New Guinea Pig Owner...and Babies!

[Nathantonet]

Good morning all!
My daughters, girlfriend and I are new owners of two Guinea pigs! (Marmalade and lavender)

We brought the two female Guinea pigs our local pets at home store and they are very happy if not slightly mental.

All was going quite well until we notice marmalade getting quite a big bigger than the other. And of course she was pregnant!
Cut a long story short we now have 4 Guinea pigs!
Mother and babies are well and from what we can currently confirm is that we now have 4 female Guinea pigs and they are growing well and mother is looking after both.

My main concern is the conflicting information as to what to do with the other Guinea pig lavender. I understand the mother must stay with the babies but what about her?

Thank you for any information

Nathan

 

[Tigermoth]

Welcome!

I'm sure someone with experience will be along soon, but in the meantime, have you found the sub-forum dedicated to pregnancy and sexing? If you haven't read through the stickies there then it might be worth a look, and your question about your other piggy may have been asked and answered in there already too.

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/forums/pregnancy-baby-care-and-sexing-no-breeding.11/

 

[Wiebke]

Good morning all!
My daughters, girlfriend and I are new owners of two Guinea pigs! (Marmalade and lavender)

We brought the two female Guinea pigs our local pets at home store and they are very happy if not slightly mental.

All was going quite well until we notice marmalade getting quite a big bigger than the other. And of course she was pregnant!
Cut a long story short we now have 4 Guinea pigs!
Mother and babies are well and from what we can currently confirm is that we now have 4 female Guinea pigs and they are growing well and mother is looking after both.

My main concern is the conflicting information as to what to do with the other Guinea pig lavender. I understand the mother must stay with the babies but what about her?

Thank you for any information

Nathan

Hi and welcome!

Please open a support thread in our pregnancy section, which is not visible until you register with the forum; you are also welcome to have the sex of your babies confirmed if you wish to. How old are your babies now?

You can try to introduce them all if you have separated, either by providing roaming time with a bar in between at first so they are comfy with each other's presence, or if mum is too protective, wait until the end of the nursing period. You can also try mum and auntie together first (always on neutral ground) and only add the babies once mummy is looking for them to see how that goes. There are no hard and fast rules; you have to play it by ear depending on how things go. A lot depends on how they have got on before birth, the rankings in the hierarchy and how protective mum is.

Nursing sows enjoy special status which suspends the normal hierarchy. This is withdrawn at the end of the nursing period and the weaned babies are firmly pushed to the bottom of the group. However, the arrival of the babies means that a new hierarchy sort-out is necessary. Mummy's status has changed plus the presence of the babies usually makes this one of the trickiest times for bonding, depending on where auntie is going to fit in the hierarchy or whether mummy is reluctant to go back to being #2.

The good news is that most sows will get together even though you usually have got more and protracted dominance, which can last a few weeks.

You can find lots of bonding tips at the top of our behaviour and bonding section.

 

[Sue]

Hi, we had extremely similar situation and we left 'Auntie' Biscuit with 'Mummy' Bourbon the whole time throughout pregnancy and while/after giving birth. We kept a really close eye on the behaviour between them and they were absolutely fine. I suppose it depends on the individuals involved. We had three little babies, two boys and a girl. Boys were removed just after three weeks old as their weight was up to the mark and they both displayed sexual behaviour towards mum (now both rehomed with friend), we have kept the girl 'Oreo' with mum and Auntie the whole time and they are a happy trio now hope it works out for you like it has for us!