baby guinea pig looks premature

Question

first guinea  

second guinea   My female guinea pig has given birth once before. We didn't know about it till one morning I went to feed my pair and a little one scampered out. I gave that one to my daughter who wanted one, after it was old enough to be separated from the mother. After several months my son wanted one so I decided to pair my first two again. My female gave birth this morning and it seems the baby is not as well formed. It seems like it's paw is kinda gimped and that it ribs and backbone aren't fully formed either. It moves very sporadically and jumpy. Here are two pictures of the first one and the second one. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
The baby does not look premature to me. I can see that the front paws don't seem to be in a normal position, but that could be just a malformation caused by being in the utero with the front paws underneath each other instead of extended outward as they should.

I've had babies born like that, one if particular that never did straighten up but she lived a long and healthy life. If you start right away you can often do little piggy physical therapy by massaging and gently manipulating the feet back in a more or less normal position. But in some cases the pup learns to live with this and has no issues getting around. They form a callous on the joint where they are stepping rather than on the bottom of the foot and it works just fine for them.

Just as with children born with deformities, they do think they are handicapped. They just learn to live with what God has given them, and they do fine. If fact sometimes you wonder if they are not more blessed than we are because they are far more tolerate of 'differences' in others.

As for the backbone, I can't really see anything abnormal, but again it's difficult to see in a picture. However, as long as the pup is nursing and getting around it should learn to live with whatever adjustments it has to. These kinds of things are unusual, although not rare. They typically are more often seen in litters of three or four, because of lack of space. Guinea pig babies are unusually large in comparison to the size of the mother, so it's obviously difficult to find enough room to develop in such a small space.

I'm not sure what you mean by the ribs and backbone not being developed fully. But if that's the case it's not something that can change. The little guy appears bright eyed and his coat looks good, indicating he's otherwise just fine.

If you are able to do so, try manipulating and massaging the foot to see if you can help the ligaments to stretch and relax enough to give the baby somewhat normal movement. But if that's not possible just rest assured it won't affect his ability to get along. Nature finds a way.

I hope this helps. If you have any other concerns please don't hesitate.