guinea pig eating chocolate

Question
Emma
I hope you can help me we were visiting my brother about 2 weeks ago and my daughter fed my nephews guinea pig a fair amount of a chocolate bar containing caramel...the guinea pig died earlier today and I am desperately hoping this wasnt a result of the chocolate incident...could it have been as I have read many websites that say that it is bad for teeth but wont cause death....can you maybe give me a more clearer answer....I'm thinking he would have died sooner if it was related to ingesting the chocolate but I may be wrong...the odd thing is that my nieces guinea pig died this past Wednesday and it didnt receive any chocolate? help...I need to know so I can offer to replace the guinea pig...

Answer
Hi

O lord! What a disaster!!!! I have been in this situation funny enough, my son (like your daughter) fed our guinea pig dairy milk one afternoon and it got seriously ill with the poops and being sick. For some odd reason it survived though! So chocolate does make guinea pigs ill. So i am suggesting the death of your nephews could of been to your daughter and her little fingers. But since the other guinea pig died also is a bit strange. It is extrememly rare that a guinea pig could catch such a disease where it passes on so im not sure. What a wonderful thought to replace the guinea pig, however if you are to do that you really should buy two as it is so cruel to keep a guinea pig living alown and if your nephew wanted another it would not be familiar with the guinea pig your bought as a replacement and would fight. So if your are going to buy a replacement buy 2! Im afraid its up to you really. You need to have a word with your daughter if shes telling the truth about feeding chocolate to just one of the pigs as this is quite unusual if not ! :s