Questions About Guinea Pig Pregnancy

[hyepark]

I have gotten two guinea pigs, from a petstore. I know I should have adopted it, but there was no animal shelters that had guiena pigs, only had dogs and cats available to adopt in my area. They were both in the "Female Guinea pigs" Section, so I got both of them.

Recently, I went to a vet to get them checked out. The vet told me that one is pregnant, and I realized the other one was a male. It seemed like she had been pregnant since she was in the pet store, with my other guinea pig since they were the only two inside the cage in the store.

What should I do? I'm so worried about her, but dont know what to do! I want to seperate them but is worried that she might be lonely.

So the questions are:
1. Should I seperate them now?
2: Can the boar do something to my pregnant guinea pig?
3: Should I give her alfalfa hay now?
4: Any other information I need to know about guinea pig pregnancy and anything I could do to help her?

나의 SM-N900V 의 Tapatalk에서 보냄

[Soecara]

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.

[hyepark]

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.

Thank you so much! Do you know what happens if the male guinea pig humps the female when pregnant? Might she have problems?

나의 SM-N900V 의 Tapatalk에서 보냄

[Soecara]

Any humping he has already done should not have caused her harm and is unlikely to cause her problems going forward as long as he is no longer in with her.