Eva's Cavy Care Page 6 - Breeding

Questions:

I have this nice pet guinea pig - can I breed her?
At what age does cavies stop being fertile?
My guinea pig is pregnant - what do I do to care of her?
My guinea pig will soon have babies: does guinea pigs have any interesting behaviour associated with pregnancy that I should know of?
My guinea pig had babies: how old should they be before I take them away from their mother?

Answers:

QUESTION 1: I have this nice pet guinea pig - can I breed her?

ANSWER: Yes you can breed her if she is less than 10-11 months old, but it is not recommended because pregnant guinea pigs so often get pregnancy problems that they can die from. If you love your guinea pig you do not want this to happen to her.
It is just as fun to rescue a new guinea pig!

QUESTION 2: At what age does cavies stop being fertile?

ANSWER: A sick cavy may stop being fertile at any age. But otherwise cavies NEVER stop being fertile, and a female may very well concieve at the age of 5 years old, and die from giving birth.
NEVER mix females with males that are not castrated/neutered!

QUESTION 3: My guinea pig is pregnant - what do I do to care of her?

ANSWER: Several things:

Do not feed her any pellets or grains, only hay and vegetables. Otherwise the babies will grow very big inside her and she may have difficulties when delivering.
Remove all males from her living quarters.
Her best chance of having an easy pregnancy and delivery is - except from removing all pellets and grains - to let her have as much space as possible to move around in for exercise.
If she has a very big cage (2meter * 60 cm, or maybe she has a whole room) she can live with her female friends. I can really recommend letting out all pregnant guinea pig females permanently on the floor!

QUESTION 4: My guinea pig will soon have babies: does guinea pigs have any interesting behaviour associated with pregnancy that I should know of?

ANSWER: Yes.

For one guinea pigs do not make a nest.

If you are a responsible guinea pig owner and let your pregnant guinea pig room the floor with some female guinea pig friends you will probably see the following behaviours:

The pregnant female will be more dominant than usual.
The first 1 to 3 days after birth the babies will remain in or very close to the spot where they were born. The mother will visit them regularly and give them milk. Do not take them up a lot these few days.
After this and until the babies are about 14 days old the babies will call out for their mother when they get hungry and she will come to them to feed them. During this time the babies will start following her around, and they can walk long distances.
After this stage the mother will stop coming to her babies when they call out for her. They will have to search for her themselves every time they want milk.
At about 5 weeks of age she will refuse them suckling from her - this means that she is weaning her babies.

You should also know that even if guinea pig babies start eating solid food from day one they are socially dependent on their mother. Do not wean guinea pig babies and put them in their own cage. Let the female babies remain with the mother and put the male babies in with the father or another male if you can.

QUESTION 5: My guinea pig had babies: how old should they be before I take them away from their mother?

ANSWER: This depends a lot on their size. If they are very big and precaucious you may need to remove any males before the age of five weeks. Maybe at the age of 4 weeks. Only remove males younger than 5 weeks if they are acting as adult males and chasing and trying to mate with their mother and sisters.

5 weeks is the normal age for removing males from the mother and sisters. The sisters can and should remain with their mother.

You may have read in many books that guinea pigs should be removed from their mother at the age of 3 weeks, but that just something that is done with laboratory guinea pigs. In the laboratory guinea pigs are weaned (removed from the mother) at this early age in order to induce agony in the poor babies. I think this may be done for medical reasons, remember that these animals are used for research... Do not do this to your guinea pigs!