[Gpdd] ANNOUNCE - Welcome Holly

[Andrew]

Hello, I hope for Holly's sake that she's not pregnant and that she can soon put on some weight and grow.  Unfortunately as already stated though there is a possibility that she could be pregnant.  When I hear about very young guinea pigs that are pregnant I always tell the story of Pip.  Back in 1990 we bought two female guinea pigs from a pet shop, both of which turned out to be pregnant.  One of them, Pip, was extremely tiny, no bigger, if even as big, as a hamster.  Several weeks after we got her we realised that she was pregnant.  As her stomach got bigger she began to have difficulties walking.  Her body and legs were just so tiny that they couldn't support her huge stomach.  She also started having trouble drinking, she couldn't support herself for very long and so had problems drinking from the bottle.  However, her appetite remained extremely good and so we were able to get moisture into her through giving her plenty of fruit and vegetables as well as some bread and!
  milk.  I know bread and milk isn't the healthiest food for a guinea pig but  at the time we were just glad of any way we could get her to drink.  Needless to say we were really worried about both her and the babies.  We didn't see how such a tiny guinea pig could give birth to babies who we thought would probably be weak and sickly.  However, when the babies finally arrived, they were almost as big as her.  Unfortunately one died at 10 days old but the other two, as well as Pip, went on to live healthy lives.  Once she'd had the babies Pip was able to walk again, although her legs always stayed small and seemed to point at a slight angle.  She never grew very big but at least she and her babies were able to go on and live normal lives.  The two surviving babies were much bigger than Pip.  If Holly does turn out to be pregnant all you can do is feed her as much as she'll eat and keep her warm and comfortable.  It can be amazing how they can cope with the difficulties life t!
 hrows at them.