Sexing Questions About Guinea Pig Pregnancy

Soecara said:

Answers to your questions:

1. Yes you should separate them now. Female guinea pigs go into heat immediately after birthing or miscarrying, if the boar is in with her when either of those happens he will get her pregnant again with a back-to-back pregnancy. Back-to-back pregnancies are very bad for the health of the sow and have a higher risk of potentially fatal complications happening.

2. He isn't likely to harm the sow directly, but given a miscarriage can happen at any time and you don't know when she is due it isn't safe to have him with the sow simply due to the risks of a second pregnancy occuring.

3. She needs a source of extra calcium, that can be either alfalfa hay, young guinea pig pellets that contain alfalfa, or a high calcium vegetable added to her diet (such as a couple sprigs of parsley every day). You only need to do one of those three options.

4. Make sure she is inside in a large cage somewhere that you can see her frequently. If she becomes reluctant to move around a lot (while she is heavily pregnant) then try to place her food and water close to a sleeping spot. Also make sure that any baby guinea pigs won't be able to escape the cage, if they might be able to you will need to baby-proof the cage (even pieces of cardboard can be used to raise the side of the cage to baby-proof).

Guinea pigs will often birth in the middle of the night or when the house is quiet so you may not be there to witness the birthing. Be very careful when you handle her while she is heavily pregnant or just after birthing. When guinea pigs give birth the pups will arrive inside a sac that the mother will clean off, if you see her birthing and all is well then just let her do her thing with cleaning off the pups. Still-born pups are not uncommon within guinea pig litters. Guinea pigs also normally have one placenta for every pup, and she may want to eat them, if she does want to eat them then let her, if she has left the placenta and isn't interested in them then you can remove them from the cage. It is normal for a sow to spot a little bit of blood after birthing but actively bleeding a considerable amount can indicate an issue that needs vet care.

If she has any male pups they will need to be separated from the females at 3 weeks of age, as male guinea pigs can become sexually mature between 3.5 and 4 weeks of age.

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