I actually bred a few years back. Now I look back and I don't know how I ever wanted to do it... it was a nice experience for myself. Now I am a lot less selfish and I wouldn't put my sows through it again. I had 6 wonderful litters and fortunately we had no stillborns or deaths.. not troubles at all. But if I'd have continued to breed I know it would have happened some day. The sows have no choice to breed and while one of my sows gave birth, she actually flipped right over onto her back while she had a contraction. It was horrible to watch and I think that's when I realised I didn't want to breed anymore. The reason I did was because I was a teenager who wanted to witness guinea pig births and raise babies. I also wanted to show (I quit showing just recently) so I wanted to be able to produce my OWN show 'stock'.. I didn't want to show a pig that I hadn't 'created'. I think what stopped me showing may have been the lack of care the stewards gave to the guinea pigs when handling them and the way the judges prodded them about.
I think all the downsides are ignored by breeders (overpopulation, deaths) and breeding is done purely for their own selfish reasons.. I'm just glad I saw through it in the end!  |