Petsmart Sold Me TWO Preggo Piggies. HELP!

[p0se1d0n]

Hi Everyone. Back on June 22nd, we purchased our first guinea pig from Petsmart (as advised by a family member). Unfortunately I was unaware of Guinea pig rescues and did not do proper research prior to purchase.

The guinea pig was a female (white and gray) and was told by a store representative that she was around 4 months old. We had an 8-foot cage with all the proper and recommended bedding, tunnels, water supply, food bowls, hay, toys, etc.

Next day I found out that gp’s get lonely and/or depressed being alone. So 3 days later we went back to the same Petsmart and got a 2nd female gp (told she was 2 months old) and slightly smaller than the first.

At that time I purchased another 8-foot cage and connected the two together to create a feeding area, a sleeping area and a play area. The size was perfect for 2 little piggies.

After a week or so, we noticed the first one had gained a noticeable amount of weight (lumps on both sides of stomach and she would lay down to eat). Not having owned a gp before, we thought she was just overeating. To make a long story short..... to your surprise, she gave birth to a litter of 3 just yesterday. Obviously this came out of nowhere and we were stunned! We left the house for a few hours and came home to look under the blankets for one of the piggies and I noticed a tiny head peak out. I lifted the blanket and saw 2 more critters. Lol.

At first we were wondering if the second piggy Petsmart sold us might have been a male since they tend to make mistakes like that. We wanted confirmation so we took her to be sexed. Good news is that they confirmed she was indeed a female. Bad news is that she is pregnant. Unbelievable!

Basically Petsmart sold us TWO pregnant piggies that were not supposed to be pregnant. They offered to buy them back but they became part of the family and it would have crushed our 5 year old girl if they were all of a sudden gone. Petsmart, as expected, blamed their breeder where they get the piggies from and said they would contact them. Unfortunately that does not help our situation.

I anticipate soon that we’re going to have a total of between 5-6 newborns. A local gp rescue place suggested to bring them in when they are close to 3 weeks to have them sexed.

They also said the might take a couple off our hands but that still leaves too many. We might keep 2 newborns at most and works have to get rid of the other ones.

Looking for recommendations/suggestions/advice on how to handle this situation with the newborns and with Petsmart. Thank you in advance!

Regards,
Mike

 

[ItsaZoo]

This happens frequently with pet stores. The breeders aren't responsible and the pet stores may not have anyone there who is an expert with these animals.

It sounds like you have enough room for the two females and their young ones. As the young ones get older, if there is not enough room the mothers get stressed and can injure the young, such as chewing their ears.

Be sure to find out the genders of the young ones before they are 3 weeks old. You will need to remove the males at 3 weeks old or you will have a pregnant mom again.

If there is any way the rescue can take the young ones, that would be the best situation. I would hate to see Petsmart get them back, but that might be preferable to trying to sell them outright. Be careful about giving them away or selling them cheaply. Many reptile owners will take baby rodents as free or low-cost food for their snakes and lizards.

I'm glad the babies and mom are healthy and doing well. Hopefully that will be the case with mom (broken link removed) as well.