Pregnancy Possible pregnant guinea pig?

It's very possible she's pregnant. Petstores are notorious for mis-sexing pigs. You need to give her a good variety of veggies every single day (not almost every day). What brand of pellets are you feeding? Most are bad for guinea pigs.

TJJumper049 said:

and I give her some veggies almost every day. Thank you very much for your help.

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Ly&Pigs said:

You need to give her a good variety of veggies every single day (not almost every day). What brand of pellets are you feeding? Most are bad for guinea pigs.

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I follow Jarbax's Piggie Diet on this page. I give my piggies breakfast in the morning before I leave for work and then dinner is right when I come home. As soon as I walk up the stairs I can hear Bella chirping for her dinner. Fancy is the silent one. She won't freak out, but as soon as I put her dish in front of her, she attacks the lettuce like it's going out of style. They need the veggies because they are foragers. They can't just live on pellets alone. So unhealthy. How would we fair if we only ate oatmeal? Bored with food for one. We need the variety. While oatmeal is healthy and we need some of what's in it, we can't survive solely on it. Guinea pigs are the same way. They need the vitamins and nutrients that vegitables provide.

As far as the pregnancy goes, I don't know. I have never seen or handled a preggo pigger. From the pictures, her belly looks quite round to me. You should get her to the vet to be sure. I'm sure by now you realize the dangers of purchasing from a pet store. You could end up with a preggo piggy or worse, a sick one. It also promotes breeding. But I'm not here to judge you. I hope your piggy isn't pregnant, but if she is, then I hope she has a happy and safe delivery! AND I want to see pictures of those babies!! Good luck!

Pet stores are notorious for missexing their guinea pigs. So it's quite possible she is. It's one of many reasons to avoid the petstore and choose adoption.

I feed her Nutriphase Guinea Pig food that I got from PetSmart. I understand what you guys mean about getting them from a petstore, I just figured PetSmart was the best pet store to get her from since all the other ones around here are not clean and it seems that the animals are not healthy. PetSmart always seemed like they had good animals. I would really like to hear some more opinions on her possible pregnancy.. maybe someone on here has had pregnant guinea pigs before?

First off, I'm not going to even bother telling you why you should never buy from PetSmart. My first three girls were bought there before I knew really anything about cavies, and the fourth one was a surprise from my mom, same place unfortunately. I love my girls and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world, but I do regret that I didn't adopt or rescue.

To me, she looks like she could be pregnant. You should start to notice her looking pear shaped. However, one my sows, Zoey did look pear shaped for the longest time and I was almost positive she was pregnant and was gaining weight. However, when I took her to the vet she had gained nothing and she wasn't pregnant.

Also, I hope you have another Guinea Pig of the same-sex; they are natural herding animals and are social. If you don't, you might want to look into adopting another sow or a neutered boar.

She should be having veggies twice a day, everyday, not some almost everyday. If you look under diet and nutrition you will find a thread of sample veggie menu's. I follow Jarbax's Veggie Menu. You will want to give variety, not just the same vegetables everyday, and create a good, equal balance.

What pellets are you feeding? The only real good ones are Kleenmama's (which can only be ordered online) and Oxbow Cavy Cuisine or Performance. (Performance for piggies under six months) Also, unless she is under six months (PetSmart sells normally young Guinea Pigs, so I assume) she should have 24/7 unlimited timothy hay. However, if she is under six months, then you are feeding her fine haywise as long as it is unlimited 24/7.

I once bought two girls at a pet store and when I got them home noticed the same things. Turned out they were both pregnant!!! They started eating tons, their tummies really started to stick out.

I am trying to figure out if one of my piggies is pregnant, too. She looks a lot like the picture posted at the begining of this thread. We got her from a PetSmart (this was before I new about shelters & rescues and how bad petstores are). I hadn't been weighting my piggies until after the first vet visit ( I had them about a week at that point). Both Shauna and Kerri were one pound even and the vet said they were somewhere between 2-3 months old. Shauna has been sick with a URI since we got her, and she is on her third round of antibiotics and finally showing signs of being nearly better. The sneezing and snot is so much reduced and her lungs are clear!

But Shauna is also showing signs of being pregnant. I have been weighting them both (not daily, but at least 2-3 times a week) and for the longest time they were right at the same weight. Now Kerri (1lb 6oz or 625g) is one ounce more than Shauna (1lb 5 oz , almost 600g), but Shauna is so very pear shaped and eats like there is no tomorrow. Well she eats veggies and hay and screams very loudly for more all the time, but she still will not eat the pellets. I even got Oxbow Cavy Performance and she won't touch them. I am concerned about that.

I haven't taken her back to the vet since I have started suspecting that she was pregnant, but have spoken to my vet about it on the phone. We are not sure she is pregnant because she doesn't seem to be gaining a lot of weight. I am concerned that it is because she has been sick, that maybe she is growing slower...but is should become more obvious if she is pregnant, right? I mean I have had her for 5 weeks now, so she should be into the second month, and even if she got pregnant at the store the day we got her, then it should only be about another 4 weeks...

I just wanted to add that my main 2 concerns are for Shauna's health, since I know she is very young and I would be really upset if anything happened to her, and also because if she is in fact pregnant I need to "baby-proof" the cage! Not to mention that I would need to find a good home for any boy babies, since my son is NOT going to allow me to neuter the males and I am not prepared to have two separate cages for the long term. We would of course keep any girls. Our cage is 3grids x 7grids with a ramp up to the 3 x 1 upper level, so we could fit quite a few piggies in there without them feeling cramped!

TJJumper049 said:

I feed her Nutriphase Guinea Pig food that I got from PetSmart.

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Nutriphase is pure crap. You need a high quality pellet such as Kleenmama's or Oxbow. Even Sweet Meadow pellets.

I do have experience with pregnant pigs.

Amy1981 said:

I follow Jarbax's Piggie Diet

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Those are not actual piggie diets but sample menu's of what some of our users feed their pigs.

I agree with Ly&Pigs. Nutriphase is awful. I fed this before I knew about this site and it has a very low Vitamin C amount in it.

So, she was definitely pregnant... she had 2 babies last night!

Ly&Pigs said:

Those are not actual piggie diets but sample menu's of what some of our users feed their pigs.

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Well yes, I knew it was a "diet" persay. I just wanted to emphasize the fact that they need veggies twice a day and give an example of what I use.

I don't know a thing about pregnant pigs so no advice from me. But Ly is a wonderful source of information. I will say Kleenmamas hay and pellets are the best, my pigs love them.

The sow certainly looks pregnant to me.

brindyzoeycandy said:

The only real good ones are Kleenmama's (which can only be ordered online) and Oxbow Cavy Cuisine or Performance..

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This puzzles me because the main criticism of the pellets I use(Charnwoods High C Guinea Pig Pellets) is that they contain Oats...which is the second highest ingredient by weight in Kleenmama's Pellets. Another criticism was that Charnwoods contains Limestone (calcium carbonate) but then so does Oxbow...so it is certainly one rule for the brands this forum and the rescue centres have allegiance to - and another rule for those they don't.

Performance for piggies under six months

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A pregnant or lactating sow should be fed on the same diet as a growing youngster, regardless of the age of the mother.

DalesLass said:

This puzzles me because the main criticism of the pellets I use(Charnwoods High C Guinea Pig Pellets) is that they contain Oats...which is the second highest ingredient by weight in Kleenmama's Pellets. Another criticism was that Charnwoods contains Limestone (calcium carbonate) but then so does Oxbow

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Those weren't the only issues with that food;

INGREDIENTS (in descending order)
25%-10% Lucerne, Micronized Wheat, Wheat, HIPRO Soya E (up to 10%) oat feed, Full Fat Soya, Treated straw, Grass, oats, Molasses, Soya Oil, DICAL, RabbitVitMinSupple, Mycocurb, Limestone, Mycosorb, Rabbit spice, Salt, Vitamin E premix, Di-Methionine, Stay-C-Vitamin C.

Treated straw? Straw isn't digestible. I also wonder what in the world "rabbit spice" is. It also has a lot of wheat. In fact, if you add the two wheat ingredients that are 2nd and 3rd in the list the pellets might actually have more wheat then lucerne. Does that 15% - 10% lucerne mean the amount of hay in the pellets? Could those pellets really only be 25% (maximum) hay? If so then there is obviously a problem. DICAL is another form of calcium. The food does not need 2 sources of calcium. With 2 sources it's likely to cause bladder sludge and stones.

How are the mom and babies doing? Make sure to switch them to an alfalfa based pellet while the babies are under 6 months and while thew mother is lactating. The only good brands are Oxbow (you would want Cavy Performance) and Kleenmamas (you would want the alfalfa pellet.)

TJJumper049 said:

So, she was definitely pregnant... she had 2 babies last night!

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Good luck! I am glad all is well and mom and babies I am assuming are doing well.

I encourage you to continue to post any questions or concerns you have about them here! I have seen and read a LOT of wrong information on the web about guinea pigs. Especially when it comes to breeding (which I know you weren't doing intentionally).

Someone might wanna mention when to separate them. I am not an expert so I don't want to guess. However, it is important and I know the web can sometimes mislead you. The last thing I am sure the original poster wants is to have more pregnant piggies!!!!

Also, I would consider keeping one if she had another female as a friend! Guinea pigs do much better with a friend!

MaggieMae said:

Someone might wanna mention when to separate them. I am not an expert so I don't want to guess. However, it is important and I know the web can sometimes mislead you. The last thing I am sure the original poster wants is to have more pregnant piggies!!!!

Also, I would consider keeping one if she had another female as a friend! Guinea pigs do much better with a friend!

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If my Shauna does end up having babies (we still aren't sure if she is pregnant or not), we plan to keep any girls she might have. We have a possible home for any boys...since my son refuses to neuter any boys and I really don't want to keep 2 cages going for the long term.

From all the information that I have picked up here on this forum, you need to separate the boys out at EXACTLY 21 days. No sooner and no later. So keep track on the calendar and don't let it go past the 21 days or you might end up with more babies!

I am still not 100% sure that Shauna is pregnant and at this point we have had her for 72 days. So she either has a baby soon (and I really think if she is pregnant that it will only be 1) or she isn't pregnant at all. She still has the belly and most days she looks ink of lop-sided. We have been seeing what we think is movements on both sides of her belly and much more over the last 2 days. But then I really am not sure. She doesn't like to be held at all (she used to let us hold her) and for the past month will bite pretty hard when you pick her up. So we only pick her up for floortime each day and then only when she refuses to get in the piggy elevator!

So I do have a question here. I am 100% sure that our other piggy is a girl also and we have had them both for 72 days now with no interaction with any boars, so if Shauna doesn't have a baby tonight or tomorrow, is it possible for a pregnancy to last longer than 73 days?

I know that the smaller the litter the longer the gestation, but seriously everything I have read says 73 days max and I need to know if I should take her to the vet. She doesn't appear to be struggling at all, and since she is not really huge, she still runs around, eating and drinking all day and seems very happy. The vet is an hour away and they are not in on Sundays. I don't have an emergency vet that sees guinea pigs anywhere near me. I do have a friend who is a vet tech and lives down the street, but not a vet who could do an emergency c-section if needed until Monday and that is an hour away...the waiting and worrying is really getting to me! I check every morning for a baby in the cage, and then question if she is even pregnant! :crazy: