Behavior My pig can’t stop chasing the other one for poops.

[mannybright]

I just adopted 1 male and 1 female Guinea pigs and the female always chases the male for the poop. She will lick his anus until he poops. The concerning part is that he wheeks and cries like he is in pain , actually he does it back but she doesn’t usually wheek or cry. She licks his butt for feces for most of the time and i feel very worried. He can eat his own poo and get things done but not for the girl. I tried to separate them but the male wheeked for the female. I’m so concerned that the boy’s genital may get inflamed from being licked. Please reply , sincerely thank you. (Both are 1 month and a bit old)

 

[Soecara]

I know you have said the male wheeks for the female, but you absolutely MUST separate them now. They are both old enough to breed, and she is much too young. Guinea pigs already have a high risk of complications from pregnancy simply due to factors like the size of their pups. Add onto that her current age and she is at extremely high risk of having potentially fatal results if she were to get pregnant.

I have only experience the butt licking behavior when one of my guinea pigs was sick, but that is beside the point right now as you absolutely must separate them. Watch them for other signs of illness once separated. If you do want to eventually house them together you will need to get one of them desexed, then wait for them to heal post surgery (and for any residual sperm to die off if you chose to get the male neutered, this takes 3 weeks post neuter).

 

[mannybright]

Thank you very much for the advice , how old can i get him neutered or should I get male or female neutered? They are very small and young , the vet still advised me to milk feed them and can’t vaccinate them due to their ages. I’m so confused. Thank you.

 

[mannybright]

Oh and actually they wheeked for each other , mostly with the female (the licker) but when I separate female. The male wheeks after I separated them then the female started to wheek back. It is so nerve-wrecking because it worries me a lot. Their diets are just fine , the poops and the pee are normal but their behaviors. Some of the boards says it’s normal for the licking because they will work it out themselves but this is too often. Please help

 

[Soecara]

I'm not sure where in the world you are located but that is some very bad advice from your vet. For starters guinea pigs are born capable of eating solids, and don't need their mothers milk anymore at all from the time they are 3 weeks old, this is the age you need to separate male pups from the mother as it is between 3.5-4 weeks old that male pups become sexually mature and could impregnate their mothers. Secondly what kind of vaccination? I have never heard of guinea pigs getting vaccinated.

Yes they will both wheek for each other when separated, this is common for guinea pigs their age when they are suddenly alone however you have no other option at this point.

Here is a link with a lot more information about neutering/spaying guinea pigs https://www.cavyspirit.com/neutering.htm

However I will note that unless you have a much better vet then the one who has given you the previous advice I would seriously think twice about letting them perform surgery on a guinea pig. If you decide against having one desexed you could instead look into getting each of them a same sexed companion (another girl for the girl, another boy for the boy), assuming yours are indeed a male and a female.

I would suggest double and triple checking their genders yourself if you haven't already, an easy way to identify males vs females is to feel just above the genitalia for a firm line just under the skin. This line is the penis as guinea pigs have a bone in their penis, as females lack a penis and thus the bone they will just feel soft there.

 

[mannybright]

According to your advice , I decided to find a new vet asap. The old vet told me about the Rabies virus that carried by mammals and she told me to wait for the age of 2.5 months to do the vaccination. Actually I don’t get the point why she told me to milk feed them with cat milk. I’ll stop feeding it now. Thank you very much.