I have a guinea pig and she ate her babys but why?

Question

did i handle her to much?

Answer 1

they will often do this because they feel threatened by their young. strange i know. it will happen more often if a high % of her babies are female, this is b/c she feels threatened for her breeding rights.

Answer 2

Hamsters do that to, I read that if there's something wrong with the babys, the mom will eat them.

There's other reasons too, but sometimes they just do that.

Answer 3

Guinea pigs do NOT eat their babies. Most of them say they do, but this is not true. You look at all the guinea pig websites and none of it is true. They will not eat their babies.

Answer 4

Ur guinea pig prob ate them cause u touched them.

When ur pets have babies, they don't want human to touch them because they dont like their babies to smell like humans...

Answer 5

Sometimes they eat them if it's has a disease or if something is wrong with them.  It could also be that you touched her babies and it has your scent on them.

Answer 6

possibly,

if you hold her, but usually her

babies, she'd most likely kill them

or even eat them, because of the scent of you on them

i think, i hope this helps a lil

sorry  =/

Answer 7

Its a dumb rodent. Pretty much all of them do that. Mice, prairie dogs, rats, you name it. Sadly and stupidly its normal for them.

Answer 8

Contrary to what all the other posters told you, cavies do not eat their babies because the are stressed or because they have been handled.  In fact, cavies do not eat their live babies at all!

  When you find newborns that have been partially eaten, it is because they were born dead or died very shortly after birth.  In the wild, cavies move in groups or herds; they are a prey animal.  Baby guinea pigs are born precocious, meaning they are fully furred, have their eyes open and can run along with the big guys.  If a cavy of any age goes down, the others in the herd start tugging on its ears or extremities with their teeth to try to get it to move along with the rest of the herd.  If the cavy is dead, sometimes that tugging gets a little too enthusiastic and the dead one's ears or feet are chewed.  This is one possibility for your "eaten" babies.  The other is that the sow was too aggressive when cleaning them.  Occasionally, a sow does this even to live newborns and takes a chunk out of an ear or foot.  Usually, though, with live babies, they wriggle away from her before she goes too far.  

You can safely handle newborn guinea pigs literally from the moment of birth.  I have had many, many litters, routinely handle them immediately and have never had a single death because of it.

Answer 9

if they are a new mom they might think (this may sound crazy) they are protecting their young by eating them. It is true all the books and websites say the same thing that I couldn't believe, but it is true!!