MY GUINEA PIG HAD A BABY!

Question
During the Commonwealth games this year i walked into my bedroom to find that my beautiful guinea pig Beyonc`e had 3 babies my friend told me that fathers kill the babies so i got him straight out.They wern't running around or even walikng (mum said they were pre-mature!)they would just flinch and make tiny sounds and the mother diddn't care about them :(. Soon they all died! i cried for ages when the first one died then i went to bed i woke up and they were all dead! Then a little while ago she had 3 more but they diddn't even have fur! they were splattered against the wall and everything! my male Bow Wow was acting really strange and had diarea and died that night i patted him and cuddled next to him near the fire most the night. Then i got 2 new guinea pigs a boy Eminem and a girl Rihanna Beyonc`e had another baby but it was perfect i think there was something wrong with Bow Wow.Rihannas pregnant too she's huge but i keep expecting to come home from school and find babies but theres none there! And Beyonc`e is squishing Popcorn (the baby) i don't know how to properly care for it i need some help with how to look after babies! please help!

Answer
Hello Crystal,

Ok, first off, seperate your males from your females so this stops. You will lose Beyonc'e if you keep going at this rate. She's having them much to often and when they have back to back to back litters the chance of complications rises dramatically. It sounds like Beyonce is too old to have been bred and if that's the case, everytime she gives birth she and her pups are at high risk of dying. At a year old a sow's pelvic bones harden and make it VERY difficult to deliver without a C-Section. How old is she? How old is Rihanna? I'm not trying to be harsh, but for your sows' sake, you need to stop breeding until you know what you are doing. Pregnancy and delivery are very traumatic for Guinea Pigs because their babies are born so large and well developed unless you know what you are doing (how to care for a pregnant sow, what to look to notice trouble, what to do if there is trouble, how to care for orphaned pups, conditioning of the sow before breeding, etc.) you risk losing them all very quickly. Breeding is ALOT of work and never something to be taken lightly. I believe you love your pigs or you wouldn't have bothered to message me, for their safety, you need to stop breeding, at least for now. In fact, Beyonc'e needs to be retired even if you do decide to breed again. A sow should not have more than 2 litters and definantly not more than 3 in their lifetime. She has also had complications and it's likely she will have them every pregnancy. Ok, as far as dealing with what's already going on... Your friend is wrong, boars do not kill the babies when left in the cage with them. They will actually help raise the litter. However, they should still be taken out BEFORE the sow gives birth because shortly after birth, he will impregnate her again and that can be very deadly. At 3 weeks the males of the litter need to be seperated from their mother. That means, if Popcorn is a boy, when he is 3 weeks old he needs to be put in with Eminem, who should already be seperated from the girls, otherwise he can impregnate his mother and/or Rihanna. Do you know when Rihanna got pregnant? Guinea Pigs have a gestation of 68-70 days (about 10 weeks). If you know when she got pregnant, you can calculate her due date. Beyonc'e is probably just nursing Popcorn, not squishing him/her. Mothers usually don't harm their pups. Guinea Pigs are not like other rodents. They don't eat their babies and rarely kill them. If they did it would likely kill the parent because the protien levels would be too high and they are strictly herbivores. If she is squishing him, just move him over as she's likely not doing it on purpose anyway. She may also just be keeping him warm. Because he is the only pup, he has to depend on his mother to keep him warm because he has no littermates to snuggle with. Rihanna needs to be getting plenty to eat and drink. She also needs extra vitamin c and shouldn't be handle more than she has to be. I wish you the best of luck with your girls. I'm going to send you a few breeding links so you know what to expect from Rihanna's (and any future sow's) pregnancy and you can be ready if she has problems. Please remember, keep your boys away from your girls until you have researched more and know how to give them the best care possible while pregnant. Hopefully that will solve the problem of stillborn pups and pups who die shortly after birth. I know you didn't do any of this intentionally and I'm not blaming you. Most pet owners go into breeding blind and end up in a mess. Just remember that before you breed anything, it's important to learn all you can about them first, some animals (like Guinea Pigs) are difficult to breed safely and successfully without knowing exactly how to care for them. I'm also going to send a gender identification link because I'm not sure if you know how yet and it is important to be able to know your pups' genders by 3 weeks. Good luck!

http://www.geocities.com/abyssinianguineapigs/breeding.html

http://www.cavyspirit.com/breeding.htm

http://www.guinealynx.info/reproduction.html

http://www.diddly-di.fsnet.co.uk/breeding.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/2517/pregnant.htm

http://www.lienanimal.com/z_guineapreg.pdf

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/pets/guinea-pig-faq/section-8.html

Gender identification:

http://www.cavyspirit.com/sexing.htm

-kkat