lifespan of a guinea pig

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summerleaze

summerleaze

Adult Guinea Pig
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What do people generally think of in terms of piggies lifespan, research shows me a wide range of answers but very generally seems to be 4 - 8.

However, as part of the rescue work I do I get calls all the time from people whose young piggies have died and not as far as I can see through any neglect or ignorance. Very many of them seem to be under 6 months old, which is so sad. It's not often I meet people who have had piggies older than 4 years. I met a lady a few weeks ago who had bought two 8 week old sows and both died within 3 weeks :'(

I've had a piggie die at one year old, the oldest I had was 7.

What are other people's experiences?
 
My piggie Bubble lived to 6years and 8months, he got impacted about 6 months before he died, however I dont think this affected his life span, think old age got him in the end. :'(

Fugly is about a year old now although he has only been with me 10 months. :smitten:

My vet told me the average life span is 5-6 years, however I think as we learn more about piggies the average should increase :)
 
Piggies that die early are usually poorly bred.
I have had a couple of piggies that passed away suddenly at the age of 2 years,
Most piggies i have had have made it to 7 years, so i have been very lucky.
I lost my eldest piggy in January at the ripe old age of 10 1/2.
If they are well bred then their lifespan is usually down to their diet and environment.
 
We lost Cuzzy who was a Sheltie boar on the 16th November he was 5 months old.

We got him from P@H in July, he was an after thought. I went in for hay and saw him and really wanted him, done some shopping and ended up going back for him. He was fine with S@T but then I noticed he had mites and he had to be seperated, something I regret as he fell out with them when I tried to put him back with them.

So Cuzzy became a living room pig and was perfectly happy but on October 29th he wasn't his usual bouncy self and he was not eating. So I took him the vet, who did some tests and said it was probably a URI but couldn't be sure as he didn't have that many signs of it although his temp was a little high but that was it.

On Halloween Cuzzy took a turn for the worst I was falling over and had a wry neck, I took him back to the vets and he said it was probably a n ear infection but wasn't displaying physical signs of it. He gave him a shot of an anti inflammatry and I was told to continue with the critical care and antibiotics which I did.

Cuzzy did improve and I got him a cage mate called Eccles who is a crested boar. He was fine with Eccles, rumbling and running about a little with him, he was still a little unsteady but he seemed to pick up. But on the 15th November he went down hill again and I noticed when he was resting his eyes were twitching, to me it seemed more like he was suffering with strokes. I was going to take him to the vet on the 16th but it was too late, after giving Cuzzy some critical care and putting him to bed I found him the next morning running to the bridge.

I do believe he had more than a URI and it was genetically linked, since he passed over I've become obsessed with finding out about what actually happened. I didn't want a post mortem as he had been through enough. I believe it was down to Cuzzy's genetics as he was a pet shop pig. I tried my best with him, fed him regular and nothing myself or the vet done was enough for him so it just doesn't add up to me.

Eccles now lives with our new baby Pudsey who is a Cream and white rex we still miss Cuzzy though, it's still difficult without him but I get much comfort from my other 6 pigs. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:

Louise
x
 
Daisy and Austin are our oldest piggies, 4 years old! :smitten: :smitten:
 
Ronald and Donald must be at least 2 now and Digby I believe is over 3-4 but the RSPCA said he was around 2. Digby has a few ailments but is a very strong piggy :smitten:
 
We lost our boy Scampy just a couple days shy of his first birthday, bless his little piggie socks.

We lost his Dad Blaze, just under 2 years old 1 month after we lost Scampy. Both were unkown deaths.

We have two baby boys now and two older boars, one is 2 who is a stroke patient, they reckoned he wouldn't last past a couple of months (!)
The other will be 2 in April 2008.
 
This is a really interesting question and something I've often wondered about. I often hear people say they've had guineas up to 8 years but I don't think I have. It is difficult to know the ages of a lot of them because they came to me as adults. I've had rescue guineas for about 10 years and I keep records of the date in, age and details of illness/death/whether pts or died naturally etc. This is the age of death for all of them:

Megan (5-5.5 years)
Lindsay (2-2.5 years)
Josephine (4 yrs 4 months)
Lucy (5 yrs 4 months)
Rachel (4 yrs 4 months)
Monica (4 yrs 8 months)
Janice (unknown - mature adult, impossible to age, used for breeding)
Phoebe (3 yrs 10 months)
Louisa (4 yrs 5 months)
Isabella (2 yrs 9 months)
Jasmine (2 yrs 9 months)
Rachel 2 (5-6 yrs)
Penny (4.5-5 yrs)
Cocoa (unknown - mature adult)
Toffee (3 yrs 9months +)

I'm hoping that the 7 I have now will be with me for a long time. Looking back up the list I was particularly upset about those which died young, Lindsay - who died following a tooth operation, Isabella who died naturally and Jasmine who also died naturally. I was very close to Jasmine who had a nasty abscess under her chin on arrival and had to go to the vets for daily injections for quite a while. I think my guineas have quite a luxurious lifestyle with little stress and loads of comfort, good food etc but sadly it doesn't seem to reflect in particularly long lives :'(
 
Bailey the pig in my avatar is 7 years old and still going strong!
My other pigs are 2 years old and 6 months
 
Over the years as I have learnt more about guinea pigs my pigs are living longer. The eldest I ever had was Mabel who passed away peacefully at the grand old age of 12 years. A few months ago my lovely Elvis Pigsley died and he was 9 years old. At the moment I have a few resident boars who are at least 5+. My lovely Holly had to be pts a couple of weeks ago, she was only about 5 years old but she had a heart condition that became too much for her in the end. I think of my own pigs the youngest I have ever lost one was Clover who was only a year old however she was riddled with health problems.
 
Jillybean said:
This is a really interesting question and something I've often wondered about. I often hear people say they've had guineas up to 8 years but I don't think I have. It is difficult to know the ages of a lot of them because they came to me as adults. I've had rescue guineas for about 10 years and I keep records of the date in, age and details of illness/death/whether pts or died naturally etc. This is the age of death for all of them:

Megan (5-5.5 years)
Lindsay (2-2.5 years)Josephine (4 yrs 4 months)
Lucy (5 yrs 4 months)
Rachel (4 yrs 4 months)
Monica (4 yrs 8 months)
Janice (unknown - mature adult, impossible to age, used for breeding)
Phoebe (3 yrs 10 months)
Louisa (4 yrs 5 months)
Isabella (2 yrs 9 months)
Jasmine (2 yrs 9 months)
Rachel 2 (5-6 yrs)
Penny (4.5-5 yrs)
Cocoa (unknown - mature adult)
Toffee (3 yrs 9months +)

I'm hoping that the 7 I have now will be with me for a long time. Looking back up the list I was particularly upset about those which died young, Lindsay - who died following a tooth operation, Isabella who died naturally and Jasmine who also died naturally. I was very close to Jasmine who had a nasty abscess under her chin on arrival and had to go to the vets for daily injections for quite a while. I think my guineas have quite a luxurious lifestyle with little stress and loads of comfort, good food etc but sadly it doesn't seem to reflect in particularly long lives :'(
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Bless you had a piggy called Lindsay and its the same spelling as me. Do you have a picture of her? Not met many people that are called Lindsay with the same spelling so its great to hear a piggy was called the same lol

Lindsay x
 
I dont really know because I only started keeping piggies this year. I lost my Graham at 5 months because he was really ill though. :'( I hope my others live a long, happy life.
 
My oldest was just over 6 years - a beautiful cream Peruvian sow called Honey (RIP 0:))
Average for mine would probably be about 4 to 5 yrs - Peruvians and Abbysinnians outliving all my Selfs, Agoutis, Dutch, Texels, Cresteds, and Rexes.
 
The oldest guinea I have ever had was a boy called Bear I had as a child he lived until he was 9 years old.
We have had one unexpleined death at 9 months of a lovely Chocolate Rex boy called Mr Hanky, we could find no reason for his passing :'(
 
i havent had a piggie die, but mine three are all under 1yr old :smitten:
 
My 2 boys will be 5 in April and still going strong. I've never had any problems with them and I've had them since they were 7-9 weeks old. *touch wood*

I got them from a breeder, so I hope I've got a lot of time left with my boysies. (I tried a rescue centre, but they only had 1 six month old pig and my parents said it would be fairer to get 2 as one was for my sister.
 
Our girls are 5 1/2 now.
The vet nurse was surprised and told me they don't see many that old around here, which surprised me as I had read the life span is 6- 8 years. Since then, alot of the people who I have known with piggies seem to think 6 is more like it.
Makes me really worried we might not have our girlies for alot longer. :(
 
My aunt thinks pigs only live for a year! I soon put her right!
 
ive got 2 girlies who are both 5 1/2 the vets here were extremely suprised when she asked how old they were..
 
lindsay7 said:
Bless you had a piggy called Lindsay and its the same spelling as me. Do you have a picture of her? Not met many people that are called Lindsay with the same spelling so its great to hear a piggy was called the same lol

Lindsay x
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Sadly I don't have a picture of Lindsay that I could post, not digital. Had her a long time ago, one of the first I had. She was quite timid, and was white with a brown face and a white blaze. I was heartbroken when she died and it left Megan on her own. I went straight to a rescue and got 2 babies - Josephine and Lucy. I wanted to separate them from Megan because I didn't know how she'd react so I split a run on the lawn. Megan however was obviously missing her pal and was desperate to get to the babies. I tentatively let them all in together and the 3 of them got on straight away. Sorry, rambling on here, happy memories!
 
sgprescue said:
Over the years as I have learnt more about guinea pigs my pigs are living longer. The eldest I ever had was Mabel who passed away peacefully at the grand old age of 12 years. A few months ago my lovely Elvis Pigsley died and he was 9 years old. At the moment I have a few resident boars who are at least 5+. My lovely Holly had to be pts a couple of weeks ago, she was only about 5 years old but she had a heart condition that became too much for her in the end. I think of my own pigs the youngest I have ever lost one was Clover who was only a year old however she was riddled with health problems.
Click to expand...
Do your guineas live in or out and what dry food do they have? You obviously have an all round winning formula.
 
Two of mine are going to be 5 on Jan 31st, their sister die at 4 and a half, their mum at 2 and aunt at 18 months. I got given two for my 16th birthday and one was pregnant, but they all seem to have a kidney problem, all of the others die of kidney failure, Lilly is showing signs, but I'm better educated now and am trying to do all i can for her, but on the good side her sister fern is very health. So i hope to have them for a while yet. :)
 
I had two,a boar and a sow, when I was a kid back in the 80s. I followed the advice of the pet shop so I kept them outside in an unheated shed, on their own, used straw on newspaper for bedding, fed them rabbit mix, with some carrot and cabbage daily :( I only picked them up or spent time with them once a week when cleaning them out because mum was afraid that dragging them out of their homes all the time was stressful and when I think of the way I have to catch one of mine now I think she may have had a point ;) With the exception of run time on the lawn, I looked after them the polar opposite to the way I do now and feel so guilty that they may not have been happy.

They were both really friendly, never got ill and lived to 8! So something must have gone well-ish. I just hope my new babies live as long :smitten:
 
My very first piggy Pippin lived til he was 6.

Wallace & Wilbur (brothers) died earlier this year Wallace was 20 months, Wilbur 28 months.
I believe it was in their genes, these 2 were the 2 who got poorly where the rest have hardly ailed a thing.

Lottie was "approx" 18months when she left for the bridge (she was a rescue)

Huxley & Hamish are 2.5 years
Albie, Maddie & Howie are 3.5 years
Toddie, Lolly & Looby are not 1 yet
 
i got my first piggle at 5 and she died when i was 13 so she was roughly 8
bailey is 3years8 months and doing well apart from his crackley chest
and the twins are 5 months old and about 3 times the size of bailey and still growing :o
 
Our original piggies, Rusty and Roger lived to be 4 1/2 and 6 respectively. When we lost Rusty we got Ruby and Roxy to keep Roger company (not together I hasten to add!), we lost Roxy this time last year she would have been almost 4 and Ruby is still going strong (touching wood) and is approaching 5. Our boars are Snowy 4 on 22nd December, Herbie and Curly not quite 2 1/2 and the other girlies range from 4 to 2 1/2.
 
It's really sad that so many of us have lost piggies at such a young age :'(

I suppose many pet shop piggies could have come from anyone, so no way of knowing their health background. Despite our very best efforts with good husbandry if they are poorly bred we're limited to how much we can influence their lifespan. At a rough guess I would say most piggies are obtained from a pet shop and we all know they do little or no checking. So realistically I would say 4 is probably the average.

I'm delighted though that so many have reached a grand old age. :)
 
Haven't lost a piggy yet, Molly is the oldest at about 2.5, I hope they all live for a long time yet. It's good to hear that some of them reach such fantastic ages!


Long live the piggy!
 
I lost Molly last week she was 5years and 11months. Her friend Bridget is the same age and I am hoping she will be with us for a long time to come.
 
Kaz - Sorry to here about Molly, but she lived to a good age, I'm sure you must miss her terribly though :(
 
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