Help 6 newborn guinea pig babies

[Tortlover]

Lactol, cimicat or esbilac are good powdered milks to use for feeding baby rabbits, guinea pigs and baby hedgies too!! Just been doing my research as I am hoping to have some baby hedgies very soon xx

[zoe1]

Hi,

I've been breeding and showing guinea pigs for several years now. 6 is a fairly big litter, especially for a first time mum. If she seems to be tending to them I would let her be, but put in some brown bread soaked in warm Goats milk - it's the closest thing to guinea pigs milk and you will find babies with suck the milk off the bread as well as eat it when they get the hang of it. Mum will also love it and it will help keep her strength up - and her milk supply going to feed her big brood !

Is she the only pig you have ? It's very unusual for them to have there babies that far apart, they nomally arrive within a couple of minutes of each other ? I wondered if you possibly had another one in with her that could have littered too ?

Zoe x

[piglet]

I have hand raised many a guinea pig over the years , what I do if a big litte has been bor is keep a close eye the brood over the days see if any are fading or not not gaining weight , you could weigh them daily and if progrees is slow in some I use cimcat formular to feed the faders usually 3 times a day is enough as they freely feed anyway this helps them along whilst there larger brothers and sisters take the choice milk fro mum

D

[S25ALE]

Thank you all for your advise, there is another long haired female pig in the pen but the male didnt show any interest in her, she hasn't gained any weight before the pigs were born or lossed any after plus all the babies seem to have short hair and are the colourings of mum and dad. Mum seems to be doing ok *touch wood* so i don't want to interfere too much so i think i'll try added the bread soaked in goats milk and see how we go.

Anyway more importantly here are some pictures!
MUM
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/m...e/SandyPig.jpg
DAD & BABIES
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/m...abypigs1-1.jpg

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/m...lsandbabys.jpg

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/m...adbabypigs.jpg

[Lyn]

They are all lovely!!

[Henry-flash]

Just a word of warning, if you are keeping dad with them you may find you have even more babies in 2 months time, he will have most likely mated her as soon as she came back into season after the birth. It happened to a friend of mine and really exhausts the female. Sorry if thats irrelevant and you have them seperate already.

[Sylvia1]

They are beautiful Hayley

[zoe1]

Well obviously Dad is still in with Mum and babies, which is really irresponsible breeding ! The male will have mated mum as soon as she gave birth or in the hours after so you can expect more babies in around 70 days, which is awful for Mum - she is feeding 6 babies as well as being pregnant again.

It is highly likely some of those babies belong to the other Sow, given the fact there are 6 babies and there was such a big gap between babies being born.

It's a shame people don't research a bit before breeding animals - it's the Sow that will suffer in the long run - can you imagine the strain on her little body feeding that many babies with another litter growing inside her.

[Sylvia1]

I used to breed & show Guineas too but I think you are being rather harsh on Hayley. I think she was absolutely right in asking for our help on here. I always advise research well before embarking on a new animal you are not experienced in keeping but it's better to admit you are not sure than not ask at all.

[anna m]

Beautiful babies.