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Genitals Abnormal Genitals?: Trying to sex a new baby guinea pig!

  • Thread starter CC Cookie Dough
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bpatters

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Squeaky Clean Critter Shampoo is good, and not expensive. You don't want to use any human shampoos, including baby shampoo, because they're the wrong pH, and because they can leave soap residue behind.
 

sallyvh

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So it's looking like Cookie and Fluff are totally okay to share a cage once Fluff is 6 months old.


Just out of curiosity, why do you have to wait until fluff is 6 months old?
 

CC Cookie Dough

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Squeaky Clean Critter Shampoo is good, and not expensive. You don't want to use any human shampoos, including baby shampoo, because they're the wrong pH, and because they can leave soap residue behind.

Thanks for the advice :). I found the critter shampoo on amazon and I think I will buy some of this to help with the process. I will try it out and see how it works for us. My thinking is that we would wash Fluff every other day and only use a little of this shampoo product once a week (or even less often than that) to help get any extra debris off of her.
 

CC Cookie Dough

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Just out of curiosity, why do you have to wait until fluff is 6 months old?
[MENTION=31353]sallyvh[/MENTION], my vet recommended that we keep the two pigs in separate cages until Fluff is 6 months old because they are currently eating different kinds of food and it would not be good for them to have access to each other's food.

Fluff was a baby when we got her and is just getting into her adolescent period, so she is eating Oxbow Essentials Young Guinea Pig food right now. This pellet food has more calories than the adult version and is meant to be given in an unlimited amount so that babies/young adult pigs can grow properly during their growth period. Once they are adults, they are switched to Oxbow Essentials Adult Guinea Pig food which has less calories and is meant to be given in 1/8 cup portion each day. The two types of food are different because pigs have different needs at different ages. Adults need less calories and a limited amount of food so that they stay at a healthy weight.

So right now Fluff is eating the young guinea pig version of the pellets, and Cookie Dough is eating the adult guinea pig version. Cookie Dough should not have access to Fluff's pellets because it will cause her to become overweight, and Fluff needs to have access to her food type so that she can grow properly. Since Cookie Dough would eat Fluff's pellets if they shared a cage, we have to wait until Fluff is eating adult food (which will occur when she is 6 months old) to have them share the same space.

Fluff and Cookie Dough are currently being housed in the same room (in two separate cages) so they get to see and talk to each other 24/7. Fluff will be 6 months old by the end of May, so they do not have to wait much longer to share a cage. We have introduced them to see how they interact with one another, and they have gotten along very well. Since they have interacted so naturally and well, my vet said that he thought it would be a good idea for them to hang out together for short periods whenever possible. We are going to try to have them spend time in a playpen together for an hour a day so that they get to have face to face interactions. I know that some people feel that re-introductions are stressful for pigs, but my pigs are getting along so well that this is not the case.
 

bpatters

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[MENTION=34738]CC Cookie Dough[/MENTION], keeping them in separate cages is completely unnecessary, and tells me that your vet doesn't really know a lot about guinea except what he's read in text books.

You can easily feed them all adult food (timothy hay and pellets) and just give any pig younger than 6 months a sprig or two of calcium every day. You can also plop the younger one in a laundry basket for an hour or two a day and give her some more pellets.
 

sallyvh

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Agreed with [MENTION=13820]bpatters[/MENTION], There is absolutely zero point in keeping them separate. You could be actually doing more harm than good as it is much easier to bond an adult with a young baby. Waiting until Fluff is in her adolescent phase will make it harder on both of them.

Regardless to what you're seeing during short interactions, letting guinea pigs have play dates IS stressful. Every time guinea pigs meet they try to establish dominance, even if you are not witnessing this behaviour, it is happening. It's also stressful, especially for a young baby, to go from constantly having a buddy, then to just have them ripped away. I imagine it would be very confusing for them.

Myself, along with many other members, have had a baby pig grow up with a group of adults and there have been no ill effects.

Babies need an extra source of calcium, their bodies don't care which source it comes from, whether it be from supplemental alfalfa hay, alfalfa pellets or calcium rich vegetables. As far as unlimited pellets go, I haven't met many pigs who would truly eat more than 1/8th of a cup of pellets a day, especially a baby.

I urge you to reconsider, both of your pigs would be much happier being housed with each other. This makes your vet sound quite uninformed on the actuality of owning guinea pigs.
 

CC Cookie Dough

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Babies need an extra source of calcium, their bodies don't care which source it comes from, whether it be from supplemental alfalfa hay, alfalfa pellets or calcium rich vegetables. As far as unlimited pellets go, I haven't met many pigs who would truly eat more than 1/8th of a cup of pellets a day, especially a baby.

As far as serving Fluff different foods to make up for calcium loss, this is not really something that is possible right now. We do not have alfalfa hay or alfalfa pellets and I am not really interested in spending the money on these things as she is only 2 months away from sharing a cage. Also, we are not able to feed her calcium rich veggies because so far she has been refusing to eat them. We have tried feeding her many different kinds of vegetables and she has been avoiding them all so far. So until she is willing to eat vegetables, we would not be able to supplement her diet with calcium rich food.

Also, we know for sure that Cookie Dough would eat more than her fair share of pellets. She is prone to overeating. Her last cage mate had an eating problem (it was difficult for her to eat) and Cookie Dough would always eat her food because it was available. Cookie Dough gained weight because she overate, and we do not want this to occur again.
 
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