Love being here already!

[crazywiggy]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I hope you'll stick around - this is a great place to learn lots of accurate guinea pig info and is a really nice community of like-minded people. I know some people might come across as harsh, but they don't mean to - it's just because they care. We'll give you any help or advice you need.

It really is shocking how much false information is out there... I've never seen a single guinea pig book here in the UK that doesn't contain at least some wrong stuff. Most books are written by people who don't really know what they are talking about, or by breeders who are trying to justify their own poor standards of care.
Even most vets are not knowledgable about guinea pigs, you need to find one who really knows about small pets not just dogs and cats.

Hay: As I understand it (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) the two main types of hay are grass hay and legume hay. Grass hay is usually "timothy hay" - not a brand but a certain type of grass. The most common legume hay is alfalfa. If your pet shop doesn't specify what type it is, as a general rule grass hay is usually just called "hay" while alfalfa is called alfalfa. You could always try looking online for a good hay supplier.

Good luck with building your piggies some great c+c cages!

[Kazyumi]

Originally Posted by crazywiggy

I hope you'll stick around - this is a great place to learn lots of accurate guinea pig info and is a really nice community of like-minded people. I know some people might come across as harsh, but they don't mean to - it's just because they care. We'll give you any help or advice you need.

I'm glad I can start noticing the friendlier side now.
I felt like a total failure because of my lack of knowledge about my cavia's...

There I though I was doing a good thing by buying books to learn how to treat them best... apperantly not.

Originally Posted by crazywiggy

It really is shocking how much false information is out there... I've never seen a single guinea pig book here in the UK that doesn't contain at least some wrong stuff. Most books are written by people who don't really know what they are talking about, or by breeders who are trying to justify their own poor standards of care.

I'm just as suprised...

Originally Posted by crazywiggy

Hay: As I understand it (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) the two main types of hay are grass hay and legume hay. Grass hay is usually "timothy hay" - not a brand but a certain type of grass. The most common legume hay is alfalfa. If your pet shop doesn't specify what type it is, as a general rule grass hay is usually just called "hay" while alfalfa is called alfalfa. You could always try looking online for a good hay supplier.

Hmm I think I have put both in their cages then atm.

Originally Posted by crazywiggy

Good luck with building your piggies some great c+c cages!

Thank you! ATM I'm having a look around finding the necessary bits and pieces.

[Fluffy_Guinea]

I'm glad I can start noticing the friendlier side now.
I felt like a total failure because of my lack of knowledge about my cavia's...

Don't feel like that it's not your fault I felt like that when I got here and extremely guilty for the record I have no pigs but I did and they have past but I'm adopting some soon. Oh make sure to post some pigtures and have you separated the boars yet?

[pigsforlife]

It is really important that you take your pregnant one to the vet. She is too old to give birth to babies naturally and needs the aid of a professional exotic vet. Use these three sites to help locate one:
Guinea Lynx :: Finding a Veterinarian
Guinea Lynx :: GL's Vet List
Guinea Pig Vet Finder

[Kazyumi]

Originally Posted by Fluffy_Guinea

Don't feel like that it's not your fault I felt like that when I got here and extremely guilty for the record I have no pigs but I did and they have past but I'm adopting some soon. Oh make sure to post some pigtures and have you separated the boars yet?

I'll be putting Rusty in with Punky this weekend. Punky is seperated from the girls. So yeah the sows are save.
Rusty's together with his pregnant Felicia but like I said I'm putting them together this weekend. I hope it all goes well. *fingers crossed*

Originally Posted by pigsforlife

It is really important that you take your pregnant one to the vet. She is too old to give birth to babies naturally and needs the aid of a professional exotic vet.

Are you absolutely sure about her being too old?
I've asked me mum and we got Felicia and Dahlia at the end of May this year, with an age of around 3-5 weeks (I think they might've been taken away from their mother prematurely...).
She would be about 7-8 months and about a week pregnant by now.

Also, the links you are posting are useless to me, I didn't see any Dutch docs among these lists.
Don't worry about that though. I've been reffered to a proper vet by the person who took over my 2 babies (the resque/institute person).

[Guinea_Piggin]

First off, welcome!

Originally Posted by Kazyumi

Another reason why I didn't put Rusty with Punky was because that (or those, I have 2) stupid bloody booklet told me you couldn't put guys together unless both are castrated.

Next, I have to laugh...NOT AT YOU, but at those booklets that say males can't live together without constant fighting. I laugh, because I have a male bonded pair that have been living together since mid-May (just over 5 months now) and they LOVE each other. In fact as I type this they're snuggled up in the smaller pigloo sleeping together. And on a really good day they can often be found grooming each other. ^_^

I'm not going to lie, they do have their moments. However, the rescue I got my second pig from and I agree that the boy's little spats are similar to our spats when we live in close-quarters with another human. Some days you just need to get away from the other person/they need you out of their face. And before you know it, they're back together having a snooze in the pigloo or sharing a pile of hay.

http://cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm#Introductions
--This can look bad while they're working out who is the alpha pig, but they need to figure this out for temselves. Keep the above link in mind while you're watching them, as long as no blood is being shed, let them work it out.

[wickedrodent]

When you introduce Rusty and Punky make sure you do it on neutral territory (definatly not in either of the cages unless they have been completly hosed down). You would probably also have more luck introducing them if they had a bath first to wash off the smell of the girls. Good Luck!

Also, the links you are posting are useless to me, I didn't see any Dutch docs among these lists.
Don't worry about that though. I've been reffered to a proper vet by the person who took over my 2 babies (the resque/institute person).

You might want to take all your pigs when you go (in seperate carriers of course) to be checked out. Its always good to get a first checkup.

Oh, and I would love to see pigtures if you have any!

[chiiilover]

Originally Posted by TX_2_Pigs

I would like to say hello and welcome to the forum. You will get a lot of good advice here.

I hope you don't think I am jumping on you too although I know it will seem that way. I have tried to reply to some of the things you said in a factual tone but I know that it is hard to get that across over the internet. I really am just trying to help you understand what is happening.
Most vets are not trained in exotics and don't really know much about guinea pigs in general and most of those books are written by breeders who think the care they give is fine when it is really substandard. They actually say that a guinea pig only needs 1 square foot of living space! A full grown pig is almost a foot long. That wouldn't even be enough room to turn around.



You started out with 3 pigs, one of them male. Now you have 7 with more on the way. That is what you should consider breeding.



And now you are going to have even more.

Was Rusty in with Dahlia when she gave birth? If he was she is most likely also pregnant again.

If you just separated Punky from the girls then one or more of them could be pregnant since they become sexually mature at 3 weeks old. If Dahlia did not get backbred by Rusty (which can happen immediately after the birth of the pups) then there is a possibility that Punky got to her when he turned 21 days.


Breeding only takes a fraction of a second so by the time you notice any "horny actions" it is too late.

You didn't know any of these things when you came here. Please take the more passionate responses in the vein they were actually meant. To help you understand that what has happened is not a good thing.

Separate your males from your females. Do not let them have any time together, even supervised. Rusty and Punky can be housed together until they are neutered.

Take your all of your sows to a vet that knows something about guinea pigs and get them checked out. Felicia needs to have x-rays to see if her pelvic bones have fused. If they have, you will need to get something scheduled with your vet to have him help her deliver as she will be unable to do so herself. Make sure Dahlia is not pregnant again. A second pregnancy so soon after the first one (called backbreeding) is another very dangerous situation. Get all the baby girls check for pregnancy as well although it may be too early to tell for them.

Fluffy_Guinea has also added some very useful information and as she has said what is done is done. As long as you are willing to move on from there, you won't need to change the title of your thread.

Will x-rays harm the baby? I know pregnant humans shouldn't be x-rayed. I ask just out of curiosity. How old are Guinea pigs when they are fullgrown? Mine are no where near a foot long yet!

[Kazyumi]

Originally Posted by wickedrodent

When you introduce Rusty and Punky make sure you do it on neutral territory (definatly not in either of the cages unless they have been completly hosed down). You would probably also have more luck introducing them if they had a bath first to wash off the smell of the girls. Good Luck!

You might want to take all your pigs when you go (in seperate carriers of course) to be checked out. Its always good to get a first checkup.

Oh, and I would love to see pigtures if you have any!

Which reminds me!
I haven't updated you guys yet on how it went.
I put Rusty and Punky together on the couch, so yeah, neutral terrain.
They've been getting along damn well! They however seem to be a little gay but it all seems friendly. Haven't seen Rusty turn off Punky at all.
Afterwards we used some perfume which we rubbed on to their fur to give them the same odour (this is a hint I got from the person from the resque who took the other 2 baby's).

Bout the pigtures: coming soon. Still have to upload them to my pc.
Still have a few baby photo's too.

[piggly wiggly]

Instead of using perfume which can dry out their skin at the very least, try giving them a buddy bath, just bathe them together and they will smell the same. Also, they are not being "gay", they are figuring out their dominace to see who will be boss.

[Mommy Of One]

I am very glad that you are learning. Some of us may seem harsh but it is only because we care about all guinea pigs, everywhere, and when you breed and give or sell a guinea pig to someone else, they will own the pig you gave or sold them instead of another poor little piggy that could of/should of/ and would of been saved and adopted but instead has been euthanised. Anyway, glad to see your trying to give the best care possible. I guess everyone makes mistakes. Just a question, do you have cavy cages or pet store cages? Good luck!

[Kazyumi]

Originally Posted by Mommy Of One

Do you have cavy cages or pet store cages? Good luck!

To be honest I don't really know what you define mine as.
I have 3 cages of 80 x 50 x 46cm.
Example picture:


I'm intending to upgrade it with a self-made cage. Already found some fencing, now I need to find out where to find the cloroplast and build a good wooden caging or something.

[Mommy Of One]

Glad your getting your piggies out of there.
You can find coroplast at a sign store if you have any around you?

[envisionary333]

Hello, and welcome to the forum! I just want you to know that I bred my guinea pigs as well before I knew any better, and have since learned my lesson thoroughly. All my guinea pigs since have been adopted. I am so glad for you that you've come across this site and will be learning all the same great information that I have.

Having said that, I still do not think that a lack of knowledge about proper care explains why you would say something like this...

Originally Posted by Kazyumi

Due to lack of extra cages I've putten Rustyman with my Felicia and well he knocked her up now.

No offense, but that sounds to me like a complete lack of common sense. If you don't have room for the piggies you do have, why put a boy and girl together who will only make more piggies that take up even more space? You have to assume that anytime two unaltered, opposite sex piggies are together, they will mate. You got lucky the first time, but many piggies experience complications during birth. My girl had two stillborns, and it was a heartbreaking experience. Don't take it lightly. It only takes a fraction of a second to get a pig pregnant, so NEVER under any circumstances let an unaltered male near a female, supervised or not.

I hope I haven't come across too harsh, but I do want you to really think through your actions from here on out. Keep the boys and the girls apart and focus on giving proper care to the piggies you do have, rather than bringing more into a world that is overpopulated with unwanted pets already. Good luck, and please feel free to come to us for help.