[Gpdd] [BREEDING] Pregnant piggies

[DebJonSara at aol.com]

Hi Melanie

First and foremost, I am most emphatically NOT a guinea pig breeder - I would 
never deliberately breed animals when there are too many unwanted ones 
laguishing in shelters already. BUT - last January I did rescue 27 from freezing to 
death, of whom 5 were pregnant - so I think I can answer your questions.

The gestation period for a guinea pig is about 8 weeks. One of my rescues 
(who in fact stayed here with me, and her name is Cannelle) grew absolutely huge, 
and she's never really shrunk back to usual guinea pig size. She eventuallly 
produced 7 babies, although sadly one was born dead. Two of the others 
produced 2, one produced 3 and one produced 5, of whom one was paraplegic, and she 
very sadly died after 5 weeks.

Our 5 "mamans" all lived together in a run on the floor of one of our guest 
bedrooms, although there were lots of different boxes and baskets in the run 
for them to be separate if they wanted. They all gave birth during a period of 
about a fortnight, and hers was one of the births we witnessed - 3 gave birth 
whilst we were asleep. During the birth, the other guinea pigs seemed keen to 
help and support, and they even joined in eating the afterbirth. After the 
births, all the babies suckled from all the mums, whether it was the mum who'd 
given birth to them or not. 

I was advised to give the mums as much food as they wanted, and plenty of 
water (which, of course, they always had anyway - but I found it needed topping 
up more often whilst they were pregnant/nursing). 

Baby guinea pigs shed their milk teeth in the womb, and they are up and 
running around, eyes and ears open and even nibbling hay, within hours of the 
birth. Their mums don't make a nest or anything. The babies are absolutely 
adorable, and it is very hard to part with them - take photos of them all whilst they 
are little, they are so cute. 

I was advised to separate my boys from their mums at 3 weeks, but in fact did 
not do so until they were about 6 weeks old, and no pregnancies resulted - 
but maybe I was just lucky.

Feel free to email me off list if you have any concerns - it can be scarey 
being a first-time guinea pig gran!!

Good luck - and enjoy!!

Debbie (and her "Dolly Mixtures")!