New pregnant guinea pig

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Victoria

Victoria

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Joined
Jun 17, 2009
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Location
Sydney, , Australia
Hi

We just bought a female pregnant guinea pig from the pet shop. I promised not to buy any animals apart from fish etc from pet shops after we lost 2 rats and rabbit Black. However yesterday I went to the shop to have a look like I usually do and saw a cage full of small rabbits and a guinea pig hiding in the box. It looked really frightened and I could see it did not want any one near her. I asked to see her and when they picked her up she was crying and complaining. They told me that she is pregnant. She is about 8-10 weeks old. She looked cute with silky hair that is not long but not too short. It has three colours - white, brown and pale yellowish like caramel. I just bought her and brought her home with me. It looks more happy now. It has Blacks cage.

But it sits a lot in one spot. It does not eat much only ate one piece of apple last night. It has not drunkmuch water. (it came home last night at about 6-7 pm).

I am a bit worried about it but it has been with us only for 12 hours. I got up early today even though it is a weekend to see what it is up to. It is still sitting in her box that we put in the cage. When I pick it up in makes small noises and I think it means she wants to be left alone so I dont pick her up any more. It made some loud noises like wistlingthis morning and I went to check on her and noticed that it had a lot of cockroaches in her cage so I got rid of the food and them and now she is silent. I have a lot of cockroaches at home right now I dont know why so many they come from somewhere?!? We live in a block of units. I sprayed some areas last night but they are still there. We often have a lot of cockroaches where we are staying right now and I am not sure why (it is clean in our unit).

Any ideas how to take care of a pregrant guinea pig? I know they need vitamin C rich foods and that pregnant ones drink more than usual. I would say she is due may be in another 5 weeks? I read that it is about 68 days that they are pregnant and may be she is even due earlier. I have to ask my partner I dont recall if she is 8 weeks or 10 week old. It is a bit young to be pregant or is it ok? Also can cockroaches harm it in any way? I dont like them but I am not sure how to get rid of them right now because I cant fumigate the place with the"bomb" because of thethe rabbit and the rats and now the pig.
 
Poor momma. :( Here are some links you should definitely take a look at.

Care Guide - General information about Cavy care.

Guinea Pig Diet - Covers all the basics of what your pigs diet should consist of. Remember that just like Rabbit's, Guinea pigs should have access to grass hay throughout the day.

Housing - Another very important aspect. Most people are under the impression because Guinea pigs are small that they require less room, which is not the case. With the proper amount of space they will run, play, and overall be quite active.

Reproduction - What to expect when your Cavy is expecting and information on what kind of care she needs.


Hope this helps! :wave:

 
I also noticed that she ate another piece of apple and when I removed the box (it is a bit cruel but I wanted to have a look at her and pat her but she was so far in the box all the time I couldnt see her much). Now that she is in a cage with no box I noticed she went to taste her other food with pellets and grains. But she stops eating when I get to the room and just freezes. I think she is ok just getting used to it.
 
Ps Also she is going to the vet soon re how to care for her and the pups when they arrive.

I read that they like to be in company of other cavies. Is it a good idea to get a friend for her (another femaleor a neutered male) while she is half-way through her pregnancy now or is it better to wait after the babies grow up? may be if there is a female baby we can keep it with her instead.
 
Poor girly :(

She is under the recommended age for having babies, they can reproduce quite young but shouldn't. The babies will probably be ok though. They can re absorb their babies, it isn't uncommon in guinea pigs. So I would keep the stress to a minimum. Definitely give her back her house and try not to touch her too much. I would do that even if she wasn't pregnant, give her time to settle in. She will start to venture out eventually. My three boys were all big scaredy cats when I first got them, they would leg it to their hidey house as soon as I came in the room. Now they come running to the side of their cage, wheeking at me for treats:biggrin2:

After a few days of leaving them to get settled in without disturbing them, I started to offer them lettuce from my hand. It is their favourite food, and if they didn't take it from my hand, they didn't get it at all. The first time, I was sitting on the floor with my hand in the cage for 15 minutes before one came over, grabbed it and legged it. I kept doing that every day until I got to the stage where I am at now, where they will come right over when I have lettuce. The majority of piggies don't like to be pet, cuddled and held. Mine don't, and I know most other peoples don't either.

I wouldn't get her a friend right now if it were up to me, it would be pretty stressful on her. Usual they fight and hump and stuff when they are first introduced to work out the pecking order and I feel that would be too much stress on a preggy piggie. I would probably keep a female from the litter.

Those links Happi Bun gave you are really good, maybe you could join the forum there too :)

Congrats on the new piggie, I hope you enjoy her! Piggies are great pets :)
 
The box is back and she is back in it. She is very scared it was cruel of me to take it away. I did not know they dont like to be held. But there were a few times when she did not mind being cuddled for a minute or two. I did not see the forum on the site but I am going there now to check it out.
 
I think GuineaLynx also has a very good forum--if not that site, then there is another very good forum for piggies out there.

You've gotten a lot of good advice from people who know tons more about guinea pigs than me. I wanted to chime in on the roaches. It's so common for apartment buildings to have them. You can try very hard to control them, but your neighbors also have to be very clean to make sure that nobody has them. I would get her cage up off the floor if that's where it is and place bait traps for the roaches. Also, make sure that your garbage can isn't too close to the house. I lived in apartment in Chicago where the dumpster was right outside and we had roaches, rats, and mice, although I was nuts about cleaning. Luckily I never saw a rat in my apartment, but I was very worried for Tony (my only bun at the time).
 
The forum on that Lynx site is good. Thanks re advice re roaches :) - I m sure it is the neighbourhood they must be coming from the outside.
I just got a temporary measure of putting the cage on some boxes, but will get another stand prob later today plus the baits - but we had them here before and the only thing that did help was the "bomb" type of thing (a can that sprays when no one is at home very toxic). The garbage is at a long distance off but i saw the inside of some places... :shame. I know some people saw mice too around this block of units.
 
Hows it going with your preggers GP? Love the pigs - hoping the best for you! PM me if you need some help as I know a couple of people that rescue GP's. Happy to put you in contact with them if you need advice. Good luck!
 
Hi. The pig is doing well she is coming out more and eating/drinking quite a lot!but she bolts back when any one is in the room.
So far there are much less roaches near or in the cage (only one or two at times) but I think they come out at night. I sprayed places where they are congregating (like in warm places near the fridge) and closed the door.

I also was wondering I will ask this in piggy forums as well- my rats have mycoplasma (thats why after these ones go no more rats for me they all are sick) - can piggy catch it from them? It is in the same room, about 2 meters from each other.
 
You did a very good thing for this scared little guinea pig! I'm sure even though she is scared that she will be much happier as she gets used to her new surroundings.

I had guinea pigs many years ago, and we once had one that had babies. We kept one of the female babies after which worked out well. Guinea pig babies are so cute because they are just like tiny versions of the adults, with all their fur. I think they can run around after about 2 hours of being born, pretty amazing I reckon. I still remember being very excited when I opened the cage and the babies had been born, and that must have been about 10 years ago! we had 4 little ones :)

Keep us updated! And I hope to see pics when the babies are born!

Ps. does she have a name? and would like to see pics of her too :)
 
I hope she will be ok -she is a bit too young to have babies.
My rabbit died early this year and we had an empty cage to stare at.
I liked the pig, then learnt it was pregnant and still decided to get it but I dont like getting animals from the shops as we had a bad experience with animals being sick or dying, not sure if this is the shops or just bad luck, could be both.
The pig is called Grumpy because it throws temper tantrums doing this loud "brrr" sound if I do something she does not like - eg today she was on my bed and went inside the pillow and hid between the pillow and the case and did not want to come out when I forced her out she did this run around the cage after that stomping and brring. She is not that frightened any more - does not mind sitting on me for about 15 min or more she must be heavy so she does not move that much.
I am going to post pictures soon.
 
I know mycoplasm can be spread to mos other rodents, but I wouldn't worry too much about her. I would keep her away from the rats, particularly while she's sick, pregnant, or nursing, though, because her immune system will be compromised and make her more likely to catch it, even if it doesn't commonly infect guinea pigs.
 
Hi Some update on our pig. Several days ago she gave birth to one very large baby that was albino and it died. We dont know why but suspect that it is because she has a "roan gene" that the father of the baby also had and therefore the baby was born with two of the roan genes and it caused him to die - "lethal white" is when a guinea pig has those genes and a lot dont make it shortly after the birth and those that do have a shorter lifespan and medical problems.
We are quite used to the pig now. We know what the whistle means (either frightened or asking for food or attention). She has an attitude - she likes to boss us around, is very loud when we come into the room (regardless if she was fed recently or not), tells us brrr if we sneeze, cough or if the rabbit rattles his cage when he wants attention too... any unusual or threatening for a guinea pig noise. It is sad that all the animals we got from the pet shops had or have problems. Even the way this guinea was sold - the same problem here - she was bred with another roan someone did not know.. then sold .. pretty sure they should not sell sick or pregnant animals. We had rats and now know they were bred right there in one of the shops.. some possibly for snake or lizard food.. which is also illegal to breed this way. I promised myself now never to get any more from the shops.. only may be fish. We used to have hermit crabs (also from shops) and they also did not survive for long.. it could be that it is too cold in Sydney for them.
 
I'm sorry about the baby :( At least now she can get on with her life and maybe get a friend? :)
 
Sorry the baby died. I am glad the mom is ok. It's really irresponsible of the shop not only to breed her to another roan (assuming they knew that both were carriers) but to sell her while pregnant. The stress of going to a new home can be dangerous for some pregnant animals. Anyway, she's in a good place now!
 
I dont think they bred them with intent. It must have been when they were still with the "breeder" (I am not sure what kind.. a backyard one could be not a licenced one) the animals must have not been separated before they reached sexual maturity or there was a mistake thinking they are wrong sex. The shops dont tell that they get their animals from licenced breeder and dont tell at all where they get them from.
 
She will be getting another piggy for a friend (a female one of course and from a licenced breeder this time). We will get her in about a month's time.
 
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