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1+1=4 (guinea pig thread) Edit: oh god 6
Hevach
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok... backstory start:
Three months ago we purchased two "male" guinea pigs, who my fiancee named Chocolate and Turbo. We had them sexed by a vet (who will no longer be our vet, this same mistake happened with my cat three years ago).
About a week ago we noticed Chocolate getting to be very fat. We had an appointment for the vet to look at him, thinking he was impacted or overeating. Following preliminary advice we cut down their feeding.
Today we came home to find we now have four guinea pigs. Edit: Possibly five, we still haven't gotten a decent look. There's one that looks like a miniature Chocolate, brown with a white spot on its head, and one that appears to be a calico, and possibly a mostly black one. The third might have been the calico from a different angle.
So... Short term: Do we need to know anything about new born guinea pigs? Do we need to change the mother's feeding? Does the father have to be isolated (He probably will be anyway pending neuterings all around)?
She's currently nursing them. They're dry, eyes open, moving around a little bit. They're hiding and she's being very protective, we've limited our interference to viewing from about a foot away so far, we gave them fresh food but were very careful to leave the box they're all in alone. Father's separated now, some google-fu suggests the female can get pregnant hours or at most a day or two after the birth, we don't want to stress her out nursing while carrying a second litter (and we're not really prepared to deal with more guinea pigs on top of the new three). Temporary lodgings are much smaller than I'd like to have him in, but we'll be getting a substantially larger permanent cage set up for all five soon. We'll move mom and the babies into that and give Turbo the existing cage until we're sure everybody's properly sterilized.
Three months ago we purchased two "male" guinea pigs, who my fiancee named Chocolate and Turbo. We had them sexed by a vet (who will no longer be our vet, this same mistake happened with my cat three years ago).
About a week ago we noticed Chocolate getting to be very fat. We had an appointment for the vet to look at him, thinking he was impacted or overeating. Following preliminary advice we cut down their feeding.
Today we came home to find we now have four guinea pigs. Edit: Possibly five, we still haven't gotten a decent look. There's one that looks like a miniature Chocolate, brown with a white spot on its head, and one that appears to be a calico, and possibly a mostly black one. The third might have been the calico from a different angle.
So... Short term: Do we need to know anything about new born guinea pigs? Do we need to change the mother's feeding? Does the father have to be isolated (He probably will be anyway pending neuterings all around)?
She's currently nursing them. They're dry, eyes open, moving around a little bit. They're hiding and she's being very protective, we've limited our interference to viewing from about a foot away so far, we gave them fresh food but were very careful to leave the box they're all in alone. Father's separated now, some google-fu suggests the female can get pregnant hours or at most a day or two after the birth, we don't want to stress her out nursing while carrying a second litter (and we're not really prepared to deal with more guinea pigs on top of the new three). Temporary lodgings are much smaller than I'd like to have him in, but we'll be getting a substantially larger permanent cage set up for all five soon. We'll move mom and the babies into that and give Turbo the existing cage until we're sure everybody's properly sterilized.
Hevach on
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1) have your new vet sex the "father" again. depending on the give & take on the 3 months, you might have 2 female pigs and the one got impregnated at the pet store.
2) it is my understanding that multiple males will not live peacefully with females once mature. unless the whole litter is female, you should consider having 2 cages with the males/females completely divided (or other groupings of 1male/multi females)
3) http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/ is a great source of information, but some of the people there are a bit obsessive and/or crazy. (prepare to get dogpiled if you mention you bought the pigs at a pet store)
SWTOR: Allanna (Shadowlands) / TSW: Sara-Luna
Also, an update, we caught the whole lot wandering around the cage at night while Chocolate was asleep, there's definitely four babies, not two or three - a calico, an all black (maybe black and white, this one sticks closest to the mother and we haven't gotten a good look yet), the mini-Chocolate we already saw and a second one with markings like Chocolate but with a two-toned brown.
Size wise, I don't think we're going to be able to house them, multiple cages or not. Even if they're all female, it'd take a cage something like 3'x6' minimum for the lot and that's going to get seriously cramped with six adults, and even more space to separate them.
We're already running a goddamn petting zoo in this house (I had a cat, two geckoes, a king snake, four aquariums, and 10" crayfish. She had two dwarf bunnies. Since she moved in we added a cage of feeder rats and two - now six - guinea pigs). My fiancee is going to hate me for a long time, but I think we're going to have to start finding homes for these babies.
Do you have any friends/family that would like a new pet? Or you could contact a local pet store and see if they'd be wiling to find them a new home.
Also pics please
Also, additional update, we can confirm there's a likely fifth based on the color patterns we've noted. Pictures pending a day or two, they're very rarely out of their house right now and the mother's being very protective. If we come by the cage she shoves them all in the box and blocks the door with her body.
Aside from the fact that if I even suggested this, my next H&A thread would be, "Help, my girlfriend stabbed me in the aorta?" It might be able to handle one of them now, maybe next week, but it can't handle an adult rat, let alone a growing guinea pig.
yeah, I have 2 males and they're fine. but take 2 males and add any number of females, they will fight for dominance, even if they're all spayed/neutered
SWTOR: Allanna (Shadowlands) / TSW: Sara-Luna
X number of males together is fine, but if you add a female into the cage, they'll compete for her attention. Think of it as a guinea pig jousting competition...the winner gets a kiss from the princess.
Neutering boars is nothing like neutering a dog or a cat, either anatomically, or in terms of how well the critters handle it. Pigs can easily die under the anesthetic (which should be isoflurane gas), and they're really susceptible to infections afterward. You've got to make sure you're using an experienced small-animal vet for it.
And no, Turbo won't hurt the pups. The sow's post-birth heat phase should be over by now, but you should keep them separate in case it kicks back in.
These guys are nature's equivalent of Twinkies--they're tasty and reproduce fast; the males can knock up their mom as early as 3 weeks old. Females are fertile at one month. D:
The pups will wriggle and their mom will make you feel like a prick, but you can already pick them up and feel right above their genital area for a bump; if you can extrude a little weenis, it's a boy. Anyone who tells you they're too young to be sexed is silly.