We live in Texas and I am the "mom" to 8 beautiful Blue Gem (or Blue Sapphire) ladies. I originally had 15, but one passed away in infancy, another in July (cause unknown), another 2 weeks ago (my first suspicion of Marek's), and we just had to humanely (thanks to duluthralphie) put down two more, then one more passed a few weeks ago. The rest seem like they're in great health now, and I really want to keep it that way, so I'm supplementing their feed and giving them yogurt, etc.