Just given birth! baby guinea pigs.

Question

My sow gave birth at 11am this morning, her friend another sow was present and helped/assisted with the birth. When i seen that she was giving birth she was on her 5th baby, two alive and walking about and 2 dead still in there sacs, the 5th baby was born still in its sac so i intervened and gave it a wee rub and brought it to live! She is getting on fab with the 3 babies and they have all fed and had a good clean from mum.

My question is, now that the birth is all over and done with my other sow is now hiding in behind the birthing box? and not coming out? Should i remove her now and give her her own space or should i leave her to come around? The mother sow is not showing any aggression what so ever but she is still hiding away. Like i said she helped the mummy sow give birth?? what is going on now?

any help would be great.

And before i get nasty comments i have two lovely homes for these wee cherubs.

x

Answer 1

you gave birth to gineau pigs......well i never !!

Answer 2

The other one is just giving her space. Hopefully your cage is big enough for all these Guinea pigs. It should be 4 square foot per pig and if not, the other might be feeling crowded and stressed. She is now on the bottom of the pecking order. Believe it or not pigs have a hierarchy in there daily lives and she might have lost what ever status she had once the mom gave birth. If your intentionally breeding them, and the other sow is pregnant, I would remove her today and give her a different cage. It is proven and well known that the smell of a female birthing can cause the other females to spontaneously go into labor also. Even if they are not ready. Why? because G. Pigs are herd animals in th wild and they need to correspond there birthing for the herd. So other than that I think they should be separated otherwise you give them 2 boxes so the other has a place to hide if you cage is large enough. Pigs just like to hide. Its there nature.

I have raised, bred, and shown guinea pigs professionally for 17+ years

PEOPLE ABOVE ME... none of you actually answered her question. She wasn't asking about how to take care of the pups. Shes asking about the cage mate...sheesh

Answer 3

Please read up about care and diet at http://www.guinealynx.info

Answer 4

^^ that person above clearly knows nothing about guinea pigs, 1 they are born with fur and 2, they are born with open eyes.

she will be feeding and tending to the babies, just give her a little time :)

Hope everything goes well

babies are a joy, my second litter was born yesterday so i have 2 nearly 3 weeks babies running around and 4 1day old ones :)

Answer 5

She would be keeping the babys warm in the nest and she would be feeding them, leave them be until the babys have fur and their eyes are open.

Answer 6

my guinea pigs are fine when they give birth i had five sows and one gave birth with the others in the hutch i say it will be fine but if there is aggression i would remove the other sow immediately