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Oh no...NOT a girl?!?

Guinea-Newbie

Active Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Apr 5, 2005
Messages
26
OK, I can't even believe I'm posting this because it means admitting I'm a complete idiot, but here goes...I just figured out that our two girl guineas are actually a girl and a boy. I have pictures I could post, but after comparing the two tiny, ahem, shall we say, bottoms, it's pretty clear that they're NOT the same. (I'm not sure what prompted me to compare at this point but when we got them I'd never seen a guinea bottom before in my life and so I just blithly relied upon the information we were given...silly, silly girl that I am.)

So, here's the question...I was chatting with our vet the other day about spaying vs. neutering and he said it's actually much easier to spay a female than neuter a male. But how do I know if our female is pregnant? I certainly haven't seen them involved in any "activities" and the little male is very young, so is it possible we've dodged a bullet and they haven't procreated yet?

How does one tell if a female has conceived? They've been housed together for approximately three weeks.

Any advice is appreciated.
 
https://cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm, make sure.

It is VERY possible she is pregnant. There really is no way to tell until she starts to get fat.

Nuetering is easier because you don't have to cut into the body. Nuetering is less risky and less costly. It may be better to nueter, because you can always add more females that way, but you can't if you spay just her. Make sure you have and exotic cavy-savvy vet.

I believe the period is around 70 days until she has babies.
 
it is very possible that she is pregnant, however, there is still a chance that she isn't depending on the males age. I have to agree that it is definetely easier to neuter than it is to spay. Perhaps your vet told you the opposite because he has more experience with spaying. Either way you should remove the male immediately to prevent a pregnancy if it hasn't occured yet.
You really shouldn't feel stupid, because I wasn't even sure of the sex of my females until I had them for a while and no babies came. I am sure that 2 are females because they gave birth and I am sure of another one because she is starting to have her "female odor" every 15 days (kinda gross), but my youngest one was just an educated guess basically, but she is about 4 months old now and nobody's pregnant and nothing has popped out, so I guess that she is a she.
 
Don't feel stupid , people are given the wrong infomation all the time but I would seperate them now because as someone allready said she may not be pregnant yet.
Good to hear you wan't to get one of them spayed/neutered. I'd say go with the boy as it may be cheaper to do him than her I'd think but I could be wrong. Then they can live together without the drama's of babies if she's not pregnant.
Good luck with whatever you deciede on.
 
This may be a hard thing to read, so please be warned.....

The vet may have suggested a spay for the female because if she already is pregnant, then a spay would terminate the pregnancy. They vet can euthanize the babies and complete the spay on the female.

I agree with the others that they should be separated for now until you decide. If you neuter the male, please remember that he'll have to stay separate from the female for an extra month to make sure his sperm are all dead.

Good luck, and don't feel silly. It happens to the best of us. Good for you for checking!
 
Thanks for the comments...

According to my vet, his opinion is that a spay on a female is "neater" w/ less chance for infection, which is why he recommended it. Apparently the male guinea pig anatomy is not quite as straight forward as a dog or a cat. He's very anti-euthenasia (I know this because of all the animals I've seen him end up with over 13+ years of him as our vet that he simply won't put down...he'll treat them and then find homes for them himself) and because at the time I asked him about it I was quite certain I had two females and was only asking in hopes of maybe adopting a male and having him neutered so he could live with the females. But I appreciate you pointing it out and it's indeed awful that there are vets out there who would do that...

And thanks too for the reminder to keep them separate for an extra month if we do a neuter on the male...I'd read that on a rat forum (we have pet rats as well) but may have forgotten it in all the excitement.

If we do opt to wait for 70 days (to see if the female gives birth) and then have her spayed, would it not work to add another male to the group later on? Would the two males fight over her even if she were infertile?

Any suggestions for housing them now? Is two seperate cages best? Any way to divide their 2x5 c&c cage in half, or is that inhumane and would the male try to get to the female?
 
No, the males will fight over the female. If you eventually want to add more pigs, basically you have to nueter the male, or put pigs in a seperate cage.

I would say divide the cage right in half, a 2x2.5 for each. If you have extra grids, put a lid on the boys cage. Or put a lid on the edge, where it is divided, so it is half covered.
 
slap_maxwell said:
No, the males will fight over the female. If you eventually want to add more pigs, basically you have to nueter the male, or put pigs in a seperate cage.

I would say divide the cage right in half, a 2x2.5 for each. If you have extra grids, put a lid on the boys cage. Or put a lid on the edge, where it is divided, so it is half covered.

Perfect...we do have extra grids, so we'll do some remodeling tonight.

Thanks for the help!
 
No problem.
 
May I hijack this thread to ask what "spaying" means? I originally thought it was a typo for "spraying" which made no sense to me either. Now I'm realizing it means some kind of neutering of the female, but how is it done? *feels like a stupid foreigner*
 
lol.. Spaying is just the female version of neutering.
 
Oops. *G* Thanks.
 
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