esther du bois

Hey there Dessie,

To me, this seems to be "the dominance thing" that piggies do. I have
noticed that piggies have a VERY private *** life, so mating will not be in
public. In general, that is. Sometimes there are those piggies that don't
seem to care who can watch <grin>.

But of course, you don't know what happens at night. Or when you are away
from home at work.

So, if your Talulah turns out to be preggers, there is one thing that I hope
for: I do hope that she is younger than 6 months. If not, a pregnancy will
be VERY dangerous, as the pelvic bones fuse. It might even kill both pups
and the mother.

If she is no older than 6 months and she gets preggers, there are a few
things you can and cannot do:
1. You CAN increase the amount of vit. C (by giving chewable vit. C, vit. C
drops, or a quarter of an orange daily). In fact, increasing the amount of
vit. C is very, very important, both for the expecting mother and for the
babies.
2. You CAN pet her (if she allows you to pet her; if she reacts in a
skittish way: don't try to pet her, because of the stress it may cause)
3. You CANNOT lift her by the belly. You might harm - or even kill - the
pups inside her

When she is preggers, she will slowly get the shape of a balloon on four
legs. At about 45 days you will be able to feel movement inside her belly
(gently place your hand on her belly and you might actually feel the pups
turn, toss and twist). At 50 to 55 days of pregnancy you can also see
movement; poor mom-to-be will not be able to sit still when the pups are
playing "soccer" with moms belly. Finally, after about 68 days of waiting,
you will see what mom and dad have accomplished. It is the time you can
finally see what colors the kids have, what hair-do they have and .........
maybe you can even witness the birth. If you are quick enough after the
birth, you can see pretty easily if the pup is a boy or a girl (in only two
hours time after birth it becomes very hard to see and then you will have to
wait for about 2 to 3 weeks before you can *** them again).

BTW: piggies do NOT need material to make a nest for giving birth. The
mother chooses a place where she feels safe (most of the times this is a
corner of the cage, or a hidey-house) and there she will deliver her kids,
sitting on her hind legs and pulling the pup to her front.

Oh, one more piece of advice: do NOT let the father be in the cage when mom
gives birth. Dad won't hurt the kids (normally), but right after giving
birth Mom will let him mount her and then she will be preggers again, which
is NOT healthy for the piggie. Better place Dad in a separate cage, next to
the cage of Talulah. There, from a small distance, he can watch the delivery
("I could care less, I rather chew my apple"), and he will be able to smell
and hear Talulah and her pups ("That smells interesting!"). But he will not
be able to get her preggers right after giving birth.

I hope this will help you somehow.

Lots of wheeks,
Esther (slave of 4)
- Puck (rescue pig)
- Chanda (rescue pig)
- Dash & Mysti (kids from Chanda, born on the day that Chanda came to live
with us)

dessie

I don't know how old she is.... she's as big as my foot though.
I didn't think age was a big deal, because her hips are so wide.
When she's balled up she looks like a football. She is really huge!
I didn't know they got that big to be honest. Hopefully her girth
will make her birthing easier. I have been giving her (them) constant
veggies. She even chewed on a orange for a bit.
Wish me luck.

D

--
"`Eddies,' said Ford, `in the space-time continuum.'
`Ah,' nodded Arthur, `is he? Is he?'"
-- Arthur failing in his first lesson of galactic physics in four years.
Hitchiker's Guide.
Http://lifeonmars.isCool.net -the way it should be.

dessie

OH GOD! What a disaster. I have no idea how old she is.

--
"`Eddies,' said Ford, `in the space-time continuum.'
`Ah,' nodded Arthur, `is he? Is he?'"
-- Arthur failing in his first lesson of galactic physics in four years.
Hitchiker's Guide.
Http://lifeonmars.isCool.net -the way it should be.

nancy demarco

Then she's unlikely to be young enough to safely breed. How long did
your landlord's daughter have her?

So, you didn't separate them?

I emailed you the dangers of breeding an adult guinea pig just a few
hours after you first posted, when they'd only been together a few
hours. I emailed rather than posting, hoping to get the information
to you quickly. Chances were pretty good at that time that she might
not be in heat, and would not yet be pregnant. Chances are less good
after 3 days. :-(


Luck is more likely to come to those who act responsibly. Best get
thee to a good guinea pig (exotics) vet and discuss your options. You
may consider spaying her. A C-section with a full-term pregnancy will
be much harder on her.

Nancy

incs

<snapped>

<snapped>


Hm, judging by your response you are NOW fully briefed on the risks of
getting an 'old' sow pregnant. Don't want to put salt in the wound, but I
suppose you wish you knew all this before. The need for pre-info speaks for
itself.

As you can't reach your vet 'till tomorrow, here's what you can do now.
Check the sow's bottom. This may sound funny but it is quite important. Do
you see some white milky stuff in or around her genital part? Do you feel
some hard, glue-like substance sticking to her bottom? In this case, BIG
chance the girl is preggers.
If you don't feel or see anything other than soft, clean skin surrounding
her genital opening, there's still a chance you might have been lucky and
she is not pregnant.

Another thing, call the previous owner, maybe they can tell you if she's had
kids before, in which case the pelvic bones could still be open and she
stands a good chance of giving 'normal' birth. Who knows, maybe they can
even tell you her age.

It's no use beating yourself up over this, too late now; use your energy to
help your piggy instead.
Just keep in mind to *always* seek info if you're starting something you
have no experience with, especially animals. And eh.. spread the word on
that last piece of info...

Hope everything goes well and your girl is NOT preggers, keep us posted!!

Good luck,
Incs
--
CaviAria; ode to guinea pigs
http://devoted.to/caviaria

nancy demarco

I'm sorry. I should have posted and emailed, to cover all bases.
Getting the information sooner would have helped. :-(

Best of luck,

Nancy

plunderworks

Hi there! First I'd like to welcome you to the group and to new piggie
ownership.
It always seems so easy when you start out. Then you get all the facts!
Don't let it overwhelm you.
You seem to be doing alright getting things taken care of now =)

Are you sure she's not a rabbit??? LOL
My sisters in law have a 6 year old guinea pig that is about HALF that size
and I still thought she was big!


Have you found out for certain that he *is* male?
Thats the tricky thing about shop owners. Most of them don't know didly
squat. =(

(Rant warning)

I got my first piggy from a private breeder. They knew a little bit, like
how to *** them. But about an hour on the internet and I now know more then
they will probably ever care to find out. I found out that the babies should
be seperated at around 3 weeks. Marshmallow was almost 4 months old when I
got her and was still in the same cage as her brothers and another litter. I
had no idea that she could already be pregnant. I got a male a week later in
the hopes of breeding them and having my own little family. So I kept them
together and figured out when she should have her babies. She had them on
the very morning that I was going to set up the new cage to seperate
them....at least 2 weeks before schedule. She was already pregnant!
I seperated them immediately but it was too late. She gave birth to her
second litter less than a month ago. I felt so bad for her! She got treated
extra special, lots of hay and veggies, vitamins in her water, and those
little vitamin c fruit drop treats. She always knew when she was getting
carrots. As soon as she heard that 'snap' of breaking it in half she would
chirp really loud until I gave it to her!
Unfortunately about two weeks ago I woke up to find her on her side. I was
just in time to say goodbye to her. I felt like it was my fault, that I was
a poor 'mother' I had to set aside my grief though so I could take care of
her two wee ones who were only two weeks old. My husband says he's very
proud of me for taking such good care of the babies. That makes me feel a
little bit better.
Sorry, its late and I'm tired. I'll stop waffling now, lol.

~Tina~

plunderworks

Duke was pretty upset that I took him away from his girl. He's alright now
that he's got the other two boys with him. I figure if the two newest little
ones end up both being males that I'll get at least one of them neutered so
that MiniMarsh has company. She bosses them around but at least its company,
and she's never actually hurt them.


If she's that big then the babies will have plenty of room inside her to get
really big too. Thats where the trouble comes in.

LoL

Yikes! I frequent a few other boards on ez, but I dont know if I want to go
there if they were that mean. =(
Until a few years ago I had no idea that shelters would have anything other
than cats or dogs either. We actually picked up one of our rabbits there
last year. There's a shelter not too far from here that I plan on getting
involved with. As soon as we get our own place instead of renting then I
plan on building a barn/shelter area to take in the animals that no one
wants. Sort of like a no-kill shelter like I used to run back on my parents
ranch before I got married.


~Tina~

jenreth

I have to agree with the general ranting... though I havn't bought animals
from a store in a while. I had the same experience with rabbits though! "oh
no," my friend said " hey're both definatly female!" the first litter was
either pink squigy things (dear lord baby pigs are so much cuter) and after
we sold them all we found the second litter in a burrow! Argh!

There are some terrible pet stores around here (visiting I see ALL the
piggies of ALL ages in one cage regardless of *** and that's just for
starters..) but there's a chain of stores which thankfully seems to employ
better people and so on. The RSPCA shelter near me has pigs and rabbits as
well as dogs and cats and horses and goats and sheep and chickens and ducks
(eep!) but the care is minimal and I'm sure they don't have a no-kill
policy. And of course I too have a vision of swooping down like an avenging
angel and rescuing all these pigs.... and have my parents dispair of me...
and spending all my money on building supplies for more cages.... and get a
reputation as "that mad girl with all the guinea pigs".

I know it's been said.... but ALWAYS try and look around for shelters
first... pet stores usually sell guinea pigs easily, while these little guys
get forgotten and put down cause they've been malnourished and have bald
spots from mange and no-body wants to love them!

Alice
& chad & jeza & isabel

wendy gray

In message <3f56c134$0$10356$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>


Then again, you get the unloved one, unsold, in the petshop. We took on
'Scruffy' because every time we went in to by petfood, there she was on her
own. She didn't like other pigs or humans: bit everyone hard and squaked
abuse if anyone appoached. Also, her whorls meant she could only be stroked
bum-to-head! She really took to my husband though, who tamed her with much
love and patience.

Wendy