jaderocks55
New Born Pup
Hi,
I adopted two female guinea piggies at the end of January, I was told they were three months old at the time. Two months later, on April 8th, one of them suprised me with a baby! I was really shocked and separated the other "adult?" piggie thinking it might be a male and I need to get the sex checked out again by a vet. The vet confirmed that the other guinea pig is also female, so Amethyst, the one that had the baby, was pregant when I got her.
When I went to the vet a few days after the baby was born, she told me it was too early to tell the sex of the baby, and to wean the baby/separate from mom at three weeks in case it's a male. I tried to sex him today and I do think he's a male; I identified a penis. As there's only one pup, he's big. He's two and a half weeks old and already weighs 260-something grams, so I'm guessing it's time to separate him from mom. I only have two cages and was hoping if baby has to get separated Amethyst and Bubbles, my two original guinea pigs, can go back to living together...
I think Bubbles has been a bit down/depressed since she's been living on her own. I put her cage right near the other one, but she probably needs a bigger cage and I was using it as a temporary solution until I figure out who can live with who and what kind of cage I'll get next. I put Amethyst and Bubbles in the pop up play pen a few times because I thought it might make Bubbles feel better to get more social contact, but they started teeth chattering immediately, and I haven't heard this from them before. Today I did it again because I am hoping to reintroduce them and get them to live in the same cage, as they're both females of the same age, but they started aggressively fighting and I had to separate them. I saw some loose fur after that and I also didn't think to handle them with a towel and got a deep painful gash on my finger from one super angry Bubbles.
My question now is--should I continue to let Amethyst and Bubbles spend time together in the play pen and let them duke it out in terms of fighting--is this just establishing dominance? It was hard to watch them fighting that aggressively.
Also, any thoughts on whether it's worthwile to neuter the male when he's of age so they can all live together? He's so cute I'd love to keep him but I just read about all the risks of such a surgery. Do male guinea pigs do okay alone?
Thanks in advance!
I adopted two female guinea piggies at the end of January, I was told they were three months old at the time. Two months later, on April 8th, one of them suprised me with a baby! I was really shocked and separated the other "adult?" piggie thinking it might be a male and I need to get the sex checked out again by a vet. The vet confirmed that the other guinea pig is also female, so Amethyst, the one that had the baby, was pregant when I got her.
When I went to the vet a few days after the baby was born, she told me it was too early to tell the sex of the baby, and to wean the baby/separate from mom at three weeks in case it's a male. I tried to sex him today and I do think he's a male; I identified a penis. As there's only one pup, he's big. He's two and a half weeks old and already weighs 260-something grams, so I'm guessing it's time to separate him from mom. I only have two cages and was hoping if baby has to get separated Amethyst and Bubbles, my two original guinea pigs, can go back to living together...
I think Bubbles has been a bit down/depressed since she's been living on her own. I put her cage right near the other one, but she probably needs a bigger cage and I was using it as a temporary solution until I figure out who can live with who and what kind of cage I'll get next. I put Amethyst and Bubbles in the pop up play pen a few times because I thought it might make Bubbles feel better to get more social contact, but they started teeth chattering immediately, and I haven't heard this from them before. Today I did it again because I am hoping to reintroduce them and get them to live in the same cage, as they're both females of the same age, but they started aggressively fighting and I had to separate them. I saw some loose fur after that and I also didn't think to handle them with a towel and got a deep painful gash on my finger from one super angry Bubbles.
My question now is--should I continue to let Amethyst and Bubbles spend time together in the play pen and let them duke it out in terms of fighting--is this just establishing dominance? It was hard to watch them fighting that aggressively.
Also, any thoughts on whether it's worthwile to neuter the male when he's of age so they can all live together? He's so cute I'd love to keep him but I just read about all the risks of such a surgery. Do male guinea pigs do okay alone?
Thanks in advance!
