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newToCavies

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Cavy Slave
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Hi everyone, I'm new to guinea pigs :) I have two sows, Kayzie and Pixi, both short haired American/English guinea pigs.

I have a dog, a very laid back Papillon (yes there is such a thing ;) ) and I wanted to get a hands on pet that I could hold and sit with around my 5 pound dog. I also have a bit of an extreme fear of being bitten. When I was a kid, we had a very mean gerbil that would bite so much that the only way we could pet it was if we had socks over our hands. ANYWAY - I've always loved the small rodents, but the smell and the biting deterred me. I saw a pets show on animal planet featuring guinea pigs and I was amazed how different from hamsters and gerbils they were! I was in the pet store buying food for my dog, and I'm not an impulse buyer of animals by nature, but I asked the small animals employee about them and the point that they are very gentle and rarely bite sold me instantly. I instantly fell in love with Kayzie, not nearly as squirmy as all the others, stunningly beautiful and almost rabbit-like in shape/fur - it's hard to explain. :)

So I picked up a roomy cage (and that's actually how I ended up here, I wanted to find out just -how- roomy, and I think when she gets older/bigger, we'll upgrade) and a book - and just as I got her settled, I realized she really needed a friend, especially with my dog's smell possibly making her more anxious. I looked online to see if shelters actually had guinea pigs around here. I didn't see anything online or on Petfinder - but it was important to get her a companion as soon as possible, so I searched every single petshop for another young calm girl to be compatible with everyone. After looking at around 6 shops, I found the perfect little girl with a small problem. She had been kept in a cage with a male. The store associate said she was probably pregnant and I thought so too. He assured me that since they had goofed up, they would take the babies if I didn't want them. But to cut this whole thing short - I don't want to put them in a pet shop environment. I certainly don't have room for 8 new babies, but I would like to give them a chance at a loving home with good socialization growing up. IF she is pregnant, which she may or may not be.

So in short.. or long I guess... I joined this forum to prepare for a possibly risky pregnancy, learning how to properly socialize/tame new babies, and how to find good homes for them.

I didn't come here to be judged or start an argument, as I've read you are incredibly pro-adoption, and I'm sort of leaning towards it, but not quite dedicated to it like most people are. This introduction is to be 100% honest so IF I happen to have a guinea pig giving birth in a few months, I won't be blown off or accused of breeding her - and instead get the help a new guinea pig owner needs. Of course if I begin to realize she is actually pregnant, my vet is going to give me professional advice and I will take it :) but I can learn so much from actual guinea pig owners from all walks of life.
 

sillylittle

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Cavy Slave
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Most of us are pro-adoption, but I can see that you looked for shelter babies instead, and couldn't find any, so I can forgive you.

And we are also pretty understanding of accidents. You know it's going to be risky if she is pregnant, and you seem like you are going to do everything in your power to educate yourself (which is more than many other people will do when caring for a "rodent," just because of their own views on the importance of such a "lowly" animal.... grr...)

One thing I will suggest is looking into a bigger cage now, if you can, because if you are going to be expecting babies, you might get a few females, which can then be housed with Mama and Auntie. You will want to have that cage ready before the babies come.

Another thing is how old is Pixi, and how long was she in the cage with the male? She could have gotten pregnant within SECONDS of being put in the cage with him, which means you could be weeks into the 8-10 week pregnancy. She can be sexually mature at 4 weeks, but I forget what age is the least dangerous for her to get pregnant, other than the upper boundary is 8 months (hint, someone else can put "_-8 months".) Check out this link (https://www.guinealynx.info/reproduction.html) for more on what may happen during her pregnancy.

Other than that, welcome! This forum is great, with a lot of information and experienced members. You may want to keep a couple of sites in mind while learning about your piggies: https://www.guinealynx.info/index.html is great for medical information, dietary information, basically well compiled scientific stuff; Guinea Pig Education, Care, Rescue and Adoption at Cavy Spirit is wonderful as a general resource; Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Shelters, Veterinarians - Guinea Pig Zone is great as a directory to local GP resources, like vets, shelters, hay distributors, etc.; and (last but not least) the home page of this site, Guinea Pig Cages, Your Cavy At Home is wonderful as a resource for cage who, what, where, when, why, and how. Those are the main 4 sites I check whenever I'm wondering anything about anything piggy (even though the piggies don't own me yet, I am on my way towards adopting a pair, but right now I'm just trying to sort out college and life, oh to be back in high school...)

Well, once again, welcome, and you may have heard that we have a HUGE ADDICTION to pigtures, you might not survive us if we mob you for them, so it's probably best if you post them as soon as you can :crazy:
 

newToCavies

Member
Cavy Slave
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Messages
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I'm not sure how long the pet store had her with a male, but I would assume long enough to get pregnant. Thank you for the welcome! :) She's young - but I don't know how old.

I'm going to post pictures today after work :) They are both awfully cute and so sweet :) Distinct personalities. They are such enriching creatures, so different from other domesticated rodents. I -think- I observed Pixi "popcorning" during exercise time, but I've never seen it. Anyway it was precious. She looked like she was hopping for joy. Darling :)
 

bpatters

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Welcome to the forum!

Nobody's going to crucify you for a pregnant guinea pig you didn't deliberately breed. Thanks for doing your research on how to take care of her.

We are pro-rescue, but we'll be happy to help you take care of your guinea pigs. Do please, however, educate yourself on the dangers of breeding and the absolutely horrific conditions that most pet store guinea pigs are bred and kept in before buying another.

The first thing I'd do is make sure you've got two females. If you look over the threads in the last week on this site, there are at least three pregnant or recently delivered sows that were either sold as males, or sold with another female that turned out to be a male.

Read around on the Pregnancy and Babies subforum of Medical and Veterinary and you can find a lot of information there. Also see www.guinealynx.info/reproduction_faq.html for some more info. Then come back here and post any specific questions you have.
 

newToCavies

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Cavy Slave
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Thanks for the warm welcome :) The very first thing I did was check both of them myself, since the associate very obviously picked a male for me at first and called it a female and I had to correct them. At the store these two looked female to me too, but I used a guinea pig sexing site with pictures to be sure.

I'm pretty experienced with animals and pregnant animals, since I lived on a farm. I've even delivered baby goats, helped remove the sack from puppies once they were born, and bottle fed kittens - but our gerbils were pretty hands off -the mom either ate the baby or took care of the baby - and with guinea pigs it's more complicated, I've read. They'll be more like taking care of kittens if their mommy rejects them. But hopefully that won't happen :)

Anyway the babies won't be dumped at a rescue/shelter/petstore - if they can't find good homes (and I'll be trying years if I have to) - I'll take care of them myself. I think individually they have a better chance finding a good home if I do it myself, but I've never tried, so we'll see.

Pictures coming up :)
 

newToCavies

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Cavy Slave
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photo.JPGphoto(1).JPG
The first one is miss Pixi, the second is miss Kayzie, and Cosette is behind Kayzie :)
 

bpatters

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A guinea pig rescue wouldn't be a bad option for the babies if there's one near you and they're not so full that they wouldn't help you place them. Good ones screen their adopters, and make sure that the pigs are healthy before they leave. At the very least, they might be willing to do a courtesy listing on Petfinder for you.

You can also post them on Guinea Pig Cages, Care, Shelters, Veterinarians - Guinea Pig Zone so they'll get a wider audience.
 

newToCavies

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Cavy Slave
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Wow really?! I actually just made a post asking questions about shelters/rescues because I know near nothing about them. I always think of a pound when I think of a shelter and to be honest I didn't really know how a rescue worked.

So how would it work if I worked with a rescue? Do I keep hold of them until they find a good home for them? Or do they prefer to take care of them until a home is found? I don't mind either way as long as they find homes, but I was curious.
 

bpatters

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You'd have to talk to the rescue to know how they'd handle it. Or if they're willing to help at all.
 

newToCavies

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Okay! Thanks so much :)
 
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