Four week old poofy girl... another sad situation

[Biscuit]

Today I went to help a girl sex an unplanned litter. The whole situation was shady. It was a long day as I also had to work, took Pringle to get her sutures out from her mammary experience, and go see a pig at DDFL who is very sad and sick and has an untreated healed broken leg...

So I'm not sure I feel up to giving all the details of why this was shady...I really don't think she planned to breed, but I do believe she still has the male and female together, simply out of apathy. I gave her lots of advice on things, and explained how most of the advice the pet store gave her was wrong. I don't think she listened to much of it. She is getting rid of all the pigs though, even the mom and dad. I think her kids are just tired of them.

Anyway, she met me at a McDonalds an hour north of me and an hour south of her. She didn't want me to come up to see them once she heard my views on having the male and female together still. I wasn't rude at all...

She arrives, and out of the trunk (!) of a hot van with no AC in a tiny diaper box comes FIVE tiny piglets of ultimate cuteness. They are abby/long hair mixes (I don't know jack about breeds). I wanted to be sure they weren't from a intentional breeding.

I told her they were very warm and might stroke out at any moment. It wasn't hot today but the sun coming into the car was bad. They felt like they were on fire and several kept laying down in the box. Five! I've never seen five from one litter all make it like that. I didn't get the idea she really cared..just said "I had the windows down..." I swooped away quickly with one pig, wishing I could take them all. I took the runt, the one in the worst shape breathing/heat wise. I rushed her to the max ac of my 2008 car, got her in the fleece carrier and she cooled off fast.

I felt horrible about the other four. I'm sending her care guides from GL, but I doubt she'll care. The entire exchange took about 30 seconds.

So now I have a terrified four week (ish) old female in quaratine. She's so scared and tiny, I don't think she can go without eating safely until she gets comfortable. So I put hay inside her house with her and pellets. She's nibbling the hay a bit. I put some critical care in there (in a sushi soy dish, heh), and she nibbled that as well. I figured it couldn't hurt with such a itty bitty one.

Pictures soon... I hope I did the right thing. I don't feel like I did all I could. I wish I could have taken them all and adopted them out correctly myself or take them to Cavy Care, inc. It was a long drive back trying to keep her cool, stuck in traffic from the Rockies game, ugh.

[PigWooBus]

Aww, I'm glad you at least got one. That's so sad when people act like that. Are you keeping her or adopting her out once she's healthy? Do you have pictures?

Oh sorry I didn't read carefully enough, I see that pictures are coming now.

[Biscuit]

Yeah, just need to upload them. May not happen tonight, I'm SO tired. It was such a crazy day. I drove the entire day back all around town and people were driving so badly.

I'm almost certainly keeping her. I'm not a rescue (YET), and oh sweet mother of moles this pig is adorable. She's very jumpy and scared like you would expect a tiny baby pig ripped from her siblings to be, but she's now eating and drinking. She ate some critical care too.

[pigsmakemesmile]

Good for you Biscuit!! you did the right thing...so glad you took her. Wish there were more caring people like you in the world. I always go with my gut feelings..instincts that is. Your most probably right that she doesn't care much on raising pigs. I pray the others are going to be ok. Really looking forward to seeing your pigtures. Good luck to you and the new little one...she's in excellent care.

[PigWooBus]

Aww yay I'm glad you are keeping her. After she gets healthy are you going to introduce her to Biscuit and Zesty? I would love to see them with the baby, I think your pigs are so cute.

[clotho]

I know how you feel about having to leave those babies behind. I would have wanted to take them all too - but know that I couldn't have. At least you were able to save one! When I fostered Daisy and Bandit (pregnant with 6 babies) - there were 5 other guinea pigs who had been dumped in that same garbage bag with them. All the piggies found homes or were taken into foster care except the Dad of the group and I felt very guilty about that for ages. I still think about him sometimes and wonder if he found a home. I mean - we do what we can - and it's best to think of the good rather than dwell on the bad - but I do understand how you must feel.

I hate to be the one to mention this, but if your little girl is 4 weeks old and was with males, there's a possibility she could be pregnant so you should watch for that too. You should weigh her anyways to make sure she is thriving, but that will also show if she's pregnant. I have everything crossed hoping she's not though!!! It's especially important to get her on a great diet with extra calcium - not only because she's young and needs it to grow - but also in case there are pups in there needing it too.

Thank goodness she is eating and drinking. Thank you so much for taking her in. I too wish the world had more people like you in it!!!

[pigsforlife]

Gosh, I hope she isnt pregnant. Such a young little girl. Fingers crossed she isnt.Ditto on the extra calcium. I take it she is by herself? This should be the case -- not only does she need to be quarantined prior to going in with any other piggies but it gives you sometime to monitor her output, plus to provide extra calcium either through supplemental alfalfa hay, alfalfa based pellets (which are recommended for pigs under 6 months) or calcium enriched veggies. At one stage in the near future I would suggest taking her into the vet.You probably have this all under control anyway!

[Biscuit]

I know, I thought of that. I told her they were sexually mature as early as 3 weeks, but she didn't believe me because "petco told her it was 12 weeks." She was one of the only girls too. I believe it was two females and three boys.

All our fishies and hidies were in the wash or in the other cage last night, so I put fleece in a cardboard box for her. It's such a tiny box! You know how it is, you look at yours all the time then see a baby and it's freakishly small... I keep staring at her.

I could have taken them all. I have 3 marchioro 47X23 quaratine cages. I could have separated the sexes and then adopted them out after watching them to make sure no one was pregnant. The thing is, then I would be a rescue, I just know it. I'm not ready, despite the blatant inevitability of it. =P

Does anyone know the weights at different ages? She is 225 grams. I just looked at pictures on here of someones 3 week old babies...they are so much bigger than her and she's supposedly 4 weeks!

[clotho]

Weight varies so much by piggie. However, since the one you have is the runt of a litter of 5, I can give you a fair comparison from my experience of fostering Bandit, who had 6 babies. The runt, Twinkie, was about 60 grams when she was born, and she reached the 225 gram mark when she was 23 days old. These babies were fed extremely well though and probably gained a lot more than the babies that lady had. I'm sure she's not taking very good care of them. The rest of the babies had reached the 225 gram mark at least 5 days or more before Twinkie did. So, given the malnourishment those babies are probably suffering from, I'd say it's quite possible she's 4 weeks old at that weight. I'm hoping not quite though and that she's not pregnant!!

[Biscuit]

She ate her first veggies this morning. I'm still giving her a bit of CC here and there to help her recover from whatever conditions she was in. I don't think it can hurt! She nibbles it at least.

[Biscuit]

Here is the picture from her craigslist ad.

http://images.craigslist.org/0101120...2a00142d .jpg

She is the one on the left.

[catzeye21138]

Oh poor thing! 4 weeks is just barely old enough to be taken away from the mom!

IMO it's pretty unlikely she is pregnant. I mean, REALLY unlikely. Just my $0.02 though.

[ematthws]

That is a really tough situation, but I think you handled it very well. If it were me I would have punched her in the face and taken all the piggies, but then like you said I would most likely end up becoming a rescue and in my small apartment it would just be piggies every where!

You did a good thing though by saving your girl! I'm sure once she gets back to health she will thank you for it!

[Biscuit]

Eh, a happy pig is thanks enough. Sort of. It's just never really enough. Perfectionism will be my undoing I say!

[MainerGal]

Hi Biscuit,

I hadnt ever noticed you were from Denver, I am also. I look through craigslist almost everyday, and I dont remember coming across that ad. Was it posted in the Ft. Collins section??? I bet you all the other little babies found homes already, probably with people just like you that wanted to rescue them from the original owners!

I got 2 out of my 3 guinea pigs from the DDFL. The last one I adopted, I had to ask them to trim her nails, they were VERY long. Both of the guinea pigs I got there, had a supposed history of biting, even biting potential adopters. I have never had either one of them even begin to show signs that they were about to bite! It makes me wonder if people are really just that numb, that they dont know to be very gentle and slow moving???

Any info. on the guinea pig at DDFL with the improperly healed leg??

[Biscuit]

It was on FT collins section. I hope the babies found homes.

I have two from DDFL, Nugget and Juinea.

I think you're right about the biting. I believe they get a reputation for biting then everyone wants to test it out by shoving their hands in the piggies face. Idiocy.

No idea on the DDFL pig. Cavy Care hasn't heard anything either. The male was either adopted later that day or pulled due to his obvious health issues.