Guinea pig stuff

Question
Hello ,

I posted a question to you on eother time ebcause I was worried that my female guinea got pregnant at a guinea-sitter while I was away because the woman said they were together for a minute and I think she is on the old side. Well... she has had some crust in her eye and I took her to the vet. We git giid news and bad news. The good was it was not a respiratory infection it was just her eye and it looks great now a few days later after the eye drops... the bad news is that she is a boy. It's bad news beause we just got another female from a rescue about a week before and they have been together and now I am worried and dont know if I should keep the second one or not. I dotn have room for two cages and I would rather have one piggie ina place where he can have alot of room than have two in cramped quarters. The new one is not tiny but is smaller than the boy. She cane from a crack house where they confiscated her and her ears look like they were bitten up when she was a baby because they are irreguiar but are healed now and have fur. How often do they have babies? Do old male guinea pigs still breed? I think the boy is old because he has a pear shape and her front toes on one foot are very curly. I read that in one of your other answers. His back toenails are thick too. I know this because my sons girlfriend put nail polish on him when he was a she. Do you think it is important to seperate them or can they possibly stay together without having babies? Do all males and females mate? So far they honestly don't seem to pay any attention to each other at all. I would love babies but I just would be a nervous wreck worrying about her health. She was kind of skinny I think. we have only had her less than two weeks.

Answer
Mercy, you did get some startling news! To answer your first question, old guinea pigs are like every other male species. They will mate till they die. He does sounds like an older boar, but that doesn't mean he's infertile.

Your new young sow is most definitely in danger of being bred. Sows come into heat at a very young age. The good news is they get through delivery like a breeze. It's older sows that have problems. So if she's already pregnant don't worry about her. But do take her away from the 'dude' immediately. She will come into heat every two to three weeks, so she may not have come into heat yet. If she hasn't she will very soon. So time is of the essence.

If you don't have facilities for both male and female you will need to make a choice. Unless you have him neutered you cannot house them together. She WILL end up pregnant, and when she litters she will come into heat within hours of delivery and he will breed her again. So it's imperative that you separate the two of them.

I'm surprised someone didn't properly sex him when you got him. It's pretty obvious when they're older boars, and hard to miss. Young babies can easily be missed, but not the older pigs. But these things happen and don't always turn out to be disasters.