We had 2 guinea pigs, both make and one died. He was like a baby so it was devastating. We recently got Millie, a 3 week old baby whom we adopted because her family couldn’t take care of her due to her unexpected birth. At this point, she should be with her mom, but her original owners couldn’t care for her. First off, I’m not sure if sje’s actually a girl. I know the difference but her private area is dark so I can’t see if she’s really female. Also, if she is, she will be receiving a female companion soon (one week). I’m just nervous she isn’t a girl and I’ve never cared for a 3 week old. I know they need alfalfa, dry veggies and pellets, but she doesn’t seem to be to interested in eating. I'm sure she just needs to get comfortable but how can I find out if she’s really a girl before putting her with a companion? I am not giving her a friend until I’m sure there's no risk of pregnancy.
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I want my piggy to be healthy and need advice
- Thread starter Vanilly
- Start date
Please read the sexing guides to determine her sex. You could post a picture of her genitals on here and our pregnancy experts can help but ultimately sexing needs to be done hands on by you.
She is far too young to be by herself and that will in turn be stressing her. She needs encouragement and guidance of older piggies and she is likely very scared. Can you put her alongside your boy - in a separate cage - to ensure she has companionship through the bars until you can determine her sex. You must be incredibl sure the cage is very secure and that he cannot get out and get to her.
She doesn’t need alfalfa, pellets and veggies - She needs hay as the bulk of her diet. Veggies and pellets need to be kept limited and only make up the smallest proportion of their diet. Alfalfa isn’t a grass hay
I am going to tag in our pregnancy experts to help you further care for such a young baby @Wiebke @VickiA
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/illustrated-sexing-guide-for-all-ages.156297/
She is far too young to be by herself and that will in turn be stressing her. She needs encouragement and guidance of older piggies and she is likely very scared. Can you put her alongside your boy - in a separate cage - to ensure she has companionship through the bars until you can determine her sex. You must be incredibl sure the cage is very secure and that he cannot get out and get to her.
She doesn’t need alfalfa, pellets and veggies - She needs hay as the bulk of her diet. Veggies and pellets need to be kept limited and only make up the smallest proportion of their diet. Alfalfa isn’t a grass hay
I am going to tag in our pregnancy experts to help you further care for such a young baby @Wiebke @VickiA
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/illustrated-sexing-guide-for-all-ages.156297/
Hi and welcome
Please use our sexing guide to look at the areas that are less obvious but much more gender divisive. If both areas come back with the same answer, then you can be 100% sure. We can have a look at your baby, but we may not be able to judge from the outside appearance and in any case, we always ask our members to do their own safety hands-on check, as we are doing with our own new arrivals.
Our Sexing Guide shows you exactly where to look and feel and what to look for with comparison pictures for babies and adults at various ages and stages of development.
Illustrated Sexing Guide
Guinea pigs switch from mainly drinking to mainly eating a normal adult diet during the second week of their lives but they nibble on hay on solids right from the start. By three weeks the weaning process (2-4 weeks) is in full swing and it is the age boar pups need to leave any sows; sometime even a little earlier if they are very well developed. So no need to panic.
And definitely no throwing the kitchen sink at your little baby! Any extra amounts are truly minute. Your baby is perfectly fine on a normal grass hay based diet with 50g of preferably green veg and herbs and instead of the recommended 1 tablespoon of pellets, she can have two in order to cover any extras. That is absolutely all that is needed! No extra alfalfa hay or bowls full of pellets or dried veg!
The example of my little surprise baby Tegan (the one in my avatar picture on the left) should help you to stop panicking. She was on a normal adult diet all her life long, was never ill and died shortly before her 8th birthday last August in the company of her auntie and her two same aged playmates that I adopted for her to grow up with.
Please take the time to read these guides here:
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/after-birth-mother-and-baby-care.109389/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/sexing-separating-baby-boars-and-rehoming-babies.109391/
Bonding and Interaction: Illustrated social behaviours and bonding dynamics
Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)
If you are interested in the development of guinea pigs, you may find the current article series interesting that I am writing for Guinea Pig Magazine about The Ages of Guinea Pigs.
Issue 54 (Jan 2020, The First Hours), issue 55 (March 2020, Baby Days), issue 56 (May 2020, School Weeks, the formative time between weaning and teenage), issue 56 (coming out in July and currently in printing, Teenage Months); The Adult Years and Old Age are planned for the September and November issues.
Guinea Pig Magazine
Merab
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Welcome to the forum and so sorry for the loss of your boy.
Good for you taking on this little one.
As well as the sexing guide there is a lot of information for new owners and lots of support.
Take lots of pictures of the baby - they grow so quickly
Good for you taking on this little one.
As well as the sexing guide there is a lot of information for new owners and lots of support.
Take lots of pictures of the baby - they grow so quickly
Thank you so much, that’s what we’ll do. I’ll make sure she’s with our older one in separate cages and I’ll post pictures of her genitals to see if she’s really a girl. If she is, her companion is arriving this weekend and she’ll feel much better. We’ve been feeding her plenty of hay, she’s doing much better. Thank you for the advice!
For our four-year-old male, Pumpkin, he will also be receiving a companion. The problem is he’s always been very territorial, often getting in fights before Muffin died, resulting in blood. So we kept them in separate cages but still side by side so they could have company. We’re going to get him a six week old male companion who is getting neutered this Thursday. Hopefully we’ll adopt him this weekend. We hope that because he’s younger Pumpkin can get along well during the introduction and he’ll have another buddy with him. After my own binding experiences and watching as many videos as I could find, we’re hopeful he’ll go easier on the little one and they can be together in their mansion of a cage. If not, we’ll put them in side by side cages, or along with the sows since he’ll be neutered, but they will still visit every day if that’s the case.
What do you mean by visit every day?
You can’t put piggies who don’t live together, together for physical playtime
Siikibam
Forum Donator 2022/23
Neutering won’t change behaviour when the baby becomes a teenager. So have a plan b in case they fall out early on/later on. Best route would be to contact a rescue so he can go in and choose his own friend.
Another thing you’ll have to do is to keep the boars preferably in a separate room to the sows. Any scent (even if they don’t have access) can cause a fallout between the boars. If you can’t then at least stack the cages so the sows live under the boars. And always deal with the boars first and not the other way round.