first litter-six still births

Question
My guinea pig is 8 months old and she gave birth to her first litter last night. We witnessed the birth. The first pup born was small but fully formed, this was followed by a tiny pup which appeared to be premature. There was then an hour gap before the third pup was born which appeared to be of a normal size. The fourth pup came shortly after but was extremely large. The fifth pup was tiny and almost flat and subsequently a sixth pup was born. This pup was again of normal size. The mother appeared to be doing all the right things ie removing the bags from around the babies but to no avail as all six were still born. This pregnancy was planned and we were very careful to follow guidelines on diet etc. This has been a heartbreaking experience, please can you offer any explanation for why this has happened and if there anything we can do for the mother now? do you feel it is likely to reoccur if we were to try again in the future? i thank you in anticipation for your answer.

Answer
Hi Debbie,

I'm very sorry that all the guinea pigs were stillborn; it must have been heartbreaking to watch them all come out and then realise they were dead. Six is an unusually large litter, and it is not surprising that not all the pups made it, but it is strange that none of them were born alive. Unfortunately as with any other animal, pregnancy can be risky and you can never tell how nature will intervene.

The only thing I can think of from what you've told me is the mother piggy's age. A female guinea pig should be aged 6 months or under when she has her first litter, otherwise her pelvic bones will have fused and it is unlikely that she will be able to successfully deliver a litter. For this reason I would not recommend trying to breed your girl again as you would need to give her a break, especially as she had a bad pregnancy/birth, and 8-9 months is too old to breed a sow for the first time.

If you'd like some babies perhaps you could try adopting a pregnant sow from a guinea pig rescue?

Sorry for your sad news and I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Jenny.