Pregnancy Possible pregnant guinea Pig

[Tara Macintyre]

hi everyone i came to this forum hoping to find some answers, i am a first time owner of 2 female guinea pigs, in the picture is lilly, i bought her and her sister agnes about four weeks ago at a pet store and am unsure if she is pregnant or not, ive been searching for answers every where and can't seem to find any definite answer without taking her to a vet. If I cant get an answer i will take her but dont want to pay too much to see one. Ok So basically when i got her she was hesitant to be picked up or petted or anything and after some patience she now happily gets held and petted. She has put on a lot of weight very quickly and has two bulging lumps on either side of her lower belly, she has widened hips and erect teets, she eats guinea pig mixture consisting of pellets and other mix daily, also eats carrots and apples, straw and hay and drinks plenty of water. When fed she will eat and drink constantly so that could also be a sign. Could anyone help me please to tell me if she is actually pregnant? thankyou.

 

[Tara Macintyre]

the last photo is of her and agnes the very first day i bought them you can see the difference in her weight here.

 

[mlgobel]

Read this thread:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/98069-Her-belly-is-getting-big

Some good replies in there.

 

[mlgobel]

It sounds like she is pregnant to me, but I'm no expert. Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[Soecara]

You might need to re-asses her diet, apples and carrots are quite high in sugar which is not good for them as they have trouble processing sugar which can lead to bloating which can become deadly. I would make the apple only an occasional treat (one small piece once a week at max), and limit the carrot (some people feed one small baby carrot a day per pig, I only give carrot once or twice a week).

She should be getting 1 cup of vegetable per day, daily staples should include green capsicum/bell peppers and lettuce (not the iceberg variety as it causes bloat) the rest of the portion can be made up of other vegetables of your choice, here is a guide which might help https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...vy-Nutrition-Charts-amp-Poisonous-Plants-List

What type of hay and straw is she getting?

Honestly taking her to a vet just to see if she is pregnant is not something I would do, if she is it will become apparent in time and babies wont show up on x-rays until their bones calcify - at which point they are already moving inside the womb.

Double check her sister is actually a girl, pet stores are notoriously bad at sexing guinea pigs. If her sister is a girl then she could also be pregnant.

 

[Starthecavy123]

She could most likely be pregnant but I wouldn't take her to the vet. You can pretty much get all your answers on pregnancies here. But when she gets close to delivering I would at least have a cavy savvy vet on standby. Just in case something goes wrong but mostly she will deliver just fine on her own.

Also I would check their genders your self just to make sure.
http://www.guinealynx.info/sexing_pups.html

Just be careful of sugary foods guinea pigs can't really handle sugar. Also if both are under 6 months make sure they get plenty of calcium. There are many ways you can do this like alfalfa hay, bell peppers, or cilantro and other calcium rich foods. I would also check out the fruit and veggie chart in the nutrition section.

Any males that she may have need to be separated from the sows at I think 3 weeks. Also weigh them both regularly especially the one you believe to be pregnant.

 

[Rywen]

You can't usually tell from pictures but she does possibly look pregnant. You say she has gained a lot of weight, are you weighing both weekly? If not you can buy an inexpensive kitchen scale at walmart, kmart, target or amazon.com. As [MENTION=24757]Soecara[/MENTION] just said please compare their genitalia and make sure they match. If the pellets aren't solely Timothy or alfalfa pellets please switch them over to those, you mention she eats pellets and other mix which is why I bring it up. Any mix (seeds, dried fruit, etc) in with the pellets is not needed and can be a choking hazard. They should both get unlimited Timothy, orchard or bluegrass hay. And 1 cup of fresh veggies per piggie per day. The food chart [MENTION=24757]Soecara[/MENTION] pointed you to is a great resource for veggie info.

 

[Tara Macintyre]

Thankyou for all the info guys, ill change her diet starting today. Can someone give me an example of their piggies diets (i.e 100gms apple or carrot once a week) im in thw process of getting some c&c cages aswell to better their comfort. Ill wait to see what happens with the pregnant one, i double checked her sister this morning and she appears to be a girl, no male genitalia is present even afyer lightly pressing on the pubic area. If so she must of gotten pregnant at the p3t store and after reading all the stoeiws on here i wouldnt be suprised. I am buying a kitchen scale this week to start weighing noth of them, the pet store didnt tell me anuthing, how old they are or what breed. As a forst time owner im a bit lost so any advice is great thankyou all so much. I hope she will be okay having a litter im worried about the lethal white gene. Will i have to seperate the sisters before or after the birth ?

 

[Soecara]

You will not need to separate the girls - often other sows make good aunties, it is very uncommon for their to be issue between the "aunt" and babies as long as the two adult sows where together before the birth. Here are some links which may help you with the quantity of vegetables http://www.guinealynx.info/fave.html and http://www.guinealynx.info/diet.html

It is possible that lilly carries the roan gene, as she is white (the gene causes white furs to be dispersed throughout another colour, but on a solid/primarily white guinea pig it is impossible to tell if they carry the gene) BUT to produce a lethal baby both the mother and father must carry the roan gene.

Here is an example of a roan guinea pig.

 

[Soecara]

Sorry just realised a typo, I meant it is NOT possible to tell if lilly carries the roan gene.

 

[Tara Macintyre]

so everyone just an update on this thread, i recently took everyones advice and started to feed lilly ( the now heavily pregnant piggy) pellets and hay unlimited daily and she also receives fresh vegies twice a day! As does her sister agnes, i feed them both Capsicum, Cherry tomatoes, Romaine lettuce daily, mixing it up every other day with cucumber and baby carrots, i don't feed them fruit more than allowed any more just one small piece of apple once in a blue moon and a tiny sliver of orange.
Any whoo on to the main topic, Lilly is DEFINTLEY prgenant and maybe 7 or 8 weeks at that, i saw MAJOR kicking of the pups inside her today one on each side of her belly so im guessing there are two maybe three pups. however as being a newbie to the whole cavy world, i am unsure still of how to make her more comfortable, Making the silly mistake that i did and buying her from a petstore i do not know her age nor anything else about this beautiful piggy. I hope she is not too old where the pelvic bone is unable to seperate during labour and not so young that she dies. I've been doing so much research and making sure i know everything there is to know about piggies and pregnancy i just hope she will make it through! After that its neuturing and adopting piggies only! I'm Also in the process of moving house next week and have a C&C cage on its way to the new adress, its a 2x3 which i plan on making a palace for my girls Seeing all of this heavy fetal movement today, does anyone know (roughly) how long it will be before she gives birth? I've heard it can be as little as two weeks after seeing fetal movement.
and is there any way i can tell her age? Any more advice would be great! thankyou again

 

[Soecara]

How much did she weigh when you got her? If you don't know then what is her weight now? Judging by the photos she does not look fully grown, but with her weight we can tell if she is fully grown or not and may be able to estimate a *very* rough age using the average weight of guinea pigs as they grow. Agnes is almost definitely younger then Lilly, perhaps even by a month or so.

Guinea pig gestation is between roughly 59-73 days, you can begin to feel movement at roughly 6 weeks (42 days). Smaller litters tend to have a longer gestation then larger litters.

 

[bpatters]

You can also usually hear the pups' teeth gnashing about a week before delivery. The pups may not know that's the schedule.

 

[Tara Macintyre]

Im not sure about the weight as i dont have a scale, however by holding them im thinking agnes is arpund 500-600gms and lilly is around 800-900 given shes pregnant . I havent been able to hold lilly as of late because of the pregnancy. But i can feel and clearly see the kicking and see the pups twosting and turning

 

[Tara Macintyre]

[MENTION=24757]Soecara[/MENTION] thankyou foe the advice, i was just wandering how you could tell from the photos that agnes is possibly a month younger than lilly, thats a great gift you have there lol

 

[Soecara]

She is very noticeably smaller then Lilly in the picture, neither looks severely malnourished (which is a factor affecting growth rate) and guinea pigs grow quite fast. If Agnes weighs 500-600g then she is most likely between 2 1/2 - 4 months old, whereas lilly is likely older then 5 months, because she is reaching adult weight it is much harder to estimate age. If Lilly has grown longer in body length since you have gotten her then she is unlikely to be older then 8 months.

 

[Tara Macintyre]

Thankyou, that helps clarify alot. Here are some recent pictures of them.