[Gpdd] CARE - sexing young guinea pigs

[Andrew]

As there have been a few posts recently about mistaken identity and unexpected babies arriving, I thought I'd tell you a little story on this subject.  Firstly, I am registered blind.  This means that the only way I can tell the difference between a male and female is by touch.  Over the years of having guinea pigs I've become quite expert at telling the difference.  Even with very tiny babies I find it fairly easy to tell whether there's a bit extra there or not!  Well, a few years ago, one of our local pet shops got to rely on my technique and used to ask me to check their baby guinea pigs when they came in.  I always used to like going in and having a look at their pigs when they came in.  One day I was holding one and it wasn't what it was supposed to be.  I can't remember which way around it was - I think they said it was a female and I realised it was a male so I told them and they immediately separated them.  The next time I went in, they had just had some new piggies!
 in and they asked me to check them for them.  Unfortunately the shop is still there but the ownership has changed and they're not quite so keen on letting me handle the animals as the old owners was.  I really used to look forward to going in and having all their guinea pigs out.  I got to see all the new arrivals and they got a free service out of it.  It became a bit of a joke.  I work for our local Council and one day I said they'd have to get in touch with me every time they had any new guinea pigs.  I said that at the time I was working in the Planning office and we had a good laugh.  They said I must be working on family planning for guinea pigs.  Whenever I pick up a guinea pig I've not handled before, the first thing I automatically do is check what it is, even if somebody tells me what it is.  As far as I'm concerned you just can't be too careful and it's always best to check to be on the safe side.