.
-Stirrup is for anchoring the feet.
