Pregnant rescue piggy.. help?

**sphanges** · #1 02-20-08, 06:57 pm

Hi there,

I have recently acquired two rescue piggies, Ruffles and Daisy. I suspect Daisy is pregnant, as she was rescued with a several-week-old litter and they were born in a mixed sex cage. She looks chubby round the middle but I can't tell definitively yet. She'd be around 4-5 weeks if she was pregnant.

Can anyone tell me when it's usually possible to tell without a doubt?

I'm crossing my fingers that Ruffles isn't as she seems a bit too young

Thanks!
B

**pigsforlife** · #2 02-20-08, 07:14 pm

If you can take a picture of her from above it would be excellent.

If she is pregnant she will become more and more pear shaped. You will be able to feel them moving around and kicking, and their teeth chattering by about the 7th week.

Supplementing her timothy hay with alfalfa hay is a good idea. Also, avoid holding her alot.

**newpiggiemommy** · #3 02-20-08, 07:15 pm

Just keep watching her and feed her lots of veggies and timothy hay. I wasn't sure with mine until I felt the babies move. That was about three weeks before she gave birth!

Please make sure that Ruffles and Daisy are both girls. It seems like so many people on here lately have been getting missexed piggies!

Other than that just love them, spoil them, and what is going to happen will happen.

**clotho** · #4 02-20-08, 08:35 pm

Get yourself a scale and weigh your piggies at least once a week and keep track. Significant weight gain will be your first clue that Daisy may in fact be pregnant. As already stated, around 7 weeks along you can feel the babies moving inside the mom. You can handle her - just be careful with her and always support her tummy. Good luck!

**sphanges** · #5 02-20-08, 08:37 pm

Thanks guys, they are both definitely girls! First thing I checked when I got them

I've kept guineas in the past so I'm familiar with sexing them.

They're both on an excellent diet, lots and lots of veggies, fresh hay and quality pellet food. Neither seems fat so the little bulge Daisy has seems suspicious, but then again I would have thought if she was 4-5 weeks I'd really be able to tell, but it seems not. Here's a pic of her looking chubby:

I also wonder if perhaps she's less than 5 weeks.. maybe if she was put in another cage to give birth and then put back into the main pen? Can guinea pigs get pregnant while they are feeding babies? I know that after the first post-birth oestrus many animals are not fertile till their babies have weaned, but if she got pregnant later that would explain the smaller belly. Her last lot of babies might also not be 5 weeks as the rescue lady was just estimating.

Thanks for your help!

B

**clotho** · #6 02-20-08, 08:45 pm

Oh, so Daisy already had a litter of babies - I didn't catch that part at first. If she was with a male in the cage when she gave birth, chances are very high she is pregnant again. I'm not positive about whether a female can get pregnant while nursing, but I would suspect she could. They usually only nurse about 3-4 weeks anyways, so she could also have gotten pregnant after the babies were weaned if she was still in the cage with an older male or even a male baby who was over 3 weeks in age.

It's so hard to tell in pictures, but I would be suspicious she's pregnant too. Weigh her and see what kind of a gain you see over the next few weeks. It's very difficult to tell for sure before about 7 weeks along, so it's not surprising you can't tell at 4 or 5 weeks along.

I'm glad she's getting a good diet. You might want to add in some alfalfa hay and some higher calcium veggies for her just in case she is pregnant. Especially if she's having back to back pregnancies, she will need the extra calcium.

**fourboys4now** · #7 02-20-08, 08:46 pm

I've read on here that female pigs can get pregnant within minutes of giving birth. I've never had a pregnant female so I would not know a pregnant one unless it was very obvious. Good luck if she is.

**newpiggiemommy** · #8 02-20-08, 08:51 pm

This is a picture of my girl when she was pregnant.
She was about 7 weeks along.

Your girl does look chubby, but keep watching because she will need your special attention and care. Try to weigh her every couple of days.

**Fazie** · #9 02-20-08, 09:24 pm

She's a pretty girl. Me and my piggies thank you for rescuing. If she does have babies please take lots of pigtures!

**sphanges** · #10 02-20-08, 10:34 pm

Thanks for all your replies

Pigtures, that's cute!

I will be weighing her tomorrow as I've just discovered they have a mild lice infestation (need to weigh so I can accurately dose them with Advantage) and will keep tabs on her. Ruffles also seems to be developing a belly but that might be because they are being fed well.

Any suggestions for high calcium veggies? They won't eat silverbeet, to my surprise as my others loved it, but do eat mixed leafy lettuces (rocket, baby spinach etc). They're also getting carrots, apples, dandelions, fresh pineapple which they LOVE, fresh grass every day, cucumber which they won't touch and various other veggies. I've read advice for and against giving calcium/mineral wheels, any opinions?

B

**Fazie** · #11 02-20-08, 11:55 pm

Mineral wheels are NOT good.

If they're under 6 months or pregnant you can feed them alfalfa hay. If they're eating enough veggies, hay and good quality pellets they should be getting all the vitamins and minerals they need.

**sphanges** · #12 02-21-08, 10:54 pm

An update.. weighed them today for their Advantaging and they're both approx 600g (1.3 lb) which was more than I expected as they are not large piggies. Is this about average? They both are looking tubby today. When at full stretch (you know what I mean, I'm sure!) you can see a little bulge in Daisy's tum but still not enough to know for sure.

What will be, will be, I know.. it's just I have a lady lined up to adopt a same-sex pair of littermates and if these two aren't pregnant after all then I want to let her know ASAP so she can locate some more that need adoption.

B

**pigsforlife** · #13 02-22-08, 01:07 am

600g is tiny. My girls range from 860 grams to 1030 grams, and they are not full grown.

**sphanges** · #14 02-22-08, 01:36 am

Ahh, ok. I've been reading abut dosages by weight for the Advantage and the guinealynx site is talking about 1-2lb cavies, which is why I thought 600g seemed like rather a lot for these two girls who look so small.

Hopefully they'll beef up a bit as they get older, but I know their diet was pretty poor before they were rescued (plus no doubt being bred too young and non-stop doesn't help) so maybe they'll just be petite piggies all their lives.

B

**pigsforlife** · #15 02-22-08, 02:49 am

My little Lily (who is 860gs and 11 months old) will not get much bigger I dont think. She was my first pig, and I brought from a petstore. So undoubtly she was ripped from her mother unweaned.

After Buttercup and Toffee I found this site, Rosie followed and the rest is history!

**clotho** · #16 02-22-08, 05:21 am

http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/...arts-info.html is a great link to a chart with veggies/fruits on it and how much you can feed and how often. It also tells you how much calcium, vitamin C, etc, is in each one.

Wow 600 grams. My foster piggie gave birth 3 1/2 months ago and the girls from her litter are over 600 grams already. The boy from the same litter was 850 grams a week ago. It depends how they were fed though. You are taking a piggie from poor conditions who is undernourished, so of course they will be tiny. My grown piggies are all in the 1100-1200 gram range. It varies so widely. The biggest thing is to keep track of any weight gain or loss. I'm sure you will get weight gain as you give them good food, but if you see a big, continuous weight gain, then she's likely pregnant.

There really is no way to tell other than watching and waiting. Unless you want to pay big money for a vet to do an ultrasound. I'm not sure how far along in a pregnancy a sow would need to be before an xray would show the babies for sure - you could look into that.

**TX_2_Pigs** · #17 02-22-08, 08:20 am

I have 4 boys. 3 of them weigh 1100-1200 grams. Harry hovers around 800 grams. I have had him since he was 3 weeks old and he will be 2 years old on Feb 28. His brother Chopper from the same litter hovers around 1200 grams. The other 2 I am not sure their ages but I think Mr. Wiggles is just now getting to be a year old and he just weighed in over 1100 this time. Dodger stays pretty close to Chopper.

As a side note: Harry, the 800 gram pig, is the "Big Pig" of the herd.

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