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baby guinea pigs urgent help needed!!!!!

S

sarahslc

Warren Scout
Have just had a frantic phonecall from my mum - her guinea pig has just given birth! Mum has had her about a month so this is a pet shop accident! Mum noticed she was getting fat and thought she was over feeding her, but has just got home from a meal out and Molly has given birth to 4 babies so far!

We need advice on caring for the little nippers i.e do we leave well alone, can we handle them etc but also Molly lives with another pig Polly, do we leave Polly in with Molly or take her out?

Please help!!!!
 
Ooo-errr, I don't know I'm afraid. The only thing I do know about piggies is that they need to be sexed and separated ridiculously early, something like 3 weeks old, because they are born fully mature, they become able to mate and reproduce much earlier than buns and other domestic animals :shock:
 
Yep - 3 weeks for separating the boys from the girls.

I know very little about baby piggies, but I would recommend that you PM KarenRGPR. :)

Edit: just re-read your post - it's fine to leave another female in with the mother and babies, as long as your mum is convinced she is a female and not the father. If not, I'm afraid they will have already mated again! :shock:
 
:wave: When my pig had babies I just left her to it. The babies will be running about not long after birth and will eat the same food as their mum. You can touch them, mum shouldn't mind. Anouther female pig in with them shouldn't be a problem, but a male should be removed. You will need to take any baby boys away from the females at 3 weeks. :)
 
Are you sure Polly is a female? If so they can all stay together. Handling the babies is not a problem and its best to give them a quick check over about 24 hours after birth. They will start to eat 'normal' feed almost straight away aswell as suckling from their Mum.
As Alison says the babies need to be sexed ASAP as they Boars can impregnate Mum from about 3 -4 weeks of age.........:shock:

Good Luck :)
 
Guinea pig pregnancy last about 2 1/2 months. If you think the piggy was pregnant when bought at the pet shop I would go and tell them. Get them to give you some free food and hay to help feed the babies. Was it Pets at home or a small pet shop?
 
Thank you for all your help. It was a Pets at Home piggy :roll::roll::roll:. Polly is definitely a girl (she can't be the father as she was bought three weeks ago) and my mum said she is now actually snuggling up to the babies almost like she is helping Molly - Auntie Polly! Are baby piggies easy to sex?
 
sarahslc said:
Thank you for all your help. It was a Pets at Home piggy :roll::roll::roll:. Polly is definitely a girl (she can't be the father as she was bought three weeks ago) and my mum said she is now actually snuggling up to the babies almost like she is helping Molly - Auntie Polly! Are baby piggies easy to sex?
Click to expand...

Go back to pets at home, they should give you a hutch for the boys (if you have any) at least try and get some free food for them. You bought one pig not 5!! It should be easy enough to sex the babies, have a look on the net for some pictures. Although I once took a pig to the vet to have it sexed because I wasn't sure and the vet couldn't tell either!
Do you know what you will do with the babies, keep them all or rehome? :)
 
As I understand it, baby piggies can be sexed, but it's not so easy when you don't know what you're looking for, so you could wait till the 2 week mark when things develop a bit more.
 
lol i love baby guinea pigs, i used to breed them, you can handle them straight away. baby guineas can start eating food straight away but tend to feed on mums milk constantly for the first few weeks. their so funny. However i hate to say sounds like thats not your guineas first litter. guinea pigs give birth to two babies the first time the larger one dies. the second litter will be bigger, so the mother may already know what to do. if you can get some piccies that would be great. :D
 
Ted an Petal said:
lol i love baby guinea pigs, i used to breed them, you can handle them straight away. baby guineas can start eating food straight away but tend to feed on mums milk constantly for the first few weeks. their so funny. However i hate to say sounds like thats not your guineas first litter. guinea pigs give birth to two babies the first time the larger one dies. the second litter will be bigger, so the mother may already know what to do. if you can get some piccies that would be great. :D
Click to expand...

When my two pigs had babies, which were their first (and last) litters one had 3 babies and the other had 4. None of the babies died.
 
like right okay. i just thought different but could be wrong okay. like there you go okay. okay okay. as okay gets. :wave:
 
I will try and get some baby piggie pics tomorrow when i go and see them, hopefully this is Molly's first litter as she is only around 15weeks old herself poor love!!! We will be letting PAH know what has happened so with any luck they will help out. I'm not sure what my mum is planning to do with the babies but as she is a softie she probably end up keeping two and I expect my sister will take the other two. I know she would rather they stayed within in the family as she knows they will be well cared for.:D
 
Get intouch with Pets@Home head office and they will provide you with another cage and stuff. Shops normally just tell you they will take he babies off your hands (well the two near me do anyway).
 
Ted an Petal said:
lol i love baby guinea pigs, i used to breed them, you can handle them straight away. baby guineas can start eating food straight away but tend to feed on mums milk constantly for the first few weeks. their so funny. However i hate to say sounds like thats not your guineas first litter. guinea pigs give birth to two babies the first time the larger one dies. the second litter will be bigger, so the mother may already know what to do. if you can get some piccies that would be great. :D
Click to expand...

I do guinea pig rescue and have had lots of pregnant females come in and never had a problem, yes the occassional baby does die but that is just as likely in what ever number litter they have had. The same goes for rabbits babies and even human babies.
 
Ted an Petal said:
lol i love baby guinea pigs, i used to breed them, you can handle them straight away. baby guineas can start eating food straight away but tend to feed on mums milk constantly for the first few weeks. their so funny. However i hate to say sounds like thats not your guineas first litter. guinea pigs give birth to two babies the first time the larger one dies. the second litter will be bigger, so the mother may already know what to do. if you can get some piccies that would be great. :D
Click to expand...

I don't know much about pigs although we have 2 lovely boys at the moment- but I did have some about 25:shock::shock:years ago when I was ahem, a young girl...I had a boy pig, Pod, and got a baby girl pig Sophie from a friend to have babies with Pod- I know it was wrong now but it was a long time ago and I knew no better- anyway Sophie had definitely not had babies before that as she was from a friend's litter- but she had 4 in her first and only litter, 3 survived- Of course I couldn't part with them and kept the boys with Pod and the 1 girl with Sophie.
Just to assure you she may very well have not had a litter before - I don't think Tedan Petal is quite right on that.
'
 
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