Thelmas pregnancy

Question
Thankyou for the advice its reassuring,I dont pick her up any more and having felt the way you told me to I can feel separation and can almost get 2 fingers in so am hopeful it will be soon she still eats and drinks well and moves alot is just enormous.She must be soon as when I got her she was plump and two weeks after that I took her to vet as felt lumps inside her and they were kicking and he said they were well developed and would be soon and we are two weeks on from that so im guessing she was at least 5 weeks pregnant when I bought her and her sister Louise to live with my neutered boys rocky and  darwin ive had her 4 weeks now not three and so that i thoought made her 62 days pregnant today roughly and she has  at least three babies am told possible four enough of my babbling I do have a question its just that I adore my piggies,Is she likely to have problems as she is only 16 weeks oldish now as the breeder had her brother in with her for too long and am scared she wont cope  and im giving her fresh veg in the morning and fresh pick of grass lunch time and some vegy snacks in eve  not to bigger portions  I do this for all my piggies am just scared have read some horror stories.

ps. I will send some pictures of the babies and mummy when the time comes if I can  I will get a family pic of all piggies.

Answer
I understand your concern but no, she will not have any problems at her age.  In fact the younger pigs have an easier time than the older ones. If you felt movement and you've felt those bones opening and easily moveable you will probably wake up to some new little faces any day now.  

Don't worry about the possibility that she is bred to her brother. When breeding for a particular trait we occasionally do a purposeful breeding of brother and sister for specific reasons. If there are any bad traits or faults in the line, double concentrating the genes by inbreeding will cause them to express themselves, or come out. If they do we discontinue that line. The object of breeding is to improve the breed, not create bad traits.

One of my friends who is a Hall of Fame breeder with American Cavy Breeders Assoc. taught me to do this to identify the good and the bad in a line. He maintained that you will get one of two things, either the best of the best or the worst of the worst.  He was right.

As for her young age she is mature enough to handle delivery. I once purchased a baby from a breeder who had brought a tub full of babies to a show to sell. This batch was supposed to be all boys. I picked this pig up and realized it was a sow. She couldn't have been more than five weeks old at the most. Since she'd only been with the boys less than an hour I never considered the possibility that she'd been bred.

After a suitable quarantine I put her with two other baby sows. She was cranky and irritable. Would not get along and play well with others. She was also getting fat so I thought she was just getting too much grain. One day I felt movement and realized she was indeed pregnant.

She remained fairly slim and I expected perhaps only one baby. I came into the caviary one morning and she had presented me with FOUR babies!  Their combined weight almost equaled hers. She had no problems whatsoever and raised all the pups without incident. I gave one to a 4H kid who took multiple Best in Shows with that baby. And point of fact, early breeding does not stunt the mother's growth.

The general opinion among experienced breeder is that if God made them so they can, they will. We don't advocate allowing this early breeding but the point is it happens. Rarely is there ever a problem. So sit back with camera in lap and wait. These babies will be a new joy in your life.