Lunasea
Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2012
- Messages
- 4
Howdy - I'm a first-time guinea pig owner and have found so much useful information here!
My younger son had been bugging us for a pet forever, so we finally decided on guinea pigs, and adopted Katniss and Peeta from a rescue agency in September 2012, where they were named Hazel and Bunny and were thought to be two females. Oops. We checked when we picked them up, and it was apparent to all of us that Bunny (aka Peeta) was a boy. Katniss was already pregnant when we adopted her, and the rescue agency kindly agreed to neuter Peeta and also take the babies once they were born. We had to keep Peeta and Katniss separate until just recently. They're back together now and seem to be re-bonding well.
The babies were born the first week of November, and our son named them Molly and Jason, although we had no idea what sex they were. It was pretty clear from the beginning that there was something wrong with Jason - he kept walking into things. Pretty soon we figured out that he was deaf and blind, but we'd never heard of Lethal White Syndrome. The babies nursed for about 5 weeks, and then I brought them to the rescue agency. They confirmed what I suspected, that they were both female (hence, Jason is now Snowball), and suggested that Snowball had LWS. We gave Molly back to them to bond with some other guineas they'd just rescued, and we decided to keep Snowball because we'd all bonded with her so much.
The vet confirmed the LWS diagnosis, but fortunately she has all her molars, so she can grind food in the back of her mouth. She has one incisor, which isn't very helpful with eating. The vet told me I didn't really have to worry about trimming the incisor, which is different from what I've read here, so I don't know. I'm adding a pic where you can see her tooth clearly. She's a spunky little thing, a good eater, and purrs sweetly when we pick her up and pet her. We're hoping for the best. She gets tired after eating, though, and almost always sleeps afterward. We adore her.
We call this her "Ooooh Hooooooly Niiiiiiiiight" picture.
My younger son had been bugging us for a pet forever, so we finally decided on guinea pigs, and adopted Katniss and Peeta from a rescue agency in September 2012, where they were named Hazel and Bunny and were thought to be two females. Oops. We checked when we picked them up, and it was apparent to all of us that Bunny (aka Peeta) was a boy. Katniss was already pregnant when we adopted her, and the rescue agency kindly agreed to neuter Peeta and also take the babies once they were born. We had to keep Peeta and Katniss separate until just recently. They're back together now and seem to be re-bonding well.
The babies were born the first week of November, and our son named them Molly and Jason, although we had no idea what sex they were. It was pretty clear from the beginning that there was something wrong with Jason - he kept walking into things. Pretty soon we figured out that he was deaf and blind, but we'd never heard of Lethal White Syndrome. The babies nursed for about 5 weeks, and then I brought them to the rescue agency. They confirmed what I suspected, that they were both female (hence, Jason is now Snowball), and suggested that Snowball had LWS. We gave Molly back to them to bond with some other guineas they'd just rescued, and we decided to keep Snowball because we'd all bonded with her so much.
The vet confirmed the LWS diagnosis, but fortunately she has all her molars, so she can grind food in the back of her mouth. She has one incisor, which isn't very helpful with eating. The vet told me I didn't really have to worry about trimming the incisor, which is different from what I've read here, so I don't know. I'm adding a pic where you can see her tooth clearly. She's a spunky little thing, a good eater, and purrs sweetly when we pick her up and pet her. We're hoping for the best. She gets tired after eating, though, and almost always sleeps afterward. We adore her.
We call this her "Ooooh Hooooooly Niiiiiiiiight" picture.
