What are signs of mating?

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

I am pigsitting a guinea pig, Betty for a friend. I'll be watching her for 11 days and as sad as it is she lives in a petstore cage... I've tried convincing the owner into upgrading to a bigger cage but I don't think its going to happen.. Anyways I had planned on putting Betty in with my other 3 guinea pigs for the 2 weeks she was going to be here so she could be a free little girl! So to introduce her to the others I put up a play area that none of them had ever been in! But when I put them all in I quickly noticed Betty was acting very strange for a female. (as I was informed she was) She was rumble stutting, getting on the others' backs, smelling their pee, and chasing them around the cage trying to get to their bums! I quickly seperated her from the others and decided to check her gender just to make sure there had not been a mistake all along! With the help of a friend who has both male and female pigs we soon discovered that indeed Betty was not a female but a male!!! So he was in the pen being closely monitored for 5 minutes of so with my three the females! I don't think anything happened but these things only take seconds, which concerns me as Acorn and Autumn are both adults over a year old so a pregnancy would NOT be good at all!! So this whole mix-up has been a terrible mistake and accident I will obviously keep them seperated from now on since I know but I'm just hoping nothing bad happens from this. I am pretty uneducated about the breeding and mating of guinea pigs as I never planned on anything like this to happen so I was just wondering what all has to take place in order for a male to fertilize a female?? One of my girls actually sprayed at the male!! Then let him all over her! and even after just holding the male I smelled like awful urine but he hadn't peed! Now he is in another cage beside the females cage but he is determined to get in with them! How do you know if a sows in heat, or when a male has successfully 'done his duty'?!

Soecara · Jun 4, 2015

For some sows when they are in heat is very obvious (often they will be seen rumble strutting and mounting their cage mate), for others there are no signs at all. For him to impregnate a sow he must successfully mount a sow and ejaculate. I don't know how you could tell if he did or not, perhaps inspect their genitalia for traces of boar glue?

I hope for everyone involved he didn't manage to impregnate anyone but only time will tell for certain. I guess your friend knows even less about guinea pigs then you originally though, I suppose you are going to have to break the news that Betty is actually a Bert.

CavyMama · Jun 4, 2015

I would double check to make sure of it being male. Females do sometimes mount other females as a dominance behavior

pinky · Jun 4, 2015

You should never put another guinea pig in with others until a proper quarantine. You've also exposed all of your guinea pigs to any type of ailment that Betty might have but is not showing symptoms of yet.

poop_patrol · Jun 4, 2015

IMHO, pigs should never be put together unless it is to be a permanent arrangement. Pigs don't want or need temporary companionship or play-dates. The introductory stage of the relationship is far to stressful to put them through only to separate a short time later.

Now that I've got that off my chest, I think the probability is low that any of your pigs are pregnant if he was truly only with the females for a few minutes. Although it only takes a second for a male to impregnate a female, my understanding is that the window in which the females are able to get pregnant is fairly small. I believe I have read that the females have a 15-17 day cycle and are only able to be impregnated for 24-48 hours during that cycle. So it's not likely that one of your females was fertile at the time they were together. Of course, if it appeared that one of your girls was more receptive to the male than the others, then there is a greater chance she was in that fertile period. So the odds are not zero and you'll have to watch them closely for the next several weeks. If any of them are pregnant, there is no way you or even a vet would be able to tell for several weeks.

My advice is to proceed as usual with your girls for now and watch for signs of weight gain and increased appetite starting in a few weeks. I would also highly recommend putting the male in a separate room where he cannot smell the females. Being near to the females yet not able to reach them is probably very stressful for him. Good luck!

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

Okay, thankyou everyone for sharing! One reason I had 'Betty' with the others before I knew was that if it all went well, the owner was actually looking into getting rid of 'her' so I thought if my pigs accepted her I could keep her! Also when we did the check 'she' was no doubt male! I know for certain we didn't make a mistake because we had one of my females and did the test and then did it on Bert (Betty) and there was a definate difference!! But now knowing the true gender makes everything change! He had actually been to my house before for a little playdate and I questioned the gender then but thankfully last time nobody got pregnant and Pumpkin wasn't here. So do you think I should keep him alone in the playpen for the 2 weeks or move him back in to his cramped cage that he'll be returning to anyway, so he doesn't get use to being in a big space? Also she doesn't feed him very much fruits and veggies ever, so should I give him some or will this much change upset his tummy?

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

And I told the owner what happened and showed her that her piggie was a male because she didn't believe me at first and all she said was "Awwww!! Their babies are going to be so cute!" So she obviously doesn't see the potential danger for my girls' safety in this!!!

joys_cavies · Jun 4, 2015

PopcorningPigs said:
And I told the owner what happened and showed her that her piggie was a male because she didn't believe me at first and all she said was "Awwww!! Their babies are going to be so cute!" So she obviously doesn't see the potential danger for my girls' safety in this!!!

Ummmmm.... That sounds like my friend so I feel ya. I hope they aren't pregnant tho

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

joys_cavies said:
Ummmmm.... That sounds like my friend so I feel ya. I hope they aren't pregnant tho

I know!! And I hope they aren't either, but I'm sure if they are I will be asking more questions on here... I'm just praying they aren't, I feel awful! This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been so careless to check before I put them together...

joys_cavies · Jun 4, 2015

PopcorningPigs said:
I know!! And I hope they aren't either, but I'm sure if they are I will be asking more questions on here... I'm just praying they aren't, I feel awful! This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been so careless to check before I put them together...

Honest mistake - could've happened to anyone and since 'Betty' had no friends & was a 'girl' for a year, you had no way of knowing'Betty' is actually Bert

Dashmo · Jun 4, 2015

There's a very good chance that nothing happened in that short amount of time. But like the other posters said, you won't be able to tell for some time.

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

So here's how the cages are setup now, unless I put him back in his little cage he will have to be beside the girls because there is nowhere else to move the C&C or playpen. I put up a divider between the two but will that be enough? Or should I put him back in his petstore cage out of the room so he cannot smell or hear the girls? And back to my other question, should I give him some fruits and veggies or will that upset his belly with all this change since he isn't use to eating them? Also I'm giving him 24/7 hay like he should have always had but hasn't.

bpatters · Jun 4, 2015

You need a lid on the girls' cage. If you put it on his, he can push it up, get out, and climb into their cage. But if you put it on their cage, he can't lift the lid to get in.

poop_patrol · Jun 4, 2015

I think he's better off in another room in his pet store cage. He's already lived months/years in that cage so a couple more weeks in it will not cause any harm. He needs a larger cage as a permanent not a temporary solution. Giving him a larger cage for a couple of weeks does little good. Please move him out of the room before you find that he has climbed out of his cage and into the females cage.

As for veggies, if he has never had them you can introduce him to a few easily digested ones. Some green pepper and green or red leaf lettuce would be great, as well as perhaps some baby carrot. Ease him into it to avoid bloat or diarrhea.

In the meantime, maybe you can come up with a strategy for speaking to your friend about improving his care...larger cage, some veggies, a companion, etc. Maybe if she sees how well you take care of yours and how happy and personable they are she might be convinced.

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

okay. I asked her if he had ever had fruits or veggies and she said he gets the occational baby carrot but that was about it. Also I cleaned his grease gland because it looks like it had been neglected all his life! I weighed him first thing when he came to make sure he doesn't loose a lot of weight while he's in my care. If anyone has anymore idea's for his routine while he's here since he doesn't have a good one at home please tell me because I don't want to over due it! And he's on the worst pellets I know, the Wild Harvest with all the seeds and colors! I was going to give her some of mine because it is definately better than what he's on. So I mixed some of mine with the kind he's got to ease him into it but he just leaves my kind!!

joys_cavies · Jun 4, 2015

PopcorningPigs said:
okay. I asked her if he had ever had fruits or veggies and she said he gets the occational baby carrot but that was about it. Also I cleaned his grease gland because it looks like it had been neglected all his life! I weighed him first thing when he came to make sure he doesn't loose a lot of weight while he's in my care. If anyone has anymore idea's for his routine while he's here since he doesn't have a good one at home please tell me because I don't want to over due it! And he's on the worst pellets I know, the Wild Harvest with all the seeds and colors! I was going to give her some of mine because it is definately better than what he's on. So I mixed some of mine with the kind he's got to ease him into it but he just leaves my kind!!

Poor poor baby!

poop_patrol · Jun 4, 2015

PopcorningPigs said:
okay. I asked her if he had ever had fruits or veggies and she said he gets the occational baby carrot but that was about it. Also I cleaned his grease gland because it looks like it had been neglected all his life! I weighed him first thing when he came to make sure he doesn't loose a lot of weight while he's in my care. If anyone has anymore idea's for his routine while he's here since he doesn't have a good one at home please tell me because I don't want to over due it! And he's on the worst pellets I know, the Wild Harvest with all the seeds and colors! I was going to give her some of mine because it is definately better than what he's on. So I mixed some of mine with the kind he's got to ease him into it but he just leaves my kind!!

If you want to change pellets you have to go cold turkey on the old ones because he will do exactly what you said...pick out what he is used to (the junk) and leave the rest.

Thanks for trying to improve this little guy's life!

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

There's a picture his little cage I put him back in. Should I make more adjustments? I feel so bad putting him back in there but he acted happier in it than the big cage. I guess all the space scared him. Also there's no ramp because he won't use them he just jumps up. I've seen him do it.

There's a picture of Betty! Sorry it's upside down, I dunno why but my tablet flipped it on here!

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

I'm pretty worried for Betty now, I changed his pellets to Kaytee (what I use) instead of Wild Harvest and now I haven't seen him eat anything since! No hay, but he didn't really eat that much anyway, no vegetables, I tried giving him Romaine Lettuce, Celery, and Carrot and he only nibbled a tiny bit off the carrot. I have heard him drinking so that's good but as far a eating I'm getting a little concerned! He's not even mine, so I don't want anything bad to happen!

And before anyone says something about it, I'm sorry but at this moment I cannot switch to Oxbow it has to be Kaytee.

PopcorningPigs · Jun 4, 2015

Also I took the top level out of the cage and now the food is in a dish on the ground so hopefully that will encourage him to eat.

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What are signs of mating?

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