cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
is 4 and a half years long for a piggy? google is telling me that it’s not but i don’t know...
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Life Expectancy
- Thread starter cococookie
- Start date
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
what about for your very first pet?
Their life expectancy is still the same, if that is what you mean
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
ok thank you, i just feel guilty because my piggy passed away recently and she was only 4 and a half
I see. Your post makes more sense now. Sadly illnesses happen at any age, and some piggies leave us sooner than others even with the very best vet care. It’s nobody‘s fault.
Lady Kelly
Senior Guinea Pig
Average age I believe to be 5-8 years. Unfortunately we have no control over a lot of illnesses and I have personally had piggies pass at 2-3 years before. Feelings of guilt are very common with bereavement but sadly sometimes we simply cannot do enough for them
Your piggy was on the cusp of making the transition from adult to old age (about 5 years plus).
The average life span for the majority of piggies is about 4-7 years, taking into account that many piggies are not kept and fed as they should and that the vast majority of guinea pigs originate from commercial mass breeding conditions or from indiscriminate/uncontrolled breeding situations whether that is for sale backyard breeding, hoarding or mis-sexing messes, so it is a bit luck of the draw what genetic time bombs you end up with - or not.
In a healthy piggy, you can boost the average life span with a good grass hay and not veg based diet with limited pellets. It can really add 1-2 years to a normal life span and take the piggy from the lower end to the upper end of the average life span or beyond, as I know from my own piggies. We see the the occasional 10 year old, much more rarely older piggies but the majority of well kept piggies - even those from really bad conditions that do not have genetic or permanent damage - will live around 5-8 years.
I am always very glad when my adoptees that have come or whose mothers have come out of bad conditions pass the 4 year mark but thankfully more of them have lived a normal to longer life span than not in recent years. What you can never control are medical or genetic issues, so there are always some piggies that will die sooner.
Just as an example I currently have got two adopted sisters coming up to 7 years in February whose highly pregnant mother had been rescues from a true long term uncontrolled in-breeding hellhole posing as a 'sanctuary' that I would have never expected to live to that age. The third sister sadly died on Christmas 2017 from a blockage - it was one of those unforeseeable and unpreventable things that often happen at the worst of times, just as an illustration. Their mother and older sister (who was also pregnant when rescued, plus her own three rescue born baby boys, have all already passed away quite a while ago as far as I know). Several of my piggies have lived to celebrate their 8th birthday and one her 9th. I cherish those that do but I never take it for granted. There are a similar number I have sadly lost a younger age, whether that was a genetic time bomb, organ failure or a medical runaway issue.
piggieminder
Forum Buddy
@cococookie please don't feel guilty. It's quality of life that matters not quantity. You are obviously a caring owner you gave your piggy love, you have nothing to feel guilty about. Be kind to yourself as you grieve for you little sow.
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
My Ivy was a beauty: bright, independent and clever (seriously clever, we had a great rapport), and 3 1/2 when she stopped eating. We have a great vet practice - several vets had a look at her (including a couple of pig-savvy vets) to try and work out what was wrong - no joy. Syringe feeding for a month or more while she appeared perfectly fine in every other respect. I'm not infallible but I've got 10 years of pig experience and between all of us we couldn't save her and never found out what the problem was. Sometimes there is just... something.
George is pushing 4 and I'm seeing signs of older age in him - he's going a bit white around his ginger beard. He might make 5 - he might not, but I can't see him making old bones. All we can do for our piggies is care for them and treasure them while we have them. You did fine for your girl, some things are just beyond our control. You did fine x
George is pushing 4 and I'm seeing signs of older age in him - he's going a bit white around his ginger beard. He might make 5 - he might not, but I can't see him making old bones. All we can do for our piggies is care for them and treasure them while we have them. You did fine for your girl, some things are just beyond our control. You did fine x
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
hi so i’m absolutely determined to find out why my piggy had to leave me so suddenly just a few days ago, i was just wondering if anyone could tell me what was wrong with her? She went through some dental problems throughout lockdown and by November the vet said she only had one tooth left 
. I started grating her food and she started to gain weight again which was really good. But then i guess her teeth got worse so i then started to kind of purée food so she could eat it easier (it was still solid not completely liquid). I was giving her different foods, but she would always eat a bit then want something else. She continued to lose weight, but still managed to eat pellets? Then by christmas we decided to take her to the vet again, unfortunately i had loads of tests to do for school so we were going to take her to the vet on wednesday (a day after she passed ). The morning before cookie passed, i sat with her for a good hour trying to syringe feed her but she seemed to get really stressed, so instead i blitzed up some cucumber and sati there with her. she ate almost all of what i gave her! a big improvement. however before i went to bed i realised she hadn’t eaten her dinner so i gave her some banana and fresh hay and pellets, i told myself that since it was quite late i would check up on her the next morning. My brother said that he saw her when he woke up walking around, but when i came down a bit later she was on her side. I think she went into organ failure because she couldn’t stand straight and was ‘running to rainbow bridge’. Sadly i then had to let her go at the vets and because of covid, i couldn’t even say bye. I only got to hold her in the car while she was unconscious, which was very scary for me . Does anyone know what happened?
. I started grating her food and she started to gain weight again which was really good. But then i guess her teeth got worse so i then started to kind of purée food so she could eat it easier (it was still solid not completely liquid). I was giving her different foods, but she would always eat a bit then want something else. She continued to lose weight, but still managed to eat pellets? Then by christmas we decided to take her to the vet again, unfortunately i had loads of tests to do for school so we were going to take her to the vet on wednesday (a day after she passed ). The morning before cookie passed, i sat with her for a good hour trying to syringe feed her but she seemed to get really stressed, so instead i blitzed up some cucumber and sati there with her. she ate almost all of what i gave her! a big improvement. however before i went to bed i realised she hadn’t eaten her dinner so i gave her some banana and fresh hay and pellets, i told myself that since it was quite late i would check up on her the next morning. My brother said that he saw her when he woke up walking around, but when i came down a bit later she was on her side. I think she went into organ failure because she couldn’t stand straight and was ‘running to rainbow bridge’. Sadly i then had to let her go at the vets and because of covid, i couldn’t even say bye. I only got to hold her in the car while she was unconscious, which was very scary for me . Does anyone know what happened?
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
woah that was long sorryhi so i’m absolutely determined to find out why my piggy had to leave me so suddenly just a few days ago, i was just wondering if anyone could tell me what was wrong with her? She went through some dental problems throughout lockdown and by November the vet said she only had one tooth left
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
thank you so much
i hope george makes it to 5, ivy sounds a lot like cookie, she was also very sassy and smart before she was ill, rest in peace
Merab
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Sorry that you lost your piggy.
Be gentle with yourself and allow yourself time to grieve
I can only echo what the others have said about age.
Be gentle with yourself and allow yourself time to grieve
I can only echo what the others have said about age.
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
thank you x
hi so i’m absolutely determined to find out why my piggy had to leave me so suddenly just a few days ago, i was just wondering if anyone could tell me what was wrong with her? She went through some dental problems throughout lockdown and by November the vet said she only had one tooth left
Hi!
Intense feelings of guilt and soul searching are not at all uncommon after the passing of a pet; they tend to be stronger when the death did come unexpectedly, when you are in a stressful situation or when you knew something was not quite right but could not make it to the vet in time (irrespective of whether they could have saved the piggy's life or not.
Please take the time to read our grieving guide so you can put your current feelings into perspective and contact the free Blue Cross pet bereavement email service or helpline if you struggle to move past this. Any forum members in a comparable situation to yours that have made use of the service have come back to us to say that it has helped them.
Here is the link with information on the grieving process, so you can learn to understand what you are going through and what to expect as you are going along. Please accept that you wouldn't have these intense feelings of guilt if you weren't a caring and responsible owner (as best as you know) in the first place.
Human Bereavement: Grieving, Coping and Support Links for Guinea Pig Owners and Their Children
As to the medical side - it sounds like quite a bit had been going on. Guinea pig dentals hardly ever feature in a vet's curriculum, so it is very easy for a vet to get those wrong, which then will have longer term knock-on effects. There are sadly very few piggy dental-savvy vets. Is the single tooth just a single incisor left or are you meaning that the didn't have any back teeth, either? Did she get enough hay fibre in her diet as it is the very abrasive silica in the hay that keep the chewing back teeth ground down and against which fast growing guinea pig teeth have evolved against?
Vet Locator
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
From the sound of it, your girl has simply reached the end of the line of what her little body could cope with; the timing, as so often the case, was rather unfortunate; which usually doesn't help but is not always necessarily in your control.
But please accept that this a question that nobody can ever answer for you, as much we all want to make sense of it when we lose one of ours.
What you CAN always do is to look for lessons you can take from it and where there are areas you can improve care or do things better. This is a normal part of the life-long learning process we are all on (yes, I still am on it, too!). None of us is ever getting everything perfect, nor is that an attainable aim. But we all can pay back forward and try to do some things better next time round where we have dicovered that we can make improvements.
There is nothing wrong with your heart. As long as your give your piggies a happy and fulfilled life, you are doing fine. Guinea pigs measure a good life in happy todays, not in how long they live. Average life expectancy is an entirely human concept.
PS: I have merged your two threads in this section, which deal with aspcts of the same problem in order to avoid confusion and also give posters a better handle on what you are grappling with.
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
thank youHi!
Intense feelings of guilt and soul searching are not at all uncommon after the passing of a pet; they tend to be stronger when the death did come unexpectedly, when you are in a stressful situation or when you knew something was not quite right but could not make it to the vet in time (irrespective of whether they could have saved the piggy's life or not.
Please take the time to read our grieving guide so you can put your current feelings into perspective and contact the free Blue Cross pet bereavement email service or helpline if you struggle to move past this. Any forum members in a comparable situation to yours that have made use of the service have come back to us to say that it has helped them.
Here is the link with information on the grieving process, so you can learn to understand what you are going through and what to expect as you are going along. Please accept that you wouldn't have these intense feelings of guilt if you weren't a caring and responsible owner (as best as you know) in the first place.
Human Bereavement: Grieving, Coping and Support Links for Guinea Pig Owners and Their Children
As to the medical side - it sounds like quite a bit had been going on. Guinea pig dentals hardly ever feature in a vet's curriculum, so it is very easy for a vet to get those wrong, which then will have longer term knock-on effects. There are sadly very few piggy dental-savvy vets. Is the single tooth just a single incisor left or are you meaning that the didn't have any back teeth, either? Did she get enough hay fibre in her diet as it is the very abrasive silica in the hay that keep the chewing back teeth ground down and against which fast growing guinea pig teeth have evolved against?
Vet Locator
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
From the sound of it, your girl has simply reached the end of the line of what her little body could cope with; the timing, as so often the case, was rather unfortunate; which usually doesn't help but is not always necessarily in your control.
But please accept that this a question that nobody can ever answer for you, as much we all want to make sense of it when we lose one of ours.
What you CAN always do is to look for lessons you can take from it and where there are areas you can improve care or do things better. This is a normal part of the life-long learning process we are all on (yes, I still am on it, too!). None of us is ever getting everything perfect, nor is that an attainable aim. But we all can pay back forward and try to do some things better next time round where we have dicovered that we can make improvements.
There is nothing wrong with your heart. As long as your give your piggies a happy and fulfilled life, you are doing fine. Guinea pigs measure a good life in happy todays, not in how long they live. Average life expectancy is an entirely human concept.
PS: I have merged your two threads in this section, which deal with aspcts of the same problem in order to avoid confusion and also give posters a better handle on what you are grappling with.
, she got plenty of hay and she only had one incisor left, her other teeth were fine
Thank you for clarifying that. Please try not to beat yourself up over something that was obviously beyond your control. Once the body is closing down, it is a one way road with only one exit. Take on board any areas you can improve because being able to do something constructively can help with the grieving process; but otherwise your guilt is simply an expression of how much you have loved your girl. We can never choose when and what from our piggies, other pets and humans we love die.
People these days are sadly far too much focussed on league tables and set goals and are in danger to miss out on the most important things of life - the ability to live in the moment like piggies do and the freedom of being imperfect and not getting it right all the time. As an adult it is never about not making any mistakes (you make them all the time); it is about how you get up after a stumble and move on, and what you take from it. You don't grow as a human being if you never put a foot wrong. Learning to bear the pain of loss, doubt and guilt, learning to recognise it in others and to be more understanding and empathetic is not something you can learn in schoolbooks - these things come under the heading of life lessons, and they will never stop. But they will determine who you are and who you will grow into.
Be sad, but please don't feel bad about yourself.
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
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I run a sanctuary for guinea pigs with ongoing health issues. Many of them live out a normal life span, but some have a much shorter life. Quality of life is so much more important than length of life. Obviously if they can have a long and amazing life, that is the best, but I like to think that I give all our piggies the best life possible, for as long as it's good! Animals live in the moment and don't worry about whether they will get to see next Christmas, or their birthday! If it is good for them right now, then they are happy! xx
cococookie
Junior Guinea Pig
quality is better over quantity, even though her last few months were rough, i like to think that i gave cookie the best life i could
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
I've read that by the time they're 'running to the bridge' they aren't really aware of what's happening. Her final refusal of food might have been the beginning of the end anyway - and she took the pureed cucumber because it quenches thirst. You can feel reassured that you made her comfortable as she approached the inevitable, and having her friend with her while she was still aware would have been a comfort too.
Sweet Potato
Adult Guinea Pig
Sorry for your loss. I'm sure you did everything you could and I'm sure she's looking down from the rainbow bridge thankfull for everything you did for her. ❤
Sophia_Oreo108
Junior Guinea Pig
My piggy crossed the rainbow bridge when she was just 3. It was so so unexpected as she was still quite young but she had had underlying health conditions since she was born. I had seen the vets multiple times and they thought they had cured her but turns out they hadn't. She ended up being so weak and could barely make it up the stairs so unfortunately the kindest thing to do for her was to put her to sleep. X
Miss you Oreo x
♡Anyway, in regards to your question, the average lifespan is roughly 4-7 years. Alhough I have heard of people on here who had piggies that lived to 12!
You shouldn't feel guilty as she probably had a health problem, that's the thing with piggies- one minute they're fine, the next minute they're not. X
RIP Cookie x
♡Sophia_Oreo108
Junior Guinea Pig
I'm sure you did. She sounds so loved. Xquality is better over quantity, even though her last few months were rough, i like to think that i gave cookie the best life i could
Hi!
We are all always hoping that our piggies have a nice long life. But if you fixate on that too much and see any earlier death as a major failure, you are setting yourself up for some major problems when your piggies die most likely sooner.
I've only ever had a piggy live to nearly 10 years of age, and that was about 40 years and over 70 piggies back with our first family piggy. Just to give you an idea about what you are aiming for. I have however lost several young piggies to sudden acute heart failure due to a genetic issue, so you can never tell and never count on even a normal life span.
I try to see my piggies as a loan from God to brighten their life and mine for whichever length he lets me have them and concentrate on the here and now, knowing that God can cancel the loan anytime without warning. That way I come out of it with a treasure of happiness in my heart instead of feeling badly let down. Your fears of a potential loss are not getting any smaller the longer you have your piggies and the more you avoid facing your own fears. You can either cherish every single day of your life they are waiting for you in the morning or you can spend their whole lives in fear of them not being there one day to do it and - as you have been avoiding to do anything constructive - not coping well at all when the day comes inevitably. It is all in the attitude.