ANSWER ~ this is a tough one, every cavy is different regardless of
breed. Peruvians generally are healthy and long lived....... Americans are as
well. The only ones that aren't are Satins , they tend to have a short life
span. The 'toughest' breeds (i.e. most healthy) tend to be Rex, Abyssinians
and longhairs
I hope that helps
Question ~ My two guinea pigs, which are
brown, black and white just had a litter of babies similar in color, except
one is white with red eyes. It has about 8 rosettes and a
"bald" spot on the top of its head between its ears. It has
the right number of toes and seems like the other babies. I have been
told that Albinos are the result of inbreeding, though I did not think that my
two pigs were siblings. They have had another litter before this one
where all the babies have been healthy. Can you tell me more about
Albinos?
Answer ~ your baby isn't necessarily an
albino. There is often some confusion about exactly what an albino is. It is a
cavy with no colour...which of course yours is. But the confusion arises
because there is also a breed called the Pink Eyed White. Identical to the
albino but without any of the health problems. The Pink Eyed white is far far
more common than the albino guinea pig, in fact the albino is all but extinct
in captivity as responsible breeders wont perpetuate a breed that has health
problems. Most breeds come in the colour of Pink Eyed white so my guess would
be that somewhere in the parents background there is a cavy of this colour and
so the genes have worked their magic (as they often do with guinea pigs) and
you get something totally unexpected.
The only other answer would be if your baby is what is called a micropthalmic
white. These arise when both parents are roan or have roaning in their coat, a
mix of black and white or red and white hairs. BUT in this case the baby would
have very small (or non existent) eyes and no teeth. If its healthy and looks
like the others I really wouldn't worry
Breeding Questions ............
Question ~ I have a guinea pig who seems to be about 6 weeks pregnant. She
is not even 4 months old yet and apparently mated with her brother who is not
mating age yet. She has about two babies and I can see kicking, so they are
live. I am just worried that they may die or be born with abnormalities due to
inbreeding. How can I help the young mom cope?
Answer ~ Whilst not ideal this situation is far from unusual, it happens
a lot The good news is that the young mums usually cope very well indeed, 99%
of
the time in fact they have no problems at all, and the other 1% only have the
'usual' pregnancy problems associated with any guinea pig. The fact that she
has been mated by her brother, although again it isn't ideal it really
shouldn't cause any problems. Guinea pigs in the wild are mated by their
father/brother/cousin any male around a one off brother to sister mating
wont do any harm although it shouldn't be repeated further down the line. If
you say, mate brother to sister, then out of the babies mate brother to sister
and then out of their babies mate brother to sister....then you may
run into problems The babies sound good and strong, enjoy having them around
the house, gp babies are very sweet
Question ~ I am a little concerned with my guinea pigs. I have 10 and
love them all to death and give them the best that I can. At the moment
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong - I have had 2 sows give birth in the last 2
weeks with both
litters born dead/or soon after, both sows had the same boar partnering them?
I have been feeding the lucerne, hay, pellets and apple/orange/carrot/tomatoes,
they have had plenty of water on hand, when cleaning hutches I use no
chemicals so I really don't understand?
Answer ~ it could just be luck of the draw, or the boar is incompatible
with the sows, sometimes boars will have a genetic flaw that makes it
impossible for them to father live babies
Your diet and care sounds absolutely fine, no worries there, the sad fact is
when breeding guinea pigs is sometimes the babies are born dead or die shortly
after, we don't know why
Question ~ I just bought a female piggy, with the intention of breeding
her with our male. However she is only 10 weeks old and I believe she may already
be pregnant. I'm concerned of her early age, and wondering if it is most likely from her sibling before being separated. Am I over concerned,
and what should I expect? I'm worried about our well loved new addition.
Answer ~ sadly this does happen quite a bit, most people don't
realise that guinea pigs can get pregnant at 3 weeks of age (or in the case
of the boars get the sows pregnant) and so they are left together too long.
Also its not an ideal situation its less worrying her being underage than to
old. As long as she gets a good diet, plenty of vitamin C she should be OK.
It may long term stunt her growth but otherwise it shouldn't affect her as
long as she gets thru the birth OK. All guinea pig breeding carries risks
sadly. Once she has had the litter give her a long rest to recover.
QUESTION ...At what age can you tell the sex of baby piggys?
ANSWER ..That depends on how practiced you are, I can
tell at birth, but the best age is usually about 3 weeks old. If you
go to http://www.geocities.com/crystalcavies/page10.htm there
are pictures on the right hand side of a male and a female at 3 weeks of
age, the male is the top one
QUESTION...
I have 4 females ranging
1.5 to 3 years old. I have been given a young male, can they all be kept
together ?I heard that mature females cant get pregnant is
this true?
ANSWER .... the simple answer to
that is no, you cant put them together, mature females can and will
become pregnant right up to the age of 5 years old. Some wont but there
is no guarantee, and it can be very risky for their health
Question ... I have a new born
pig its mum delivered 5 on 4th march but only the runt has so far
survived its now 3 days old ( the others were dead at or just
after birth) its tiny and thin but quite lively and chases mum
about I'm not sure mums feeding enough her nipples look flat is there
anything I can do to help save it or does mum know best
ANSWER .... you
could try hand feeding but its complicated, and difficult, here is
what you would need to do Get some goats milk (full fat, usually available
from Supermarkets nowadays) and some brown bread, and some live yoghurt
mix goats milk with small amount of live yoghurt,
crumble bread into crumbs and put on a teaspoon, soak bread with milk
mixture. Then offer on spoon to baby, they usually suck the milk mix
out of the bread, the bread prevents them drinking to fast and so milk
getting into their lungs after that for the first couple of days of hand
rearing you need to help in the toilet department by stimulating them
to pass waste, a damp cotton bud takes the place of mums tongue, just
massage the area for a minute, although with mum still being around
she may do this herself
Never try and force a baby to
eat, if it wont it wont, if you try it will just drown (fluid going on
to its lungs)
one tip, if a small amount of
fluid does go the wrong way, hold the baby to your chest, head down,
baby will wriggle which will cause him to cough.....and that will move
the fluid
Good Luck
Health Questions.......
Question ~ Can you tell me how early I can get the little boy neutered,
as I am very attached to both babies and would like to keep them but I dont
want any more!
Answer ~ I wouldn't recommend neutering until at least 6 months, in
fact to be honest I don't recommend it at all, any anaesthetic is risky and my
preferred option is to split the hutch or put a hutch next door, which you
will have to do anyway till he is old enough (from 3 weeks), he can still
hear, smell and chat to the ladies but not cause any unwanted little ones.
Question~ we have two boy piggies and since they're still rather
hormonal, we keep them housed next door to each other. I can't see how
we would have missed this during the first few months of their life as we
carted them to and from the veterinarian, so I assume this must have developed
during the past few months (they're almost 1 year old). They each have
an incredibly sticky spot, on their, errr, bum (one more so than the other).
It's really perplexing because we thought perhaps they were wounded, so we
shaved down the fur to see the skin in that area (this stuff is so sticky that
you can't comb it out at all) and there is no skin lesions or anything of the
sort. Have you ever seen anything of this sort before,
and if so, could you let me know what it was and treatments that can looked
into?
Answer ~What you describe is actually quite normal in male guinea
pigs. Its called a grease gland and is
placed exactly where you describe it. This gland is all to do with hormones
and mating and secretes this sticky horrible substance that is causing you
such a worry
You can get it out, with washing up liquid...........or something that
mechanics use to get oil off thier hands. Just bath them, rub the liquid
on..leave it for a while to break up the grease and wash off. If its got
really bad you may have to do this a few times
Some males are worse than others, some you would never notice it, some its so
obvious you cant ignore it
Question ~
I have been having problems with
soiling on the bottom of my guinea pig's feet. I have tried merely
washing, pulling them off, and rinsing with light antiseptics, but nothing
seems to work -- definitely not when I pull off the scab-like stuff. Could
you provide me with any information as to remove these?
ANSWER ~They shouldn't have scabs on their
feet, its sounds like he may have bumblefoot which is a very sore
medical condition, you need to take him to a vet
Question ...............What
concerns me is the hair behind his ears is very short...almost bald
looking, but not actually bald. He does not itch this area. Is
this just a normal hair pattern in these little pigs???
ANSWERS ~ can put your mind at rest here, its totally normal, all
guinea pigs have these 'bald patches'
Skin Problems..............
I have recently purchased a Guinea (2days ago) and when i
got him home and brushed his hair I saw tiny white bugs crawling on his scalp.
From researching this online I believe it is lice. What I need to know is
exactly what do I do to rid him of them and can they get on me? Do I bath him
and if so how? Should i still hold him and love on him? This is my first
Guinea ever so i am totally unsure as what to do and the vets that i called
seem to have no idea. All info you can give me will be appreciated.
Answer ~ Any Bird mite spray will do the job, go to your
pet shop, if its OK to use on birds its ok to use on piggies
Question ~ Hello! our precious cavy "Shorty"
has dandruff & recently itching. He use to scratch once in a while but
just latey more than usual. So we took him to the vet & the Dr.
scraped his skin for mites but didn't find any, but yet he still recommended
the injection for possible mites. I guess I just don't understand why he
recommended the it if he didn't find any & why he just didn't recommend a
dandruff shampoo. Have any suggestions or do you think I should get a 2nd
opinion? thanx, Debbie.
Answer ~ the thing is that mites move, and without scraping all his
skin off they could be missed, or they could be deeper than he scraped. The
injection will do him no harm whether he has mites or not, and mites is the
most common cause of the complaint you describe
Question ~ I just got a male cavy about two weeks ago. The other day
I noticed a flaky spot on his skin that just felt like a patch of dry skin of
something. The next day it looked like a bloody scab, and today it's
gone, but his skin is flaking off. There is also no hair growing around
it. I read on the internet that it could be ring worm!!! What can
I do to treat it? My mom wont spend that much money on them, so is there
a really cheap way?
Answer ~ it could be ringworm, and it could be selnick mite,
unfortunately when you have animals, you have to spend money, there is really
no way around it, you take short cuts and do things 'the cheap way' and you
get very poorly or even dying animals
He needs an injection and he can get that from the vets. Both Ringworm and
Selnick can be fatal sorry I cant be more help, there is no cheap way
General...........
Question ~ Our Puffy is a baby with
curly, long hair-three coloured-black, gold and white. Which type is that?
Can You tell me which food is the best for him and which food is bad or even
fatal for his health? We don't know how old is he, but he's smaller than my
palm! We've put in his cage a small box, he likes to sleep in it. He is the cuddliest
thing I ever saw!!! We adore him very much! We also have two little dogs-old
but small-Maltese. They like Puffy from the first moment they saw him, and
as we can see, Puffy is not afraid of them. Well, he is just little afraid
of everyone. He's new member of our family only 3 days!! 'Till now, we heard
from him two kind of sounds-squeak sound and very gently frrrrr...I know the
first one means give me food, but for the second one I'm not so sure (doubts
between happy and fear???)I just want him to be a happy one as much as he
can be, he's part of our family and we love him veeeeeeeery much!!!
Answer ~ he sounds like a texel
.Best food, well he needs hay, and some sort of guinea pig food (pellets or
mix) from your pet shop, and also veggies every day. The veggies it depends
what he is used to , if you are not sure then introduce it very slowly, a
tiny amount at first and then more. The only vegetables I avoid are Iceberg lettuce
and spinach. The rule is 'if in doubt leave it out' if you are not sure,
then don't give it him. Good foods include grass, cabbage, celery, apple,
carrot, raw beetroot, cauliflower, orange, melon, parsley, dandelions,
radish leaves
When he 'frrrrr' it means he is a little worried about something
Question~ I recently purchased two
sows. one is 10 weeks and the other is 16 weeks. I seem to have
trouble taming them, they are very frightened of me and I find it hard to
catch them. when I do manage to pick them up they struggle like mad to
get away. have you any suggestions as to how to tame them, and how
long would the process take.
Answer ~ the best advice I can give you is persevere, you do not
say how recently you got them, but it can take 8 weeks or even more before
they begin to calm down, baby guinea pigs are naturally very nervy little
animals. Talk to them in a low soothing voice and treats help the process,
like cucumber
Question ~ I got a guinea pig 6 weeks ago
when he was only around 6 weeks old. I play with him a lot, and take very good
care of him, but he still is very jumpy and seems very uneasy all of the time.
I am not sure what else I should do for him. What would you do??
Answer ~ I would give him time. Guinea pigs are prey animals, it is
in their nature to be jumpy, especially as babies. If you look at it from his
point of view he was taken away from his mum and his home, had to meet a new
'giant' who he didn't know was friend or foe' get used a new home, new food,
new noises........ its not really surprising that he is jumpy
One of the best things you can do is keep handling him and talk to him,
doesn't matter about what, just so he gets used to the sound of your voice
Anymore questions ? email me
