Behavior Newbie Questions: Guinea Pig Natural History

[connorology]

Good Morning All,

I actually joined-up after watching a bunch of baby guinea pig YouTube videos. I've kept rats and hamsters but never guinea pigs, and I noticed guinea pigs are substantially more developed right after birth!

This piqued my curiosity.

I was wondering, can guinea pigs walk right after they are born? If not, how long does it take before they are running around? I saw a video of babies that were supposedly only a few hours old and they looked like tiny clones of the adults.

How long do newborn guinea pigs nurse for after birth? That is, how long before they are weaned and can eat solid foods?

Thanks for indulging my curiosity!

Best,

Connor

 

[CavyMama]

The gestation period for guinea pigs is 63-68 days. They come out fully formed, with all their fur, eyes open and ready to run and eat. They do nurse but are also able to eat solid food soon after birth.

 

[Soecara]

They can be up and walking as soon as the mother finishes cleaning them. They capable of eating immediately after being born, I have even seen a baby start nibbling on hay minutes after being born while mum was busy cleaning off one of it's slightly younger siblings. How long it takes for them to start running depends on the individual baby, how the birth went, and litter size. Smaller litters tend to have a longer gestation, and babies in said litters have a higher birth weight so they tend to start running sooner (the soonest I have seen was 15 minutes after being born with a pup who was an only pup).

How long female pups nurse is typically no longer then 5-6 weeks, but all male pups must be separated from all females, including mum, at 3 weeks to prevent them impregnating the females so the boys are forced to stop nursing then.

Do keep in mind that the large size of the pups in relation to the sow causes the risk of complications to be drastically higher than in other comparable mammals, particularly the complication dystocia. The litter sizes of guinea pigs is typically between 1 and 6 (the largest recorded litter was 17), as such all of those large pups can put quite a strain on the sow's body. The sow will also go into heat as soon as the pups are born, so if housed with an unaltered male she will have a back-to-back pregnancy, which even further raises the strain on her body and the risk of complication.

 

[connorology]

That's crazy!

Are there breeds known for having fewer pups? Or is it entirely random?

 

[MiloThePiggy]

It is random but it also depends on the pig sometimes ��

 

[bpatters]

Please do not consider breeding guinea pigs. The birth rate for the sows and the pups is very high, in no small part because the pups are HUGE in relation to the size of the sow.

Also, guinea pigs are subject to several genetic diseases that can cause lifelong problems. One of these is osteodystrophy, a painful bone and joint disease with no cure. Another is lethal white syndrome, in which the pups are born blind and deaf, with wonky or missing teeth, and immature digestive tracts. If they live, they require lifelong care and expensive dental work.

There are enough accidental pregnancies in the guinea pig world that no one needs to ever deliberately breed another one.

 

[connorology]

I actually do not keep or breed any small animals at this time, nor do I have any plans to do so in the future. I am just curious about some videos I watched.