Possibly Pregnant Poss. inbreeding & only 1 mo. old... help! - Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Store, Photos of Guinea Pigs and More Forum!

**AmandaErlandson** · #1 10-22-09, 11:08 pm

I'm not for sure she is pregnant. She is showing alot of signs but I'm still not at 100% sure. But for the purpose of this thread let's just say she is. There are tons of threads out there on how to tell, so I'm not interested in starting another one. I am worried because when I did get them (I think only 1 is pregnant) they were caged with mom, dad, & brothers. They were the only girls. I got them out of the classifieds. They are only month or month & half old. So here are my questions:

1) She is so young, will she surrivive a pregnancy? I have had her for little over a week. So she could be as little as a week pregnant or as much as 3 weeks (right?) so that will put her delivering around early to mid December (right?) Her age at that time would be about 3 or 3 & half months. Is that to early for her to safely have pups?

2) I know inbreeding isn't good and all I can find on the web about it is "don't do it" but other than that I come up short. Will the pups be ok? What kind of risk do they run with having problems? What should I know 1st?

Thanks for all the kind advice you can give me!

**GizzyandMe** · #2 10-23-09, 01:41 am

The only advice I can give is to take her to a Vet and make 100% sure she is pregnant so that you can start feeding her the essentials that she will need. Second to that start getting the cage ready for the baba's and GOOD LUCK!!!

**lissie** · #3 10-23-09, 02:13 am

I agree with Gizzy. You should make a vet appointment.
Since she's so young, you should be supplementing her with calcium anyway, either by feeding alfalfa pellets or hay, or give her veggies with high calcium like parsley.
Start weighing her weekly.

**AmandaErlandson** · #4 10-23-09, 01:13 pm

I have been giving her (both of them) Mazui that I found recommend as a good alfalfa pellet in the diet section of the forum. She is showing the signs of pregnancy, including weight gain. I'm pretty sure she is. My main concern is more about the imbreeding & her age when she delivers that about whether she is or not. It is so hard to find that information on the web or on the forum. Has anyone on here experienced either of these problems? I would love to hear from you. How did it turn out? Thanks again for all the advice.

**AmandaErlandson** · #5 10-31-09, 01:33 pm

I have ben looking all over the place for pics of a roan & dalmation piggies. I think they are gray? I honestly don't know and can't find much info on it. Does anybody know of a good link with pics?

The reason I'm asking is... (gonna try to make shrt & sweet) got 2 "females" one ended up not being female & now I think female might be pregnant. The male is solid gray. I'm gonna try to attach a pic of him. (Hope it works, never done it before. If not there are pics of him in my pics on here.) I'm terrified to have pups anyway with such a yound mom (2 months) but adding in the roanXroan thing has me shaking as I'm typing this! I love both of my piggies and don't want anything bad to happen.

MOD's - I did't know if I should have put this with my previous question about pregnancy & insest since it is the same pigs or if I did the right thing by making it a sep thread. Sorry if I did it wrong.

Thanks!

**fieryone** · #6 10-31-09, 04:09 pm

My Doc is a roan. See how he has white peppered in with the orange on his back/butt? That's roan coloring.

A dalmation actually has spots. Most links are to breeding websites and can't be posted here. Your best bet would be to google "dalmation guinea pig"

**vicky2** · #7 10-31-09, 04:15 pm

Some pigs can carry the gene without showing it through coloring.

**AmandaErlandson** · #8 10-31-09, 09:08 pm

So how can I tell? I am worried.

**Seonta** · #9 10-31-09, 09:24 pm

At this point in time even if she has the gene there is nothing you can do about it because she is already pregnant. You will just have to play the waiting game and hope that the resulting pups are not lethal whites or have other problems, the mother makes it through the pregnancy, and that the pups make it through the birth. You could lose all of them.

**lalitalotus** · #10 11-05-09, 05:25 pm

I'm not sure about the age issue, I've only had one piggy pregnancy and she was older. But I would say not to worry yourself about the inbreeding. My pig Georgia was born to a mother/son pairing (obviously an accident) and she is perfectly fine and healthy. Good Luck

**CavyLuver516** · #11 11-05-09, 07:29 pm

All I can say is good luck! I'm sure you'll give your piggies the best care possible and that's really all you can control. I'll pray about it!! = )

**akstrohm** · #12 11-05-09, 08:29 pm

Have you separated her from the male? If not, do that ASAP.

Weight gain is normal at her age. Only a vet can tell you for sure if she is pregnant.

Make sure you have a vet who is experienced with guinea pigs lined up. And make sure you know who to call and where to go in case of an emergency. Make sure you have several hundred dollars saved up in case she needs to see a vet. If you are a minor, talk to your parents in advance about the possibility of needing to see a vet.

Unfortunately there are no pregnancies that are guaranteed to go well. 20% of pigs die giving birth. Inbreeding increases the chance of birth defects, but even if she was not inbred, that does not guarantee that the pups will be okay. Lalita, you got lucky--many pigs are not okay during pregnancy, inbred or otherwise.

I'm sorry I don't have better news for you. I hope everything goes smoothly.

**Bamysmum** · #13 11-05-09, 09:10 pm

Here's my experience:

Don't worry about inbreeding - that you can deal with if you have to when the babies are born.

Young mums can do very well so don't fret too much. Feed her well, keep her happy, get vet checks and keep a close watch.

My youngest girl was born on the 25th Dec 2008 and she came to me pregnant just a baby herself. She gave birth to a huge single baby on 2 April 2009 when she was barely 3 months old. Despite being young she was an excellent mother and did everything perfectly. It took a huge toll on her body despite fresh alfafa hay, pellets, greens etc. She gave birth when she was 500g (baby was 100g at birth) and has only ever grown to a weight of 700g so her growth was most definately stunted by pregnancy (sorry, only have the weight in grams at the moment). To give you an idea of sizes she's a good couple of inches smaller then her sisters. Sadly her baby did not live past 5 weeks (at the point of weaning the baby was not digesting solid foods correctly but that's another issue). Mum however is alive and very very well. She pops a good 3 inches off the ground just like when she was heavily pregnant (pregnancy only seemed to stop the popping in the last week before birth).

Good luck, deal with each issue as it comes. Remember, if the worst comes to the worst you did your best and still had happy times.