~My guinea pigs~

Question
Hello I have something I'd like to share with you. Yesterday I found 2 dead baby guinea pigs inside my older guinea pigs cage. When I got my 2 guinea pigs I was told that they were both females. They were in fact not both females. The white one turned out to be a boy. The babies that my girl guinea pig gave birth to were about the same size as a fully grown gerbil. I love animals and I feel horrible that I wasn't able to know that she was pregnant. I have heard that the male animals will kill their mates young     (this is what happened) so she'll go into heat again. Is this true? I would like for my girl guinea pig to be able to be a mother. Can she become pregnant again if I put her and the boy guinea pig back together after she feels better? I want her to become pregnant again because I feel that she should be a mother.:(

If anyone could help me....I would be very greatful.:)

PLEASE EMAIL ME WITH ADVICE BECAUSE I MAY LOSE THIS WEB SITE.:):)

Answer
Sara --

Well, here are a couple answers for you.  First, I'm sorry I wasn't able to email you directly -- but you never gave me an email address.  Second, it's not true (generally) that male guinea pigs will kill their own young -- at least on purpose.  On occasion a male will become overexcited and kill them or the new mother will be overzealous in her cleaning and damage them somehow.  However, typically, guinea pigs are not homicidal.  :)  Also, female guinea pigs go into heat again immediately after childbirth, whether their pups are alive or not, so the males really don't need to kill the babies to obtain the desires result.  It's possible that the babies just died a natural death.  Sometimes this happens with guinea pigs.

You can certainly put your guinea pigs back together to obtain another litter, and you can do it as soon as you would like.  I would recommend waiting a month or so for recovery time, though.  

Hope this is helpful and that I've answered all your questions.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions -- and good luck!

Lorena