How to Care for a Pregnant Guinea Pig

This step by step guide will help you help your pregnant guinea pig.

Never intentionally allow your guinea pig to become pregnant, especially if they are older than six months, younger than three months, or have never been pregnant before. Pregnancy, especially after eight months is extremely hard on a female guinea pig. Caring for pups is costly and any rodent that is pregnant carries a one in five chance of dying as a direct result of complications during pregnancy or birth, or toxemia after birth.

Steps

1. 1
   Discover the pregnancy. You should be able to tell by feeling her stomach but if you are unsure, consult a veterinarian. If your guinea pig has become pregnant accidentally, she will show signs about six weeks into her pregnancy; she will start to eat and drink more and will start to put on weight.
2. 2
   Gestation is around 63 days for a guinea pig or nine to ten weeks. The sow will produce litters of 1 - 6 pups (though there are cases of more). Make sure that you are prepared to care for them or begin to find people who are willing at this point. There are many more guinea pigs than willing owners so looking for suitable candidates at this point is an idea. The pups will not be able to leave home until they are six weeks old.
3. 3
   Take her to a guinea pig savvy exotics veterinarian throughout her pregnancy, and be on the look-out for complications. Also have an emergency veterinarian who is guinea pig savvy and experienced on hand in case things go wrong.
4. 4
   Whilst your guinea pig is pregnant she will need to eat a lot more. Offer an increased amount of pellets and vegetables and have alfalfa hay and fresh water available 24/7. Feed an alfalfa based pellet during pregnancy and lactation. Know that a guinea pigs weight should double during pregnancy.
5. 5
   Provide even an excess of vitamins during pregnancy. She will need a lot more vitamin C so give her plenty of vegetables that have high levels of it.
   • It's advised that you also provide vitamin C tablets and calcium tablets during pregnancy. Do not provide water-dissolved tablets as they become ineffective quickly and are likely to put your guinea pig off the water which can lead to dehydration.
6. 6
   After around 3 weeks into the pregnancy, separate the sow from any other guinea pigs (including the boar) and move her to a 'nursery.'
   • It may seem harsh to remove her from her companions but she needs undisturbed rest whilst she's pregnant and any other adults could be a danger to the pups in the first few days after birth. Any males could impregnate her immediately after birth which would be fatal.
   • The nursery should be indoors, warm and away from any loud noises. It should be suitable - a proper hutch/cage with a minimum space of 7.5ftsq. Remember to give her some toys; she may be pregnant but she can still get bored!
7. 7
   Weigh you guinea pig twice weekly and check she's healthy. If at any point her weight begins to fall or if she begins to show signs of illness, consult a vet immediately. Try not to handle her at all unless your checking her over.
8. 8
   It is extremely hard to tell when a guinea pig is going to birth. Because of this, you should be really alert when nearing the nine week mark and after she has passed it, check on her several times daily. You may notice a slight widening of the hips - this indicates she will probably birth within the next week.
9. 9
   A guinea pig labor lasts approximately one hour. If the sow has more than one pup then there should be around a five minute gap between them.
   • She shouldn't need to go to the vets for the birth unless complications arise (takes longer than one hour/starts to make excessive alarm calls/breathing falters/faints, collapses or become unconscious)
   • Don't crowd the sow whilst she birthing - have only one person in the room to oversee her - and don't hold her as this can be uncomfortable and stressful for her.
10. 10
    The pups should be able to walk and see immediately after birth. If this is not the case then the pup will probably have a long-term illness. To avoid this as best as possible then check the guinea pigs backgrounds before mating as most long-term conditions in guinea pigs are genetic.
11. 11
    After birth, weigh the pups and sow twice weekly to check that they are recovering well. If the weight begins to fall or any of them look unwell, consult a vet immediately.
    • The sows weight may vary for a few days after the birth - this is just her re-stabilizing. She should soon maintain a steady weight again.
12. 12
    In the first week or so after birth...
    • Take the pups and sow the the vet about a week after the birth to check that they are healthy and doing fine.
    • Provide a heat lamp or hot water bottle for extra heat for the pups - make sure that they can move away from it at all times to avoid over-heating.
    • Keep providing vitamin tablets for the sow as guinea pigs loose a lot of fluid whilst birthing so she will have lost a lot of vitamins, particularly calcium.
13. 13
    The weaning period for the pups is between fourteen and twenty-eight days. However, the pups should be able to begin on solids a few days after birth as a supplement to their mothers milk so provide veggies, water, hay and pellets for the pups and sow.
14. 14
    After the pups have been weaned, separate the males from the females.
    • If they are still weaning at three weeks of age, separate any male babies anyway as they can be fertile at as young as three weeks and can easily impregnate the mother.
15. 15
    Baby males can either be paired off together or housed with the father if he is not aggressive. After becoming 3 months old, the males can be neutered and re-introduced to the females.
    • Please introduce them properly. Failure to do this could result in serious injury or death.
16. 16
    Once the pups have been weaned and separated, the sow and female pups can be re-introduced to any other guinea pigs. Don't introduce the females to any males unless they have been spayed/neutered as the pups will be too young at this age to carry successfully and the sow could easily become pregnant again but back-to-back pregnancies are unhealthy and it would probably be fatal.
17. 17
    If you are selling the pups, make sure that the new owners know what to do - what to feed them, what need they'll etc. Guinea pigs should never leave home until they are over six weeks old, even if they've been separated from the mother, as they will be too young and not independent enough to deal with the change.

TIPS

• It's fine to handle the guinea pigs at a young age! It wont cause the mother to reject them and it will get them used to it.
• Make sure to keep a good eye on the mother through pregnancy, birth, and atleast a month after birth.
• The mother will eat the after-birth so don't be alarmed if you see her doing this.
• Make sure to check on the pups and mother daily to see how she is going.

WARNING!!

• Females can become pregnant immediately after giving birth so make sure that there are no males nearby. Back-to-back pregnancies are nearly always fatal.
• A female may accidentally injure the babies by squashing them and babies are prone to escaping cages, so check up on them regularly.
• Miscarriges and stillbirths are common in guinea pigs.
• The guinea pig may die during or after pregnancy due to complications during pregnancy or birth, or from toxemia after birth. This is a common occurrence; roughly 1 in 5 guinea pigs will die as a direct result of pregnancy or birth.
• Baby guinea pigs are born ready to runbut this also meens that there is a lot of fluid in the birth so make sure that you help the sow re-gain what she will have lost.